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(Bonus) Quote of the Day: A Good Thing Shared
‘Faeries like pizza?’ I asked.
‘Oh, Harry,’ [the little faery] said breathlessly. ‘Haven’t you ever had pizza before?’
‘Of course I have,’ I said.
Toot looked wounded. ‘And you didn’t share?’
– Jim Butcher, Storm Front (Being the First Book of the Dresden Files).
Some of you may know by now (and others of you are about to find out) that I am a shameless recommender of the Dresden Files series of books by Jim Butcher. The way I typically explain them is as the most satisfying long-running story that I’ve come across – and the sort of place where the hero can make Looney Tunes jokes at the height of the action and not derail the story – and in fact does. (Or find out that faeries are humorously and devotedly fond of pizza, for that matter.)
But I’m getting ahead of myself maybe: Harry Dresden is a wizard (“Yer a wizard, Harry,” as I believe @arahant quipped when I was yet again offering the recommendation to any who would listen) and private investigator, who lives and works in the city of Chicago. Oh, and magic is real. So are things that go bump in the night – monsters, ghoulies, faeries … as well as the transcendent and the sublime – a thread which deepens and develops as the story goes on.
(There’s a reason I think so highly of Jim Butcher for writing these books. [In spite of some occasionally, ah, somewhat risqué passages, which can be a wee bit off-putting – and the sixth book, which I always recommend people skip, for similar reasons – in spite of it having rather a nice opening. Don’t worry, though, there are about 14 more where that came from – so far …])
In any case, where was I? The first book in the series is Storm Front – followed by Fool Moon, then Grave Peril, and Summer Knight (are you detecting a pattern here?) I always tend to recommend reading them in actual paper book form (and am quite fond myself of the older small-format paperbacks, especially where the print is good and readable), but you take what you can find.
So, go forth and find, kind reader – and enjoy! A good thing shared is a good thing shared after all – oh, though before I forget: try and remember that the tone is light-hearted as a rule (it took me several re-readings before I realized this – I’m a little slow sometimes), with as morally sound, good-triumphs-over-evil a sense as you’re likely to find these days, which is not something to be sniffed at.
Are you still here? I thought you’d be out eagerly buying your first copy by now …
Published in Group Writing
Mushroom pizza is a real hit.
You say that, but you’ll hit the pepperoni like everybody else. We’ll end up throwing away mushroom pizza.
Sure, throwing it away to the Fey.
Muffins are nice, too. I’m planning a batch with marmalade oranges in them.
An excellent post for National Deep Dish Pizza Day!
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♫ Seren-dip-ity doo-dah, seren-dip-ity day … ♪
What about faeries who are lactose and gluten intolerant? Any different from the normal run of faeries?
I also highly recommend the Harry Dresden series. In 2019 a handful of Ricochetti went to a science fiction convention together, where Jim Butcher was the Author Guest of Honor.
If I understand my Dresden-verse faery lore rightly, then I think they’d take the pizza and deal with that later — as long as they didn’t have to use iron cutlery to eat it.
Of all the faeries you are likely to encounter, the diet- restricted ones are the worst.
Or maybe second worst. Whatever you do, don’t try their home brew. They!roast their hops, the little savages
Mushrooms and pepperoni rightly belong together. Ebony and Ivory you know.
… And thus did the Great Pizza Wars begin …
Mushrooms, pepperoni, ground beef, and black olives….
Sir knight, I was with thee up to the mushrooms …
How about alfredo sauce on pizza?
Hmm, tricky one, I’ve never tried it. Perhaps some of the other ladies and gentlemen will know better. (However, each to their own, naturally.)
It depends on the toppings, but it can be quite good, as can pesto.
Mushrooms are fine, but not alone. Ground beef is just sort of there as a replacement for Italian sausage.
Ground beef is a great supplement to Italian sausage.
I have found that alfredo sauce works terrifically well as a base for a pizza with beef, Italian sausage, mushrooms and green peppers. Or some form of gourmet chicken sausage cut like Italian sausage and the aforementioned toppings. When we do homemade pizza parties with guests, we usually follow the Italian flag principle: One with traditional tomato base, one with alfredo sauce and one with basil/garlic pesto.
Sounds proper to me.
Leastwise not if there’re hungry faeries about.
Black olives do not go with pizza, and they look like little cockroaches imbedded in the cheese. :P
Alfredo sauce on pizza taste good, so long as no spinach is involved.
Harry Dresden is one of my all-time favorites, and I’m glad I found out about it after the Anita Blake series jumped the shark.*
*I don’t share the OP’s aversion to risque content-and I highly advise that people not skip the sixth book, especially in light of the recurring characters involved-but that doesn’t mean I want to read porno novels disguised as a fantasy detective series, which is what the Anita Blake series degenerated into.
Perfectly fair enough. To each his own, after all. Especially in matters of pizza and books.
Ehhh…I like olives of about every color in about every form I’ve yet encountered. Your unenlightened attitude is shared by my daughter, though, so I live with it. And enjoy another king spanish olive stuffed with roasted garlic.
I still need to get to the Dresden series. I got it on Audible about a month ago and have not taken time to listen to it yet.
Just a thought, you may find you enjoy it more in written form (whether paper or electronic). (Of course, it depends what works best for you and what you prefer, so for what it’s worth.)
Garlic-stuffed olives are great.
Well, right now my eye-time is at a premium. The only things I am reading are my own or research for future articles. Now, Audible books I can listen to while translating say the newest treaty between the Netherlands and Germany governing cross-border commuters. I just have to be wary of typing the dialogue into the text, e.g. “In the case of a cross-border commuter who only remains in the second contracting state to perform his duties on fewer than fourteen weekdays a month…that makes you a necromancer, which means I can legally do this,’ and I shot him in the leg.'”
TUI. Translating under the influence.