February 28, 2009

I hate and I love. Why do I do it, perchance you might ask?
I don't know, but I feel it happening to me and I'm burning up.

Catullus' ODI Et AMO is featured in 51 down in
today's NYT Crossword. It is an old favorite (Post of 12/14/2008.)
I didn't know Carl Orff ("O Fortuna") did a musical piece
on this until today.

SethG posted an organ piece of Orff from You.tube at
Rex Parker's site. Here is a choral version:



Speaking of Love and Hate, here are the Persuaders
(what is left that is):





Heavy into B-Ball and March Madness about to begin.
The NCAA Tournament is sports at its best.

One son lost in his HS Playoff last night. A missed three at
the buzzer which rolled out at the last second had his team
lose by two. Still a great game in which his team came back
from a 24 point deficit.

The older son has his last College game today and his playoffs
start next week.

My work tournament starts in three weeks and I guess I will
lace up one last time. It is hard playing against people twenty-five years younger.



34 down in the NYT Crossword today is ALLEY OOP, clued
as court crowd-pleaser. Also, 35 down Executed part of a
34 down - LEAPED UP.

Here is a top ten :

February 27, 2009

Death penalty documentary. A Law School professor actually
favors the Death penalty. Arrogant fool and Deluded law
professor is what one reviewer wrote. Crank and bombastic wrote another.

February 24, 2009 - Mardi Gras !

Laissez les bons temps rouler ! ''What you gonna do,'' asks Buckwheat Zydeco, ''when the zydeco turn it up on you?''

February 22, 2009

My youth was partially spent reading Classics Illustrated
Comic Books. Typee being one of them.



Omoo (90 down NYT Crossword 02/22/09) and Typee were downloaded from Project Gutenberg and reading them is my project for the week.



February 22, 1732 - Happy 277th George !



The Seventh Annual Snapple Big Apple Barbecue Block Party returns to Madison Square Park June 13-14, 2009, from Noon–6:00 PM.




Mary Wells opened for the Beatles in 1964. She is always on
my playlists.

February 21, 2009

This was one outstanding beer. Expensive, but worth it.

From the Sam Adams' Web Site:

"Samuel Adams® partnered Felchlin, a renowned Swiss chocolatier, to develop a unique innovation, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock. We started with a complex selection of carefully roasted malts combined with hand-selected Noble hops from Bavaria, the world’s oldest growing area. After using a centuries old brewing process, called Krausening, we slowly aged the beer on a bed of rare dark cocoa nibs from Felchlin®, a renowned Swiss chocolatier. Known for their quality these wild cocoa nibs, harvested from the rainforest of Northern Bolivia, impart complex aromas and flavors of chocolate, honey and vanilla in the beer. The resulting beer, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock, has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate, giving this brew a complex full-body taste with a velvety finish.

Tettnang-Tettnanger and Spalt hops were hand-selected from the world’s oldest growing area and combined with a complex selection of malts including two-row Pale, Munich and Caramel to create a rich and satisfying brew. This dark beer has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate. Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock was aged on a bed of cocoa nibs to create its unique layers of flavor. As the beer matured, the fruity, tart, earthy and chocolate aromas were released into the liquid to give the brew a complex, full -bodied taste with a velvety finish. A hint of vanilla was added to meld the symphony of flavors together."





Today's NYT Crossword answers -Escher, Symmetrical Matrix and Reflecting Images - made me think of Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter which references Escher's Reptiles and Bach's Labyrinth in a dialogue between Achilles and Tortoise.

Here's Hofstadter on JUMBLES.

February 17,2009

Real interesting cover story on Good Stress in Newsweek. Many quotes from Robert Sapolsky from his Baboon studies. From Stanford Magazine:

"To measure the effects of social stress, Sapolsky observes the baboons’ interactions, then takes blood samples to record how stress-hormone levels correlate with various behaviors. Tranquilizing the baboons to draw blood is more difficult than it sounds. Sapolsky uses a blowgun—a metal and plastic tube that he loads with an anesthetic dart, aims and blows through—because, he says, it is more mechanically reliable than an air rifle. Its range is about 30 feet, barring wind, so he has to get quite close to the selected target. (Sapolsky darts only males, because females are most often pregnant or caring for their young.) The darting must take place at the same time each day to allow for daily cycles in stress hormones, and the subject mustn’t know what’s coming because that in itself would raise stress levels. "

February 16, 2009

This classic is on Time Warner's free movies on demand.
Never saw it, always see it referenced in print.
Will finally see it today. Just finished watching it. It was
thought-provoking. Mifune is terrific. As is Machiko Kyô. The
Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) are well-represented:
Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Minoru Chiaki.


