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Both dead AND alive. I stumbled upon Cocchi Vermouth di Torino by accident. I sought out Cocchi Americano, because I read somewhere that it more closely resembles the original Kina Lillet than does Lillet Blanc. I wanted to taste as much as possible what Ian Fleming had in mind for the Vesper martini. I found a nice little split of Americano at Total Wine, and there next to it was a split of di Torino. I didn't want to break up the set, so I bought both. Absolutely marvelous stuff, both of them.

Impresario! THAT's the word I was looking for. Steven Shaw, Internet Impresario.

My time on eG was brief, but a stone groove. Priscilla and I made life-long friends here. My interactions with FG, especially while contributing to the nascent Daily Gullet, were so gratifying that I must remind myself that I never met the man off-line. FG's generosity, gregariousness and joie de vivre will continue to inspire and infect eG old-timers and newcomers, through this fine monument. Thank you, Steven. It was a privilege.

Absolutely. Spot. On.

I don't know how to characterize my cellar, but if I spend too much time there I might emerge with a rather funny walk. And then later my brain hurts.

At first I thought maybe your second statement contradicts the first, but I think what you really mean is that you will continue to shop locally as opposed to driving to the most soul-crushing part of OC. Which is good. As for the folks who live and work in and around the most soul-crushing part of OC, they no longer have to sit in soul-crushing traffic on soul-crushing Newport Ave. and soul-crushing 17th St. and put up with all the soul-crushing arts-and-crafts vendors at the IFM just to get a decent head of escarole or a nice bottle of something, not to mention the beef dry-aged in-store and all that nice pampered poultry. If everyone stayed in their own respective soul-crushing areas of OC, it might keep the crowds down. Now, if only Martin had stayed in Tustin, I wouldn't have to make the soul-crushing drive to Costa Mesa for the best coffee in the world. But such is life in OC.

Erik, I haven't been around much, so my question may be outdated, but when Mr. DeGroff invented the Flaming Orange Gully, Velvet Falernum couldn't be had for love or money. Has that changed? Did you buy it locally, or have it shipped?

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Testimonials about how too much of a good thing can be really bad are a dime a dozen. How nice to read one about how a little bit of a bad thing can be really, really good. Thanks for the inspiration, Chris! Is that glass in the photo the glass with the white line?

No, I am saying that a typical business model does not allow for it. If I understand Randall's musings, any grape will have terroir if allowed to, but it might not be an appealing terroir. The goal of a business is to make wine that appeals.

The "better living through chemistry" approach to viniculture all but defeats the simple miracle of wine (and the notion that terroir is something that can be added to a wine is, of course, an absurdity). Now that wine is as never before a commodity, for most producers practical considerations supercede artistic, philosophical or political considerations. Who has the luxury of establishing a vinyard where the grape is truly a product of its environment, no matter the outcome? No business-minded producer could stomach such a risk. Instead, the grape is manipulated to conform to expected results, the winemaker's vision of what the wine should, rather than what the wine naturally wants to be. Maybe this will change, but for New World wine producers, terroir is a liability.

What an absolutely beautiful story, Maggie! I had tears in my eyes throughout, and had to tell my coworkers the allergies were acting up. And I am wholeheartedly behind your campaign to redesignate Sunday as the first day of the week. The Russian word for Sunday is "resurrection", arguably a beginning, not an end. And we don't even have to change our calendars, where Sunday has defiantly held its place at the start of each week.

Someday I would like to open a barrel of native oysters.

The whole point behind the hot dog is that it's NOT a proper meal. That is its essential appeal (besides tasting good on a visceral level). What does the hard-boiled detective stuff down his gullet in between stake-outs? What does the construction site foreman get two of from the lunch truck? What does the floor runner at the Stock Exchange shove in his mouth to keep himself going? The hot dog is essential. We would starve without the hotdog. The economy would collapse. Nothing would get done. Don't let all those newfangled sushi stands at ballparks fool you: the hot dog is here to stay. The heartburn remedy industury alone would disintegrate without it. Not to mention 70s cop shows -- if there were no hot dogs in 1972, Quinn Martin would've had to invent them.

Was Shatner a contestant, a judge, or the secret ingredient? Just so long as he didn't "sing"... ← Shatner was the Chairman. I weep for what might have been.

There is no historical marker for the original McDonald's stand in San Bernardino County, Ca., but there should be. There may be a museum some day. There should also be (and isn't) a marker in Baldwin Park at the site of the first-ever drive-through hamburger restaurant, the original In-N-Out. I guess we Californians don't honor our food-related historical sites. Wait! Here's one, in Nevada County: NO. 134 DONNER MONUMENT (or) PIONEER MONUMENT - Commemorates the ill-fated Donner party of California-bound emigrants, who wintered here in 1846-1847, many died of exposure and starvation. Location: Donner Memorial State Park,Old Hwy 40 at I-80 and Truckee exit, Truckee USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: TRUCKEE

Hey, the Trader Joe's/Wal-Mart analogy crept up over in the r-e-g-u-l-a-r TJ's thread! I guess it's pretty obvious.

But that's just one... Oh. I get it.

One time, I said to her "Giada, you sure know a lot about cooking!" and she said "Stop it! You're giving me a big head!" and I said, "Ha! Too late!"

Ok, I give! I KID Trader Joe's! I'm just sore they discontinued the pickled herring in wine sauce, the most recent in a long line of discontinued products carried just long enough to develop a serious addiction. YOU ARE SUCH A TEASE, TRADER JOE'S!!!

I think Joe Colombe would back me up on this.

Don't agree with that analogy. Trader Joe's is non-union, yes, but the pay scale of their workers is about 30% HIGHER than industry averages; They also attempt to sell mostly environmentally-conscious products. Not at all like WalMart. ← Trader Joe's will fire you if you don't wear a Hawaiian shirt. You won't see that happening at Wal-Mart.

Thank you, Jim. Does it taste like Cherry Kool-Aid circa 1965? If it does, I'm in.

She has a skullhead, but I'd never say that.

At its best, Nouveau reminds me of the Cherry Kool-Aid I drank decades ago, which isn't at all a bad thing. On certain occasions, we need a wine that reminds us pleasantly of summers past. The problem is that Nouveau is taken too seriously. I think it should be seen as a throwback or a tribute to a more primal attitude towards wine: the idea, after a grueling hot summer of tending vines, battling pests and other barbaric incursions, followed by a back-breaking harvest, is to drink some of that wine just as soon as possible. Suggest to a midieval viticulturist that the results of all that labor should be bunged into a cellar for a few years before enjoying it, and he'd laugh in your face. The beauty of Beaujolais is that it can be potable after only a few weeks in the barrel. So it's dismaying that what was, just a few years ago, a light-hearted celebration of the new harvest has turned into an over-commercialized distribution of swill. And what's perplexing is that, even though millions of gallons of Beaujolais were relegated to scrap-alcohol, I still have to pay $8.99 for that summery Kool-Aid taste.