Talk:Mindy Kugel

Updates and slight edit's to Mindy's Personal Life Section, adding in details about Cantus Hojo based on Mechs and Worms discord lore and lore already on Cantus's page.

Kugel enjoys several romantic relationships and self-describes as ‘cheerfully polyamorous’.

Kugel is married to Ohio Worms player Cantus Hojo, and is the reason Hojo joined Blaseball. Kugel and Hojo share a love for country folk music and often have impromptu jam sessions together, much to the delight of anyone near them. Hojo has said in interviews that Kugel is one of the muses that inspires her music. Likewise, Hojo’s fresh garden offerings often find their way into Kugel’s dishes and Kugel credits them as being the second magic ingredient that makes her food taste so good, with the first magic ingredient being love. Despite currently being long distance the two have maintained their marriage and Hojo can often be seen around the Core visiting Kugel as well as spending time with Willowtree and other members of F.R.O.N.T. to explore Core Fauna.

Kugel is also married to Bertrand Kugel, who she met at culinary school in Paris. He sometimes says it was "love at first bite" which usually elicits a groan from everyone in the vicinity, with the exception of Hojo who has a fondness for bad puns. Bertrand also serves as the “official taste tester” of the Kugel household, a title which he bears with pride. Bertrand helps run Kugel's eateries whilst she is playing Blaseball and is a proficient pastry chef in his own right.

While Hojo and Bertrand are not romantically involved they are good friends and take care of the Kugel’s three children together. Elise Kugel runs a coffee shop and artisan bakery in Seattle whilst the youngest two, Bertrand Kugel Jr and Sienna Kugel, have accompanied their parents to the Core. Under her mother’s tutelage, Sienna Kugel has taken up sculpture inspired by the aesthetics of the Core. Her pieces are large welded metal structures adorned with plants which can be found in the Kugel family eateries and public places in the Core.

Beyond her marriages, Kugel is also involved in romantic relationships with several other denizens of the Core. She is known for being a caring and loving partner who is always down for good food and good fun. Mindy has said that her relationships have made her a better and more patient person, and helped her feel at home in the Core.

Based on Mechs on discord lore, discussing Mindy's alternate as well as Pasta/Sauce

Add to Life in the Core section Over the course of Season 14 and the subsequent Siesta, Kugel became very close with her teammates. As part of this she learned about and then reached out to the Mechanic who had originally been in her place on the Rotation - Lizzy Pasta. Pasta was excited to learn that her spot had been filled by someone who shared her love of the culinary arts and asked her to take over Pasta/Sauce, the foodtruck she had set up with Ruffian Applesauce. She told Kugel that, while Applesauce had never had a chance to get to know her, he would be happy to know someone was continuing his legacy and looking out for the team. Kugel re-established Pasta/Sauce as a Kosher American-style diner, serving a lot of Pasta and Applesauce’s recipes but now with space to become a center for community gathering. It serves as the post-game hangout spot for the Core Mechanics Blaseball team as well as being a popular destination for other DownTown residents.

Add to Life in the Core section

Kugel runs art classes over the weekends for a variety of age ranges including adults and young children. She also has a popular YlouTube channel where she does tutorials, or simply talks and paints. Her videos have been described as incredibly comforting and very informative.

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Alternate

After the Core Mechanics saw that Kugel had been alternated, many of the team went to ask how she was doing and determine the nature of her Alternate. Kugel expressed confusion over this and repeatedly emphasized that she had no idea what they were talking about and she felt the same as ever. Her responses to questions about her life, interpersonal relationships, geopolitics and physical laws all lined up with those expected of this reality.

Shortly after this it was noted that base plates kept going missing from the Core Pillar Center storage room. A recently shadowed and self-proclaimed ‘incredibly bored’ Gia Holbrook took it upon herself to investigate, despite no one else particularly minding due to the ease of getting more base plates. Holbrook eventually ran a stakeout of the Pillars' storage room, only to see Kugel rushing out holding the base plates. Holbrook confronted Kugel who told her that she was working on something that would help her if she wound up batting again.

