Sean Reynolds rant about terminology

[Pielorinho]

Hmm...well, scratch that career plan. I was thinking of moving to Europe somewhere (maybe France) and setting up a cookie shop. I'd have the locals ringing the block, I figured.

This is all based, of course, off my sister's testimony: when she was an au pair in Cote D'Azur, her family was astonished and delighted at the brownies she made. They'd never, according to her, ever heard of such a thing.

So I'm glad that you guys have brownies & chocolate chip cookies, even if it spoils my dream.

As for banana cream pie, it's apparently a Southern thing; even many Yankees have never tried it, apparently. The basic recipe is simple enough:

-Line a pie pan with 'Nilla Wafers (or vanilla biscuits if you're British, or a ginger tart crust if you're an insufferable baking snob like me)
-Cover this layer with sliced fresh bananas
-Cover this layer with instant vanilla pudding (or homemade vanilla custard made with vanilla bean if you're an insufferable baking snob like me)
-Meringue or whipped cream is purely optional.
-Let it sit in the fridge for at least six hours, but no more than 48 hours. In that time, the bananas will perfume the pudding in an indescribably delicious fashion. A great dessert -- my sweetheart's favorite, and part of her Valentine's day dinner this year. Which is why it's on my mind.

In fact, I think I'll go eat the last slice of it now.

Daniel

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

Well, your sister may very well be right that they haven't tried that in France - and truthfully the climate is a wee bit better in Cote d'Azur than in Denmark, so don't give up on the dream.

Actually the bakeries in Denmark have significantly more different types of bread than I have seen in most other (European at least) countries... Italian, French, Spanish, Danish, German and occasionally Swedish types of bread are all represented in most Danish bakeries.

 

[Maerdwyn]

As for banana cream pie, it's apparently a Southern thing; even many Yankees have never tried it, apparently. The basic recipe is simple enough:

That surprises me: We made it quite a bit when I was growing up in Massachusetts. Yummy

Two bread products I have grown to love in adulthood which I didn't have as a kid are scones and bagels.

A friend of my wife's makes really wonderful cranberry scones (not sure if that qualifies as an orthodox scone, but they're great anyway) that she serves with a breakfast tea whenever we visit, even in the afternoon.

Bagels, on the other hand, are part of my daily ritual - the old buttered toast simply doesn't do it for me anymore.

 

[Wicht]

I grew up in the American south-west and as a teenager moving to PA one of the hardest things I had in adjusting to the vocabulary was the realization that if I ordered a coke I would immediately get coca-cola. I was used to saying I wanted a coke and then getting a root-beer. Its taking 14 years but I now use the term pop with the rest of the crowd in these parts.

The other strange vocabulary adjustment was the phrase "I think." meaning, "I believe that to be so."

ex. "Is this the right road to get to Wherever?"
"I think."

Someone would tell me "I think," in answer to a question and I had to bite my tongue in order not to say "Good for You."

Oh, and you can get banana cream pie in most parts of the US as far as I know, I never noticed it was a southern peculiarity. Of course the best cream pie I haven't been able to get since moving north. There used to be a restuarant where as a kid I could order a delicacy called "Millionaire Pie." That stuff was to die for. Can't remember the restaurant after all these years but can still remember the pie.

 

[Pielorinho]

Oh, and you can get banana cream pie in most parts of the US as far as I know, I never noticed it was a southern peculiarity.

Huh. Again, I'm extrapolating from what folks told me. My girlfriend once brought a banana cream pie to an international dinner at her college in England; she said that the students from up North (possibly New Yorkers) had never heard of it. It went over big, though.

It's definitely a Southern specialty, but possibly one that's spread, in the same way that Southern-fried chicken has spread.

There's a rockabilly group called Southern Culture on the Skids that are wonderfully Hillbilly; at their concerts, they call cute girls up from the audience to throw pieces of fried chicken out into the audience. And they sing a song called "Banana Puddin'," which is all the credentials I need.

Daniel

 

[Green Knight]

Glad someone mentioned the word "actress". I guess in SKR's world the word "actress" would be stricken from the english lexicon. Hell, while we're at it let's strike "brother" and "sister" from the language, and verbally abuse anyone who uses those words instead of the word "sibling". Let's also remove "him", "her", "he", and "she" from the lexicon, to. We shouldn't be making distinctions between genders, after all.

Sorcerer
\Sor"cer*er\, n. A spellcaster with inborn magical ability.
Source: Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook, © 1999 Wizards of the Coast.

Question. How does the above...

sorceress
\Sor"cer*ess\, n. A female sorcerer.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

...contradict this? Because I see no contradiction whatsoever.

 

[PenguinKing]

Another example is the gender specific terms Witch and Warlock - same occupation, different title for each gender.

Not really - "warlock" only means "male witch" in Hollywood fiction. The actual definition of "warlock" (as employed both traditionally and by modern followers of Wiccan beliefs) translates as something akin to "oathbreaker" - applying the term to any witch, male or female, is quick way to start a fight.

- Sir Bob.

P.S. Nih!

 

[rounser]

I know about the Warlock -> Waerlogh (sp.?) -> "oathbreaker" translation thing, but in modern usage you need look no further than Charmed to see what Warlock means to people now....male witch. So yes, as you said, the Hollywood thing is where a warlock is a male witch.

I think there is more weight to this popular culture definition of warlock than 3E's rules definition of a sorceror. Who said sorcerors don't use books of magic, for instance? Game designers looking for an arbitrary term to use for a type of spellcaster, that's who.

Time will tell if 3E influences popular thinking enough to change the definition of sorceror to something as specific as a spellcaster who has innate magical power, as opposed to having to learn or study magic ("hermetic magic"?). Given that it has had no small impact on fantasy writing conventions in the past, I give it reasonable odds.

 

[PenguinKing]

you need look no further than Charmed to see what Warlock means to people now....male witch.

Actually, Charmed is quite good about terminology - the "warlocks" I've seen in that show are have, in fact, all fit the traditional definition of "oathbreaker".

Of course, all the evil oathbreakers just happen to be male, because Charmed is the kind of show where any male character that isn't strictly "supporting cast" must be eeeeeeeevil, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.

- Sir Bob.

P.S. Nih!

 

[Outergod]

What do you want from the guy who picked up his toys and bailed from the Mythus mailing list a few years back because people kept using "T$R" to refer to the company who destroyed both DnD AND Mythus with their idiocy?

He's an a$$clown (IMO)

Outergod (IncantaTAR BEAOTCH!)