Questions Are Better Asked With A British Accent

Last Sunday I had a nice long face to face chat with my Godfather, Uncle Joe, as he baby sat my cousin's kids up in the NW Phoenix suburbs.  We discussed books, politics, taxes, guns, travel, designing, engineering, tooling, and pattern making, to name a few subjects.  We both watch The Daily Show and Colbert, devotedly.  He asked why people continue to vote against their own self interests, and I posed Steinbeck's temporarily embarrassed millionaires theory to him.. which he pondered for a while, rolling it over in his head.

My Uncle and I agree on our progressive media personalities & journalists, though as a retired pattern maker he has more time to listen to progressive radio & watch MSNBC than I do.  We concurred on the following:

Rachel Maddow - very smart, excellent journalist, but sometimes takes Forever to get to the point, and from time to time, tries to turn molehills into mountains.

Ed Schultz - an angry bear.  The left's answer to Sean Hannity.  Too angry and indignant to listen to for any extended period of time.

Al Sharpton - much better as a Progressive TV show host than he was as a politician or activist.  His show can be humourous. 

Lawrence O'Donnell - snarky, snide, biased, great as a "fill in" host for Olbermann and others, but now that he has his own show, too snide & acerbic to stomach.

Keith Olbermann - stuck on Current TV, in a under-funded, hardly-watched, low production value environment that he has trouble not showing how annoyed he is by the dimming lights, lack of satellite feeds, and very unrehearsed / inexperienced support staff.  He was good when he was on MSNBC, but now on Current, he's an "also ran" second or third tier show.

Dylan Ratigan - sometimes spot on, other time rambling or ranting... Ratigan provides a mixed bag that can lack consistency.

Meet The Press's David Gregory - a weak willed, easily bypassed, mostly soft-ball lobbing Sunday interviewer who lets his guests wiggle away and talk fluffy talking point circles around him without trying too hard to get a meaningful answer from them.  (We both miss Tim Russert, tremendously).

and then... Uncle Joe mentioned:

Martin Bashir - I'd not heard of Martin (he's on at noon here in Phoenix) but Uncle Joe said that Bashir doggedly pursues the answer to his questions, in the mode of Tim Russert, drilling down, and latching on, until the guest answers or refuses to answer, but without a dodge or deflection.  So I started DVR-ing Bashir's show.   He's very good, and very determined.  He had a fundamentalism tool, the smug "Rev" Jeffers on his show this week.  Jeffers who wanted to cherry pick and reinterpret New Testament Bible quotes, and Martin corrected the narrow minded Baptist with quotes from the Apostle Paul that shredded Jeffer's arguments.  I thoroughly enjoyed Bashir's interview with a pious religious leader who I normally can't stand. 

I think I have concluded that questions sound best, when asked with an educated, intelligent, British accent. 

I told my uncle how I sometimes record O'Faladel, Hannity, and used to get a kick out of crazy Glen Beck, but I only set the DVT to tape them when Faux News gets all whipped up over nothing.  He shuddered at the thought. 

I'm glad I've got a very cool Godfather, with whom I can discuss a wide range of topics.

Obama Lets Go Of His Fear

I was on my way home from the hardware store yesterday afternoon when I heard NPR interviewing Andrew Sullivan, reacting to President Obama's statement yesterday that he supports the rights of gays and lesbians to get married, and that civil unions won't bridge the inequality gap.  It was a moving interview, and Sullivan said he was 'at a loss for words' which by his own admission, almost never happens =)

As a straight man in a long term monogamous relationship with my wife Dr Desert Flower, I do not understand the ideologues who insist that marriage must be between a man and a woman because their 'sacred' text says that.  Yes, their sacred text also says that polygamy is fine (in the Old Testament), slavery is fine, daughters can be sold for cattle and dowries, and that pork is forbidden (it does not chew cud) for human consumption (Leviticus Chapter 11, vs 3-27).  The sacred text also says to shun menstruating women as unclean, and to stone homosexuals... maybe the so called christians[TM] wish they still legally could?

