The Sunday Re-Run

This was a fun post... to do, but not necessarily to read.  From almost six years ago:

Thursday, May 22, 2008

MeMe

I was tagged by Lin to do this here meme the day I went for my slicing/dicing. Now that I'm up to speed (sorta), I'm checking the box.

In Lin's words: “Soo ... the idea is to answer these questions with only a photo or other graphic, NO words allowed. Here goes then (but I reserve the right to complete and childish asininity).”

Me, too.

1. What is your current relationship status?

2. What is your current mood?

3. What is your favorite band/singer?

and

4. What is your favorite movie?

5. What kind of pets do you have?

6. Where do you live?

7. Where do you work?

8. Who do you look like?

9. What do you drive?

10. What did you do on Saturday?

11. What did you do on Sunday?

12. What is your favorite network TV Show?

13. Describe Yourself.

14. What is your favorite candy?

I'm supposed to tag some folks, coz that's the way these things work. Consider yourself tagged, if ya wanna be. There's a lot of image googling involved. But Hey! That's fun, innit?

Blog-Bud Lin no longer blogs, but her archives are alive and well (and her posts are ALL great reads).  As for YrHmblScrb?  Not much has changed in my world during the last six years, other than the fact I don't live in El Casa Móvil De Pennington any longer, gave up riding mo'sickles, and replaced The Green Hornet with something a lil big bigger and a lot more comfortable.  Wait.  I suppose that IS a lot o' change, innit?

Saturday: In My Next Life...

... I wanna be Jay Leno.



Didja see that green '61 Bel Air hardtop?  Among other things...

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: An Oddity

So, there we were, out on the verandah and this tune comes on.  "WTF?" thinks I, "that sure sounds like Rod Stewart but that ain't the lyrics we know and love."  Well, there's an explanation for that... but first, the tune:

I don't need to tell ya
That you look like a fella
But I'll kick your head in one of these days

The tune is billed as a demo version of "Maggie May" and yeah, a re-write was definitely in order here.  I searched... in vain... for the lyrics to this version and came up empty (the bits quoted above are from memory).  The instrumentation on this early version... aside from the inclusion of the extended mandolin solo... is essentially the same as the final version, and that's a good thing (Hello, Ronnie Wood!).  But the lyrics?  They're just bad, bad, bad.  I can't believe I've gone all this time without hearing the demo version but I suppose stranger things have happened.  OTOH, I can go just as long without hearing this again.  Once is just enough.

It Took Me a Minute

Well, about 30 seconds, actually... and then I literally laughed out loud.

H/t: Shoebox.  Who else?

Mouseketeers?

"Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho there! You're as welcome as can be...  M-I-C-K-E-Y..."

♪♫ If I Were a Rich Man, Ya-Ta-Dadda-Dadda-Dadda-Da... ♫♪

So said Tevye and so sez me, meaning I wish I had an extra 200K bucks layin' around to spend on this:

Oh, MY.  Back in the day when I bought my '67 Chevelle SS396 there was this guy in town who had a '67 Nova SS with the 350hp/327 small block in it.  I raced him on two or three occasions and the boy cleaned my clock every single time... by about two or three car lengths... the races were never close.  I've not-so-secretly wanted one of those cars ever since.  There are a lot of pics of this car here and they'll make yer mouth water if you're any kind of a gear-head.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Another two-fer, where we have the Stones leading off with a cover of one of the Temptations' signature songs...

That's the cover, here's the original:

Well I heard a cryin' man is half a man
With no sense of pride
If I have to cry to keep you I don't mind weepin'
If weepin' gonna keep you by my side

Ain't too proud to beg, sweet darlin'
Please don't leave me, don't you go
Ain't too proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don't leave me, don't you go

Well, that's just WRONG and it never, ever works.  I say that with the benefit of hindsight and most specifically the knowledge that I (a) own one of these tee shirts and (b) it was absolutely, positively the wrong thing to do.  The appropriate response, once we determined the relationship was beyond salvation, would have been "OK, then.  Get the fuck OUT!"  The only saving grace about my exercise of extreme self-degradation was the fact that very, very few people witnessed it.  It was pathetic, believe me, and it's one of the very few things in life I would change, given the chance.

