Flandry reflects that:
"Starkadian wine tasted grim on his palete." (p. 161)
- but that he had better get used to it. He might be exiled on Starkad. (No. The action moves too fast for that.)
I was once a dinner guest at a house where home-brewed beer was served. (This was back when I still drank alcohol.) I thought that it tasted terrible. Probably an acquired taste as much as anything. I made a decision. If I sipped one glass all evening, looking pained, then I would keep tasting it and it would be obvious that I did not like it. However, we only taste after we have swallowed so I quaffed the stuff. My host said in surprise, "He likes my beer!" and poured me more. So I flattered my host, enjoyed the effects of the alcohol and did not taste it much. I might teach Flandry something about inter-species diplomacy. Lazarus Long does something like this on an extra-solar planet in Methuselah's Children but I am not going to look it up right now. Blogging is an interactive medium so maybe someone else can remember this scene from Robert Heinlein's Future History? It is good to remember the Future History while rereading the Technic History.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
That was nice of you, patiently downing beer you did not like! Home brewed beer can be either good or bad, depending!
One of the stories mentions how Nicholas van Rijn favored Heineken beer. And Flandry was fond of scotch.
I like white wines and sherries made from blended wines. But I don't much care for red wines, due to them having a bitter aftertaste. And I sometimes have a beer called Corona Premier.
Ad astra! Sean
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