Library, Thursday 11/6

[noonedecidesmyfate]

There was a pair of Crocs in the library. No feet. Just Crocs. And those Crocs kept moving. Not while Belle was looking at them, of course, but every time she saw them they were in a new position.

Were the shoes haunted?

Was there a dedicated and sneaky gremlin moving them?

Were the shoes simply alive?

Belle did not know. Belle might never know.

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse, Thursday, Per 3

[deathsmajesty]

The Danger Shop was once more in the classroom configuration, and Liliana was not alone at the front of it. She and Don were chatting softly as the class entered, and once the bell or whatever went off, she nodded to him to begin.

"Hello," Don said to Liliana's class. "I'm Dr. Donald Blake, and I've been asked to talk to you about surviving the zombie apocalypse. I'm assuming this means your standard zombie apocalypse scenario where society has broken down and whatnot, so, how do you survive that?

"The first and most important thing is sanitation. Honestly, you're probably much more likely to die from bad drinking water than from being attacked by a zombie. We're assuming the powers that be are no longer maintaining the water supply, so clean water is no longer coming out of your pipes. If you're collecting rainwater or collecting it via evaporation--which I just know is an option, I don't know how to teach you to do it, sorry--it's going to be pretty clean already unless acid rain has made a comeback, but if you're collecting water from a source like a pond or river, you're going to need to boil it for at least one minute. 'But Dr. Blake, I thought running water was--' No. Boil your water. The same goes for food. Heat is your friend. If you're living off the land, for the love of Thor, cook your meat thoroughly. If you're eating canned goods, most of them are okay to eat even a few years out of date, but boil them for at least a minute, and don't eat anything if the can looks funny--dented, bulging, any of that.

"Cleanliness is still important in the apocalypse. If you have soap, use it. Wash your hands. Maybe wash your hands more than you did before, because you can't afford food poisoning. You don't have to boil the water for washing! It's not going in your body. And for the love of Thor, keep your latrine on the opposite side of your camp or whatever from your water source. Remember: in all things, cross-contamination is not your friend.

"Now, in my first aid classes, I usually show my students how to stabilize their patient until they can get to a medical professional. That's what first aid is. In this scenario, you may not going to have access to a medical professional, so the best thing you can do is be careful. Don't do anything daring or risky that could lead to you needing an ambulance and an OR on standby, because you don't have either of those things. You may have a stick to bite and a buddy who knows how to sew. Keep that in mind."

With that, he turned to Liliana and asked, "Was there anything else?"

Liliana smiled at him and shook her head. "Not unless there are any questions from the class...?"

Great British Bake Off (But American) - Thursday 11/6

[imafuturist]

"Hello, everyone," Steve said with a grin. "We trust you have all of your fingers intact despite your fruit carving homework."

"Because this week will be a lot of rolling out dough for puff pastry!" Tony filled in. "They do this with machines for a reason, I realized trying it myself."

"We had so much leaking butter," Steve admitted. "Our signature challenge is fancy pigs in blankets!"

Or Beef Wellington, Steve.

But he wasn't really wrong about the concept at least.

"A Wellington of whatever meat you'd like to try," Tony said. "So feel free to be creative with it. Following that, we'll have you attempt an apple strudel."

"Don't forget the whipped cream," Steve said with a grin and a nod. "And because it takes forever, your homework is going to be making baklava.

Food Adventures, Thursday, First Period

[carbsliftthespirit]

"All right, folks," Raiden said to his students, "today we're headed to Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world--over forty-one million residents!--so we won't get to explore all of it, but we'll get a little taste that might just leave you hungry for more.

"You may already be familiar with one form of Japanese food from the Sushi Station in town, but there's a lot more out there, and you may not know that 'sushi' refers to the rice, not raw fish.

"Now, Japan is an archipelago, which means it's an island country. Until very recently, this kept it pretty isolated from most other cultures and outside influences on its food--except for China, its nearest neighbor--although these days that's changed and you'll see foreign influences in things like the wild proliferation of different flavors of KitKat." To name just one. "Rice is a staple, as well as the products of the sea, like fish and seaweed, and spices are used sparingly, because they were hard to get here for a very long time, resulting in a different flavor profile from what you may be used to.

"Today we're going to go on a food tour before we stop by a 7-Eleven, where you can try some other classic Japanese foods (or one of those sandwiches with whipped cream and strawberries) and pick up some snacks."