But, Hey!  "Love makes fools of us all, big and little."  Truer words ne'er spoken.

Wat Rong Khun

Say what?  This...

This spectacular white building is called Wat Rong Khun or The White Temple. It’s a Buddhist temple located in Northern Thailand just outside the city of Chiang Rai. Designed by Thai visual artist Chalermchai Kositpipat in 1997, The White Temple is an awesome blend of traditional Thai architecture and both beautiful and grotesque surreal elements. It’s as much a work of art as it is a building devoted to learning and meditation.

Via High Fructose mag, where there are more images of The White Temple.  Most amazing, eh?

O, My Aching Ass

Yup.  Just what every Zuckerberg wannabe needs, at a Zuckerberg price.

Broadening, Yadda, Yadda... Episode LXXXI

Here we are, almost at the end of heavy heavier beer season here at El Casa Inmóvil De Pennington and wouldn't ya know it?  A new favorite in the Porter category arrives on the scene.  That would be this:

Impressive.  And I'm not the only one who thinks so.  Here's what my go-to guys have to say about Cutthroat:

Taste: Impressively smooth mouth feel with a medium to full body. Rich roasted flavour going borderline astringent. Hops tingle all throughout the mouth with a vague bitterness that gets clouded by more everlasting lingering roasted malt with caramel undertones though still leaves a trail of earthy minty flavour to the finish. Roasted flavours are not over bearing but at a perfect level of balance with hints of light charcoal and over caramelized sugar.

Notes: Profound in character, Odell’s was aiming for the middle ground between Porters and Stouts … good stab at it. A more than decent Porter it is, I’m quite fond of this palatable brew.

That's part of a 99-rated review, the rating being as high a score as I've ever seen at BA even though the language might be a little bit flowery and over-the-top.  Odell is quickly becoming my favorite beer out of Fort Collins; I've yet to meet a beer of theirs I haven't liked.  Them's some strong words, given that New Belgium and I have been sweethearts since the mid-90s.  But yanno what?  Competition is a good thing!  All that said, a sixer o' Cutthroat will prolly remain resident in the fridge long after our daytime temps stay in the 90s, mainly coz it's a very easy-drinking sorta brew.  Mebbe even TOO easy.

And now it's time to head out to the verandah... in a sweater.

I said heavier beer season was almost over, didn't I?

Tolerance

Intolerant?  That would be me, too... in this particular case.  I really don't give two hoots in Hell about who sleeps with whom, just don't be in my face with it.  THAT'S the message to the woman in Mr. Kelley's 'toon.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

2Cellos...



I really like these guys and kudos to Pandora for including them in the mix on several of the classical music stations I listen to*.  We heard this particular composition a couple o' few minutes ago while listening to Pandora's Mozart station but I've heard other tunes by 2Cellos at various times on other classical stations.  And who knew Coldplay would ever make it anywhere near the classical world?  Not me.

*Yeah, I know:  that's grammatically incorrect.  I should have said "... classical music stations to which I listen."  But there's this: which of the two constructions rolls off the tongue easier?  Got it?  So, sit down and STFU.

Everything Old Is New Again

Well, that's true as far as EIP goes today.  Shorter: it's a re-run for you, Sparky.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Irresponsible...

