Don’t you wish the baby was cute like me?
More below the fold, for those interested in such things.
Continue reading ‘Weekend Hit Of Grandparent Crack’ »
Archive for June, 2007
Compiled with the assistance of the V12
Our vintage-dated, Belgian-style specialty ale, offered in corked 25.4 oz. bottles, is a sensation in subtlety.
Heady with a aromatic fruity start and taste, this amber ale features hints of pear and apricot in its well-nuanced flavor. The initial impression of fruitiness concludes in a refreshing dryness that begs you to sip again. Be fore- warned, this ale is immense as it registers 12% abv.
Reviewed here.
—————–
Neo-Prohibition in Tennesee.
But now the state of Tennessee is poised to make it mandatory that every single person in the state must “show the proper I.D.” (a phrase that fairly begs to be said in a thick, German accent) with no exception. One foot in the grave? Too bad, prove you’re an adult. Grey-haired Grandpa out with his grandbabies in tow? Too bad, you just might be wearing old man makeup. U.S. Senator, a position you can’t hold unless you’re at least 30 years old? Too bad, no exceptions. It’s called the “The Tennessee Responsible Vendor Act” and it goes into effect on July 1. As is typical with these neo-prohibitionist programs, it claims to be designed to combat underage drinking. That is, of course, a completely deceptive lie insofar as it will do nothing of the kind. Making a 90-year old person so obviously over 21 that only a person with an I.Q. below 50 (such as someone with a moderate mental disability or a neo-prohibitionist) will not stop one underage person from obtaining alcohol. What it will do is make it more difficult and annoying for everyone, instead of just the people “lucky” enough to look younger.
In their press release of “Success Stories,” the neo-prohibitionist group Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center celebrates their victory in getting this law passed and characterizes the law as “an innovative and strong step in the fight against underage drinking. The mandatory ID provision of this law is the first of its’ kind in the country and establishes Tennessee as a national leader on the initiative to stop underage drinking.” Yet they fail, as does every single other account of this law, to say exactly how or why requiring “anyone purchasing beer for off-premise consumption to present identification” will in any way reduce underage drinking. I think there’s a good reason no one is discussing why this law will reduce underage drinking. It’s because it doesn’t stand up to any logic or scrutiny, so it’s best to just use meaningless platitudes.
—————–
Have you seen the Canadian men, eh? 27% of Canadian women would rather have beer than sex, though after enough beer a significant number probably ends up with both.
—————–
Party in Namibia!
According to a research finding by some group, averagely a Namibian takes something like 30 bottles of beer per week
I am sure that for most of us who are from the streets of Katutura, an odd bottle of beer for breakfast is not really that big a problem. There are reasons why people don’t understand the beer issue. You see, our Windhoek lager has been judged to be the best, and naturally we are just celebrating the premium status of the golden brew.
So in the end, 30 beer bottles is nothing and somehow, somewhere I think that the people that carried out this research were a bit biased. There is just no possible reality that averagely we take 30 bottles, be it dumpy or omukonyo’s. If you would ask me, I think the margin would be somewhere in the 50s.
—————–
Everything you have, you can thank beer for.
“Because before beer was discovered, people used to wander around and follow goats from place to place. And then they realized that this grain [barley] could be grown and sprouted and made into a bread and crumbled and converted into a liquid which gave a nice, warm, cozy feeling. So gone were the days that they followed goats around. They stayed put while the grain grew and while the beer was brewed. And they made villages out of their tents. And those villages became towns, and those towns became cities. And so here we are in New York, thanks to beer.”
—————–
Brewing the weird beer.
—————–
Highland Brewery’s Dark Munro has been voted Champion Beer of Scotland
—————–
Firewater heap bad. Firewater blockade worse.
—————–
Brew Reviews: Dogo Botchan, Brooklyn Beer’s Double Chocolate Stout, Long Hammer IPA, Don de Dieu, Castlemaine XXXX Export Gold Much like Canadians, Australians consider beer to be a big part of their national heritage. And as in Canada, the beer that most Aussies raise in honour of their country and culture is, quite frankly, crap.
—————–
Tora! Tora! Terrible! Japanese Beer classifications.
There are a large selection of “Real” beers made with conventional quantities of malt. Second grade beer is called Happoshu and contains less than 25% malt. The third class is cleverly called “3rd Beer” which contains no malt. Under this is an even lower grade called “3rd Beer -liquor”. The primary differences from a consumers point of view are price and taste. As you descend down the ladder of classifications you can buy beer-like products for amazingly cheap prices. To buy a can of “3rd beer” is almost cheaper than leaving it on the shelf! This is all due to tax concessions on the lower grades. The downside of reaching the lower ends of the beer spectrum are taste. Some of these low malt beers taste bad and the rest taste really bad. There are a few exceptions but for the most part you get what you pay for with Japanese beer.
—————–
Hic.
Oh, Canada, thy green and pleasant land. Where the beer is neat, and every week, shipped to Afghanistan!
—————–
Beer and the Almighty
—————–
Hey! Apparently beer can go with food. Who knew?