Marriage is about love between the people entering the marriage.  No, it's not about marrying a dog or ice cream as Republican Congressman has stated, on the House floor, nor is it about marrying fruit salad, as Pee Wee Herman once did.  If your religious beliefs want to add more to that, for your own church and your own family, that's fine, add all you want, but don't hate or fear others in society who do not share your same beliefs.

Dr Desert Flower said it nicely this morning to me when we spoke on the phone:  "It's like racism.  If you don't speak out against it when you see it, then you are condoning it.  What if President Obama had said he supported the right of couples of different races to get married?  Many in the right[TM] would have reacted just as hatefully."

Over at JoeMyGod, Joe lists the various hate groups who masquerade as as religious and family christians[TM] organizations (link here).  The American Family Association, the Family Research Council, Alliance Defense Fund, Tradition Values Coalition, and the increasingly fanatical Catholic League are all calling their members to arms, to arms! To Arms! .. to fight this terrible assault on their paradigm. 

Yeah, the committed, monogamous gay couple who Dr Desert Flower works with, who adopted two small children when they were babies from their abusive and destitute single mother who gave them up, and are now raising them in a loving, nurturing, stable, middle class household are just terrible, terrible people.  Everyone knows that all 'the gays' want to do is all those things good christians[TM] have tried to bury the urge to do, deep deep deep inside, and if not for a good christian's[TM] devotion to limited excerpts of their sacred text, they'd be having 1000s of sexual partners, visiting bath houses and park rest rooms for anonymous sex with strangers, preying upon congressional interns, marrying dogs, marrying ice cream....  well... maybe not marrying the ice cream.

Clearing The Air In China

Diane Rehm had Atlantic contributor James Fallows on today, promoting his new book about how China is spending 1/2 a TRILLION dollars on developing their domestic commercial airline industry (link here).  Interesting, Fallows and his wife lived in China for 3 years, and in his words "was sick all the time" due to the massive air pollution in Shanghai and Beijing, where he lived & worked.   I found many of Fallows comments and the remarks of callers-in to be in-line with my own first hand observations of visiting China.

Coincidentally, the large wall calendar my employer issues to each employee to hang in their offices has a night image taken from the tallest building in Pudong Shanghai, the Jinmao Tower, looking at the 2nd tallest building next door, and showing the Pudong Shangrila hotel where I often stayed on my trips to China.  The calendar photo is ridiculously clear and crisp, which means it was photoshopped, doctored, to remove the smog, haze, and chocking atmospheric particulate.  To get a geographic perspective of "where" the calendar image was taken, I google-earthed the hotel and area of Pudong where I had previously stayed.  At the time, the Jinmao was not yet built, so I thought that perhaps the night calendar image was taken by an aircraft with extremely fast film.  But no, in the 9 years since my last visit, the Jinmao Tower was built & dwarfs its neighbors.

Interestingly, the air has been "cleared" by Google over the highest rent district of Pudong (see the image below).  The top part of the image is not a "refresh" error.  It's the natural appearance, on a cloudless but smog ridden day in Shanghai, with air quality that would have made 1980s Los Angeles air quality look absolutely pristine in comparison.

With terribly polluted air, undrinkable water, widespread political corruption, glacially slow internet speeds (which are all run through government monitored proxies), a 30,000 character alphabet that resists digitization, nation-wide travel restrictions that require average citizens to have travel visas to go between provinces, and 20 main dialects spoken, it will be a long time before China catches up to the West or surpasses any modern country in livability indices, quality of life, or technological advances.  Sure, there's more Chinese billionaires than there are American billionaires... but there's also many more Chinese peasants with pitch forks too.

Ride A Shuttle SRB

This video was shared with me today by 2 friends who retired several years ago from the company for whom I still work.  Both of them are excellent engineers, good human beings, and I am a better man for knowing them both.  As engineer myself, I found this video (and it has sound too!) fascinating!   Velocities, altitudes, the entire journey... in 400 seconds, from zero to nearly Mach 4 at 41 nautical miles up, and then back down again, to "sea level". 