... and proud of it. Here's what triggered the post title... something Kris left in comments to a previous post, to wit:

Wine in bottles. Bottles are glass. Glass is recyclable. We do recycling in our town.
Consumption of good quality wine = being environmentally conscious.
Al Gore will finally return my calls! ;-)

Ummm... we don't do recycling here in P-Ville. We are, apparently, unreconstructed Neanderthals in that all our waste... bottles, cans, kitchen garbage, cardboard boxes (large and small), what-have-you... goes into the dumpsters here at Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park and from there off to the landfill. I contrast this to previous lives, wherein we saved all our bottles and cans and hauled them off to the local grocery store on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for to redeem the nickel or dime deposits (depending on whether we were in Michigan or New York) we paid when purchasing our beer and soft drinks. There are no such deposits here in unreconstructed New Mexico, and I'm glad for it. I frickin' HATED saving all those damned cans and bottles and hauling them off every so often. But I hated the thought of losing that money even more... so I played the game. No more. I cheerfully toss all my bottles and cans into the garbage with nary a thought and most certainly without regret.

It wasn't always so and it most definitely used to be worse: I could still be living in Berkeley, where I had to sort my trash into (a) kitchen waste, (b) paper... bundled and tied according to specific instructions issued by the Powers That Be, (c) green glass, (d) brown glass and (e) clear glass... there being separate and discrete receptacles for all the aforementioned categories of refuse located in the trash area of my apartment complex (actually a four-plex of apartments) in said City of Berkeley. Failure to comply with the city's recycling requirements guaranteed you a visit from the Berkeley Trash Police... I shit thee NOT. And this was nearly ten years ago... in the Year of Our Lord 2000.

Things got better when I left Berkeley and moved out to San Ramon, where the City Fathers were less environmentally conscious... or had access to bigger landfills. Recycling in those parts of the Bay Area remained a matter of personal choice... and it might please those of you Gentle Readers who take this sort of thing seriously that I did separate my glass from the rest of the trash and put it in the conveniently-provided recycle bins.

But no more. I never even give this sort of thing a passing thought, except for when the subject rears its less-than-comely head... such as it did when Kris broached the subject. I cheerfully throw my cans and bottles away with a nary a guilt-twinge and am supremely glad for the opportunity to do so. Thank you, P-Ville and New Mexico. I love you.

Yep. Al Gore would hate me if he knew. So be it. We're known both by the company we keep and the quality of our enemies, right? If that's truly the case then I have the best of all possible enemies.

That's as true today as it was almost five years ago.  The only difference is it's a much shorter walk to the dumpster today.

In other news... we replaced our coffee pot with a Keurig machine and the manufacturer is awfully damned proud of their product.  I could have bought three Mr. Coffee machines for the price of that Keurig.  But then again, I HAVE bought three Mr. Coffee machines over the course of the last three years or so.  I guess it all works out.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

In keeping with the post immediately below:



That said, the mess has been cleaned up and the drill found.  So, Beer me!  I earned it today.

Today Is NOT Going Well

Oh, Boy... do I EVER hate it when this happens...

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Saturday...

... got off to a rocky start.  I overslept, to begin with, and missed all but four minutes of the first period of the Wings' game.  So... I stumble in to the living room, switch on the teevee and go immediately to the kitchen to start the coffee, only to find my coffee pot has gone belly-up.  That's not a way to begin yer day, lemmee tell ya.  So we boiled water on the stove and carefully poured it through the grounds we'd already loaded in the pot and... Walla!  Coffee.  Finally.

So it'll be off to Wally-World later today to buy a new pot.  This one lasted 1,468 days... quite a bit longer than the 875 days of its predecessor.  (I know the exact number of days because (a) I blog stuff like this and (b) I go here and punch in the appropriate dates.

You'll note that's less than a year ago, but my coffee pot went belly up... again... this morning.  So we did that "boil and pour" thing again this morning afternoon.  My neighbor comes over just as I was pouring my first cup and asks if I have a drill he can borrow, to which I replied "Why, sure!"

So we go into the utility room and rummage around in our boxes, tool and otherwise, looking for a drill I couldn't find.  But I DID find a quart container of oil that had mysteriously ruptured and leaked about a half-quart all over the contents of one of the aforementioned boxes, leaving me with a world-class mess that has yet to be cleaned up.  I have NO ideer where my drill might be hiding and this troubles me.  I also hate to think about going into that box and wiping oil off the contents... motivation is severely lacking in that space.

