Over the next 12 days, the best women hockey players in the world will convene in Calgary and play a 10-team tournament that will set the stage for the 2022 Winter Olympics. In a fractured professional women's hockey landscape, this is a pretty rare opportunity to see the best in the world face off against each other in a way they don't often get to do.
Continue reading Women’s Hockey Whangdoodle: IIHF World Championships
Here's just an amazing thread on the staggering amount of talent (not limited to acting) that guest starred on Miami Vice of all shows:
Al Bundy as a Miami Vice Coke Dealer (1984) pic.twitter.com/Ql6Vrk5UWa
— Daniel🎗🏴 ॐ (@DannyDutch) August 4, 2021
What's one performance you remember, TV or movies, where you noted someone special, only to see them subsequently blow up?
Okay, so the first half of this podcast is still in the shop. We talked about the Wild and their future in that part, and hopefully we can get that fixed up soon.
The second half, which did survive unfortunately, was all about the Twins. Oh, and we feature some songs from the Summer Mix (which is soooooo good).
Hey, gang! I know I say this every year, but I think the mix turned out pretty great this year. Like last year, the easiest way to consume it is to look up WGOM on your favorite podcast app (except the spotty one). I'll set up a link shortly to download the full file if that's your thing.
Anyway, here's your mix!
Music Band - Heat
Visioneers - Ike’s Mood I
Angel Olsen & Sharon Van Etten - Like I Used To
Julien Baker - Hardline
Orchestra Baobab - Sibam
Los Master Plus con Caloncho - Vengache Pa'ca
Diamond Rio - Poultry Promenade
George Benson - Give Me the Night
Billy Stewart - Summertime
Bosse - Augen zu Musik
Miss Grit - Dark Side of the Party
Car Seat Headrest - Something Soon
Cory Hanson - Angeles
SZA - Good Days
Iceage - Shelter Song
La Santa Cecilia - Mar Y Cielo
Waxahatchee - Can't Do Much
Ozuna, Doja Cat, and Sia - Del Mar
Mint Royale - Show Me
Translator - O Lazarus
Mannequin Pussy - Drunk II
Yola - Diamond Studded Shoes
Rostam - 4Runner
Dr. Hook - Sharing the Night Together
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Building up a personal bar can be a delicious voyage of self-discovery. It can also be pretty flipping expensive, particularly if you develop a taste for vintage spirits or specialized cocktails (Tiki, for example). The good news is that there's been a lot of thought put into various schemes for stocking a nascent bar or for dealing with limited space for your cocktail ephemera.
I'm going to tip my hat to the various discussions of 9–12 bottle bars that were in vogue a half-dozen years ago or so. Like building a starting lineup and bench in baseball, it's good to have a few stars supported by several quality players who have positional flexibility. I'm going to divide the basic bar into three categories — spirits, liqueurs, & augmentors — with dedicated posts. That's where this conversation starts; where it ends is basically determined by a combination of your desire to explore, your palate, and your wallet.
One thing to remember: the marketing arms of every distiller & distributor on the plant expend a great amount of money & effort trying to convince you that you need to stock their bottles, which has both credible (the company has lasted forever) and dubious (the equipment/formula/technique to produce the spirit or liqueur has changed over time) claims to longevity. Beyond that, you'll be assailed by every claim of exclusivity & intangibles you can think of, and probably many you couldn't. Follow your tongue — the best bottle for you is one that tastes good and that you can afford to keep on hand.
Unless you know from past experience you don't like one of the distillates below, you should probably plan on having a bottle of each of the following in your bar:
With these, you'll have the base ingredient for most classic cocktails & quite a range of modern ones. My personal bar varies here because I don't drink whiskey often, but I love brandy, which I think most folks outside of the state where I reside view as a luxury spirit, if they think of it much at all. More on brandy, which actually figures significantly in both the classic and pre-classic cocktail eras, in a future installment.
Let's take each spirit in order, looking at the styles within, and good options for stocking a bar. I'll provide some selections at the Rail (~$20/bottle) and Call ($25+/bottle) level.
Rail: Aviation, Beefeater, Citadelle, Knickerbocker, Tanqueray
Call: Ford's, Junipero, Hendrick's, Plymouth, St. George Terroir
Gin can be pretty divisive. Some people like feeling as if they're drinking a glass of conifer juice, and some people really don't. The good news is, there are balanced and even juniper-neutral gins available. You probably already know whether you like a strong juniper taste in your gin, but if you don't, purchasing a couple single-serving bottles of options below and mixing up a Gin & Tonic will orient your preferences.