The local distributor had a good selection and I picked
a non-local brew. Young's is a British Brewery. The latest Ale
Street News had an ad for this interesting Web Site: Here's to Beer.



They only brew this for America. It is good,
I prefer Heartland Brewery's Farmer Jon's
Oatmeal Stout.

My Christmas beer ratings:

1. Dogfish Raison D’Etre

2. Dogfish 60 minute IPA

3. Ommegang

4. Sierra Nevada Porter

5. Tröegs HopBack Amber Ale

6. Tröegenator Double Bock

7. Pilsner Urquell

8. Bass

9. Yuengling Porter

10. Mad Anthony’s APA

11. Newcastle Brown Ale

12. Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat.

13. Railbender Ale

14. Climax Cream Ale

February 15, 2009

Today's NY Post has a nice article on Local Brewing,Distilleries
and Wineries. Eat and Drink local as Michael Pollan suggests. The waitress above is about to serve a Blue Smoke Ale, a tasty brew made by The Brooklyn Brewery.



Old Blunderbuss on tap at my local distributor. They also
threw in the glass for free. An excellent brew.

Malts: British Maris Otter, Crystal, and Chocolate malts
Other sugars: Raw demerara, Malawi
Hops: Willamette, East Kent Golding, Challenger
O.G.: 19° Plato (1076)
ABV: 8.2%





Nate Takes the Dunk contest.

The NYT Magazine section has an informative article on Shane Battier.

The box score does not reflect a player's true value.
I gave the article to my Basketball playing sons.

As a coach, I can see the things a player does to make
others better. The ultimate question is how to value
it appropriately, and how to instill it in players. Lebron James
is one superstar who puts this into play.


This is a New York home-grown Bourbon. It was
featured in a NY Post article about the
Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery. Their Web Site has a list
of local stores which sell this product.

February 14, 2009

Two nice tributes to Joe Ades in the NY Daily News:
Howard Kissel and Denis Hamill.



Valentine's Day with Godiva Liqueur Truffles.



And Bloody Marys. A recipe:

1 1/2 ounces (1 jigger) vodka
1/2 cup tomato juice - Sacramento
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce to taste- Lea and Perrins
Tabasco to taste - McIlhenny
Dollop of Horseradish
1 lime wedge for garnish
Combine the vodka, the tomato juice, the lemon juice, the Horseradish, the Worcestershire sauce, the Tabasco, 1 cup ice cubes, and pepper to taste, shake the mixture well, and strain it into a tall glass filled with ice cubes.

February 12, 2009

As mentioned in my post of 02/08/09, Happy Lincoln/Darwin
Day. It is also the theme of today's NYT Crossword.



Another restaurant, this time Vento in the
Meatpacking District. Their Lunch menu.



The Beer at lunch was Birra Moretti, a subsidiary of Heineken.
A real nice beer with a lot of flavor. I drank Peroni when in Italy.
The food was great. I had Chicken Saltimbocca(Italian: jumps in the mouth.)



Vento was appropriate, it means Wind in Italian.
The winds were fierce. A sign from a place up the block flew
off its hanging. A little Dante:

The Divine Comedy
Inferno: Canto V
The Second Circle: The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane.

I’ cominciai: «Poeta, volontieri
parlerei a quei due che ’nsieme vanno,
e paion sì al vento esser leggeri».

And I began: "O Poet, willingly
Speak would I to those two, who go together,
And seem upon the wind to be so light."



Of course, it had to be a BBQ place. The place closed in January.

February 9, 2009

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.



A photoshop putting it back on Seventh Avenue and Greenwich.
As envisioned as by a self-described Flâneur.



The 1964 World's Fair has a great nostalgia
Web site.



Why is the sky blue? Mostly,
Rayleigh Scattering.

February 8, 2009

This Thursday is the 200th Anniversary of the births
of Lincoln and Darwin,Feb. 12, 1809. Look for many tributes.
Newsweek had a good one last July.



The NYT book section had a review on “Spade & Archer: The Prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s ‘The Maltese Falcon’ ” by Joe Gores. This one will be picked up soon.



The NYT crossword had OOLALa as an answer, but it made
me remember OOH LA LA.The song harks back to this old favorite:

XIII. "When I was one-and-twenty..."
by A. E. Housman (1859-1936)

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'

And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.



Nice Joes Ades tribute on Gothamist.

February 7, 2009

7 down in the NYT Crossword today was the movie ANTZ.






R.I.P. James Whitmore, above in a classic
Twilight Zone episode “On Thursday We Leave For Home.”







Will watch Them in his honor today.






As long as we are talking Ants, this will
be taken out of the library. Lastly, Leiningen versus the Ants
is worth reading.

Quicksilver and Bo

One of my favorites. A tribute to Bo.

Create a playlist at MixPod.com