I suppose Mama said there'd be days like this, but on a SUNDAY?  And Mom's Day, to boot?  Aiiieee.

Oh.  One more thing: my new coffee pot will NOT be made by Mr. Coffee.

Happy Mom's Day

The seventh iteration of our annual Mother's Day post.

Happy Mother's Day

 

Ah…dog poop. Probably one of the (very) minor reasons my second marriage failed…coz The Second Mrs. Pennington was largely in charge of the particularly odious chore — following behind three dogs, including two pretty good-sized ones — let’s say about 90% of it. And she never hesitated to point out that fact to me. 

[...]

The Mom’s Day image comes from new-to-me blog TGAW…who has great pics of Glacier National Park, in addition to providing me with this “wouldn’t it be great but it would NEVER frickin’ happen in real life” Mom’s Day illustration. Thanks, TGAW!!

Remind me to write about Glacier…some day.

But, seriously. Happy Mother’s Day to all my favorite Moms, and even to those who aren’t my favorites. I’ll remain cryptic on that last.

Call yer Mom!  Or better yet, give her a big hug and a kiss if you still can.  There comes a time in life when she won't be around, ya know.

My last is still true.

Apropos o' Not Much

Our reader o' many names and I had the following exchange in comments:

Yellow Bird watcher 10 May, 2014 03:26
I think she was 18 if my memory is any good. That was a weird movie, but I find myself singing those lyrics at odd times. I like those pub songs when everyone sings together. I was in a pub in England that had a piano and every night someone would just plop down and start playing some old sing-along song. I used to look around and try to find me my own yellow bird... British women are so funny. I found they mature earlier than American girls. At least more fun to date.

Buck 10 May, 2014 11:45
I was safely (?) married when I did my three years in Ol' Blighty but I'll agree that I ran into more than a few head-turners during my time there. As for the singing... one of the most memorable moments during my three years in Britain was singing Christmas carols in the Old Bar of the Royal Standard of England with the proprietor, his wife, and about six other folks I'd never met, all before a roaring fire and by candle light. It was a truly a "ya hadda be there" type of moment.

Buck 10 May, 2014 11:46
"... singing Christmas carols..." on Christmas Eve. Left that bit out

That exchange prompted me to go find that link to the RSoE (the history is a great good read).  While I was there I took the "virtual tour" and a screen shot of the Old Bar, just for fun and old times' sake.  Here's the Old Bar:

There's no electricity in the Old Bar (or there didn't use to be; the screenshot seems to show an electric light chandelier but I'm quite certain it wasn't there when I was); candle light is all ya get, that and the warm glow of the fire, which is always burning during winter.  One of the better things about the RSoE was the fact it was about a 20 minute drive from where I lived in High Wycombe and only about a 35 minute drive from my place o' bid'niz at RAF Uxbridge.  The Second Mrs. Pennington and I visited the pub often, as did my colleagues and I during the work day (they do a very good "pub lunch").  The Royal Standard was also a "must-do" whenever visiting dignitaries came to Uxbridge, which was often, given our London location.  You'd be amazed at how many visits happened during the Thursday-through-Monday time period... never let it be said the AF doesn't recognize a good boondoggle.

So.  My very favorite pub, evah.

Saturday: Aren't We Glad Winter's Over!

You have to stay to the very end to get it.



This vid isn't from the Usual Source of the Saturday vids, mainly coz all the stuff there was pretty lame this week.  YMMV, of course.

Sleep Tight, Tokyo, USAF Is On Alert

Believe it or don't... from a link at the Usual USAF Source:



Which city is Godzilla attacking in the latest movie, anyway?  Enquiring Minds™ wanna know.

The back story of this vid is here.

The Mouths of Babes

Ramirez got that right. 

