Episode 13: That Time We Burned Down the White House
November 2nd, 2012 | Robin
This week’s Ask Ken and Robin asks us to turn a previous thing that Ken always says on its head. When is it better not to base your setting on the real world?
Then Robin and Ken square off in the History Hut for their long-planned reenactment of the War of 1812. As in real history, the Canadian battles the American to a standstill and therefore achieves resounding victory, as graded on a curve.
At the request of beloved sponsor Dork Tower, Ken and Robin then establish yet another new hut, this time the Food Hut, in which a discussion of our favorite recipes and shopping haunts leads us to a sense of place, waves of immigration to Toronto, and the death of the Chicago meat packing industry.
Finally we drop in again on the Consulting Occultist for an introduction to Kenneth Grant, whose role as Derleth to Aleister Crowley’s Lovecraft went as far as incorporating Shub-Niggurath into his ritual practices.
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I can’t find my copy of the wonderful MASKS OF THE ILLUMINATI, but the line goes something like this:
“My name is Crowly, to remind you I’m holy.
//My enemies say CROW-ley, because they wish to treat my foully.”
Also, I believe Ian Sturrock tried an accounts payable spell on Guardians of Order a few years ago. I’m unsure if it was efficacious.
“It is pronounced Crowly,” said a voice from the door. “To remind you that I’m holy. But my enemies say Crouly, in wish to treat me foully.”
I think I wet myself at Ken’s description of the War of 1812.
A question for the food hut? In the whole of both the great nations that Canada and the other place surely are, is there anything that comes close to a cheese worthy of the name?
Ahhhhhhhh, yeah. A Canadian cheese won grand prize at the 2009 world cheese award. More good cheese produced in just Quebec than in all the uk. Suck it.
A question for Ken’s time machine: how would Ken alter history so that the Comics Code was never adopted?
Question for the Occult Hut — what does Ken have to say on Major James Churchwald and his Mu book? And what of Lemuria?
Question for the Food Hut — what is the ideal gamer chow/snack? Dork Tower’s Igor Bars?
I was involved in an abortive project years ago to write an alternate-worlds roleplaying game, and we came up with what I called “the Cambias test” — “does this setting allow different stories from our own historical reality?” For me, that’s the key decision. A made-up world like, say, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia allows one to tell a story which can’t be set in Earthly history.
So — to use an example from a game I run for my son — if you want kinda-Egyptians rubbing elbows with kinda-Vikings, just go ahead and tweak history so that a sorcerous/alchemical Egyptian empire survives to AD 1000 or thereabouts.
Since you guys now have a Food Hut:
Suggestions for eating less-than-absolutely-horrible at cons. Conventions, including gaming conventions (and also genre conventions) seem to be horrible on diets, healthy eating or even eating palatable food that you don’t regret later. As veterans of many conventions, I was hoping you fine gentlemen might have general suggestions.
Another excellent effort gentlemen. Ken, commiserations on the election.
A question for Ken’s time machine, how would Ken go about thwarting the limited war of 1979 and the subsequent Soviet occupation of Great Britain?
This might be too contentious, but I’d like to see a comparison of Canadian Conservatives and American Republicans, because I think you two would do it well.
A brief introduction and discussion of the facts of Tesla and his life might make for interesting fodder, because the man is in so many ways the model of the pulp mad scientist.
And, if you’re really lacking material: is Lord of the Rings sword and sorcery or not?
A Food Hut comment:
After hearing a lot about American barbecue (as opposed to Australian BBQ, which is just setting fire to meat in the back yard), I tried a slow-cooker version of a pulled pork recipe a little while ago, and it turned out to be remarkably tasty. (In particular, it met the requirements of my midwest-American wife.)
So that could be a viable option for Canadians, or indeed all of us unlucky enough to live in the Carolinas.
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