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ivan

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Posts posted by ivan

  1. Or alive. Can't tell. :)

    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.

  2. As the many tributes here and in MSM note, using new tools that few understood or paid much mind Steven Shaw invented something that hadn't existed before―a thing that, like all good ideas whose time has come, quickly grew bigger, and different, than its creator imagined. True invention and big ideas are like that, not entirely predictable or controllable. And, rare.

     

    Generosity is as rare, isn't it? SS gave so much to so many―never stopping, really. In my mind that edges out the prescient food-chat-site impresario as Most Important. Wish we could have met in person―I certainly assumed we would, someday―but I don't owe him any less for only being correspondents.

     

    My deepest condolences to Ellen and their child.

     

    Impresario! THAT's the word I was looking for.

     

    Steven Shaw, Internet Impresario.

    • Like 1
  3. 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.

    • Like 4
  4. ... I wish more than anything they'd come back to my area. 

    ... in general, I'll continue shopping at smaller and more specialized shops the old-fashion and European way.

    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.


  5. IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.
    PROGRAM-ID. RandomIvanPost.
    AUTHOR. Ivan.                    

    DATA DIVISION.
    WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.
    01  Mode  PIC X.
       88 Verbose VALUE "V".
       88 Terse     VALUE "T".
       88 Exit        VALUE "X".

    01  VString.
       03  VString1 PIC X(20) VALUE "Ha-ha, yeah, I used ".
       03  VString2 PIC X(20) VALUE "to have a mirror on ".
       03  VString3 PIC X(21) VALUE "my monitor, but then ".
       03  VString4 PIC X(24) VALUE "I re-arranged my desk so ".
       03  VString5 PIC X(22) VALUE "that my back's against ".
       03  VString6 PIC X(09) VALUE "the wall.".

    PROCEDURE DIVISION.
    BuildPost.
       DISPLAY "Enter T for Terse, V for Verbose, X to Exit."
       ACCEPT Mode
       PERFORM UNTIL Exit
           EVALUATE TRUE
               WHEN Terse DISPLAY "Pff! Pack-rat? I can see your desk!"
               WHEN Verbose DISPLAY VString
               WHEN OTHER DISPLAY "Great thread!!!"
           END-EVALUATE
       END-PERFORM.
    STOP RUN.

  6. 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?

  7. Ivan

    Could you be specific?

    Are you saying that there are no wines from the new world that express any terroir?

    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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. Mr. Weller and the guard are

    endeavouring to insinuate into the fore-boot a huge cod-fish

    several sizes too large for it--which is snugly packed up, in a long

    brown basket, with a layer of straw over the top, and which has

    been left to the last, in order that he may repose in safety on the

    half-dozen barrels of real native oysters, all the property of

    Mr. Pickwick, which have been arranged in regular order at the

    bottom of the receptacle. 

    'They're a-smokin' cigars by the kitchen fire,' said Sam.

    'Ah!' observed Mr. Pickwick, rubbing his hands, 'overflowing

    with kindly feelings and animal spirits. 'Just what I like

    to see.'

    'And one on 'em,' said Sam, not noticing his master's interruption,

    'one on 'em's got his legs on the table, and is a-drinking

    brandy neat, vile the t'other one--him in the barnacles--has got

    a barrel o' oysters atween his knees, which he's a-openin' like

    steam, and as fast as he eats 'em, he takes a aim vith the shells

    at young dropsy, who's a sittin' down fast asleep, in the

    chimbley corner.'

    'Eccentricities of genius, Sam,' said Mr. Pickwick.  'You

    may retire.'

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

  11. 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.

  12. 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

  13. Clearly, Trader Joe's is the Wal-Mart of small to mid-sized German-owned specialty grocery store chains.

    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.

  14. Why is it that when I think of Giada, all I see is her giant head and enormous teeth - and if I posted that I would get hopped all over for being horrible and nasty but when a MAN thinks of nothing but chesticles and says so right here in front of everyone, no one flinches?  I mean no woman would come here and say wooohooo...how ever DOES Flay find pants that fit?  and that Chairman...he is SOOOOOO flexible!!! 

    Shame on you boys!  :laugh:

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

  15. Last year, several million bottles of Beaujolais were quietly distilled into industrial use alcohol and ethanol. This year, the government is contemplating mandating reduced production as a mean to raise quality and stimulate sales.

    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.

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