In other news... we're near a new "personal best" when it comes to sloth and indolence, what with pouring our first cup today at precisely 1252 hrs.  I really do hate it when this happens.

In Today's Mail

A box of Partagas 1845s in the Double Corona size, along with a freebie... two Partagas-branded "old fashioned" glasses of a rather unique design.  Like this:

I'll burn one of these during After Dinner Whiskey Hour this evening and I shall take said whiskey in one of these most-interesting vessels.  The glasses have round bottoms (as you can plainly see) and they're billed as being able to facilitate the swirling of your beverage of choice, all the better to bring out the "nose" in your libation.  We'll see how that plays out.

Added, somewhat later:  I didn't realize how unique the packaging was on these sticks until I unloaded them into the humidor.  The box is very well done, like this:

There's a bright white exterior box emblazoned with the Partagas logo which contains a glass and wood interior box.  The glass top is two-thirds frosted glass... with the logo worked into the frosted bits... and one-third plain glass; the top slides off to allow access to the cigars themselves.  Overall?  Big points for presentation value; I hope the cigars smoke as well as they look.

Added, 2000 hrs:  Salud!

We've only just begun with the cigar but the initial draw or three were quite lovely.  That's a couple o' fingers of 15 year old Glenlivet in the glass, which works as advertised.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Heart, with Nancy Wilson on lead vocal...



Ah... the Wilson sisters.  EVERYONE was in love with Nancy back in the day and she was/is most certainly a fine looking woman.  Me?  I had the hots for Ann, seein' as how I've always leaned toward the zaftig types.  That said, all those other guys might have been right as Nancy appears to have aged much better than Ann.  But, hey!  A classic case of "now and then," eh?

Heh

Mr. Kelley is on about this, just in case you've been out of touch for the past couple o' days.

And then there's this...

Everything old is new again.

Practical Advice

The Ol' Man had a print of this illustration hanging behind his bar for years...

The literal translation from the French is "never drink water," that being an object lesson I took to heart... and I thought I'd share it with you, Gentle Reader.  I continue to be amazed at the stuff you can find on these inter-tubes, assuming you know how to look.

No Outdoor Happy Hour Today

It's warm, in the low 80s.  It's bright, with only a few clouds in the sky.  But it's NOT a nice day outdoors because the wind is up again.  Note:

The NWS or the boys out at Cannon will prolly change the status icon to "haze" pretty soon which is code for "blowing dust."  Full disclosure: I've actually seen that "blowing dust" status but it's rare.  Here's what that wind advisory sez:

...Wind Advisory remains in effect until 8 PM MDT this evening...
* location...much of central...south central and eastern New Mexico. This includes the Albuquerque Metro area.
* Winds...southwest 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 50 mph.
* Timing...winds will increase speed steadily through early afternoon...with wind speeds peaking from 3 p.M. Onward. Wind speeds will decrease after midnight.
* Visibility...reduced to 5 miles in areas of blowing dust...with local reductions to 3 miles or less in dust prone areas.
* Local impacts...hazardous cross winds will impact travel on east to west oriented roads...especially for large or tall vehicles. Sudden reduction in visibility due to blowing dust may make driving hazardous. Airborne loose objects may be tossed across roads. 

As I said: not nice.

I Got It!

From the Usual USAF Source...

Air Frame: The US Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team performs during the Virginia International Tattoo's Virginia Art Festival on April 23, 2014, at the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Va. The festival is VIT's signature event in honor of Vietnam veterans and their families. (Air Force photo by A1C Devin Scott Michaels)

Drill teams tossing M1 Garands (with bayonets!) around like toothpicks always impress the Hell outta me.  I also wonder how many "training accidents" happen during the making of said drill teams.

The Things You Learn On These Inter-tubes

From the Urban Dictionary:

the fear of an empty glass - manifests itself in a number of circumstances and the symptoms can be uncomfortable at best, downright terrifying at worst.