On Season 23 Day 14, Kugel was shadowed and disappeared. No one was sure where she had gone, which became a much more pressing concern when it appeared she was about to be Voicemailed onto the lineup as the team was being shut out. The search party formed by the Core Shadows Team failed to find Kugel and she didn’t reappear until the next day when, on her first at-bat, a giant mecha came stomping up to the plate. It appeared to be powered by the combined energy of the stolen bases and had six arms, five of which were wielding bats and one which had an oversized replica of one of Kugel’s canes. It was notable for its patchwork appearance which came from the fact that it appeared to have been used as an art project by a group of young children of varying skill levels. Kugel could be seen inside controlling it and making repairs on the fly.

While Mecha-Mindy had some difficulties with exact timing of swings, it enabled Kugel to hit the ball harder and more devastatingly than almost any other player in the ILB as well as allowing her to storm around the bases at record speed.

While Kugel did gain more of an interest in engineering and using the power inherent to Blaseball to make herself stronger than any other even unto the point of toppling the heavens and raising every player trapped in the game to the point of true self-determination, she didn’t lose her love of cooking or her other passions and even combined her new hobbies with her old hobbies. She also took up teaching robotics and chemistry at the NotWest Secondary School of Alternative Experimentation, an academy with a focus on encouraging out-of-the-box thought and unusual solutions to unexpected problems in all fields.

Breaking down Mindy's page into categories (Background, time in seattle, arrival in the core, life in the core, personal life) to increase readability/make it easier to edit. Minor grammar/format edits (consistent use of surname instead of first name etc)

Full details:

Background

Mindy Kugel is a teacher and therapist from Ohio, roughly 40 years of age and of Jewish descent. She has what she likes to call "a cane for every occasion", able to coordinate her walking aides perfectly with every outfit. She was noted to have joined the ILB under the pretense of touring the various cities in order to put her skills in teaching and art therapy to work.

Time in Seattle

During the initial elections upon the Ohio Worms' arrival to the ILB, Kugel received a tip from an old friend that the Seattle Garages in particular were desperately in need of her skillset. Upon hearing this request, she packed up her bags and organized a trade of positions between herself and Pitching Machine.

Once arrived, she could clearly see that Bradley had not been exaggerating. Exhausted and having taken more than their fair share of lumps, the anarchist Garages welcomed Kugel, who quickly set to work using her teaching experience and degree in art therapy to help the beleaguered Seattle team. Quickly becoming a mother figure for both the team and their assorted fans (such as the Lil' Roadies), she was soon referred to as 'Ms. Drizzle', a nickname which quickly stuck.

While helping the Lil' Roadies channel their reckless nature into more positive outlets, she also took to helping set the team on the road to recovery from the wounds inflicted upon them from the Discipline Era. Of particular note is her help with encouraging former team captain Theodore Duende to take a step back for his own well-being, as well as redirecting the seemingly endless well of anger in Betsy Trombone into more healthy pursuits, a feat many on the team believed was "pretty close to impossible."

She also, as part of this, got steeped in the Garages' culture in her own way; making instruments for herself by hand and playing along with the bands' sessions, as well as taking the interdimensional tour bus out - as she has become the only other person trusted with driving it, and particularly enjoyed using it to take weekend trips to Armenia with Lori Boston. Spending a lot of time in the Garages' greenhouse, she made fast friends gardening with Paula Turnip, teaching her how to speak to the earthworms. Her and Alaynabella Hollywood hatched a scheme to teach seven-foot-superstar Goodwin Morin how to dance, "height differences be damned."

Arrival in the Core

On Season 13, Day 64, during a Feedback game with the Core Mechanics, Kugel could sense the tension in the air - as none other than former Seattle ace, former Godslayer, and wandering pitcher Jaylen Hotdogfingers had taken the mound against her old team for the first time. Knowing due to Jaylen's proclivity for flickering, she was sure to return - but not knowing who for - had the team on edge, until Kugel smiled and was reportedly heard saying. "Just tell me where to stand, dears. Seems like a reunion is long overdue." Jaylen would proceed to Feedback as expected, and Kugel resumed her journey to help the league as a new member of the Core Mechanics.

Life in the Core

Since coming to the Core, Kugel has embraced the experimental nature of the Mechanics, working on molecular gastronomy has been her main focus but she has not neglected her other culinary passions. She has also engaged a team of engineers to develop a cane delivery system using drones and rail gun technology to ensure she has the correct cane for every situation.