Classic, Juniper-Forward Gin
A London Dry or any of the modern, New World Gin descendants of that style will suit this preference. The classics here are Beefeater and Tanqueray; Beefeater is almost always considered a good value buy. The more modern takes — Junipero or St. George Terroir, for example — will set you back about half again the price of the bottle of Beefeater, but if you like this style, they're available as a treat.
Plymouth, both a brand and a wholly distinct style of its own, has juniper notes that are bit softer (and to me, more nuanced) than London Dry. It has fruit & spice components; I generally prefer it if I'm making a cocktail with a "classic" gin. Plymouth is a bit spendy, so I chose my drinks carefully and alternate it with Knickerbocker (see below) as my rail gin. There's nothing quite like it.
Contemporary, Juniper-Balanced Gin
Given the relative recency of most gins that foreground botanicals other than juniper, there aren't many archetypal spirits that are going to be available in all markets. The most ubiquitous is probably Hendrick's; Aviation has been around for a while and seems to have some distribution legs behind it at this point. I happen to really like New Holland's Knickerbocker, which balances citrus & spices, and Suntory's Roku, which adds six (thus the name) Japanese botanicals to the traditional mix. Ford's gets a lot of love for a gin that mixes well in a variety of cocktails. Citadelle — which is one of the older "contemporary" options, dating back to 1989 — is a bit more budget-friendly and was one of the pilots of the move toward contemporary gins that heavily emphasize botanicals other than juniper.
Rum is a spirit you could spend decades exploring, and people develop strong affinities to countries of origin, particular houses, or production methods. It definitely is not an archetype — forget what you know about rum if most of what you've tasted comes from one producer in Puerto Rico.
Strictly speaking, you could make any cocktail calling for light or silver rum with an aged rum and have a delicious drink on your hands. So you don't strictly need two bottles here, particularly to start. I'm skipping the Overproof/Navy Strength, "dark," and spiced types here.
A note: below I recommend rums produced under the Plantation label. Plantation is produced in Barbados by Maison Ferrand, a Cognac house. Due to the colonialist, slave-holding implications of that name, Maison Ferrand committed to renaming the rum following Derek Chauvin's murder of George Floyd. The new name has not yet been announced.
Light/Silver
Rail: Appleton White, El Dorado 3-Year, Flor de Caña Extra Seco 4-Year, Plantation 3 Stars
Call: Caña Brava Rum Blanca, Rhum J.M. Agricole Blanc, Ron Diplomatico Planas, The Real McCoy 3-Year
Plantation 3 Stars is such a good rum at such a nice price that I can't see a real reason to get anything else here unless you have a very strong preference for a particular country of origin, mode of distillation, or flavor profile. There are plenty of variations within those three areas to explore, so you should cycle through until you find one you particularly like. I'll admit this is a category where I've pretty much found what feels like the sweet spot to me.
Aged (5+ years)
Rail: El Dorado 5-Year, Flor de Caña Gran Reserva 7-Year
Call: El Dorado 8-Year, Plantation Barbados 5-Year, Ron Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, The Real McCoy 5-Year
A bottle in this category should serve you for both mixing cocktails and sipping on its own, straight or on the rocks. I'll admit to keeping multiple bottles of aged rum in my bar — right now I have Plantation Barbados 5-Year, Ron Diplomatico Reserva Exclusiva, & El Dorado 15-Year (sipping only), plus I recently finished a bottle of Real McCoy 5-Year. Rum, like whiskey, is a spirit that invites a lot of exploration between countries of origin, distillers, production methods, spirit ages, and more.
As with rum, if you’re starting out, you really only need either a blanco/plata or a reposado. With a budget in mind, I’d go with the blanco unless you’re sure you’re a tequila drinker.
One thing to note with tequila is that there's an additional environmental consideration that doesn't factor into most other spirits (mezcal excepted). Agave takes significantly longer to grow than grain crops — seven years until it's ready for production, and twelve years to reach maturity. Buying one bottle isn't going to destroy the planet, but if you develop a taste for tequila, supporting makers that produce the spirit with ethical, sustainable practices is a very good idea.
