Swords into plowshares
Sometimes people wonder what Plowshares is about, and don't really track when people start quotiung Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 (that's the bible, for those who were wondering. See also Joel 3:10, part of the Jewish Tanakh. No, I'm not religious.)
Here's an excellent, incisive, and delightfully tongue-in-cheek introduction to the concept of beating swords into plowshares, from The Pinky Show .
Currently I'm sitting at O'Hare, after a great five days in NYC. I'm watching the snow blowing horizontally, and wondering about my flight (complimentary upgrade to first class!) to Anchorage. The open bar at the Continental/Northwest lounge is helping immensely.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Great Alaska Beer and Barleywine Festival
We attended this evening on the house, since we're volunteering tomorrow night.
The beer? Well, a few were amazing, a few fantastic, some excellent, many average/mediocre, and a depressing number hideous.
One barleywine smelled and tasted profoundly like dill pickles. Yes, really. The volunteer pouring the beer and the random "beer connoisseur" standing there all agreed. Big, big dill pickles.
It was most disappointing to see great breweries, who do great beer, and especially do great specialties, not bring out anything particularly interesting. I kept saying that I hoped they'd be brining it out for tomorrow's Connoisseur's Session. I sure hope so.
The first hour or two was really quite pleasant: after a small early rush right at opening, it really was mostly people who genuinely wanted to taste the beer, and not just get fucked up. Then, Team Meathead showed up in force. Packs and packs of the morons. Simultaneously, the bimbo fools in repulsively tight jeans showed up with high-heeled OPEN shoes, no socks, no tights, no nothing. Bare feet. It was about 19 degrees outside when we walked in.
Ahhhh. For free, it was great. For $30? Not likely.
We attended this evening on the house, since we're volunteering tomorrow night.
The beer? Well, a few were amazing, a few fantastic, some excellent, many average/mediocre, and a depressing number hideous.
One barleywine smelled and tasted profoundly like dill pickles. Yes, really. The volunteer pouring the beer and the random "beer connoisseur" standing there all agreed. Big, big dill pickles.
It was most disappointing to see great breweries, who do great beer, and especially do great specialties, not bring out anything particularly interesting. I kept saying that I hoped they'd be brining it out for tomorrow's Connoisseur's Session. I sure hope so.
The first hour or two was really quite pleasant: after a small early rush right at opening, it really was mostly people who genuinely wanted to taste the beer, and not just get fucked up. Then, Team Meathead showed up in force. Packs and packs of the morons. Simultaneously, the bimbo fools in repulsively tight jeans showed up with high-heeled OPEN shoes, no socks, no tights, no nothing. Bare feet. It was about 19 degrees outside when we walked in.
Ahhhh. For free, it was great. For $30? Not likely.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Handy (or not) online candidate selectors
Since all those people in Iowa and New Hampshire seem to just have such a darn hard time selecting their candidates until the day of their caucus/primary, it's lucky that the internet has a number of tools you help you sort out the various forms of riff-raff you can vote for.
I took the Washington Post's Candidate Selector, Democratic Edition. It has a horribly clunky interface, and is immensely frustrating in that the pap answers provided by the campaigns often presented no real meaningful distinction between the candidates (hmmm...) Anyway, apparently I should vote for John Edwards:
I guess I'm a sucker for a multi-millionaire waving a neo-populist banner of a new-speak international proletariat, errr, middle class. Problem is, I don't vote for people, ever, who believe the state should murder its own citizens.
Well, actually, all these of those rotten fuckers believe that the government should murder its own citizens.
Never say I'm not an optimist, though: I went ahead and took another candidate selector, at selectsmart.com .
The interface was quite a bit nicer, but the results are extremely suspect. It got correct my likely vote: Dennis Kucinich, but I find it simply bizarre that it claims that Hillary Clinton agrees with me just six percent less than Kucinich. And I'm pretty much positive that I'd rather have Stephen Colbert over Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee, even though Colbert was left in the dust.
Since all those people in Iowa and New Hampshire seem to just have such a darn hard time selecting their candidates until the day of their caucus/primary, it's lucky that the internet has a number of tools you help you sort out the various forms of riff-raff you can vote for.
I took the Washington Post's Candidate Selector, Democratic Edition. It has a horribly clunky interface, and is immensely frustrating in that the pap answers provided by the campaigns often presented no real meaningful distinction between the candidates (hmmm...) Anyway, apparently I should vote for John Edwards:
I guess I'm a sucker for a multi-millionaire waving a neo-populist banner of a new-speak international proletariat, errr, middle class. Problem is, I don't vote for people, ever, who believe the state should murder its own citizens.
Well, actually, all these of those rotten fuckers believe that the government should murder its own citizens.
Never say I'm not an optimist, though: I went ahead and took another candidate selector, at selectsmart.com .
