Monday 9 April 2018

Moss And Tea

"The girl came walking at an easy pace over the velvet-like psuedomoss which carpeted the diketop."
-Poul Anderson, The Night Face IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, 2012), pp. 541-660 AT III, p. 568.

"There was no paving in the Holy City, but thick psuedomoss lay cool and full of dew under his feet."
-op. cit., VI, p. 594.

"...low moss-carpeted tiers enclosing the city like the sides of a chalice." (p. 595)

Compare the turf in Lulach and on Barsoom. (For the latter, see the combox.)

"'Never come between an Oakenshaw and his tea,' said Raven."
-op. cit., V, p. 585.

Terrestrial tea has spread through the Merseian Roidhunate and is now 200 parsecs from Earth. Why, when Earth can also export coffee?

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Hmmm, now that you mention it, it does seem rather odd how seldom coffee was mentioned in the Technic stories. Anderson himself seems to have PREFERRED coffee over tea, after all. But we do see Admiral Kheraskov offering Lt. Com. Flandry coffee, tea, or jaine in Chapter II of THE REBEL WORLDS.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Coffee is more competitive with food crops, btw. Tea will grow well on damp acid soils that are really unsuited for anything else except forestry. Coffee does best on rich volcanic soils that are also optimum for things like vegetables or intensive dairying.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Ah! Coffee is preferable though IMO.

S.M. Stirling said...

I like them both but prefer coffee myself.