If you watched this video, and it had absolutely no effect on you, and you're not an engineer... then you made the correct career choice.  If you watched this and it had not effect, and you are an engineer.... I hope I don't use any of the products you've ever engineered.  It thrilled me. I've watched it 4 times now, (the 4th as I post this).  Wow. And I used to think Solid Rocket Boosters were boring stuff, made in Utah.

No other country in the world (so far) has had the technical ability, and political will power, to build, launch, maintain, and run a recoverable, re-usable, re-entry space vehicle.  Discovery spent 365 days in orbit, ran a 100 missions, and massively contributed to the ability to construct the international space station.  The Soviets designed a space shuttle, but never launched one.  The Russians can't afford it.  The Europeans could never reach a consensus in 'real time' to ever get a viable shuttle program off the ground.  The Chinese.... lol... I've flown on Chinese aircraft and visited several of their aerospace their factories... they won't have a viable shuttle program in my life time.  This video is truly impressive. 

It almost makes me want to sing along with Lee Greenwood  =P  ... but I would sing along with Beyonce.

Rush Freewill - Time Machine, 2011 Cleveland

Dr Desert Flower DVR'ed "Rush Time Machine 2011" for me the other day off of VH1.  Very nice concert, with a very strange video beginning.  One of my favorites (I've lost track of how many times I've played this with head phones on), below:

DTW Mediterranean Grill

I had the pleasure last week, of dining at the Mediterranean Grill in the Detroit Airport A Concourse, on the North West sidem not far from Gate 64A.   The food is always fast, delicious, and hot there.   The service, provided by Scott the bar tender, is friendly, efficient, and personable.   I told Scott he's the happiest bartender I've met, and in the last 4 years of occasionally going through the DTW airport, he's a pillar of consistent quality, always enthusiastically greeting customers, selling "doubles for $3 more", and providing excellent service.  

I had the lentil soup (of the day) and it was warm and tasty - but came in a LARGE bowl, when I as expecting a small cup.  Then, the dinner sized portion of lamb stuffed grape leaves - exquisite!  It could come with a side of starch, or grilled veggies, and (of course) I elected for the veggies.   Far too much food to consume, but I ate most of the okra, zucchini & sweet peppers (with a beano chaser).  In, and out, in less than 30 minutes... again, putting the Desmond to shame.  I slept well on the flight from Detroit to Phoenix.  =)

Il Bastardo Bistro

Il Bastardo Bistro, Jay Street, Little Italy, Schenectady NY

For lunch last Thursday, I foolishly tried to go to "Cornel's" on Jay street in Schenectady.  I'd heard it was good - but sadly they are not open for lunch.    Across the street, I saw "Il Bastardo's Bistro" - and I thought... 'wonder if they are open?'  ...  they were just opening at 12.  I surprised the bar tender, who was unlocking the front door.  It was a quaint little place.   They have live music on Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights.  I asked if they serve lunch, and the bartender assured me they did.  I ordered hot wings and a chicken salad - which EITHER would have been a full meal, so I left stuffed.  Sadly, they don't take Corporate American Express, so I had to cash it out with Andrew Jackson and Alexander Hamilton.  They had an Australian Lindeman Shiraz, so I started with that.  It was good, a little fruity, but typical Lindeman.   1/2 way through the enormous grilled chicken salad, I asked for a taste of the Il Bastardo.  The bottle has a caricature of a portly Italian man, who the bartender said "coincidentally looks like the owner" .  It was a Sangiovese, and it was not bad, so I ordered a glass.  2 glasses of wne with a BIG lunch is the max safe alcohol intake for me if I am driving.  It was a $26 dollar bill ($33 with generous tip) and kept me full all the way to Detroit. 

CODE 22, MALE!

