October 23rd, 2013
23 Oct 2013 · page 283 of 1306
Cast: Alexa King, Ethan Booth, Mrs Sykes, Rosie Bell
Comments (21)
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That look between them on the second panel... it's.. priceless.
Rosie, I'm proud of you
You've got to wonder... She calls them dumplings. Does she mean it in a fake endearing way, or because she sees them as potential food.
Was re-reading this chapter and I'm curious about something: Alexa's Dad calls her "cupcake" on the train, but she calls the sweetmeats "fairy cakes" here: [http://www.widdershinscomic...](http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-28th-2013/ "http://www.widdershinscomic.com/wdshn/august-28th-2013/") Was there any particular for that, or are the terms pretty much interchangeable?
Oh, and uh, for the record, "knack" is in the American colloquial too. ;)
I think that cupcake tends to be used more across the pond, so it could be her Dad is American. If the discussion about America not having significant magic is right, that might explain why he didn't know how fast the magic trains could go - although it could just be that old magic stuff is routinely underestimated because of its age.
Responding to a comment from 3 years ago because I'm re-reading the chapter
Fairy cakes are about half the size and either have a thin layer of icing (The icing sugar+water kind) or they have the tops cut off, split in half, the hole is filled with buttercream or jam and cream and the two halves are stuck back on top. Like this [http://moblog.net/media/w/e...](http://moblog.net/media/w/e/n/wendle/fairy-cakes-2.JPG "http://moblog.net/media/w/e/n/wendle/fairy-cakes-2.JPG")
I think there was more about it in one of the extras, let me double check... yeah in Harry's notes it says summons are easier and stronger when you are close, and that there are 2-4 anchors. The known ones are in Widdershins and one in Mount Everest. There's assumed to be another one somewhere in the Indian or Pacific Oceans off New Zeland..I guess a sort of Bermuda Triangle thing where ships vanish? There's rumors of a fourth apparently, but that's all the note book says. Doesn't sound like the Americas are terribly close to any of them as far as we know. I wonder if Widdershins has a lot of trouble with hobbyist casters from America or other places with low magic getting in way over their heads? So far the wizards we've met seem to be local, or at least locally trained..
I wonder what's in it for her in all this? If she worked at the hotel before everything went strange she ought to be human, unless she's being controlled or possessed or something... if not that, then she seems way too into all of this to not have an angle.
"Gotta hate micromanaging."
Having been the victim of it; yes, I do...
OK, I'm just going to say it! First line, first panel, I read it in Hagrid's voice! I apologise!
"brownie" new to America? Are you talking about the baked dessert squares? Because those were invented here in the States. My mom-in-law gave me a copy of the Boston Cooking School Cookbook as a gift that happens to have one of the earliest published brownie recipes, and it's more than 100 years old.
Perhapshe'stalkingaboutthecreatures. ThinkEnidBlyton;)
Right, and I apparently shouldn't ever comment on here via mobile...
I had wondered!
Rosie, you don't think it might have been useful if you had mentioned this a bit earlier?
That woman is so annoying I'm thinking of buying into Ethan's philosophy.
If magic's just a hobby and not seen as particularly useful where
she's from? It'd be a bit like dropping "Oh, I do origami in my spare
time."
Something tells me we should be expecting an epic cheerful little old lady magical showdown
Wow... there's something I've never said before
A few minutes poking around with Google's Ngram Viewer (books.google.com/ngrams) "books.google.com/ngrams)") indicates that the word 'knack' has appeared with roughly equal frequency in both the American and British lexicons over the last couple centuries. Fwiw, I can't imagine any American alive today thinking it sounded strange or foreign-ish (as opposed to something like 'brolly' or 'blag').
Perhaps it's not the word itself but the usage the word is being put that that is unfamiliar to her :o
Yep, I think the look they share in panel 2 prety much confirms that magic IS a big deal even in the future and present.
I'll bet her vacation house is made of gingerbread