Kyra's and Valencia's host, Farnum, a Chaotic:
"...had provided a magnificent homebrew beer." (19, p. 188)
When I still drank beer, I disliked the taste of a homebrew served at a family friend's house. Instead of sipping the beer, and therefore continually tasting it, I quaffed it on the theory that you taste only after swallowing. My host exclaimed, "He likes my beer!" and poured me more which I dispatched in the same way. Thus, I flattered my host, got lots to drink and did not taste it much. (And I never know what I will post about when rereading Poul Anderson.)
Complimented for his beer, Farnum replies that he and his wife try to preserve as much of the real world as they can but, when Kyra comments that they want to bring back more of it for everyone, Mrs Farnum says, "'Let's not talk politics.'" (ibid.) Preserving realities like home brewed beer has become a political issue! (Early in the twentieth century, a revolutionary stayed in a worker's house and recorded that the worker, tasting his bread at breakfast, remarked, "We're winning. They're having to send better bread to the workers' districts!" Not quite the same situation but one anecdote recalled the other.)
On the evening of the following day, Kyra:
"...could make out perhaps a thousand stars and a ghost of the Milky Way." (20, p. 191)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Amusing what you said about the homebrew you drank! It reminded me of how much Nicholas van Rijn enjoyed beer (I think mention was made in one of the stories of how he drank Heineken beer).
One of the many things I regret about our debased times is how EVERYTHING seems to become political.
And there was, quite simply, more PROFITS to be made by bread companies and bakeries selling good quality bread at lower prices once improved technology made that practical. No need to drag in politics!
Sean
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