American Madness

A couple posts today before I take a few days off to visit the parental units-by-marriage in Texas. The first is this interesting Syrah (or Shiraz as they type it in Australia) I tasted last night. It was offered as part of FreshDirect’s holiday wine pack and it a great drink at $15.

Winery: Hope Estate
Grape: Shiraz
Region: Hunter Valley, Australia
Year: 2005

Source: FreshDirect.com

Price: $15

Color: Dark red

Nose: Dark berry scents with slight chocolate and hints of mint. After a swirl asparagus and black pepper come out.

Taste: This medium bodied wine has a dramatic fruit forward entry, presenting lots of plum and blueberry flavors. Later, the wine has a taste and texture similar to a baked chocolate-raspberry cake. The exit is soft, with lingering tannins and raspberry flavors. (more…)

When I started working as a full-time journalist six years ago, I took every opportunity to meet with people in whatever subject area I was covering. Over time, I’ve gotten busier and had to become more selective about whom I spend time with.

Picking which relationships to feed or develop is very difficult. Some of my best sources and some good friends have resulted from completely random and unlikely circumstances. I met one friend from a mass email. I met another via an ad I posted on Craigslist asking for help with a project. So I am disinclined to ignore opportunities.

At the same time, I can’t begin to count the number of useless meetings I’ve had and people I no longer speak to. Or worse: there are those who once were useful and now just waste time. Parasites, even if they are nice people.

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Every year, Pantone, the color authority decides on a color for the year. This years winner, and the official Pantone color for 2008 is… drum roll please… Blue Iris (or, 18-3943 TCX for those in the know).

Blue Iris marks the 4th time a blue has been chosen for the color of the year this Millennium. (previous winners include Blue Turquoise, Aqua Sky and we kicked off the millennium with Cerulean Blue). The color is “a mix of blue and purple that suggests dependability and magic.”

As Blue Iris was unavailable to accept the award, Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute had this to say about this years chosen winner:

As a reflection of the times, Blue Iris brings together the dependable aspect of blue, underscored by a strong, soul-searching purple cast. Emotionally, it is anchoring and meditative with a touch of magic. Look for it artfully combined with deeper plums, red-browns, yellow-greens, grapes and grays.

Oddly the site seems to just be linking directly to a dating site now… well it was interesting for about 12 hours.

24

Personally I am not positive if I could take 24 5 year olds. I am not totally sure where I found this site, but I think the premise is hilariously ridiculous. After a brief set of questions relating to your physique, fighting experience and ethics the site tells you precisely how many five year olds you could take in a fight. A vital piece of information no ones should be without.

What exactly does it mean when the best thing you can say about something is the same as the worst you can say about it?

That is the story of Absolut 100 Vodka. One of the newest Absolut vodkas out, the 100 stands for 100 proof, or 50% alcohol. With that percentage you would expect that the vodka would taste like a fine grain alcohol, not terribly pleasant and probably meant primarily for mixing with fruit juices or anything else that might cut the taste. But that is not the case with Absolut 100. Here is what I can say about it. It tastes just like Absolut Vodka. Not a glowing recommendation, not a real trashing.

Absolut 100 is a perfectly fine just-below-the-top-shelf vodka. Pretty much the same taste that make Absolut what it is, but with a higher alcohol content and, well, a kick-ass bottle. The classic Absolut bottle painted black with silver writing for the name and black screened letters for the story. This is the type of thing that people take note of when you bring it as a gift to a holiday party. That, or it makes you look like you are trying too hard.

That is the headline the New York Times chose to run on an article about 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears (Britney’s sister) being knocked up.

Now, Jamie Lynn, the actress, is pregnant. Her character on Zoey 101, her Nickelodean tv show, is not. This is not a case of Nickelodean trying to be controversial or trying to make a statement that parents should talk to their children about sex. This is simply the case of a teen actress getting pregnant. The headline, of course, reads as if it was a fictional ‘TV Teen” not a real person, and certainly not some one who is part of a ‘Real Family.’

Has this actually become the case. Are the celebrities in our society no longer real people capable of real relationships? Great that this has caused parents to take some responsibility and talk to their kids about what can happen if you have sex, but let’s not treat this as if it is just another after school special. Got to remember, no matter how the Spears seem, they still are real people.

I can’t take credit for discovering this one. My friend Sophie (who wrote, I believe, 1 whole post for American Madness) clued me into it.

Bacon Salt is not just your typical seasoning salt, it is “a zero calorie, vegetarian, kosher certified seasoning salt that makes everything taste like bacon.” And it lives up to the description. I got a chance to taste all three varieties, the original, hickory and the bacon. I tried them on a variety of things and, well it does just as it claims, it makes things taste like bacon.

Sometimes you just feel it is wrong, like on your salad or vegetables, others just taste odd, eating bacon and eggs is one thing, eating bacon flavored eggs is totally different. Now you are probably wondering if this is just a ground up version of Bacos or Bacon-Bits. It isn’t, although it does have a slight Bacon-bits flavor, overall it tastes like the real deal.

The Bacon Salt company was started by two guys, Dave & Justin and the $5,000 winnings from a video on America’s Funniest Home Videos. As they call it an improbable story. They started out with their original Smoky flavor, Hickory and Maple. The Maple wasn’t good enough to make the cut and was replaced by Peppered and with that they had their trio of flavors.

The Bacon Salt guys even have their own blog. You can read more about their story both here and here. Bacon Salt even has a YouTube video of someone snorting it and Bacon Salt: The Movie.

I think it was Republic of Tea tea that first really got me into drinking tea. I believe it was their Moroccan Mint Green Tea. It was pretty decent tea, much better then I was used to and it came in a neat canister. Nothing wrong there, tasty stuff.

Recently, the Republic of Tea sent me some of their new Ginger Peach Green Tea to try out. First off, if you aren’t familiar with the Republic of Tea, you should head over and check out their website. They make some nice sets and have some decent teas, they also have a decent sense of humor, the head of the company is referred to as the Minister of Tea. They sent me a canister of their tea in a box filled with the excess paper frm their tea bags as packaging, it was actually a pretty innovative idea. (more…)

So, as you may have heard, Giuliani is being treated for flu-like symptoms.

I read about this today on the front page of the New York Times website. And then I heard about it on the radio. Finally I saw it on the news. Has it really been that slow a news week?

My favorite though are the implications that this story has: Is the campaign trail too long and grueling? Is Giuliani’s health failing? Is Giuliani such a weak man that he has been taken down by a common cold?

Or is it really just such a slow news week that this fluff is considered to be front page worthy?

PF Flyers: A brand of sneakers that are probably more familiar to our parents then to most of us. The company started making shoes in 1937 and had their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. They’ve kind of fallen off since then and not a lot of folks are keeping an eye out on what they’ve been doing.

This year PF Flyers turns 70, Rachel and I had a chance to check out some of the most recent collections for PF Flyers (Fall 2007, Spring/Summer 2008) and we think its time folks started checking them out again. While I am happy to comment on their men’s line, I recruited Rachel to write on their women’s line.

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