—————–
Buckeye Brewing knew, and have opened a fine dining establishment. Fortunately, they have stayed with the basics.
His tiny kitchen lacks space for even an oven, and his repertoire is mostly limited to that which can be grilled on the flattop or plopped in the deep fryer. He manages to crank out a surprisingly large array of respectable eats. True, many items, including the shoestring fries, are frozen, and the tender pulled pork is poured out of a bag.
Good man, though you’ll have to go elsewhere for your black pepper pork belly made with chili jam and stout.
—————–
Chateau Jihau, the 9,000 year old brew.
“If you have pottery vessels, they are very useful in making a beverage and also storing and serving and drinking it,” says Dr. McGovern. “Often the beverage will be absorbed into the pottery and it will be held in the pottery by the clay matrix, the pores. The Jia Hu mixed beverage is so far the earliest chemically attested alcoholic beverage or wine from anywhere in the world. I think it’s really quite remarkable that it doesn’t come from Middle East. People often assume the first wine and first beer has to be from the Middle East, but it comes from China.”
—————–
Beer Delivery goes East.
The change is indicative of the shifts under way in the $450bn (£225bn) global beer industry. SABMiller’s Chinese beer Snow has just become the company’s biggest brand, ahead of Miller Lite which is brewed in the US. Thanks to Snow, SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, now brews most of the beer made in China, moving ahead of the previous market leader Tsingtao (in which SABMiller’s US arch rival Anheuser-Busch, the world’s number three, holds a large stake). Analysts expect Snow to shoot into the world’s top four beer brands behind Budweiser, Brazil’s Skol and Mexico’s Corona.
—————–
You don’t want to be a supertaster.
—————–
“S” beer. It’s for your ass
—————–
July is Oregon Craft Beer Month
via Brookston
—————–
—————–
The previous Carnival of Beer may be seen here.
—————–
The Carnival of Beer appears every Tuesday and Friday. If you’ve an item you like to see appear, let us know via bigwig AT nc.rr.com
The garden has begun to produce. The first fruits came in drips and drabs; a cherry tomato here, a cucumber or bunch of spinach there, but today was the first substantial haul. Still no large tomatoes yet, but that should be remedied by the end of the weekend.
Continue reading ‘Still Life With Colander’ »
We brought FM home Monday. That night, Scotty came down with the croup, awakening that part of the household that was not already up tending to the newborn with his imitation of a woebegone fur seal. Every night since he’s only been able to sleep if someone is holding him upright.
So, I’ve spent a lot of time in the recliner at night with Scotty, learning the intricacies of his air flow, while SW and her mother swap FM back and forth between them. He’s pretty calm for the most part, thankfully, though he does not like getting his diaper changed.
Greetings, todos. Today is not, in fact, my birthday. It was yesterday. That’s why I didn’t do what I prefer to do: put this carnival together the night before it publishes. Instead, I sit here trying to make sure it actually gets out on the web before tomorrow. I know you guys probably don’t believe this but I hate when I don’t get the Carny out on time. I really do. If it were up to me…well, like, more up to me…CoTV would be on this site at 12:01 a.m. every Wednesday morning. It’s just that, even though I’m the editor and it’s my responsibility and I have all the tools and resources available to do that, it’s not really all up to me. Life happens on a way too regular basis.
There’s some logic in there if you look.
Anyway, yesterday was my birthday and it was a good one. That Girl took me out to dinner at South City Kitchen and then she took me for karaoke and dancing at Johnny’s Hideaway. Johnny’s is a rather notorious dive. It’s one of her favorite places but we have to cajole, threaten and bribe any of our friends to go with us. The place is dark and dank and the crowd is geriatric but the music is good and we could care less about any of the rest.
For the record, we sang only duets: “I Got You” and “You and I”. These are old standards in our karaoke book. I have to say we did a lot better than the last time we went to karaoke. It couldn’t have gotten worse.
So, happy birthday to me. I’m 37 and one day old. Wish I could have shared it with you all.*
On with the Carny!
***
Going with the karaoke them, GrrlScientist presents Your Cheating Heart … Hank Williams would be so proud.
Tracee Sioux talks about Second Generation Mean Girl. Lindsay Lohan would be so proud.
Jeremiah Lewis gives us How To Kill Your Long Distance Relationship in 7 easy steps. For the record, you can kill a close distance relationship in the same ways. Just in case you were curious.
Madeleine Begun Kane says The GOP’s In For A Rudy Awakening. I’m not too good at reading between the lines but I don’t think Rudy is getting her vote.
Where he comes up with this stuff I’ll never know but Mark A. Rayner found The Lost PowerPoint Slides (Waterloo Edition).
Aspeth instructs us in How To Write Chick Lit In Ten Easy Steps. Once again, reading between the lines here but I don’t think this piece is flattering to chick lit.
bobbarama went to Denny’s. He tell us about it. Steaking out my favorite booth.
CA presents Business life lesson - Don’t let anyone steal your dream
Andrew Ian Dodge relates the 9/11 terrorist attacks and O.J. Simpson’s book in Projections. Think O.J. is responsible for 9/11? I do.