Her Food wizardry has also allowed her to build relationships with her team-mates; upon discovering that Foundry Demons ate minerals she and fellow mechanic Mira Lemma worked to bring fine dining to the Foundry Demon community, experimenting with different combinations to create flavour profiles and bio-chemical responses in those that consume them. This experimentation also opened Kugel's eyes to using small amounts of certain minerals in more traditional food for the other visitors to her eateries.

Kugel also helped the newly alternated PolkaDot Patterson recreate the lost pimento sandwich recipe from their original universe and the two bonded over the experience, Kugel quickly became a guide for Patterson: introducing her to the core and its residents, showing her around the pillars and introducing her to the rest of the team.

Kugel worked with Jolene Willowtree to source plant based ingredients for her cooking and the two have become friends as the two older members of the team, this group was joined by Christian Combs when they joined the Mechanics and the three of them can often be seen at post game parties enjoying each others company as their younger teammates party the night away.

Personal Life

Kugel is married to Bertrand, they met at culinary school in Paris. He sometimes says it was "love at first bite" and everyone groans, Bertrand helps run Kugel’'s eateries whilst she is playing Blaseball and is a proficient pastry chef in his own right. The Kugels have three children, Elise Kugel runs a coffee shop and artisan bakery in Seattle whilst the youngest two Bertrand Kugel Jr and Sienna Kugel have accompanied their parents to the core. Sienna Kugel has, under her mother’s tutelage, taken up sculpture inspired by the aesthetics of the Core, her pieces are large welded metal structures which can be found in the Kugel family eateries and public places in the Core.

Since coming to the Core Mindy has embraced the experimental nature of the Mechanics, working on molecular gastronomy has been her main focus but she has not neglected some of her other culinary passions. She has also engaged a team of engineers to develop her a cane delivery system using drones and rail gun technology to ensure she has the correct cane for every situation.

Her Food wizardry has also allowed her to build relationships with her team-mates; upon discovering that Foundry Demons ate minerals she and fellow mechanic Mira Lemma worked to bring fine dining to the Foundry Demon community, experimenting with different combinations to create flavour profiles and bio-chemical responses in those that consume them. This experimentation also opened up Mindy's eye to using small amounts of the minerals in more traditional food for the other visitors to her eateries.

Mindy also helped the newly alternated PolkaDot Patterson recreate the lost pimento sandwich recipe from their original universe and the two bonded over the experience, Mindy quickly became a guide for Alto introducing her to the core and its residents, showing her around the pillars and introducing her to the rest of the team.

Mindy worked with Jolene Willowtree to source plant based ingredients for her cooking and the two have become friends as the two older members of the team, this group was joined by Christian Combs when they joined the Mechanics and the three of them can often be seen at post game parties enjoying each others company as their younger teammates party the night away.

Personal Life

Mindy is married to Bertrand, they met at culinary school in Paris. He sometimes says it was "love at first bite" and everyone groans, Bertrand helps run Mindy's eateries whilst she is playing Blaseball and is a proficient pastry chef in his own right. The Kugel's have three children, Elise runs a coffee shop and artisan bakery in Seattle whilst the youngest two Bertrand Jr and Sienna have accompanied their parents to the core. Sienna has, under her mothers tutelage, taken up sculpture inspired by the aesthetics of the Core, her pieces are large welded metal structures which can be found in the Kugel family eateries and public places in the Core.

Could the IRM for Mindy’s page be added back? It was promised to be added back after a lore jam happened, but it never happened.

I am so sorry for replying so very late on this. What would you like to use it for? If there are specific ideas had, perhaps they could be posted as lore proposals outside of an IRM. Mechs as a whole right now are trying to steer away from large IRM Rumors from past pages, and would still welcome small supporting lore IRMs. Sorry again for the super late reply, I'd love to see what ideas and lore you have to offer.

Are you asking about just adding IRMs back to Mindy's page or a specific IRM of the topic Mindy Kugel?

I am asking about just adding IRMs back to Mindy’s page, sorry for not being clear

I'd like to remove the IRM for now until after we lore jam for Mindy tomorrow. I'm sure there will be lots of ideas flying around and we can see if we want it after the lore jam.

We are currently discussing this with the worms and the garages. I am sure they will want to chime in because the direction that this has gone so far doesn't necessarily work with what they had jammed.

Thanks! The worms and garages definitely deserve a say too.

Hey! Garages Liaison here. There was never any discussion or interest on using the IRM for Mindy on our side, so removal should be fine. Looks like it's empty anyway.

