The very many questions-not-worth-their-own-thread question thread XXXI

[Samez]

Flowers can also be a symbol for fertility...

 

[Gori the Grey]

And specific flowers had specific meanings, so you could send secret messages through them.

 

[Arakhor]

Buying flowers shows that you're making an effort (provided that you actually bought a decent bunch). Being traditional should always be worth points.

 

[Takhisis]

And specific flowers had specific meanings, so you could send secret messages through them.

Hmmmm. I'd like to hear/read more about this.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Basil. Tarragon? Chamomile. Iris.

 

[Synobun]

Cue the clueless romantic giving his beloved a handful of basil leaves instead of the flower.

 

[Snerk]

What does it mean if you receive a cactus?

 

[Cutlass]

What does it mean if you receive poison ivy?

 

[warpus]

If anyone knows anything at all about Hong Kong, read on.

Say I have a layover in Hong Kong from 1:25pm on a Monday until 7:10pm the next day. I already know that this is more than enough time to do a quick tour of the city, but I'm wondering if anyone would have any advice on how to put together a good itinerary. This would be in late October.

I haven't done a lot of research yet, becuase this potential layover just came up.. I would definitely want to see that iconic night view of the skyline and harbour, but I'm open to suggestions on how else to fill up the time. In my mind we would check into our hotel around 3pm, leave our bags, go eat dinner somewhere, and then hunt down some unique lookout point of the city while it's still light out. The sun goes down at 6pm or so, so after that we would head to that classic harbour/skyline lookout spot, or at least one or more of them.

We are probably going to be jetlagged to hell, so that first night we'd probably crash early, then wake up super early on the tuesday, check out of the hotel/hostel, leave our bags in storage, then see some other sights in the city until about 3:30pm. After that it's time to pick up our bags and head back to the airport (which IIRC you can get to in about 45 minutes by rail)

Only problem might be finding decent accommodation that's close to a station we can get to the airport to/from that's also central and affordable. I haven't started looking yet, but I assume we might have to pay a bit of a premium for such a place... which is fine by us, as long as it doesn't break the bank.

If there's any weird things going on on Mondays or Tuesdays in the city or in October, maybe some sort of a cultural festival, or holiday, or whatever, then that might impact our travel plans and possibilities, so if you happen to know anything about that side of things, I wouldn't mind hearing about it either.

I'm doing research on all this bit by bit, but if someone's lived there already then you could save me a lot if time, so any advice at all would be greatly appreciated

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Why are flowers considered romantic gifts? I mean, they've pretty, but what would a woman actually do with them? Is it just a holdover from when women were expected to be homemakers?

Any contemporary drama on TV shows what happens. The guy turns up at the door with flowers, the woman looks surprised, gives them a cursory sniff, and says she'll find a vase to put them in. After that the flowers are never mentioned unless the woman wants to know what the occasion is or someone else wants to know why she received flowers, and from whom.

I don't own a vase, at least not any big enough for flowers. If anyone turned up here with real flowers, I'd be hard-pressed to find anything to put any medium to large bouquet in. I'd probably have to empty out one of the plastic containers I keep Maddy's dry cat food in.

Flowers are considered pretty, delicate, and fragrant. It's supposed to be meant as a compliment.

But for people like me who are allergic to them, anyone giving me flowers would earn a "thank you" and I'd quickly put them somewhere out of breathing range. If it was someone who knows I'm allergic, I'd be wondering why they're trying to kill me. I can't even stand to be in the same room with a poinsettia - they're really not scentless.

It's a sad fact that when I lived in my house, there were a couple of days in spring when everything in the back yard was in bloom at the same time - crab apple tree, plum trees, lilacs (both kinds), and a couple of other trees. Gorgeous to look at, but I didn't dare go outside to enjoy it.

Depending on the woman there may be alternatives to what they consider a romantic gesture. Chocolates, for some, can be romantic. A gift, for others, can be romantic. Then you head into unusual territory where for some people a romantic gesture is doing a difficult chore, helping them out with a problem, or gifting them something eccentric that appeals specifically to their interests.

One year my dad's girlfriend pushed him into doing the "traditional Valentine's Day" present she thought suitable for a father to give his daughter. So he gave me a white teddy bear and a box of chocolates. The bear was cute, but the problem with the chocolates is that they had ingredients to which I was allergic. Not his fault; he didn't know, and even I didn't realize until I tried one.

