Why I feel sorry for dwarves, and hair soup from Owen Jones on 1998-01-30 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: Owen Jones <oj_at_maths.anu.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 1998 16:17:30 +1100 (EST)

Thanks to those who replied to my query about how to fix the world machine, all of seven days (and about 20 digests) ago. The most appealing of the dwarven viewpoints, I thought, was the "dwarves as unfortunate dupes" viewpoints. That is, your average dwarf knows that the world macine is broken, and that its betters are busy striving to fix it. Of course, its betters know that there's bugger all they can do, but have too little imagination to suffer from despair. And you never know, if they keep fixing the little problems, then the big ones may solve themselves someday. Meanwhile, your average dwarf is busy enough making sure its betters are properly fed.

Regards dwarven senses, I rather liked the idea that the dwarven beard is in fact a mass of cilia like sensory organs, all slowly waving about despite the lack of breeze. The Uz within immediately thought of the following delicacy:

DWARVEN HAIR SOUP: Prepare a wholesome chicken soup in the usual manner. Then, just before serving, add the freshly cut beard of a dwarf. The hairs should wriggle about for a good ten minutes: enough to tickle the most hackneyed of palettes. The temperature is important though: the hotter it is the more the hair wriggles, but it doesn't wriggle as long.

Cheers

Owen Jones

Centre for Maths and its Applications, School of Math. Sciences Australian National University, ACT 0200 Ph +61 2 6249 2897 (office) 6249 4552 (direct) Fax +61 2 6249 4675 Web page http://wwwmaths.anu.edu.au/~oj/