Ice fishing! That's what I forgot to put in my post today. I saw ice fishermen. We don't usually get enough of a sustained freeze for that around here, but I saw some on two small lakes that I drove by this morning.
(Also, "Mirrorthaw" was driving me mad yesterday and today — the name, not the man — because I knew who you meant and I saw letters from the title you were scrambling, but not enough of them. Finally, I went back to the original anagram post this afternoon to make sure I hadn't missed anything and discovered your update. Whew! What a relief. And a good reminder to retrace one's steps *all* the way back to the beginning when attempting to unravel a mystery.)
Oh, gosh, sorry about that. I'm not sure whether that was from delusions of grandeur (everyone will read that post again and again, such is my anagrammatic power over their puny minds! Mwahaha!) or delusions of insignificance (no one ever reads my posts anyway, and wouldn't care if they did). Both would be delusions, but I'm honestly not sure from which of the two I was suffering. I'm glad you found the answer before you went right round the bend, though.
Okay, and the insane thing is that I did read that post over and over again, since it kept getting comments and I couldn't keep track of how many comments I'd already read and it was in my consciousness for an extra period of time through Jess's link to it and that kept me checking. When I want to read LJ and friends aren't obliging with new entries I can be obsessive in searching for comments I haven't caught. So I might have visited the page since the update, even multiple times, but, if so, I was automatically scrolling down to the comments without paying attention to the post. Although, even at that, I remember looking back at the anagrams as each unfamiliar person commented on theirs to remember what you'd done to them. And I suspect I'm revealing too much about my potential for obsessive LJ watchage here, but I'm comfortable with that. I suspect most people here can relate to this behavior, at least occasionally.
And, thank you, thank you on the icon! Now it's in my e-mail inbox and I can save the message and look at it always!
Thank you! But it's also the case that if I save the e-mail that I got because I have notification turned on, the picture will remain no matter what Truepenny does with her icons. I have a huge mess of old LJ replies in my inbox, and I just poked around to double-check myself on that one. I found your William Blake icon and a past River icon among the mix. So I don't even have to bookmark the URL you thoughtfully provided — all I have to do is stash that e-mail in my Truepenny folder, and I'm golden. Mmmm...Faith.
Mysteriously enough, half my lj-comment email come with icons and places to write back, and half don't. I've always been curious as to why, but have never quite had time to investigate.
may play a pretty big part of my next fantasy novel. Here in Minnesota, see, magic builds up under the ice when the lakes freeze, which makes the fish very, very wise. Those strange old men in wooden shacks out on the ice . . . well, sure, some of them are ice fisherman, who are simply hooking fish to eat because they don't know any better.
But the ones who do know better are wizards, who are baiting the fish to come up to the surface with an offering. They simply talk to the fish (to gain the benefit of their winter magic wisdom) and then they let them go.
Minnesota is roughly at the farthest possible point on the North American continent from the ocean in all directions. This means that we get great temperature extremes from summer to winter, because the oceans regulate temperature. But oceans, of course, are also full of salt, and salt leaches away magic. Hence, Minnesota is unusual in that it is particularly strong in both summer and winter magic.
The fish (water and earth) are the totemic animals of winter magic. The birds (air and fire) are totemic of summer magic. Mosquitoes, who live right on the surface of the water, are eaten by both fish and birds, and therefore hold a very important place in this magical system. By sucking blood (and blood, as we all know, is mystically linked to the ocean), they regulate the levels of magic in people's blood. (And you wondered why mosquitoes bit some people more than others.) The force of summer and winter magic in Minnesota rises and falls at the height of those two great Minnesota magical festivals in the spring and the autumn: fishing opener and duck hunting opener.
This theory explains a great deal about Minnesota culture: ice fishing, mosquitoes, Northern Lights (summer magic, of course), etc.
Hmm. It also probably makes a lot more sense late if everyone is drinking margaritas late at night at a convention as I try to explain it.
Wow. That's an explanation powerfully spiked with poetry. I love the way it makes sense of everything and even manages to make mosquitoes part of something beautiful.
So, the wizards then, would they be the ones NOT wearing international-hazard-orange parkas? Or is that like protective coloration?
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Date: 2003-03-14 05:11 pm (UTC)(Also, "Mirrorthaw" was driving me mad yesterday and today — the name, not the man — because I knew who you meant and I saw letters from the title you were scrambling, but not enough of them. Finally, I went back to the original anagram post this afternoon to make sure I hadn't missed anything and discovered your update. Whew! What a relief. And a good reminder to retrace one's steps *all* the way back to the beginning when attempting to unravel a mystery.)
Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-14 05:46 pm (UTC)Here, I use my new Faith icon in recompense.
Re: Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-14 06:30 pm (UTC)And, thank you, thank you on the icon! Now it's in my e-mail inbox and I can save the message and look at it always!
Re: Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-14 10:10 pm (UTC)(OK, you can always find it here (http://www.rebeccalizard.net/i/lj/fop/truepennyfaithtongueout.jpg).)
Btw, Ynnepeurt, I love that ice-fishing line. Actually it's basically one of my poems-- the very, very concise version.
Re: Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-14 10:18 pm (UTC)Re: Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-14 11:04 pm (UTC)You see icons in your notification emails!
!!!
Wow. I must have some HTML-email preferences turned off, somewhere.
Re: Mirrorthaw
Date: 2003-03-15 05:34 pm (UTC)Ice fishing
Date: 2003-03-14 10:54 pm (UTC)But the ones who do know better are wizards, who are baiting the fish to come up to the surface with an offering. They simply talk to the fish (to gain the benefit of their winter magic wisdom) and then they let them go.
Minnesota is roughly at the farthest possible point on the North American continent from the ocean in all directions. This means that we get great temperature extremes from summer to winter, because the oceans regulate temperature. But oceans, of course, are also full of salt, and salt leaches away magic. Hence, Minnesota is unusual in that it is particularly strong in both summer and winter magic.
The fish (water and earth) are the totemic animals of winter magic. The birds (air and fire) are totemic of summer magic. Mosquitoes, who live right on the surface of the water, are eaten by both fish and birds, and therefore hold a very important place in this magical system. By sucking blood (and blood, as we all know, is mystically linked to the ocean), they regulate the levels of magic in people's blood. (And you wondered why mosquitoes bit some people more than others.) The force of summer and winter magic in Minnesota rises and falls at the height of those two great Minnesota magical festivals in the spring and the autumn: fishing opener and duck hunting opener.
This theory explains a great deal about Minnesota culture: ice fishing, mosquitoes, Northern Lights (summer magic, of course), etc.
Hmm. It also probably makes a lot more sense late if everyone is drinking margaritas late at night at a convention as I try to explain it.
Cheers,
Peg
Re: Ice fishing
Date: 2003-03-15 07:10 am (UTC)So, the wizards then, would they be the ones NOT wearing international-hazard-orange parkas? Or is that like protective coloration?
Re: Ice fishing
Date: 2003-03-15 07:38 am (UTC)I don't think that Minnesota wizards, in general, call much attention to themselves. That would be so un-Lutheran or something.
Peg
Re: Ice fishing
Date: 2003-03-15 10:02 am (UTC)