CODE 22 Male! or... The TSA's Inane & Arbitrary Bureaucracy

I arrived at the Albany airport nearly 3 hours ahead of my flight yesterday.  I'd gotten my work at the plant done early, lunch went faster than expected, and I thought I might get on an earlier flight.  Silly me, no earlier flights were available..  but Albany DOES have free wifi, so I thought I might get a little work done.  After getting my boarding pass for the glamorous coach embraer jet seat, I approached security to find only one screening line open, and they were sending nearly everyone though the PROVISION ATD full body scanner.  There was a functioning metal detector next to it, but apparently only women of child bearing age who the female TSA screener arbitrarily selected could go through the metal detector.  I always try to "pick the line" that has the metal detector, and not the full body high energy scan.  "It has no more energy than a cell phone" - yeah, right, I don't think you understand electromagnetic theory and energy density as well as I do, under-trained and low-paid TSA employee.   The amount of energy necessary to penetrate through clothes, and skin, and render a USEABLE image to a screener, is 10X to 100X that of what a "normal cell phone" puts out, and I don't typically expose my genitals and entire body to 2 second high energy bursts of my cell phone at FULL POWER.  

But physics aside, I decide that I will ask them to be metal detector scanned, or go through the manual pat down.  Carla-from-Cheers, the arbitrary TSA screener in Albany Thursday afternoon, tells me NO, I can't be metal detector scanned - after letting 2 women just go through it, in their socks, since their shoes were being x-rayed on the adjacent conveyor.  I tell her I don't want to be full body scanned.   She then launches into her pre-prepared speech, about how benign the full body scanner is, how it is such low low levels of radiation, "no more than a cell phone" (yeah, a cell phone on crack with a flux capacitor driving it'd power source, maybe) and that a physical pat down will involve close hand inspections of my buttocks and genitals.   Do I still want a manual screening?   Carla asks me.  "Yes, I do not want a high energy scan of my entire body, I'll take the humiliating and unnecessary manual pat down" I tell her, loud enough for the next 10 people in line to hear me. 

"CODE 22, MALE!" Carla barks into her walkie talkie, and tells me to "take a seat" at the pre-appointed 'naughty boy' chair they have, back of chair facing ID screening podium  I choose to stand.  5 or 6 passengers later, Louie CK ambles slowly up to the far side of the metal detector, and asks for my boarding pass.   I begin to walk through the metal detector - OMG NO!  NO!   I CANT go through the metal detector!!!  That would show I have no metal objects on me..  and reveal how futile and wasteful the manual pat down really is!  "Boarding pass please!" Louie barked at me, and forced me to use a glass & metal gate, to go AROUND the metal detector.  Yeah Louie, the guy at the podium obviously didn't do his job earlier...    I thought maybe I was in India again.

SO now, the Florist from The Town, his body guard Rusty, with blue rubber gloves on, is the poor 60 yr old TSA employee who has to pat me down - apparently Louie CK can only look at boarding passes and let trouble making passengers through the glass/metal bypass door.  that's all his puny little cerebral cortex could handle.

The Florist's body guard explains to me the technique he is going to use, and that if I want a private room screening, that is available.  "No, I'm not overly modest. Do it here please."  Florist body guard hesitates..  saying "I will run the back of my hand over and between your buttocks, and next to your genitals...  are you sure?"  "I have nothing to hide, let's get it over with, here."  He then begins my pat down.   Pretty much every inch of my bare skin and clothing were touched, felt, gently massaged, except for the center of my testicles, anus (but not for lack of trying), top of my head, and bottoms of my feet  "Do you have any sensitive areas?" Florist bodyguard Rusty asks me.  "Not anymore more sensitive than any other human" I replied.  He delivered a firm, but no overly harsh 'karate chop" to what would have been my bikini line, if I was wearing briefs - jostling the boys inside my boxers.   Thanks TSA!   Not since being felt up in China 10 years ago by an enthusiastic airport screening lady have I been this close with a complete stranger.  Florist body guard Rusty made sure I did not have a prehensile or vestigial tail - though I wonder what happens to the small percentage of the public who DO have vestigial tails?   He politely asked me to spread my legs more, as he continued to feel me up.  And then, he did something interesting...   he swabbed his gloves for chemical residue!   I've had my carry on and shoes swabbed before, since 2002, more than once...   but I've never seen someone's gloves swabbed.   I wonder what would have happened if the gloves had been contaminated prior to Florist Bodyguard Rusty inspecting me?  Would they have dragged me off for a "private screening"?  Makes me wonder.

