I watched him struggle with the sea

[sovay]

I was nine-tenths of the way through shoveling my mother's driveway before it occurred to me that the flat-bladed gardening implement which I had been using to rowel up the frozen underlayer of slush from which the shovel just skidded off—it reminded me of a whaler's cutting spade—was conceivably some kind of hoe. I cannot tell if this means I will never have to settle my debts with Poseidon or if I have just incurred Demeter's eternal disappointment.

Comments

[asakiyume]

something something please all gods please none?

[sovay]

something something please all gods please none?

It is true that it is not a tension I especially worry about.

[swan_tower]

Unrelated except that I just discovered this ten seconds ago and had to come squee at you: in looking up information on possible binary planet systems on Wikipeida, I discovered that you were the one to suggest the name "Vanth" for the moon of the dwarf planet Orcus. That is super awesome!

[sovay]

I discovered that you were the one to suggest the name "Vanth" for the moon of the dwarf planet Orcus. That is super awesome!

Thank you! Yes. It is something I am very proud of. I wrote that poem because of it.

[kathmandu]

Rule of thumb: if the flat blade is parallel with the handle, it's an ice-chopper. If the flat blade is at 90 degrees to the handle, it's a hoe.

I feel like the various gods must have some kind of way to pass out-of-season homage and debts back and forth, the way libraries trade copying and copyright fees. So you should be fine no matter which kind of tool it is.

[ladymondegreen]

If not the pantheons, at least the personifications of the seasons probably have truck with this kind of debt passing. See also, seanan_mcguire's Velveteen Vs. The Seasons.

I'm now picturing what happens if someone passes on bad debt to a member of another pantheon.

Hopefully in doing a good deed you are exempt.

[sovay]

I'm now picturing what happens if someone passes on bad debt to a member of another pantheon.

I am afraid my immediate thought is "like a mob war, only with fewer concrete overshoes, more shape-change."

Hopefully in doing a good deed you are exempt.

Thank you. My mother has expressed appreciation, since her knees are just not up to shoveling. (My father is still quarantining.)

[alexxkay]

"like a mob war, only with fewer concrete overshoes, more shape-change."

Have you read Eddi Campbell's "Bacchus" stories? Several of the early parts fit that description, with a major antagonist being mob boss "Joe Theseus". Hermes works for him. I highly recommend the first, oh, six or so volumes, though it does go rather off-the-rails for the last few.

[sovay]

Have you read Eddi Campbell's "Bacchus" stories?

I don't think I've even heard of the series. Does it have the kind of long arc where it matters that it doesn't stick the landing? Klas Östergren's The Hurricane Party (2007) uses a Mafia-like treatment for the Æsir of Norse myth, which I very much enjoyed.

[alexxkay]

Not really. There are some ongoing plot threads, but the bulk of it is very episodic.

I'll add The Hurricane Party to the (considerable) to-be-read list!

[sovay]

I'll add The Hurricane Party to the (considerable) to-be-read list!

It's the only one of the author's novels I've read, but I liked it.

[sovay]

Rule of thumb: if the flat blade is parallel with the handle, it's an ice-chopper. If the flat blade is at 90 degrees to the handle, it's a hoe.

The blade is set flat into the handle, which is one of the reasons it did not originally occur to me as a hoe, but then it didn't look like any other kind of tool-on-a-pole because of the shape of the blade—it looks exactly like the curve-topped kind of antique hoe blade, just without the angle. It was semi-inherited from a neighbor who left his entire collection of gardening implements in my parents' yard. It has a wooden handle and a lot of rust; it isn't young. Regardless, it was exactly what I needed to make like an icebreaker so that the driveway didn't turn into a rink under the snow.

I feel like the various gods must have some kind of way to pass out-of-season homage and debts back and forth, the way libraries trade copying and copyright fees. So you should be fine no matter which kind of tool it is.

That is reassuring, thank you.

[nineweaving]

Ice-flensing?

These 18th-century tools are very much shorter than hoes, and (cruelly, succinctly) hafted with whalebone.



Nine