MESSING WITH THE PRESS
This week, in LA CityBeat, I add my eleven cents to the discussion of the propaganda war as conducted by the Bush White House.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3003&IssueNum=132
I was considering the War on Christmas, but I dismissed it. I found I had nothing to say beyond another discourse on smoke-screen idiot-mechanics, as the neocon evangelists (unthought of, though, somehow) cross the Jungian frontier and assault the doors of perception.
But here’s a link to a blog of really interesting stuff scientific/cultural stuff...
http://www.collisiondetection.net/
CRYPTIQUE – Someone feed the lions
The secret word is Trenchcoat
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!!!!DON’T MISS THE CRYPTIQUE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!!
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Saturday, December 17, 2005
Friday, December 16, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
SOMETIMES ONLY A MARTINI WILL MAKE IT
Who remembers Judge Robert Bork? He was a right wing absolutist who was kept off the Supreme Court back in 1987, when all thinking people breathed a sigh of relief. Of Bork, Ted Kennedy said – "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, children could not be taught about evolution."
And yet I find myself in full agreement (except for the olive) with the following letter, written by Bork and published in Monday’s Wall Street Journal...
Martini's Founding Fathers: Original Intent Debatable
Eric Felten's essay on the dry martini is itself near-perfect ("Don't Forget the Vermouth," Leisure & Arts, Pursuits, Dec. 10). His allusion to constitutional jurisprudence is faulty, however, since neither in law nor martinis can we know the subjective "original intent" of the Founding Fathers. As to martinis, the intent may have been to ease man's passage through this vale of tears or, less admirably, to employ the tactic of "candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."
What counts in mixology is the "original understanding" of the martini's essence by those who first consumed it. The essence remains unaltered but allows proportions to evolve as circumstances change. Mr. Felten's "near-perfect martini" is the same in principle as the "original-understanding martini" and therefore its legitimate descendant. Such latter-day travesties as the chocolate martini and the raspberry martini, on the other hand, are the work of activist bartenders.
Mr. Felten lapses into heresy only once. He prefers the olive to the lemon peel because the former is a "snack." Dropping a snack into a classic drink is like garnishing filet mignon with ketchup. The correct response when offered an olive is, "When I want a salad, I'll ask for it."
Robert H. BorkThe Hudson Institute
Washington
And, just for reference, here is how Doc40 makes a perfect martini.
Take a cocktail shaker, and half fill with ice.
Pour in a shot of vermouth.
Shake.
Throw away the Vermouth, but keep the ice.
Pour a large shot of gin over the vermouthed ice.
Shake very quickly.
Decant into conical glass.
Add lemon peel or olive. (I love a martini-soaked olive.)
The only thing you can’t put in a martini is a cocktail onion because that makes it a Gibson.
Also Natalie Nichols also has a very good piece on gin in the LA CityBeat drinking issue.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=2974&IssueNum=131
The secret word is Legless
Who remembers Judge Robert Bork? He was a right wing absolutist who was kept off the Supreme Court back in 1987, when all thinking people breathed a sigh of relief. Of Bork, Ted Kennedy said – "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, children could not be taught about evolution."
And yet I find myself in full agreement (except for the olive) with the following letter, written by Bork and published in Monday’s Wall Street Journal...
Martini's Founding Fathers: Original Intent Debatable
Eric Felten's essay on the dry martini is itself near-perfect ("Don't Forget the Vermouth," Leisure & Arts, Pursuits, Dec. 10). His allusion to constitutional jurisprudence is faulty, however, since neither in law nor martinis can we know the subjective "original intent" of the Founding Fathers. As to martinis, the intent may have been to ease man's passage through this vale of tears or, less admirably, to employ the tactic of "candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker."
What counts in mixology is the "original understanding" of the martini's essence by those who first consumed it. The essence remains unaltered but allows proportions to evolve as circumstances change. Mr. Felten's "near-perfect martini" is the same in principle as the "original-understanding martini" and therefore its legitimate descendant. Such latter-day travesties as the chocolate martini and the raspberry martini, on the other hand, are the work of activist bartenders.