So, the next time you are traveling through a US airport, and you want to not get a massive dose of radio waves penetrating your clothes and body, basically "'cooking" you for 2 seconds.. and you want to "opt out", now you are aware of what the experience might have in store for you too.  =)

Woodford Reserve Bourbon

Since Delta does not accept cash, and I tend to eat very frugally while on business travel, I've adopted the habit of getting a double Woodford Reserve on Delta flights, neat.  It's a very smooth Bourbon, and goes down nicely - facilitating blog post writing, as it did last night!   I'd open up my company Dell laptop, but the screen is So Large that the woman who has reclined her seat in front of me prevents me from doing any meaningful work - and besides, that's what work hours are for.   It's after 1030pm east coast time, and my flight was delayed "for weather" in Detroit - no, it's not weather Delta & Detroit, it's call very very very poor planning.  Really, only a 20 mile spacing over Fort Wayne is allowed?  Yeah, it sucks that there's only one way to fly from Detroit and Phoenix, and that is over Fort Wayne. No Other routes are possible, with all tose military bases and restricted fly zones all over northern Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.  Heavens to Murgatroy if we try to take off in some other direction! The pilot actually shut down the main engines and ran on APU for the air conditioning and lights, as we SAT on the ground for nearly an hour, in a line of 10, then 20, then 30 other planes, waiting to take off.  Note to self, never fly through Detroit in March-April-May if at all avoidable, in the future. 

 I did score the rare, lucky bonus of having No One sitting next to me in the middle seat.  Looking back at the whole 757, there appear to be 3 seas empty in the middle, and I've got one of them... probably one of the lucky bastardos who got bumped to first class was supposed to sit beside me.  I was 17th on the upgrade list, with 5 openings, according to the helpful Delta Customer service agents in Detroit.  So that empty seat beside me offered a tray table on which I can easily place my Woodford while typing on my tiny, incapable, low memory Asus Eee book.  I'm glad Delta offers a high quality bourbon n flight.   =)

Sour Chicken Marsala?

In most delicious chicken Marsala dishes, vinegar is not used.   The Marsala wine might be sweet, it might have a curry texture to it, but it should not be sour.  At the Desmond Hotel in Albany NY, Wednesday night, I had the unpleasant experience of eating luke warm, sour tasting, chicken Marsala, that took more than an hour to arrive.  Bleh.  Company was paying, sure, that helped, but a unpleasant meal is still an unpleasant meal, regardless of who is paying.  The wine was Rodney Strong - too expensive at $10 a glass, but ohhhhh, it was "The Desmond".   Desmond-shesmond... if I wanted a 1950s dated room that overlooked the Interstate and acoustically reflected all the passing truck tire and engine noise, Id have stayed a a Motel 6 or Red Roof Inn for 1/2 the price.  Sour chicken Marsala with all of 3 small mushrooms hidden in the sauce.... very paltry, and accompanying "vegetable du jour" which were shoe string green beans and wax beans,  the size and consistency of actual shoe strings, with very thinly cut carrot slices - all of which amounted to enough beans to tie a dozen shoes and a 1/4 of a large carrot.

I do not think I will be back at the Desmond again in my lifetime.  I was there 15 years ago when I was just a contractor for my current employer, visiting the NY head quarters.  I should have stayed at the Hampton Inn instead.  Lesson learned.

But if you are looking for sour chicken Marsala and prefer your food service to be abysmally slow, then the Desmond is for you!!

