"It is an acquired taste..."

“More rancid yak butter in that?' 'Please,' said Lu-Tze, holding out his cup. ”

“It's the real stuff you got there, Ronnie,' he said, taking a sip. 'The butter we're getting these days, you wouldn't grease a cart with it.' 'It's the breed,' said Ronnie. 'I go and get this from the highland herds six hundred years ago.' 'Cheers,' said Lu-Tze, raising his cup.”

Terry Pratchett, The Thief of Time

"You can get a lot of things in Toronto, yak butter is not one of them."

Tasty Tours food guide Odile Chatelain

This year we're spending my birthday week in Toronto, and for our last day in the city, we did a tasting tour of Kensington Market's eclectic food scene*.  At one of our stops, we were presented with Tibetan black tea with salted yak butter, a beverage option that I would have been unaware of were it not for its semi-regular appearance in the late Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels. As such, I was probably more excited by the opportunity to sample yak butter tea than the rest of the tour.

How did it taste? Well, as our guide gently commented after surveying the room, it's an acquired taste. That being said, I found that if I treated it more as a broth than a tea, it wasn't that bad - although I couldn't tell you whether or not it was real yak butter.

- Sid

* As an example, during our tour we passed Hungarian Thai and Jamaican Italian fusion restaurants. Sadly, we visited neither.  Perhaps a future trip will allow us to sample the cross-over cuisine at Rasta Pasta.

Rising from the flames?

For several years now, I've been travelling to other cities for my birthday.  This year my lovely wife Karli and I have ended up in Toronto - to our relief, given that the threatened Air Canada pilot strike took us right down to the wire in terms of a possible disruption to our travel plans.

As always when I come to Toronto, we paid a visit to Canada's oldest (and best, in my opinion) science fiction and fantasy book store Bakka-Phoenix, currently located on near the University of Toronto on Harbord Street.

Karli generously purchased me a pair of hardcover novels as early birthday gifts: The Mercy of Gods, the first book in a new series by Expanse author James S. A. Corey*, and The Book of Elsewhere, a collaboration between the unexpected duo of actor/musician Keanu Reeves and fantasy-SF author China Miéville.  The Book of Elsewhere takes its inspiration from the world of BRZRKR,  the critically acclaimed 12-issue limited comic book series co-written by Reeves and Matt Kindt, with art by Ron Garney.

I also made a couple of purchases on my own - an autographed copy of All Systems Red, the first novella from Martha Wells' excellent and well-written Murderbot series, and The Folding Knife, a standalone novel by K. J. Parker*.  I enjoy Parker's writing, but I've found that his protagonists are a little too similar in their philosophies and characters - I'm hoping that The Folding Knife will break the mold a bit.

As I was paying for my selections, I noticed that there are Bakka-Phoenix pins available for five dollars, so I added one to my bill.  Given the legendary nature of the phoenix as a bird which is reborn from its own ashes, I do wonder if there's any significance in its addition to the store's name - I'd hate to think that the store might have needed to be brought back from an apparently final immolation.

- Sid 

* James S. A. Corey is actually a nom de plume for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, and K. J. Parker is actually British author Tom Holt.  I'm reasonably certain that Keanu Reeves is Keanu Reeves.

"By Grabthar's hammer..."

"Unless you wish to poison Potter — and I assure you, I would have the greatest sympathy if you did — I cannot help you."

Severus Snape, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix

"There were five curtain calls. I was an actor once, damn it. Now look at me. Look at me! I won't go out there and say that stupid line one more time."

Sir Alexander Dane, Galaxy Quest

As part of this year's birthday trip, this time to Toronto, my lovely wife Karli and I were invited to brunch with the family at my brother John's house.

John is the family genealogist, and I had some questions regarding our maternal grandmother that I had been unable to answer when they had come up in conversation with my wife.  As part of the discussion, he explained that although our maternal grandfather Harold Coulson had been born a Rickman, he was raised by his grandparents and as a result had taken their name.  

He then casually mentioned that while researching our grandfather, he had discovered that we were actually related to the late British actor Alan Rickman, arguably best known for his portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, as well as his epic performance as frustrated ex-Shakespearean actor Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest.

Now, this is certainly cool, but honestly, even if I had known this twenty years ago earlier, I don't think it would have changed my life - even then it would have ridiculously presumptuous to reach out to him.  However, it's fun to imagine an alternate reality in which I could have sent Alan Rickman a text that said, "Hey, cousin Alan, how's it going?  Sorry to bother you, but any chance of a couple of tickets to the premiere of The Prisoner of Azkaban? If not, no big deal - good luck with the movie!" 

- Sid