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Girl Genius
Mimmoth

A mimmoth, with scale item

A Mimmoth is a tiny Construct, a wooly mammoth the size of a rat.

Description

Mimmoths compete with mice in much of the Girl Genius ecosystem, which is probably a good thing since they're at least cute and entertaining. They seem to be more apt than mice or rats to gravitate toward laboratories, and to gum up the works. Like all Constructs, they were originally created by a Spark.

It is known that mimmoths are tasty in a light butter sauce.[citation needed] It may or may not be significant that one of the bits of junk food served by Master Payne's Circus of Adventure is mimmoths on a stick. This name may, however, be figurative, just as a corn dog is not actually a type of dog, and elephant ears are actually fried dough. It may or may not be significant that pierogi can also come stuffed with mimmoth meat in the non-canon work.

Professor Moonsock seems to have trained some of them, and these, it appears, are not supposed to be eaten, though if necessary, they can be replaced by a qualified trapper.

Pursuit of flying pink mimmoths is a hazard of quaffing double-fortified lingonberry snap.

The first known appearance of a mimmoth in the story is here , in the dormitory's kitchen, but they might have shown up earlier in the chaos of Beetleburg. Mimmoths are like growf dragons in What's New in that they can be found throughout the whole oeuvre of Girl Genius — keep your eyes peeled, you might spot a few!

Origin

It is implied in the novelization (see below) that they were an attempt by a spark to breed full-sized mammoths smaller, so that they could be used as mounts. Maybe they overdid it.

Mimmoth Sightings

Novelization

In the time of Andronicus Valois, there were rumors that “one of the Heterodyne’s allies was trying to breed [Heterodyne war mammoths] down to the size where they could be ridden like horses.”[1]

Secret Blueprints

Mimmoths are described in the Glossary of the Secret Blueprints, where it is mentioned they get into machines and cause problems with their tusks.

The Works

Mimmoths are also several cards in "The Works", where they are described as Pests as well as Constructs. The "Instruction" for the cards seems to imply that mimmoths travel or swarm in herds — obtain one mimmoth and you usually get them all.

Mimmoth on a Stick Recipe

Although the recipes for mimmoth on a stick vary widely due to regional variations, supplies and taste, here is one very popular recipe from an equally popular inn — before the mimmoths knocked over the hot oil on the stove one night and the building burned to the ground. Some of the ingredients and methods have been translated into more familiar equivalents.

MIMMOTHS ON A STICK

Making approximately 200 one-sixth pound "mimmoths" or 60-odd skewers-worth

Grind 11 pounds of pork shoulder and 22 pounds of beef.

Combine the two meats and mix well, while mixing add two dozen eggs and three one pound boxes of unseasoned bread crumbs (for firming mixture). Also during mixing add one pound of dates chopped fine, and three packages of onion soup mix (not three boxes).

Add three tablespoons of salt and four table spoons of pepper (or to taste).

Weigh out portions of 1/6 pound each (a very large meatball, or about a palmful), shape to vaguely "mimmoth" shape, add raisins for eyes. Tusks are optional. You can now freeze the "mimmoths" in freezer bags.

Prep: After thawing, place one to three "mimmoths" onto a previously soaked stick (shiskabob sticks soaked for couple hours in water) and cook. This process makes for numerous comments and jokes to relax staff.

Cooking at 350 - 375 degrees F for approximately 30-45 minutes or until done, depending on oven. We cook them in large propane fired smoker. If you're rotating the meat as you cook (in other words some going in as the cooked meat comes out you put in say twenty sticks then fifteen minutes later put in another twenty then fifteen minutes later put in another twenty (use whatever number of mimmoth-sticks fit in your cooker, divided by three), this way about forty-five minutes after the last group are put in the cooker the first group are ready to serve. You remove the first group put in cooker and replace them with more to be cooked. This way every fifteen minutes you can remove cooked mimmoths, with a 30 to 45 minute break between the first fifty and the second fifty. If you're able to use two cookers you can space out the entry and have hot mimmoths coming out every 15 minutes by starting the first group in the second cooker 15 minutes after the last group in the first cooker.

If you keep mimmoths in a warmer be sure to use a water tray to prevent drying.

YIS, Elric, Harper's Raid Tavern

Chocolate Mimmoths

Apparently, mimmoth-shaped chocolates[2] are a well-known treat in the world of Girl Genius. Violetta uses them as an example of something fattening.[3] At least some children are quite fond of them, too.[4]

Possibly Relevant Outside Information

Diminutiveness/mammoths is not necessarily as contradictory an attribute/clade combination as it it might at first glance seem. Pygmy mammoths did in fact exist on the northern Channel Islands of California, and dwarf mammoths existed on Wrangel Island, which lies in the Arctic 120 miles off the coast of Northern Siberia[5] The terms "pygmy" and "dwarf" are only relative to their larger kin however; these miniatures stood about one-and-a-third to two meters tall in the case of the California Channel Islands pygmy mammoths[6] and roughly six feet high in the case of the Arctic dwarf mammoths[7] -- not the height of a rat, as is the case with the mimmoths.

Mimmoths were likely inspired by David Macauley's book The Way Things Work, which features mammoths (tiny and otherwise) living inside and manipulating the workings of various machines.

References

  1. Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess, “Prologue,” p. IV.
  2. Or, according to one of the novels, actual mimmoths which have been dipped in chocolate. This taste treat was discovered accidentally, when one of the pests fell into a chocolate vat and some brave or foolhardy soul sampled the result.
  3. "If I had a Belgian chocolate mimmoth for every hour I've had to listen to Tarvek blather on about those stupid Muses, I'd weigh a thousand kilos." (Volume 10, page 024, web)
  4. A young lady named Mélisse, a negotiator in training for Madame Desmana, demands "fifty chocklit mimmoths" as partial payment for a very valuable book, much to the displeasure of her adult co-negotiator. (Act 2, volume 3, page 050, web)
  5. Vartanyan, S. L., Garutt, V. E., and Sher, A. V. (1993). "Holocene dwarf mammoths from Wrangel Island in the Siberian Arctic", Nature 362, March 25, 1993, pp. 337-340.
  6. van der Geer, Alexandra; Lyras, George; de Vos, John; Dermitzakis, Michael (2010). Evolution of Island Mammals: Adaptation and Extinction of Placental Mammals on Islands. John Wiley & Sons Ltd., West Sussex, UK. pp. 265-266 (Retrieved from Google Books Sept. 16, 2010)
  7. Bower, Bruce (1993). "'Dwarf' mammoths outlived last ice age" Science News, March 27, 1993 (retrieved from BNET - The CBS Interactive Business Network on Sept. 16, 2010)
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