Arts/Literature

What's it Wednesday

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by Dawn Farmer

Have a guess

Behind the jump is the reverse of the plant

Categories: Arts/Literature, What's It Wednesday

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  4. My first reaction was re-heated pizza. But then I realized it looks kind of purple, so I’d say peanut butter and jelly on toast (still warm).

    Except for that little flake thingy that looks like a bit of garlic skin….. So maybe it is pizza.

    Or a kid’s SERIOUSLY skinned knee after crashing his/her bicycle.

  7. This appears to be a pastry made famous by the Quekidjo chefs of the Gelique sector (within what we on Earth refer to as the Coronet Cluster, about 420 light years away).

    The Quekidjo home planet is about 70% desert tundra and 30% super-saturated saltwater ocean. Scattered throughout the frigid landscape, there are thousands of conifer forest oases. These oases most frequently occur around networks of hot springs and underground tunnels. Unlike the conifer trees on Earth, these trees are more akin to Aspens in that all the trees in a specific growth pocket are part of a single organism.

    The Quekidjo themselves (or “Queki” as they are called in the Gelique Congress of Planets) are basically highly evolved polar bears, only with opposable digits. The keen sense of smell noted in Earth bears has evolved into a heightened sense of taste in the Queki. As you might expect, the local cuisine is exquisite. Of note is the ahiwela, a cheese-like dish based on fermenting mushrooms.

    Given the lack of variety of foods on the cold planet, the number of distinct dishes is somewhat limited. It was only after the Queki joined the space faring races that their culinary talents truly became evident. The first intelligent race they encountered were the reptilo-insectoid race, Savu. In contrast to the Quekidjo home planet, the Savu homeworld was extremely fertile and one of its many major export industries involves fruit. One fruit in particular, the nonileku, appealed to the Queki palate. This fruit is about the size of a human fist, and we would recognize both citrus- and cherry- like flavors in its fleshy skin (although the large pit-like seed within appears to be poisonous to the human anatomy).

    Dawn’s image looks remarkably similar to a pastry known as eleema, topped off with nonileku and ahiwela glaze. Its closest correlate on earth is a cherry and cheese danish. Sprinkled with a little bit of sugar (distilled sap from various Queki homeworld trees) and kalava (a Savuin spice that tastes like a cross between cinnamon and mint), eleema are a perfect compliment to the local version of coffee, zybacho.

  8. It’s Freddy Kreuger’s receding hairline!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂

  9. Great answers, it does look like wax – but no, none of the above. This kind of object is edible.

    Ubertramp – Quekidjo sounds like the name of Angelique Kidjo a lovely singer from Benin. I’m not sure she’s related to polar bears… 🙂

    Any other guesses?

  12. Dawn, I was actually listening to Kidjo when I was writing. 🙂 I doubt most people would have picked that up. Some of the other names were songs, too. I think that pretty much proves you are TI.

  17. Ubertramp – You like Kidjo too. I found her through Miriam Makeba. I thought the first time I read your reply I caught a hint of Hawaiian too – ahiwela.

    Today’s object is not the result of a terrible accident, science project or hideous fried thing. It’s seaweed. I’ve found all kinds of cool seaweed on our beaches. One of the green ones dries out to look just like camouflage. I tried to find the name for this seaweed, but I didn’t have any luck.

  18. Yeah. I have 4 or 5 of Kidjo’s CDs. If you like her, you might like Khadja Nin, too.

    I was also listening to “Braddah Iz”, too. AKA Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. Most of you would know him from his rendition of Over the Rainbow.

    Ahiwela is one of his songs. Ahi Wela/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. (this is a pretty cheesy video, but i couldn’t find anything else).

  21. Ubertramp – Nin is lovely. I just bought the Sambolera CD from Amazon. Honestly, I’ve spent more money on music since I joined this project… 🙂

    Seaweed is good stuff. Those are beautiful seaweeds in that link. I had not spotted a multi-colored seaweed on our beaches before last week. I have pictures of purple, red, green, brown and clear plants. The reverse of this plant is super nubby and very textural.

    Why did you leave Hawaii?

  22. Dawn, do you ever do underwater photography? I’ve been researching seahorses lately… there are some incredibly baroque species that don’t even look real, and one from West Australia that’s an almost luminescent violet with lavender striations – like seaweed, I think, the support of the water allows for structural complexity and delicacy that just doesn’t exist on gravity-plagued land.

  23. That’s the CD I have. 🙂

    I left Hawaii because I wanted to be an astronaut. So I went to CU Boulder in their aerospace engineering department. Closest I got was flying stuff on the shuttle and talking to the astronauts from our mini-mission control at what used to be called Hanger L. Now, I’m practically blind (well, not really, but it seems that way) and doing radiobiology research. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of that going on at UH. And they certainly don’t have a proton accelerator in their basement like we have here at LLU. I still go home once a year, though. My parents are still there. I’d love to live there. Or Colorado. Maybe, when I win my Nobel prize, I’ll have labs in both places and just fly back and forth. Of course, by the time I get that, I’ll be too old to really enjoy it. 🙂

  24. Ann – I haven’t done underwater photography because I don’t dive (ear pressure thing) and believe me I would love to be able to see the beautiful underwater world. I have seen an exhibition of Seahorses at the local aquarium some years ago. Amazing creatures with astounding variety. Will you be knitting some seahorses when you finish your research? Laugh if you like, but check out this TED talk from Margaret Wertheim on the Coral Reef, Crochet and Hyperbolic Geometery – http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/519 (I just wish she left out the bit about it being a feminine art…)

    Michael, you’re only too old when your dead. I realize you are serious, but who didn’t want to be an astronaut. 🙂 I used to make dorky scrapbooks for the Apollo missions with all the news articles from The Washington Post. John Glenn lived in our neighborhood at one point. Life is too rich for regrets, but I wish I had taken mathematics seriously. It’s an elegant language and I didn’t push for the help I needed in the fundamentals. After I finished my undergraduate work I actually went back to school just to conquer my inner fear of math – back into Algebra one! Enjoy those sunny visits to Hawaii.

  25. Guess what? I posted that site on my Facebook page a couple of weeks ago… and yes, the “feminine art” bugged me, too.

    However, I’ve just ordered her book – which means I’ll be researching mathematical terms next. 🙂

    And the purple seahorse is even now in the experimental stages.

  26. Ann – that’s terrific, let me know if you enjoy her book. Look forward to the purple seahorse reveal!
    The TED site is one of my favorite places on the internet. I have frequently been lost in there for hours, listening and following the other external links. Happy yarn.

  27. Just for the record, my wife guessed it. She loves the picture too.