Alasdair Neale & the PSO, Extremely Impressive

Last weekend, April 21st, after a delicious birthday dinner, Dr Desert Flower and I went to the Phoenix Symphony to hear Brahms & Beethoven.  We'd exchanged tickets form an earlier concert where we were visiting our son & out of town, and when I saw that there would be a guest conductor, I was really looking forward to the performance.  Alasdair Neale has an impressive conducting resume, and I was delighted to hear him describe the three works that were going to be presented in a warmth, welcoming, non-pretentious, relate-able manner before beginning the first piece. 

The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra started with a Jennifer Higdon work, Blue Cathedral, dedicated to her deceased brother's life.  Dr Desert Flower enjoyed the piece.  I quietly endured it, as I've never warmed to Higdon's works - this being the 3rd or 4th I've heard performed live.  It was fine, just not to my liking.  But then the Brahms work, Schicksalslied Op 54, Nanie Op 82 were played, and they were beautifully presented.  Neale is a tall, thin man, with long Jack-o-Lantern from Nightmare Before Christmas proportioned limbs.  During the pianissimo parts of the work, he keeps his elbows close to his sides, and makes very small gestures with his hands.  Then, during fortissimo, he leverages his long arms and bends his knees, not just conducting, but directing, demanding, inspiring the orchestra before him.  I enjoyed the Brahms works tremendously.

Intermission passed quickly, and then the focus of the night's performance, Beethhoven's Symphony No 7 in A major, Op. 92 was played.  Wow.  Neale knew the work by memory, and did not use any sheet music.  On the conductor's stand he was animated, joyful, full of life, pointing to specific principals & second chairs to draw them forward, engaged, vibrant, fine tuning this German Engineered masterfully constructed and harmoniously presented work.  Neale appeared to be having the time of his life, smiling broadly when the orchestra responded with precision, admonishing them immediately when they over or under performed with a slight scowl and Immediate, definitive hand gestures, often specifically pointing to individual players to encourage or rein in their instrument's output.  Like an inventor who has personally hand crafted a 600 horsepower supercharged V8 adjusting each valve's clearances, each spark plug's gap, each cam's rise, and shifting the spark timing and biasing the flue-to-air mixture precisely to get the exact dynamometer readings his calculations predicted were possible.  And Neale showed such joie de vivre, such masterful engagement, that even the most stoic of PSO players appeared to be infected by his dynamic leadership and responded with a performance that stands out in my mind as one of the best I've ever heard the PSO put on.  I lead the standing ovation at the end of the Allegro con brio, and enthusiastically and loudly continued the applause for 3 curtain calls.  Neale, ever the humble gentleman, shook the individual hands of of the Orchestra's most impressive strings and winds who wowed him as much as his conducting wowed the concert hall. 

The next time I get to San Francisco, if I've got the chance, I am going to try and attend a Alasdair Neale conducted performance there.  Highly recommended.

Mr Garrison Lectures on Game of Thrones

The most recent South Park episode was pretty funny, but what had me rolling on my yoga mat Thursday, was how Mr Garrison was lecturing the class about how Game of Thrones parallels ancient Greek & Roman political structures.  It's right around the 2 minute mark (link here).  "Now everyone Pay Attention!" LOL!

Gray Would Be The Color

This was the sound track, running through the dream I had, just prior to waking up 3 hours ago.  I don't always have music in the background of my dreams..  but when I do, it's often memorable, and keeps playing through my head during the rest of the day.

Teeth Brushing As Snacking Deterrent

I've got a dentist appointment early tomorrow morning, and as I like to bias my health care provider feed back in a positive sense, I've been brushing and flossing and mouth washing many times a day for the last 2 days.  One things I've noticed, is that having a freshly brushed, flossed, and minty freshly rinsed mouth is a major disincentive to snack.  As I was eating a few stalks of organic celery with pine nut hummus this afternoon, I noticed it had been 6 hours since I sauteed organic leeks, organic orange sweet peppers, and organic spinach before I added them to two organic brown shelled eggs, and I'd not had a single 75% cacao chocolate square, or 72% dark chocolate covered almond, or a cup of (teeth staining) tea throughout the morning as I worked. 

