Today is CURLING IS COOL DAY, which I thought had something to do with hairstyles, but doesn't.

Excelsis vignette: Lupus Solaris
"It's a werewolf," Victoria argued rebelliously. She was a musician by trade, and took her career almost as seriously as she did their vocation. "I fail to see what a garden-variety lycanthrope has to do with the likes of us. Let somebody else avert the crisis for once."


"It's not just any werewolf," said Vesper, who was extremely well-read for a professional thief. "It's supposed to be an incarnation of Hati, from Norse mythology. Or Skoll, we're not sure which yet."


"Bloody Scandinavians," Victoria swore, "and even so, so what? If it isn't the actual Fenris wolf, why should we care?"


"Because Hati and Skoll are the wolves who are destined to devour the sun and the moon," Devon replied patiently. Victoria thought this was a strange trait in someone who went around jumping off planes for a living, but that was Devon for you.


"Besides, werewolves... cool," Reynard offered. Reynard 'the Fox' was a musician too, but he and Victoria were about as different as a concert violinist and a cutting-edge club DJ could get.


"It will be good fight," growled Gregor, who tended to lose his English when the prospect of physical conflict came up. Victoria could only imagine that he was absolutely speechless on the soccer field.


"And I've already requisitioned multiple rounds of silver ammunition, as well as target-specific wards for either wolf, whichever it turns out to be," interjected Sho, who was smiling at Victoria as if he already knew she was going to agree. Which he did. Because she was, of course. It was a matter of faith.


"Bloody... Hel," Victoria sighed, and lifted the phone to cancel her concert in Paris.

TRIVIA QUIZ
What does 'curling' mean when you're not discussing hair, weights, or surfing?


answer to Thursday's question
The Lovers of the Stinky Rose are a bunch of garlic devotees in Berkeley, California. Now, I'm a garlic fan myself, but not to the extent that I'd actually meet once every month to talk about it, or hold an annual 'garlic festival', or even publish a newsletter called Garlic Time. I suppose it takes all kinds.


Congratulations to Marco, El, and Ariel, who sniffed out the right answer. And shame, shame, shame to Alex!