Starship Asterisk*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculaas wrote:

Speculaas: ship, farmhouse, elephant, horse

---

<<Speculaas or speculoos (Dutch: Speculaas, Flemish: speculoos, French: spéculoos: ​[spekylos], German: Spekulatius) is a type of spiced shortcrust biscuit, traditionally baked for consumption on or just before St Nicholas' day in the Netherlands (5 December), Belgium (6 December), Luxembourg (6 December), and around Christmas in Germany and Austria. Speculaas are thin, very crunchy, caramelized, slightly browned and, most significantly, have some image or figure (often from the traditional stories about St. Nicholas) stamped on the front side before baking; the back is flat. Speculaas dough does not rise much. Dutch and Belgian versions are baked with light brown (sometimes beet) sugar and baking powder. German Spekulatius uses baker's ammonia as leavening agent. Indian, Indonesian, and Mediterranean spices used in speculaas are cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cardamom, and white pepper; these were common in the 1600–1700s due to the Dutch East Indies spice trade. The name speculoos was coined for Belgian wheat flour cookies with hardly any spices.

There are several interpretations for the origins of the name speculaas. It may derive from Latin speculum, which means mirror and refers to the fact that the images are cut as a mirrored bas-relief into a wooden stamp, which is then used to decorate speculaas. Another, less likely, word origin refers to the Latin word speculator which, among other meanings, could refer to a bishop or St Nicholas' epithet, "he who sees everything". Still another possible source is Specerij, the Dutch word for spice.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Prince wrote:
<<The Little Prince visited six other planets, each of which was inhabited by a single, irrational, narrow-minded adult, each meant to critique an element of society. They include:

• A king with no subjects, who only issues orders that can be followed, such as commanding the sun to set at sunset.
  
  A narcissistic man who only wants the praise which comes from admiration and being the most-admirable person on his otherwise uninhabited planet.
  
  A drunkard who drinks to forget the shame of drinking.
  
  A businessman who is blind to the beauty of the stars and instead endlessly counts and catalogues them in order to "own" them all (critiquing materialism)
  
  A lamplighter on a planet so small, a full day lasts a minute. He wastes his life blindly following orders to extinguish and relight the lamppost every 30 seconds to correspond with his planet's day and night.
  
  An elderly geographer who has never been anywhere, or seen any of the things he records, providing a caricature of specialization in the contemporary world.

It is the geographer who tells the prince that his rose is an ephemeral being, which is not recorded, and recommends that the prince next visit the planet Earth.>>

BDanielMayfield wrote: ↑Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:56 am A planet in which the inhabitants are REALLY OBSESSED with astronomy?