Light and Momentary

A trip to Britannula

If I say, "I just finished a novel set in a dystopian future, where all adults get euthanized at age 68," do you have a guess as to the author?

Did you say Trollope? Probably not, huh?

Because it's a Trollope novel: The Fixed Period. This was Trollope novel #17 for me, and it was my least favorite by a wide margin. I guess if you publish 47 novels, something's got to fill out the bottom tier.

But it was still interesting. It's set in 1980, where ship-to-shore communications are enabled by "hair telephones," a more sophisticated version of a tin can on a string. In Trollope's 1980, bicycles can go -- wait for it -- twenty-four miles per hour! The game of cricket has been revolutionized by a steam-powered machine that does the bowling. Although steam-powered tricycles exist, horse-drawn carriages remain popular. Also, comically, breach of promise suits are still a thing for couples who once considered themselves engaged.

It was intriguing to see how much of the future was literally unimaginable, even for someone who had a remarkably fertile imagination. Airplanes? Gasoline? Women in the workplace? He didn't see any of it coming.

Maybe the weirdest thing about the book is that he seemed to get tired of writing it and just...stop. The book is written in first person, in the voice of the president of Britannula, a fictional island that has decided to eliminate old age and all its associated hassles. We know from the very beginning that he is being taken to England by sea, and most of the book tells us how he wound up on the ship. I found the ending so strange and abrupt that I wondered if the free Kindle edition was missing the actual ending. The Project Gutenberg version is equally strange and abrupt, though, so I guess that's just the way it ends. 

"Well," I imagine Trollope saying to himself in the middle of the last chapter, "this has been a wearying and unpleasant experiment. Time to be done and write more novels about class differences in the British Isles. Endings are overrated anyway." 

I'm still enthusiastic about my Trollope project despite the weirdness of this book. Seventeen down, thirty to go. I figure if I read about one per season I can finish by the time I'm 60. Unless there are a lot more like The Fixed Period, in which case some re-evaluation will be necessary.

Storming the Castle

My husband's immune system does its job very quietly, but mine likes to make a lot of noise about it.

Picture us in adjacent besieged castles. My soldiers are groaning: We don't want to boil the oil! It's so hard to haul the oil up all those stairs! Have you smelled boiling oil? Wait! Maybe we could pour room-temperature oil on the attackers' heads and they'd say thanks for the conditioning treatment; we'll head on home now!

Elwood's soldiers have their oil nice and hot already, ready to send it bucketing down on the marauders' heads.

My archers are slouching next to the balistrariae, grousing about how hard it is to see through those teeny little slits, and who even hired this fletcher anyway because it looks like these arrows were made by a couple of trained seals.

Elwood's guys are waiting silently in position, ready to loose a hail of arrows on the invaders.

This afternoon we got our COVID boosters and flu shots. It's only been four hours but my left arm is complaining loudly. "What plans do have for the weekend?" asked the pharmacy tech who administered the shots. "Based on my reactions to the last few COVID shots," I told her, 'I'm guessing my weekend will involve a lot of reading on the couch."

Breakfast in October

Do you like steel-cut oats, except that they take too long to cook? I like to make a big batch over the weekend and then reheat them during the week, using milk or water to thin them out again.

Apple-Cinnamon Instant Pot Steel-Cut Oats

Melt 2 T. of butter in your Instant Pot on sauté mode, and let it get brown and nutty-smelling. (Don't go too far while it is browning; burned butter is considerably less appealing than browned butter.) Chuck in 1.5 c. steel-cut oats and toast them, stirring occasionally, until they smell like popcorn. Add a cup of cider, 3.5 cups of water, a chopped apple, a heaping half-teaspoon of cinnamon, and a scant half-teaspoon of salt. Switch to Porridge mode and cook under pressure for 12 minutes. Let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes and then release the valve. Stir it well and serve it forth.

This is mostly Coco Morante's recipe from her Essential Instant Pot Cookbook, which is cheap and useful.