After that when he explained about his girlfriend's suggestion, I told him that what he'd been doing already was just fine. So he happily went back to shopping at the hardware store for my Christmas and birthday presents (either blank VHS tapes, since this was in the day when everyone had VCRs) or something to do with my crafts - new knives, some more glue sticks, some kind of storage bin for the various small bits of stuff needed to make the things I sold).

My boyfriend at that time knew flowers were out of the question, so he got me a scented candle. Sadly, that wasn't any safer; it was a problem, even still wrapped and unlit. It was pretty, though, so I put it up on a high shelf where I could see it but wouldn't smell it. After that he stuck to things he knew I was interested in... nicely painted little wooden box I use for my D&D dice, and a new goblet for SCA feasts.

Cue the clueless romantic giving his beloved a handful of basil leaves instead of the flower.

Basil is among the worst of the things to which I'm allergic, at least in its raw form. It produces an instant migraine.

So the lesson here is: Before you decide to give your romantic partner (or other sort of friend) a gift, make an effort to find out what allergies they have.

 

[Mouthwash]

Can anyone direct me to A) descriptions of how mammoth (or general megafauna) hunts likely transpired, and B) resources for how ice age people/hunter-gatherers in cold climates lived? Google only turns up clickbait articles and Google Scholar is way above my head.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Still working on that hunter-gatherer dental health question, eh, Mouthwash?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Did you try National Geographic?

You might need different keywords, since "mammoth hunters" tends to turn up the novel by Jean Auel.

 

[Mouthwash]

Still working on that hunter-gatherer dental health question, eh, Mouthwash?

Nah, it's for Camp NaNoWriMo.

Did you try National Geographic?

Ergh, really? I'd never get anything done if I listened to them. I need really detailed stuff. Not just that they stored food with permafrost, but what kind of permafrost, where it could be found, what they physically did with the meat, how long it was stored, etc. Even plausible hypotheticals are better than nothing.

You might need different keywords, since "mammoth hunters" tends to turn up the novel by Jean Auel.

I remember that series. Read the first two books and part of the third, but I'm almost recovered now.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

By a coincidence I just read a novella by Poul Anderson (SF/F writer) dealing with a time-traveling paleozoologist/naturalist who was researching mammoths in ice-age Beringia (the land that used to be above water but is now what we call the Bering Strait). It's in his Shield of Time book.

Anderson was an author who incorporated as much real history/natural history as he could into his time travel stories, so this leads me to ask:

Where are you setting your story? You will need to know something about the climate, vegetation, average temperatures, precipitation, etc. From there you can extrapolate some of your characters' actions and thoughts (ie. Wanda Tamberley was constantly annoyed by the mosquitoes, in Anderson's story).

You're getting into cultural anthropology territory, as well. This is a bit ambitious for a Camp NaNoWriMo story with no outline (not trying to discourage you, just point out that it's going to take somewhat more research than you may have allowed for).

 

[Traitorfish]

Can anyone direct me to A) descriptions of how mammoth (or general megafauna) hunts likely transpired, and B) resources for how ice age people/hunter-gatherers in cold climates lived? Google only turns up clickbait articles and Google Scholar is way above my head.

The key take-away is that when the hunter-gatherers put enough XP into the Beastmaster tree, they could ride the mammoths around and throw bees at people. It was pretty great.

 

[Mouthwash]

By a coincidence I just read a novella by Poul Anderson (SF/F writer) dealing with a time-traveling paleozoologist/naturalist who was researching mammoths in ice-age Beringia (the land that used to be above water but is now what we call the Bering Strait). It's in his Shield of Time book.

Okay, I'll check it out.

Where are you setting your story?

Not on Earth, so your concerns don't really apply. I can basically do what I want, but things also have to make sense.

 

[warpus]

Nevermind you guys, I got my HK plans sorted out.

If anyone wants to meet while I'm there shoot me a PM

 

[Broken_Erika]

Why do people want to have Prime Ministers shot at them?
Here! Have a trudeau! Bang! AAAAAIIIIEEEE!

 

[Camikaze]

Say I have a layover in Hong Kong from 1:25pm on a Monday until 7:10pm the next day.

So where are you going from HK?