Weekend Poll

[rachelmanija]

Everything on here is something I actually want to do and would enjoy doing - no unpleasant chores here, even if they sound like chores.

Poll #28000

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 75

View Respondents

It's the weekend! I should...

View Answers

Tidy the house. (I legitimately enjoy and want to do this).
34 (45.3%)

Read Biggles in the Terai
12 (16.0%)

Read some other Biggles book which you will suggest to me.
1 (1.3%)

Read Worrals Flies Again
14 (18.7%)

Read something not written by W. E. Johns which you will suggest to me
2 (2.7%)

Write the scene I couldn't fit in to "von Stalhein in the Light" in which he tenderly cleans Biggles' face. That's it, that's the scene.
13 (17.3%)

Do Yuletide canon review. For my assignment.
35 (46.7%)

Bake bread.
38 (50.7%)

Collect dead leaves and dump them in chicken coop so the floor level is raised and it doesn't flood the next time it rains.
44 (58.7%)

Finish watching Andor
24 (32.0%)

Do Yuletide canon review. For treats.
14 (18.7%)

Order some absurdly fancy and expensive mail order food for a holiday treat for myself (please suggest suitable mail order places in comments)
21 (28.0%)

Comments

[sholio]

You should first read Biggles in the Terai (so you can read my fic), and then read The Toll-Gate so you can join me in marveling at how adorable they are. (Possibly by that point I will have actually finished it; in my usual way of reading about twelve books at once, I got completely distracted.)

[rachelmanija]

That's a good idea! I haven't read Heyer in ages and I really enjoy her.

[sholio]

Heyer works best by far for me in small doses - every time I pick up one of her books when I haven't ready any in a while, I thoroughly enjoy it, and then the enjoyment curve goes down steeply with subsequent books. Toll-Gate may turn out to be a particularly favorite for me, though.

[rachelmanija]

Yes, same though for me it's more like "no more than three or so at a time." I overdosed a couple years ago and that's why I haven't read any in a while.

[philomytha]

I’m the opposite with Heyer, if I read one I am guaranteed to read at minimum a dozen more in quick succession. Though The Toll-Gate is one I don’t have, I think I might have borrowed it from the library once but I haven’t reread it lately, perhaps I should do something about that...

[sholio]

Oh, I forgot the most important one: write the Biggles outtake!!

[black_bentley]

Bake bread, and while it's baking read Terai (because there are now 3 post-Terai fics...) and write the Von Stalhein in the Light outtake!

[rachelmanija]

This is a very solid idea. (Yes, that's why Terai got bumped up on my reading list.)

[black_bentley]

I really like Terai. It's a great book, and the potential for h/c is off the scale (I may or may not be hoping it might tempt you into writing something...)

[philomytha]

Other Biggles books you may find enjoyable:

Sergeant Bigglesworth CID: the first Special Air Police book, includes the return of von Zoyton from Sweeps the Desert, with h/c and rescuing enemies

Biggles's Second Case: as you might guess, the second Special Air Police book, in which Biggles hunts a Nazi submarine trying to escape with looted gold, with ALL the Secret Island Base and presumed dead adventures you could ever want

Biggles and the Rescue Flight: Biggles for slightly younger readers, WW1 book about some different kids who run away from school and end up in Biggles's squadron, interesting outsider POV on Biggles and Algy

Biggles Makes Ends Meet: this one is set overseas hunting pirates and therefore has the usual dose of Oh WEJ No, but also has an amazingly busy plot with storms, pirate islands and Bertie being fabulous with shark's teeth

Biggles Delivers the Goods: WW2 adventure trying to obtain rubber from Japanese-occupied Malaysia, some period-typicalness but also an excellent Chinese character, Li Chi, former pirate, who conducts some joint pirate/military raids with Biggles. Also has a bit where Algy is MIA and Biggles muses on how he would cope if Algy died </3

[rachelmanija]

Thank you, this is excellent!

[black_bentley]

Just to add to philomytha's recommendation, there is absolutely no heterosexual explanation for Biggles's musings in Delivers the Goods...

[rachelmanija]

I'm a multi-shipper so this is definitely a bonus.

[loligo]

And here I was sure I would be the only person voting for the chicken coop! Guess we are fans of disaster preparedness and happy chickens around here...

[rachelmanija]

I finally have enough dead leaves! I plan to sweep the deck into buckets.

[conuly]

Seed and Mill's cardamom halva is almost worth spending $75 on a big party cake. Thankfully, they recently started selling individual sizes again.

Alternatively, every year I go to Union Square to get No Chewing Allowed! truffles, and they also now can be ordered online.

[kathmandu]

Since you have been enjoying the Biggles stories, I think you might enjoy Melissa Scott's Order of the Air series. This is currently five books, focused on a group of pilots (and their associates) in the between-wars period in the USA. It's flying with added magic.

This group of pilots are Theosophists. They bring their 'building a better world, one piece at a time' approach to the flying, and the magic, and all the other activities of life. The leader of their little local group is a woman; the others are mostly men. One of the things I liked was that the men do respect her and her particular skills.

There's a gay character who does eventually get a romance. There's a trickster / con artist type who comes in later on; I like all the character interactions and character arcs around that. Nicola Tesla guest-stars in one of the books.

I really like them and I think you might too.

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! Those sound fascinating and I hadn't heard of them before. (I have heard of Scott but I haven't read anything by her.)

[ironymaiden]

I love Andor so much. it just gets better and better as the season goes on.

Foods

[ironymaiden]

https://bedrechocolates.com owned by the Chickasaw nation, my favorites are chocolate-covered salty snacks

https://larsenbakery.com/product-category/kringle/
Larsen's kringles ship well and are so good

[kathmandu]

And on the food front, Downeast Candy makes very good taffy and fudge, and it ships and keeps well.

Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[estara]

I've splurged on giftboxes for people helping my mum after my dad's death this year, since I live an hour away. I don't think the producer I bought it from sells to the US but it seems you can possibly get it? https://www.tasteatlas.com/konigsberger-marzipan

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[rachelmanija]

That looks delicious! I wonder if I can find it...

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[estara]

Well it doesn't look quite as authentic as my Liedtke box but I found one US producer, specialising in marzipan in general http://bergenmarzipan.net/m3-koenigsberge3.html

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[rachelmanija]

Thank you! That looks delicious and affordable - I'm going to try it.

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[estara]

*crossing fingers that it tastes like it is supposed to taste* <3

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[rachelmanija]

That's a quandary: I've only ever had ordinary marzipan, so I won't know the difference.

Re: Fancy treat - Königsberger Marzipan

[estara]

As long as you enjoy it, I'll be glad ^^

[movingfinger]

I should've ticked "bake bread" also, that's a low-investment high-payoff activity that can go on in the background!

For seasonal fancy food treats, I have been sending Roy's Panettone, which may or may not be your thing; it's fragrant and fresh. Apparently there are people who don't like panettone. Olivieri is first-rate too. You can order directly from them, but some gourmet fancy food places carry Olivieri and they ship. I have used Market Hall (Rockridge, near Oakland) with excellent results.

Jasper Hill cheese is good and they ship it well packaged.

If you eat fish, Cap'n Mike's Holy Smokes (Rohnert Park) ships smoked salmon and other fish. The lox is a favorite. They don't do a whitefish salad, for that you'd have to go to Russ and Daughters (via Goldbelly). Just getting Russ bagels is a very happy-making gift here.

[rachelmanija]

Bread is rising right now!

I do indeed eat fish. Also smoked meat.