Mr. Felten lapses into heresy only once. He prefers the olive to the lemon peel because the former is a "snack." Dropping a snack into a classic drink is like garnishing filet mignon with ketchup. The correct response when offered an olive is, "When I want a salad, I'll ask for it."
Robert H. BorkThe Hudson Institute
Washington
And, just for reference, here is how Doc40 makes a perfect martini.
Take a cocktail shaker, and half fill with ice.
Pour in a shot of vermouth.
Shake.
Throw away the Vermouth, but keep the ice.
Pour a large shot of gin over the vermouthed ice.
Shake very quickly.
Decant into conical glass.
Add lemon peel or olive. (I love a martini-soaked olive.)
The only thing you can’t put in a martini is a cocktail onion because that makes it a Gibson.
Also Natalie Nichols also has a very good piece on gin in the LA CityBeat drinking issue.
http://lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=2974&IssueNum=131
The secret word is Legless
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Monday, December 12, 2005
IF YOU LOVED PENGUIN WHACKING YOU’RE GOING TO LIKE THIS (OR VICE VERSA)...
The longer you shake it, the more they scream. (sent by Rumor)
http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/snowglobe.html
BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS...
I kinda made it a rule at Doc40 not to dedicate too much energy to eulogizing the dead or commemorating the death of icons, if for no other reason that my life drifts into that area of age where the RIPs become progressively more numerous. On a bad day it can seem like the Old Guard are dropping like flies, and, on a worse one, I tentatively contemplate my own mortality, even though I still secretly believe that I’m indestructible. Thus, when Munz sent over this link to a 1971 John Lennon interview with Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn, passing it along seemed like a suitable Doc40 way to mark and remember. Back in the day, I didn’t really see eye to eye with either Ali or Blackburn. We were on the same side, and in the same raging confrontations with authority, but methods and motives were questioned in both directions. Having said this, I have to admit they did move Lennon to talk about stuff never even approached by the likes of Rolling Stone. (But that is the quaint way we talked about revolution, and don’t let anyone tell you different.)
http://www.counterpunch.org/lennon12082005.html
DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, AND SEX
I also don’t necessarily agree with a lot of what Hooman Majd has to say but there’s some food for thought in his very lengthy observations of the Islamic world. (I also noted, in the comments that followed, a lot of Huffington Post readers were put out by the length. Cyber-attention span may be a coming problem.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooman-majd/jihad-vs-mcsex_b_12034.html
CRYPTIQUE – The pecking order of arrogance is not the stairway to heaven.
The secret word is Imagine
The longer you shake it, the more they scream. (sent by Rumor)
http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/snowglobe.html
BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS...
I kinda made it a rule at Doc40 not to dedicate too much energy to eulogizing the dead or commemorating the death of icons, if for no other reason that my life drifts into that area of age where the RIPs become progressively more numerous. On a bad day it can seem like the Old Guard are dropping like flies, and, on a worse one, I tentatively contemplate my own mortality, even though I still secretly believe that I’m indestructible. Thus, when Munz sent over this link to a 1971 John Lennon interview with Tariq Ali and Robin Blackburn, passing it along seemed like a suitable Doc40 way to mark and remember. Back in the day, I didn’t really see eye to eye with either Ali or Blackburn. We were on the same side, and in the same raging confrontations with authority, but methods and motives were questioned in both directions. Having said this, I have to admit they did move Lennon to talk about stuff never even approached by the likes of Rolling Stone. (But that is the quaint way we talked about revolution, and don’t let anyone tell you different.)
http://www.counterpunch.org/lennon12082005.html
DEMOCRACY, WHISKEY, AND SEX
I also don’t necessarily agree with a lot of what Hooman Majd has to say but there’s some food for thought in his very lengthy observations of the Islamic world. (I also noted, in the comments that followed, a lot of Huffington Post readers were put out by the length. Cyber-attention span may be a coming problem.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hooman-majd/jihad-vs-mcsex_b_12034.html
CRYPTIQUE – The pecking order of arrogance is not the stairway to heaven.
The secret word is Imagine
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