Blanco/Plata
Rail: Cazadores Blanco, El Jimador Blanco, Espolón Blanco, Milagro Silver, Olmeca Altos Plata, 1800 Reserva Silver
Call: Don Julio Blanco, El Tesoro Blanco
Do yourself a favor — don't buy any tequila you heard of in college (unless you went to college in Mexico). Those spirits are mixtos — 51% tequila, 49% other stuff. A perfectly decent 100% agave blanco tequila will run you a few bucks more and will taste much better. Espolón was, until recently, an exceptional value — I regularly could get a 750ml bottle for under $20. I still stock it as my rail tequila, but any of these above would serve just as well. You don't want to go too pricey here, at least if you're primarily drinking tequila in cocktails. If you're interested in mixing in a bit of sipping, wait until a call bottle goes on sale.
Reposado
Rail: El Jimador Reposado, Espolón Reposado, Olmeca Altos Reposado
Call: Casamigos Reposado, El Tesoro Reposado, Herradura Reposado (or Double Barrel Reposado)
No need to go crazy here, either, although this is where you can verge into a bottle that does double-duty or is primarily a sipper with an occasional cocktail that calls for a reposado. I stick with Espolón and save my aged agave funds for mezcal or the occasional really nice añjeo tequila.
Rail: Chopin Potato, Ketel One, Prairie Organic, Reyka, Russian Standard, Russian Standard Gold, Wheatley
Call: Belvedere, Beluga Noble, Chopin Wheat, Chopin Rye
You have a ton of choices when it comes to vodka. However, that doesn't mean that all vodkas are the same. Despite being a neutral, unaged spirit, vodkas can have distinctive characteristics, particularly when it comes to earthiness, minerality, oiliness, & spiciness. I've avoided a few of the big names — the regular versions of Abolut & Stolichnaya are perfectly decent, but I don't feel like rewarding their marketing departments. A well-stocked supermarket liquor department should have at least two of the options listed above.
Prairie Organic is based in Minnesota, made from 100% Midwestern corn, and uses zero-waste distilling practices. Several years ago I brought a bottle to as a host give a Ukrainian friend who put me up in Brighton Beach during an extended layover (involving La Guardia & JFK) on my way to Moscow — he gave it his seal of approval. If you're looking for a Russian vodka, you can't go wrong with Russian Standard, which is made from winter wheat and water from Lake Ladoga. (I also recommend Russian Standard Gold, if you’d like a little Siberian ginseng in your vodka). These are the two all-purpose vodkas I keep in my bar. I do enjoy drinking vodka neat, so I rotate others through as well.
As for the other rail options: Reyka is Icelandic, made from Scottish barley, Ketel One (Dutch) & Wheatley (Kentucky) are made from wheat, and Chopin Potato is Polish and made from what you would suspect given that information.
Rail: Evan Williams Bourbon, Old Grand-dad Bonded, Rittenhouse Rye 100, Wild Turkey 101
Call: Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Rye, Elijah Craig 12 Year Bourbon, Sazerac Straight Rye, Wild Turkey Rare Breed (Bourbon or Rye)
Truth be told — I'm not the best person to ask about whisk(e)y. I enjoy a couple whisk(e)y-based cocktails occasionally, but I much prefer rum & tequila (or mezcal), whether for cocktails or sipping. I’ll admit that I only keep a couple bottles of whisk(e)y in my bar — a bottle of Elijah Craig 12 year old bourbon, and bottle of 116-proof bourbon made by a distillery near our friends' place in far-west Chicagoland do the heavy lifting. I would probably get a bottle of rye, were I likely to be mixing drinks for anyone favoring that type.
We'll skip Canadian, Japanese, Irish, & Scotch whisk(e)ys for the basic bar — these are worthy libations, and you could make many whisk(e)y-forward cocktails with them, but most of the time you'd be well-served with a bottle of bourbon or rye. Based on my visits to well-stocked supermarkets & liquor stores, there is a near IPA-level of hype & demand for American whiskey — bourbon having been ascendant for several years now, and rye following close behind. Follow your palate, ask people whose opinions you value, and don't get soaked on the purchase price.
We haven't had a dedicated fitness post in a while, so I thought I'd kick one off.
I'd mentioned a while back that I've made some progress in the weight loss category. On January 4th I weighed in at (a holiday-inflated, late-in-the-day inflated) 236. That was the highest I've ever been. This morning I weighed in at 206. The weight loss has been pretty consistent - about a pound a week, sometimes less, sometimes a little more (30 lbs over 24 weeks - that math works out).
