#h2fox2.txt

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I Love My Boy-Wife Who Is a Girl by Dr. Akane Tendo PhD

with foreword by Ranma Tendo, Master of Anything-Goes Martial Arts

[oribuilding]

Research 1 - Fonio

Okay so last time we talked about rice a bit. And this time we’re gonna talk about more grains. Grains are one of those staple foods that many societies use at least one of. If you’re from the US, chances are you’re familiar with Wheat, Rice, Corn and you’ve probably heard of Barley, Quinoa, Oats, Rye and maybe Buckwheat, Spelt, and Sorghum. And those are all cool and I like them all and there’s even more grains that are common in other places that aren’t on this list!

Just recently Bon Appétit (BA) put out a new video where Andy goes and meets a Senagalese chef named Pierre Thiam, who has a restaurant in New York City called Teranga. One of the things Pierre talks about is a grain called Fonio. The Fonio we’re talking about today is Digitaria exilis. He has a Ted Talk about it, cw colonialism (worth watching, lots of good inspiration for folklore and cuisine design,). Fonio can grow in climates that don’t get a lot of rainfall as it’s drought resistant. AND it doesn’t require high soil quality unlike other grains (I’m looking at you, corn). It has a really small grain that is a bit difficult to process, but as we see in the BA video Fonio expands to around 4 times its volume after being cooked so a little goes a long way, and machines to process it have been made so that it’s less labour for the workers.

Pierre says in his Ted Talk that it has a nutty, earthy flavour (which sounds delicious to me) and he says it could be used to make breads, sushi, pasta, salads, etc. So its versatility and its ability to grow in places like the Sahel (Sub-Saharan Africa, but north of the tropical savannas) makes it really fantastic as a way to combat desertification and he hopes it will add job and food security to the peoples in that region!

So, what does that have to do with worldbuilding? Well, personally I know next to nothing about African cuisine and due to my food allergies I can’t just go to one of the few restaurants in the area that serve food from African cuisines or really like any cuisines (pancakes, sushi, and desserts are like all I can order, woo >.>). So anything I can do to learn about other cuisines helps to make cuisines for fictional groups. On top of that Pierre says that the Dogon people of Mali call Fonio “the seed of the universe” and that it plays an important part in their creation story, that “the entire universe sprouted from a seed of fonio” as he put it.

Something else to know is that Fonio is related to what Americans call Large Crab Grass, or Digitaria sanguinalis. Crab Grass is often considered a weed but it was brought over to North America as a staple food from Central Eruope. As a grain it’s called Polish Millet. As it turns out Polish Millet also doesn’t need high quality soil to grow and is also drought resistant. At this point in the US I don’t think anyone still uses Crab Grass as a grain, but we theoretically could should we need to. The biggest issue with using Polish Millet is that harvest isn’t all at once but rather over several weeks meaning people have to go to the plants frequently. Unlike Fonio which is done with a sickle. When you make staple foods, think about making plants related to that staple food and how that related plant can be a staple food in another culture or could even be a weed in a different environment (as with Crab Grass).

So what have we learned?

Grains don’t just grow where there’s lots of water from flooding or rainfall.

Fonio is a cool plant that can prevent desertification

Crab Grass aka Polish Millet was actually a staple food in central/eastern Europe

Grains can be a vital part of your culture’s diet just about in any climate

Grains can be so important to a culture that they can be part of the creation story

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digitaria_exilis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonio

The BA Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSgbPZOIBHk

The Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjtCDgjxRAw

photo by FatimaBuka: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonio#/media/File:Acha_(Fonio).jpg

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I think humanity needs a giant terrestrial isopod that we can have as pets. This would fix all our problems

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I've just processed that there's a component of GtN that is fake dating

Like Gideon has to pretend to be Harrow's functioning partner its just rather than romantic partner its weird necromancer bodyguard partner

Harrow makes all these rules so she isn't embarrassed that she doesn't have a proper one and the entire house doesn't look like it's falling apart

When Griddle actually makes an effort and shows care for Harrow (which Gideon doesn't even process because she can't figure out her own feelings let alone Harrow's) Harrow actually appreciates it and they start to actually trust each other

I think Harrow starts falling in love with all the Penumbral Mistress stuff but when Winnowing happens she realizes it

Griddle obv doesn't at least until . . . Well you know. . .

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Okay I just started giving Xena a second shot (since i lost access boo netflix) and like Girl where's that hand going

Gabby is very happy with being up there behind her (which i understand. i too am gay) but like girl >.<

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"a conlang should simply support a story. The story should come first"

Ah but have you considered I could come up with words and grammar and then write dialogue between my characters in the conlang and spend 2 hours doing so, entirely turning my brain to soup in the process instead

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when you're writing or worldbuilding and you look something up and find yourself sucked in, you're "going down the rabbit hole".

When you feel compelled to keep reading it is because like the people in Junji Ito's The Enigma of Amigara Fault you have found your hole, it was made for you.

When you then message your friends and info dump on everything you learned in the hole that was made for you, we call that Posting Hole.

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Do you think Lightning McQueen would end up in a fantasy world if he got hit by a pedestrian?