A benevolent conspiracy for Elise (aka Elisem and LionessElise)

[jenett]

(Who knows this is happening, but Elise, don't read below the cut, so you can be surprised by the actual outcome...)

It's elisem's 60th birthday on August 22nd. In the ordinary way of things, there would have been a party. Parties. And lots of great times, and good food, and amazing conversation, and so many shinies.

The world being what it is, that's not possible this year.

Insert benevolent conspiracy here. Elise has done them for tons of other people, after all.

If you know Elise - online, offline, everything in between, you're invited to join us.

If you've been to one of her Haiku Earring Parties at Wiscon over the years, discovered her through her winning the Hugo for Best Fan Artist this past weekend, or the Kickstarter to document her techniques (a work in progress...) or through her shinies. Among other things, too many projects to name.

If you've had conversations with her at conventions or restaurants or in passing or on Usenet (or LiveJournal or Twitter or anywhere else.)

If you're any of those things, we'd love to hear from you.

If you know people who'd fit any of this description, pass this link along to them.

Things Elise Likes

First, presents are not required, but the Lioness does love things to unwrap and enjoy. Let me know (via PM or email at jenettsilver@gmail.com) if you need a mailing address or additional info.

If you want to send her a physical thing, Elise has a wishlist here (on Amazon, but you don't need to send from there if you'd rather not.)

Elise is generally a fan of unusual-to-her food and drink, beautiful jigsaw puzzles. Her current favourite tea suppliers are Bingley's Teas and INI Sips. (She says: "Their Assam BOP is amazing.")

She also says: "I'm surviving this pandemic on tea and smoked fish, and as much shortbread and as many macarons as I can get. Tea, fish, cookies and sweets. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.)"

Benevolent Conspiracy

This part of the plan:
Collect brief memories/amusing comments and print them on Moo Cards (Elise uses them for her own business cards, and you can get different images on every card.)

We're not going to get super fancy with formatting here, the goal is to get a stack of cards in Elise's hands with awesome memories from a bunch of people, so she can pull them out, or put them up, or whatever she wants to do with them.

What to do
(I set up a form, it is now removed since I have made the thing with it.)

Got questions? Drop me a note in the comments here, email me (email under the cut), or send me a PM on Dreamwidth. (Comments elsewhere may not be seen promptly, and it may take me a little to get back to you: I'm juggling more moving parts than usual this week.)

Comments

[madgastronomer]

I wish there was some practical way for me to send her one of my key lime pies. But I put a memory in for the cards at least.

[aedifica]

Would you remind me, does the Elise have any dietary restrictions? I'm thinking of sending something that isn't on the Amazon list.

[jenett]

Let me double check on the current set. (Artificial sweeteners, basically any of them, are a problem, it's the rest of the possible list that I don't know how current I am.)

[jenett]

You have won one very Elisian answer.

Ah! Sorbitol and the many other artificial sweeteners are still on the trouble list, but it turns out I can handle a little maltodextrin after all, if I'm in good shape that day. (It also turns out maltodextrin is used in small amounts for something other than sweetening, but I disremember what. Possibly managing moisture or mouthfeel or something that starts with m.)

These are not restrictions, but they are taste and/or texture issues:
The finest beets still taste like dirt to me, alas.
The finest jimmies still have a mouthfeel like dirt to me, alas.
Beet-flavored jimmies are right out.

This next one is an ethical issue:
I do not eat octopus any more because I do not want to have to explain it to them when they finally decide to talk to us. Seriously, waaaay too smart for me to eat, ever since I started reading up on them. (If somebody sends me octopus through not knowing, I will donate it to one of the local food shelves and somebody else will be happy. They're already canned, so that's the most constructive and unwasteful thing at that point.)

One thing I might have forgotten to put on the list is how much I like pickled daikon (and in fact many Asian pickled vegetables). Om nom. And it cannot be stressed too much how very fond of liver pate I am. All liver is my friend. My iron-packed edible friend. (Why yes, I am often anemic. Cue the liver cravings.)

(I was responsible for getting her to try jimmies. Elise, so totally not a fan. For people not familiar, they are the small oblong chocolate or bright coloured sugar things you put on ice cream around these parts. The raspberry lime rickey and lobster roll experiments were vastly more successful.)

[aedifica]

Thank you! I think the thing I was thinking of sending will be safe, but I'll go over the ingredient list to make sure.

And I'll add that jimmies are the things that some other parts of the country call sprinkles.

[carbonel]

I'm from the north side of Chicago, and we called them sprinkles or sprinklies. When I first heard the term "jimmies," I thought it was a weird joke.

[aedifica]

P.S. I'm glad Elise mentioned the sprinkles/jimmies, because while the thing I had been thinking of sending her looks like it's all Elise-safe ingredients, it does have sprinkles mixed right through so one couldn't even pick them off.

[kellan_the_tabby]

Does she like handmade soap? Cos I make some of that.

[jenett]

Elise likes ALL THE SOAP, roughly.

(Feel free to PM/email for mailing address/etc. or if you want to run what she might like most by me.)