So much has happened recently, so we haven't had a chance to add the proposal Navigator posted below yet. It still is what we would like to add, with the addition of a snippet about her exchange with Jaylen.

For full transparency, we've had a lot of conversation about this, and we're still working out how to deal with IRM as a team and get everyone's lore and ideas, including those who prefer talking on discord to editing the wiki, onto here. That conversation's still going on, so we're not removing the IRM just yet.

Here's the full timeline as I understand it:

- Worms lore jam for Mindy

- Garages trade Mindy onto their team, they lore jam in a google doc, post a lore summary to the talk page

- Mindy traded to the core mechanics

- The IRM was installed on this blank page, without a talk page post

- "Orphaned IRM" topic below was made: as there were no objections for 24 hours afterwards, the IRM was reinstalled

- "IRM Removal" topic was made

- lots of discussion - objections were raised, so the IRM isn't being removed just yet. We're still discussing our team's IRM policies, how to get more people comfortable editing the wiki, how to make sure everyone's ideas are heard, and whether we even want to remove IRM.

- Mindy Kugel lore jam happens on discord

Hey, just wanted to follow up on this. We finally have a write up for Mindy's time on the Garages (thanks for your patience!) and I wanted to know how I should proceed with adding it. Will the IRM be staying?

Assuming the objections raised were from the discord wiki meta-discussion from this past weekend, I think the open questions were largely covered by wiki staff and we can enable/disable IRM as needed on a per article basis for mechs players.

Barring objections, I'm comfortable proceeding with:

- Removing IRM for this article, given that it was added without discussion and I haven't seen any specific motivation raised to keep it on for this page. It's empty so nothing is lost in the process, and re-adding in the future if needed is relatively low friction if/when the article develops further.

- Adding content from the lore jam results to the page sounds great to me, no concerns here.

Since there hasn't been significant further discussion here, and in the interest of getting some content on the page, I'm going to disable IRM for now. If someone wants to re-install IRM later when there's content to go in it I'm fine with that, but for now I think this will simplify the process of getting the article rolling.

- plays the dulcimer, jolene helped her make it (flushed emoji react to this situation optional)

- runs some sort of food truck, or perhaps has taken over running the Pasta/Sauce

- runs a portable art workshop/ Art Cart in tandem with the food truck

- teaches torus to launch paint

The wiki mods were alerted to the installation of the IRM without prior discussion to this page. At time of discovery, it was empty with default settings for the full page. The installation was performed by Beelijah, who can reinstall the IRM after 24 hours if there are no objections (though we recommend waiting to install the IRM until there are actually entries to fill it with).

I'm not Beelijah, but I would like to install the IRM and add the Garages' lore summary if there are no objections (after 24 hours? Plenty of time have passed for both topics, but I want to double check).

IRM installations are generally the purview of the current stewards of a player, as they are given priority on page presentation opinions. Additionally, we generally advise original authors add their own lore to a page; though it is not currently a formal requirement, we have run into situations where other contributors added lore that was malicious in impact because only the original author was informed about how it was being read.

All of which is to say, in more plainspoken language: please don't install the IRM, and please don't add the Garages' lore. I encourage you to instead reach out to Mechanics you know to have them weigh in on the IRM decision, and contact StarryNavigator to have them add the lore they proposed (or at least build a suitable on-wiki paper trail to allow you to add the lore).

Summary of lore from today's Jam that we wish to add to the wiki:

Mindy is a mid 40s art teacher/art therapist of Jewish descent from Ohio who has a cane for every occasion. She heard there was a need of some serious help in Seattle (she might have received a tip from an old friend, Terrell Bradley), so she packed up her bags and ventured to the Emerald City. She teaches the lil roadies how to do ethical crimes now that Farrell is preoccupied with the Worms and Gwiff is in Hawaii connecting with his kids, they call her Ms Drizzle. She's also helping the team heal from the events of the discipline era with art, which is proving very helpful for Betsy Trombone and Theodore Duende in particular. She makes all of her instruments by hand, she's one of the only two on the team who can drive the interdimensional tour bus without damaging it (and enjoys taking road trips with Lori Boston back to Armenia), she enjoys gardening with Paula, and is on a mission with Alaynabella to teach Goodwin how to dance (height differences be damned).

Worms Wiki Liaison speaking. No objections here! Despite Mindy being on the Mechs now. This lore is very lovely.