That's one affliction I'm not in danger of suffering.  So far.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack: A Musical Point-Counterpoint

Otis Redding, with the point:

So darling, darling
Stand by me, oh stand by me
Oh stand, stand by me
Stand by me

Yeah, I know... Ben E. King's version is the one most people are familiar with, but I like Otis' version a lot better.  YMMV.


And The Clash, with the counter-point:

Did you stand by me
No, not at all
Did you stand by me
No way

I suppose this might could be a "Jane, you ignorant slut" kinda moment, eh?  Or not.  You decide.  Me?  I'm goin' back out to the verandah.  Beer me!

Cubes

As in, cubicles.  Didja ever wonder how that monstrous interior architecture of the modern bid'niz world came to be?  Wonder no more... just read this book review ("Away From My Desk") by Jill Lepore in the New Yorker.  An excerpt:

Throughout the nineteen-seventies and eighties, especially during periods of recession, employees were moved from offices to cubicles. “Dilbert,” written by Scott Adams, who worked in a cubicle for seventeen years, began appearing in 1989. “Most business books are written by consultants and professors who haven’t spent much time in a cubicle,” Adams wrote. “That’s like writing a first-hand account of the experience of the Donner party based on the fact that you’ve eaten beef jerky. Me, I’ve gnawed an ankle or two.” Cubicles, like companies, downsized. “Those three walls had once been meant to liberate office workers, to guarantee their autonomy and freedom,” Saval writes. “But they had finally taken on the image that they have today: the flimsy, fabric-wrapped, half-exposed stall where the white-collar worker waited out his days until, at long last, he was laid off.” In 1997, when BusinessWeek’s editorial staff began the move into cubicles, the magazine reported not only that “some 35 million of the 45 million white-collar workers in this country” were working in cubicles but also that, in a single decade, the size of the average cubicle had decreased by as much as fifty per cent.

I did my time in cubes and that time was less than pleasant.  I think the very best perk of being promoted from "individual performer" to manager was getting an office... a real room with four walls and a door.  Like this:

My place o' bid'niz in Ra-cha-cha, NY, 1998.

But there were (and prolly still are) companies who put almost everyone, up to and including VPs, in cubes.  I know, I worked for one, said one bein' the web start-up in SFO that was my last place o' bid'niz.  There were only two people in the entire company who had hard-wall offices: the CEO and the CFO.  All the rest of us sat in cubes... low-walled cubes.  Like this:

In the office, c. 2000.

That setting wasn't all that bad, mainly coz I had good neighbors and, being senior to all the people around me, I got to choose the music we listened to while we worked (you take the perks you're given, no matter how small they seem).  Another perk at that company: a very relaxed dress code, as you can see.  It was a pretty cool place to work before the dot-bomb implosion ripped our world apart.  But that's quite another story.

We digress.  The evolution of office space is what we're on about and Ms. Lepore's article is a good read for those of us interested in that sort of thing.  Go, read.

A BONE For You

From the Usual USAF Source, of course...

Air Frame: A B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess AFB, Texas, takes off during Green Flag 14-6 on April 24, 2014, at Nellis AFB, Nev. (Air Force photo by SrA. Christopher Tam)

Speaking of bones... I thought long and hard (heh) about posting this video, wherein this guy un-boxes a Sybian he bought as a Mother's Day present for HIS MOM.  I kid thee not, that's exactly what he says on several different occasions.  The video is work-safe, I suppose, in that there aren't any blatantly pornographic aspects to the vid at all.  But the very IDEER is quite unsettling and therefore might not be work safe.  So, after all that thinking I decided not to go there but you can if ya wanna, coz the vid is amusing and laugh-out-loud funny, in parts.  But still and even... HIS MOM?

News You Prolly WON'T Use

Didja know the Denver Post has a pot cannabis column ("pot" is déclassé now, all the cool kids say "cannabis") ?  They do.  Like this:

That's a screen shot, click to embiggen.  The column is pretty well done... mixing news, reviews, cooking recipes (?), and humor in a pleasing way.  I'm reasonably impressed.