Leon Gettler presents Psychotic organizations: 5 warning signs
Steven Silvers says that perhaps there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians and says that PR is Chief among the reasons for corporate title inflation.
Jack Yoest presents What is the best tactic to get a referral?
Wayne Hurlbert presents Employee relations: Separate sets of rules.
***
That’s it for another year and another edition of the Carnival of the Vanities. If I and CoTV are lucky, we’ll both make it another year. Hell, at our relative ages, we’re lucky if we make it another week. I’m pretty sure I’ll be here next week but the Carny has only a 50/50 chance of seeing the light of day next Wednesday. I’m just been invited to karaoke for next Tuesday and I’m on the lake all day next Wednesday.
But I’ll try my best.
If you want to be part of the maybe, possibly Carnival of the Vanities, please submit your posts through Blog Carnival.
Until then, enjoy your Carnival of the Vanities.
* Not really all of you. I mean, those of you I know and love, certainly. But not the rest of you. Probably.
A Day late I know…..
But I hope you had a happy birthday!!!!
You are our socialite/swinging bachelor/movie expert/fitness expert/voice of morality….but can still laugh at this……
Compiled with the assistance of the Breckenridge Double-Hopped 471 Small Batch IPA. Damn beer names just get longer and longer.
471 is a small batch, limited edition ale that was created by our Brewmaster to separate the weak from the strong. 471 is a double IPA, that combines Pale, Munich, Caramel-30, Carapils and Torrified Wheat malts, with Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe and Fuggles hops.
—————–
Fermentation makes the world warmer.
Have you ever wondered about the carbon emissions generated from making your favorite brewsky, bottle of vino, or 15 year-old Talisker Scotch?
Nope, but now that you mention it, I see that I don’t care. I am a bad person, and should be shunned by all right-thinking consumers.
—————–
Party in Bulgaria! Road Trip!
—————–
Party in Canada! Meh.
—————–
Sure you may know the specific gravity of your favorite brew, but do you know its backscatter?
—————–
Fosters. Australian for brewed in Fort Worth.
—————–
The secret is to avoid the flying, flaming, kegs of death.
—————–
G’day
Three mates from Queensland have successfully completed a three-day sailing trip down the Brisbane River in a boat made entirely of beer cans.
—————–
Brew Reviews: Saranac Imperial IPA, 10 Commandments, Baltika No. 8
—————–
Brew ReDebuts: Kato Beer, Wunder Brewing
Wunder Brewing last brewed in San Francisco in 1909. So it’s been almost a century since it closed. There was another Wunder brewery in Oakland just after Prohibition ended, around 1934, but it lasted less than a year. So it is with great promise that this historic brand tries to make a go of it once more in San Francisco’s inner sunset district.
—————–
The 10 most bizarre beers.
—————–
How to speak Beer Geek. First of all, overstretch your metaphors.
Lager is like smooth jazz and Top 40 and, now and then, great classical music; ale is funk, salsa, even heavy metal.
—————–
Podcasts
Lenndevours - Captain Lawrence Brewing Company
Craft Beer Radio - Quad-rophonic
—————–
The top 100 drinking songs
—————–
What the Beer Popsicle dustup is really about.
—————–
God help me, I kinda want to try a Miller Chill. Fortunately for me, the Beer Philosopher already has.
—————–
FLASH! This just in, government is given power, government misuses power.
To recap: hops are a mandatory ingredient in beer, they are commercially available, and the world’s second largest beer company markets two organic beers brewed with organic hops - yet the USDA says organic hops are a minor ingredient in beer and are not available commercially so they are exempted from being used in beers labeled USDA Organic.
What we need here is obviously more government.
—————–
via Hop Talk
—————–
Technology marches onward.
You put the 20-ounce cup under the tap but instead of pulling a lever, you press a digital key pad.
“Pfffffht,” goes the machine, jetting beer into the cup and topping it with a quarter-inch of foam. The cup fills in about three seconds — about one-quarter the time it takes a conventional tap to do the job.
—————–
The previous Carnival of Beer may be seen here.
—————–
The Carnival of Beer appears every Tuesday and Friday. If you’ve an item you like to see appear, let us know via bigwig AT nc.rr.com
There was a fly in it.
It was not an American fly.
Fortunately, it was a member of the Bombyliidae, rather than one of the more disease-ridden species.
Unfortunately, I did not discover said fly until the very last mouthful of the very last glass of wine, when it bumbled around in my mouth like a lottery ping-pong ball, just before the tip of my tongue crunched it against the rear of my teeth.
Other than that it was alright, for a $6 bottle of wine.
Doctors in Durham no longer spank newborns in order to make them cry. Nor do they shout “Krzyzewski!” at the infant, which was until recently the accepted alternative.
Now they shout “Nifong!”
—-
The nurses look at you funny if you greet your offspring with “Hey, Cholo!” when they wheel him in from the nursery.
More pics under the fold.
Continue reading ‘Futher Observations On Modern Birth’ »