Mince Pie Fest 2024: Aldi Specially Selected

For reasons I cannot fathom, these are usually quite difficult to find, selling out quickly and getting restocked fairly late. Not so this year. No idea why.

The pastry has a very nice texture, soft and crumbly, but with just enough firmness that the pie doesn't disintegrate as you bite. Alas it's a bit bland in taste, and although the filling starts well with an initial burst of flavour ("COGNAC, PORT & CIDER" the box booms), that fades away quickly, like tears in the rain.

These mince pies aren't bad, but they are not very impressive either. They are a bit... anonymous, and the cheaper pies from yesterday are much better. 2 out of 5. #MincePieADay #MincePieFest2024

Mince Pie Fest 2024: Holly Lane (Aldi)

Where is Holly Lane?

Who knows?

Not I.

These pies have a lovely soft, sweet pastry, and a fruity, tasty filling, with a surprising richness for a "basic" (£1.25 per box) pie. The pastry is maybe a little dry, but otherwise these are really good mince pies. Well done Aldi, I mean Holly Lane. 4 out of 5. #MincePieADay #MincePieFest2024

Mince Pie Fest 2024: Sainsbury's Taste the Difference

IT BEGINS.

The cyclopean ceramite bunker doors of the Top Secret Mince Pie Testing Centre™ creak open once more. Children weep, but not as much as my waistline.

Sainsbury's! The posh ones!

Now these have been a bit erratic in previous years, scoring 1 in 2022, but a mighty 4.5 in 2021, and a 1.5 in 2020 -- I didn't test them in 2023 because of that 2022 score -- so I didn't have high hopes for 2024.

BUT.

They are not too bad. The pastry is still too crunchy for my liking, and there is the tiniest hint of bitterness, but it tastes good on the whole, and the filling has a full, rich, boozy flavour that -- if we're being picky, and I am, because it's my "job" -- tastes more like Christmas cake than mince pie, but even so is quite nice.

Now I'm beginning to wonder if the 2023 version was any good.

Anyway, good job Sainsbos. 3 out of 5. #MincePieADay #MincePieFest2024

(If you fancy supporting my decadent lifestyle the mince pie reviews, then you can bung me a pound or two on Ko-fi.)

Daring

I dug out my copy of The Dark Knight Returns the other day, prompted in part by an online discussion about Batman comics, and because I hadn't read it in over ten years. I think I probably like it less now than I did when I first read it back in the 1998ish, but Frank Miller's graphic storytelling still has considerable power.

Another thing I noticed was this:

Is that... is that Matt Murdock?

I've had a brief look online to confirm and no one seems to be talking about it -- although there is another Daredevil cameo in there -- so it's probably not him, but it looks like him and he's talking about a trial, so...

16 Going On 30

Thanks to Stuart I am now the proud owner of a PlayStation and Playstation 2.

(Well, a re-owner of the PS1 as my father threw mine out, and this is my second PS2, but the other one is American.)

So I thought it was time for a family photo!

Sort of. I wasn't going to unplug the PS3, PS4, and PS5 just for a photo opportunity. Yet.

It shouldn't bother me, but I don't like how they dropped the button colours from the PS5. If anyone fancies getting me the 30th anniversary controller, don't be shy!

Vampires All the Way Down

Hang on.

1989: Nicolas Cage stars in Vampire's Kiss as a man obsessed with a vampire. This is quite appropriate, as we'll see.
2000: Nicolas Cage produces Shadow of the Vampire, which is about the making of Nosferatu, and stars Willem Defoe as Max Schreck/Count Orlok.
2023: Nicolas Cage stars as Dracula in Renfield, alongside Nicholas Hoult as Renfield.
2024: Nicholas Hoult and Willem Defoe star in a remake of Nosferatu. Nicolas Cage is not involved. AS FAR AS WE CAN SEE.

Superfresco!

I saw this on Scroobius Pip's twitch channel on Friday, and it is glorious.

I'm not 100% sure what it's advertising. I think it's textured wallpaper, but surely you don't want to be talking about what "must come down" if you're advertising wallpaper?

Anyway, the important thing is that it s unnecessarily, gratuitously funky. Watch until the end; I guarantee it's worth it.

Boobs and Dragons, 1984 Style

Dragonlance was 40 years old in March and I missed it!

But it's never too late to celebrate...

You can get the design on t-shirts (and some other bits) here or here.

(I get a little bit extra from each sale from the latter site.)

We'll Burn All the Negatives

Some of my books are on sale!

BREAKING LOTFP EU WEBSTORE NEWS:

* NEW SHIPPING METHOD!

* 25 % OFF SALE ON BOOKLETS + SOFTCOVERS

* JUST SEVEN COPIES OF MIDVINTER LEFT

LotFP EU Webstore: https://www.lotfp.com/store/

We've got the Global Mail option on the EU webstore up and running, which will result in much cheaper shipping rates for a lot of customers on lighter (under 1kg or especially under 500g) shipments.

To encourage you to try out this new shipping option, we are offering 25% off all of the booklets and softcovers in the EU webstore. Use coupon code SOFTIES on checkout. The titles included: Beware the Mindfuck!, Black Chamber, Curious Conundrum, Curse of the Daughterbrides, Do Not Accept This Quest, Forgive Us, A Gift For All of Norway, Green Devil Face #7, Idea from Space, Jovian Visitor, Just a Stupid Dungeon, Obisidian Anti-Pharos, and the Random Esoteric Creature Generator. Sale ends Tuesday morning when I wake up and remember to turn off the coupon code.

And we have just seven Midvinter copies left in the ol' Finland warehouse. There are a couple dozen still sitting around in overseas warehouses for future conventions, but if you want to order online these are the last copies from us. Midvinter is one of the most unhinged and disturbing folk horror adventures ever in RPGs, all the more effective because it presents itself in good cheer and not as a nightmare. It is a masterpiece.

So that's FORGIVE US and CURIOUS CONUNDRUM OF THE CONFLAGRATED CONDOTTIERO on sale, and MIDVINTER not on sale, but quickly becoming a collectable. Probably. Ish.

(Five copies left as I type this.)

I haven't left much time for you to take advantage of the sale, for which I'm sorry.

And now, a banger:

Strict Location Records Must Be Kept II

Oops.

It seems that my last post on this subject was the result of a misunderstanding. Apparently what was wanted was a list of all possible locations for antidote vials for the Doctor's poison, rather than my suggested locations.

Oops.

The Attic:

I don't think the Doctor would hide any vials in the attic, mainly because of the risk of the ELEPHANTOM getting out.

First Floor:

• Abaddon (p37)
• Mammon (p37)

(If one of the above rooms has a vial, the other does not.)

• A; the suit of armour (p41).
• Apollyon (p41)
• Eblis (p42)
• Mephisto (p42)
• Shaitan (p43); as written, I suggest this antidote be a fake.
• Erasmus (p43)

Ground Floor:

• E: the library (p49); hidden inside The Common Almanacke.
• F: the gallery (p53); behind the painting of the raven woman.
• G: the surgery (p53); inside the "patient".
• I: the storeroom (p53-54); in the medicine cabinet, although it's suggested that you don't put a vial here.
• K: the barbed wire trap (p54); as written there isn't a vial in here, but I don't see why there couldn't be.

The Cellar:

• C: the laboratory (p53); there are no antidotes here, but the players can make one, if they have the recipe.
• J: the vault (p60); this seems like an obvious place to keep a vial, and it's tricky enough to access that it seems fair to include one.

The Caves:
The Doctor doesn't come down here often enough to hide any antidotes, I think. I am inclined to suggest that ADAM (p54) could brew an antidote easily enough.