In other news...  We're on our way to our first 90+ degree day today.

The WX looks good for the rest of this week and beyond... ergo, my beer and cigar consumption is due for a major up-tick. That's not a bad thing.

Hey Kids! What Time Is It?

It's VERANDAH time*!

We're gonna flirt with 90 big-ass degrees today.  Beer me!

*If you're "of a certain age" there's a better than even chance you immediately thought about this.

Saturday: What Would I Do Without Fallon?

I think I might have to start watching the Tonight show.  Everything Fallon does seems to be first-class, even the frickin' hip-hop he has here, a genre to which I devote zero time and/or interest.  I have no ideer who this Emma Stone person is... she's cute enough, and talented... but she's in desperate need of more than a few cheeseburgers.  None the less... this is good stuff.

And there's this...



Ooooh!  Döner kebab!  I haven't had one of those in freakin' YEARS.  I dunno about you, Gentle Reader, but I always used to end up at Denny's (for breakfast!) during my bar-closing days in the USofA.  Other après-bar places varied, depending on what country I was in, but when I was in Nippon an after hours sushi bar was always the ticket.

Broadening Our Horizons LXXX

I thought I posted about this beer before but a search of the EIP archives brought no joy.  So let's correct this oversight...

That would be a Widmer Hefeweizen, a delicious and oh-so-summery sort o' brew that's just perfect for this oh-so-summery kinda day.  I tend to drink a lot o' wheat beers during the summer months and, as I said, today is damned near a perfect summer's day.  My go-to hefeweizen is normally Franziskaner, but the local likker locker was fresh out when I made my beer run earlier today.  So... it's Widmer, which is not a bad second choice.

I mentioned today is damned near perfect.  How perfect?  Like this:

All the windows and the door have been flung wide open... so now it's out to the verandah to enjoy that cigar, a couple o' these hefeweizens, and my very own music.  Life's pretty good.

News You Can Use

A brief article in Esquire explains something of use for the drinking man.  Excerpt:

"You wanna know my secret? How I can drink beer all night long and never get drunk?"

In fact, I had always wondered that. Though this was the first time I’d ever formally met Koch, I’d “met” him in the past at a few beer festivals. Those sorts of events are always kind of Bacchanalian shit shows, with people imbibing dozens of beer samples in a short period and soon stumbling around large convention halls drunk of their asses. Brewers included. But not Koch, who I’d long noticed was always lucid, always able to hold court, and hold his own with those much younger than him. This billionaire brewing raconteur was doing likewise with me at 4 PM on a Thursday afternoon despite the fact we were both now several beers deep. So what was the secret?

Read the link to find out... even though the graphic gives the secret away.  Who knew?

H/t: Digg.

Cadillet or Chevrolac?

I like to think of myself as a moderately well-informed gearhead but today was the first time I've seen one of these...

That's an El Morocco, a customized 1957 Chevy with an add-on body kit designed to make the car look like a Cadillac.  From an article in today's Hemmings Daily newsletter:

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a surefire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means.

This example recently sold at auction for a staggering $140,800.00.  Only three such cars are known to exist, which may explain why I'd never heard of the thing until today.  According to the linked article El Morocco body kits were produced in 1956 and 1957.  That's a damned good looking automobile.

s Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf

As Reuben Allender envisioned the El Morocco, it would provide Cadillac style to those who could only afford Chevrolets, a sure-fire way to appeal to those whose tastes ran beyond their means. Nowadays, however, El Moroccos come rather close to selling for Cadillac prices, as we see from the example that sold at auction this past weekend for $140,800, including buyer’s fees. - See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/05/01/cadillac-taste-chevrolet-budget-1957-el-morocco-sells-for-140000/?refer=news#sthash.QOaApKig.dpuf