The thing is, it has really only been small changes that have paid off. A quick list of some of those changes/factors that contributed:
1. I have essentially given up pop.
2. I had Covid (lost a few extra pounds that week, post-covid parsomia contributes to not wanting to eat so much).
3. Far less snacking at night. I'm not quite doing intermittent fasting, but I suppose it is structurally similar. A little bit of leeway with myself keeps it from feeling oppressive.
4. Lunches from home. I've often gone through spells where I don't plan ahead and/or go home for lunch, and that often leads to eating something from the gas station kitchen, or one of the few restaurants in town, or stopping at the grocery store and grabbing something microwavable. Philosofette has been at home over the past 6 months, and that's enabled a lot more attention to my lunchtime diet.
5. Finding small activity. More walks. I took Aquinas kayaking a few weeks ago. I started a small amount of lifting 2 times a week. I'm making sure I'm playing ball or tossing around the frisbee with my kids more often. Etc. Just finding little things, instead of feeling like I need to go for a run.
Ultimately, turning 40 was a really good motivator for me. I knew that was coming up, so I had a good goal in mind and I was able to stick with it. Then, I quickly set another goal and I'm working towards that. Keeping the goals at the forefront has been what has enabled the other changes.
I genuinely don't remember the last time my weight was this low. Probably at least 10 years - I think I came out of law school over 200 (law school was very unkind to me weight-wise). But even though I weighed about the same 10 years ago, I know that weight sat a lot better - it was more muscle, less fat - so I'm aware of how much further I have to go. Essentially, I'm happy, but not satisfied. Because, when it really comes down to it, I think the goal-setting has been as important as anything else.
Hot weather and cold drinks go together like biscuits and gravy. Beer is always a welcome refreshment when the mercury starts pole vaulting, it's easy to grab one from the fridge after work, pop the cap and slake that thirst. But sometimes you want something frostier, something on ice, and it's natural to look to the southern latitudes for inspiration. That usually means rum or tequila, and there's a wide variety of cocktails based on those liquors to choose from. But for me, one of the best choices for a cold drink on a hot day is the classic Tom Collins.
One of the things I like about cocktails, besides the tastes and the relaxing effect, is that they can be both a beverage and an historical artifact. Many of them have a story behind their origin, sometimes that story is muddled or shrouded in a little mystery, and some can even take on the trappings of legend. The Tom Collins is a good example. As the story goes, the drink is likely derived from the gin punches that were popular in London pubs in the 1800s. At some point a bartender named John Collins apparently attached his name to his version of the drink. But since Old Tom gin was the preferred brand of the day, customers started calling for a Tom Collins instead, and the name stuck.
It's wise to take a lesson from history when you want a Tom Collins and make sure you're using quality gin because the flavor is going to come through and there are few bad liquors worse than cheap gin. Other than that, the recipe for this country club staple is easy peasy. Simple syrup, lemon juice, gin, and club soda. Just double the ingredients as you build the drink in a highball glass with ice - half an ounce of syrup, one ounce of lemon juice, and two ounces of gin. Fill the rest of the glass with club soda (about two ounces), stir, and garnish with a lemon slice or wedge and a cherry if you like. If that's too much work for you, I've come up with a variation that's even easier. Substitute the simple syrup and lemon juice with Spring Grove Lemon Sour soda in equal measure with club soda, so two ounces of each ingredient. It's not an exact replica because there's more sugar in the mix, but if you have a sweet tooth, or if you're too lazy to squeeze a lemon, or if you've run out of simple syrup, it'll do in a pinch.
Hey, guess what I started watching? To be faaaahh-yyyaarr, it's a pretty great show.
What show/movie that's been out for awhile are you just catching up to?
And of course, what else have you been watching?
It's been quite a while since I've read a book that blew me away. I think the best book I've read this year has been The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald which was a beautiful little book of stubborn characters that I loved. But I read that book back in February, and it's been hard sledding since then for really exciting reading experiences.
Hey, gang. There's not much fun Twins talk, so Daneeka's Ghost came back to discuss the Wild before they go into the playoffs. We all know how this will end, but we wanted to keep things as bright and shiny as possible.
We unfortunately did not have the constitution to keep up the rosiness when we did actually get to the Twins, but it needed to be discussed anyway. So we did, and that was... yeah.
Music is always good though, and here are the video's we discussed:
Continue reading The World’s Greatest Online Magazine Presents The Half-Baked Podcast: 08. Abject Despair