I'd wanted to eat a dark chocolate square here and there, as I refilled my water glass in the kitchen, sure, but the thoroughly flossed, fastidiously cleaned set of teeth dissuaded me from breaking off a square, pouring any tea, popping an almond in my face hole.  I think I'm going to try and brush and floss more often than my normal "once a day" every week day - not just excessively, obsessively, repetitively during the 3 days preceding a Dentist visit.    And the "wanting" was not because I was HUNGRY, it was because the chocolate is yummy,  psychologically addictive, and present / visible in the kitchen.  As long as I stay away from the carbs, I don't get that DRIVEN HUNGER I used to always have when I started this blog.

I'm better off snacking on organic celery rather than chocolate covered almonds anyways.  =)

Smells Like A String Quartet

This made me chuckle.  It didn't send me to Nirvana... but did bring a smile to my visage.

Pascal Jolivet Sancerre 2010

(I do not like the new google blogger interface... it's cumbersome, and tries to "fix" that which was not broken)

Last Saturday night, for Dr Desert Flower's 32nd birthday, we went ot one of her favorite restaurants, Elements, at The Sanctuary, on the north side of Camelback Mountain.  The service was awesome, the food delicious, and the wine...  ahhh..  the wine.... superb.

DDF had the "butter fish" (aka escolar - don't eat too much of it!).  I had the duck.  White wine was appropriate.  Element's wine list had this wonderful Sancerre on it, in both 1/2 bottle sizes and full bottles.  Since we had symphony tickets for later that evening, I chose the demi bottle from the Loire Valley. Mmmmm. 

We sipped the wine with dinner as the sun set over Paradise Valley AZ, through salads and main courses.   It was gone by desert. 

Pascal Jolivet's winery is only 49.50 acres in Sancerre, near the villages of Bue & Verdigny France.  100% Sauvignon Blanc, grown in 50% limestone, 30% chalky clay, and 20% flint (it had a very descriptive label).   Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sins, NY NY.  If you're looking for a delicious white and you spot Pascal Jolivet on the wine list, it's truly worth it.

French Splits

It will be interesting to see which way the xenophobic & nationalistic La Pen supporters throw their support.

Pause Café Cognac

My dear friend Francois in France gave me a bottle of private label Cognac last year in March 2011 when I visited him & his family in Belfort.  Francois told me the Cognac was made specifically for a small cafe where he knows the owners as friends.  It was a truly delicious bottle filled with l'eau de vie (water of life). 

















I truly enjoy Cognac.And the Pause Café bottle was exceptional.  I savoured it, and it took me over a year to slowly, finally,take it all in. 

Daniel & Joanna Bouffard's magnificently crafted beverage, 17520 St.Heurine France.  Truly delightful.  If you're ever in St. l'Heurine, be sure to have a taste, or buy a bottle.

Popocatepetl, Location, Location, Location

The Popocatepetl volcano outside of Mexico City is not just spewing ash, it's making loud noises (loud enough to wake sleeping children in the middle of the night) and spewing burning rocks and lava (link here).  There's 20 million Mexicans in the possible ash / lava / devastation zone, but they don't want to evacuate and leave their homes.  Location, location, location.  Mt St Helen's ash cloud blanked under a million people.  Pompei was less than a million people (at the time).  Pinatubo affected 200,000 people.  Popocatepetl might be the biggest volcano of a lifetime...  ya veramos. 

If there are any Mexico City citizens who die from this eruption, it will be from their own choosing.  When the mountain shoots fire out of the top, move away, proactively, regardless of real estate interests.

Vieux Chateau Grean

Total Wine's European Buyer Alfio Moriconi has pretty good taste in wines.  We picked this one up around Christmas, and enjoyed it this Winter with a nice meaty dinner.  Vieux Chateau Grean, mise en bouteilles du Chateau by Danielle et Richard DUBOIS, St. Sulpice de Faleyrens France.  It was like a $12 bottle of Bordeau.  Not bad at all.  If you're looking for a nice bottle of Bordeaux, it would not be a bad idea to this selection.