The interface was quite a bit nicer, but the results are extremely suspect. It got correct my likely vote: Dennis Kucinich, but I find it simply bizarre that it claims that Hillary Clinton agrees with me just six percent less than Kucinich. And I'm pretty much positive that I'd rather have Stephen Colbert over Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee, even though Colbert was left in the dust.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Reading in 2007
Though of you who know me personally know that I have just a touch of obsessive compulsive tendencies. (HEY! I HEARD THAT SNICKER!)
One of the ways that this manifests is that every book I finish, I write down in the back of my journal: date, title, author, number of pages, and place (primarily) read.
To paraphrase a certain NPR show, let's do the numbers:
total pages: 13,279
total books: 32
(I'll spare you opening the calculator: that's an average of 414.9 per book)
countries books were read in: four
longest book: 1382 pages, War and Remembrance. (Notably, it was the mass market paperback edition, while other editions are as few as 1042 pages. I enjoyed it, but no, it didn't make me run out and get Winds of War which War and Remembrance is written to follow.
shortest book: 98 pages, Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for life after gridcrash by Aric McBay.
A little more qualitatively:
Best books: probably Coming into the Country by John McPhee, and A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe. Though to be honest, it was kind of a slim year for good books, since many of my books came from a free lending library (read: books other people discarded.)
Best non-fiction book: The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice
by David Rose.
Worst book: hands down, with almost no real competition: The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis. In fact, it's certainly in the top five worst books I've ever finished, and could make a good solid run for the top spot in that list. (As my mom told me in the seventh grade, and I've repeated many times since to many people, I firmly believe that life is too short, and there are too many great books out there, to finish crappy books.) The Informers made the potential runners up for "Worst book" look like pinnacles of great literature, including such horrific, formulaic pap as Pacific Vortex! by Clive Cussler, Code of Honour by Harold Coyle, and Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal by by Eric Van Lustbader.
I mean, in any reasonable year, The Bourne Betrayal should absolutely be the worst book I'd finish. But didn't I tell you it was a tough year for me and good books?
Though of you who know me personally know that I have just a touch of obsessive compulsive tendencies. (HEY! I HEARD THAT SNICKER!)
One of the ways that this manifests is that every book I finish, I write down in the back of my journal: date, title, author, number of pages, and place (primarily) read.
To paraphrase a certain NPR show, let's do the numbers:
total pages: 13,279
total books: 32
(I'll spare you opening the calculator: that's an average of 414.9 per book)
countries books were read in: four
longest book: 1382 pages, War and Remembrance. (Notably, it was the mass market paperback edition, while other editions are as few as 1042 pages. I enjoyed it, but no, it didn't make me run out and get Winds of War which War and Remembrance is written to follow.
shortest book: 98 pages, Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for life after gridcrash by Aric McBay.
A little more qualitatively:
Best books: probably Coming into the Country by John McPhee, and A Man in Full by Tom Wolfe. Though to be honest, it was kind of a slim year for good books, since many of my books came from a free lending library (read: books other people discarded.)
Best non-fiction book: The Big Eddy Club: The Stocking Stranglings and Southern Justice
by David Rose.
Worst book: hands down, with almost no real competition: The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis. In fact, it's certainly in the top five worst books I've ever finished, and could make a good solid run for the top spot in that list. (As my mom told me in the seventh grade, and I've repeated many times since to many people, I firmly believe that life is too short, and there are too many great books out there, to finish crappy books.) The Informers made the potential runners up for "Worst book" look like pinnacles of great literature, including such horrific, formulaic pap as Pacific Vortex! by Clive Cussler, Code of Honour by Harold Coyle, and Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Betrayal by by Eric Van Lustbader.
I mean, in any reasonable year, The Bourne Betrayal should absolutely be the worst book I'd finish. But didn't I tell you it was a tough year for me and good books?
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Glacier Twelve Days of Barleywine, and me:
I did reasonably well; below is my end tally for the twelve days:
THE 1ST DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 10, 2007
1. 2001 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (9.88% alcohol by volume)
THE 2nd DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 11, 2007
2. 2003 Big Woody Barleywine aged one year in American oak wine barrel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
THE 4th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 13, 2007
1. 2004 Big Woody Barleywine aged steel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2004/2005 Wine barrel/Hungarian barrel Big Woody Barleywine blend. Aged one year on the respective oaks. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 5th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 14, 2007
1. 2005 Big Woody Barleywine aged in virgin American oak barrels for one year. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Razz XXX. (10.00% alcohol by volume)
THE 7th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 16, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine aged one and a half years in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Russian Imperial Stout aged two years in Ukrainian oak barrel. (9.20% alcohol by volume) Gold Medal winner and People’s Choice award at the 2006 Bistro Barrel Aged Beer Festival, Hayward, CA
THE 8th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 17, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged 19 months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Triple Barrel. Aged five months in Jim Beam barrels, then five months in Ukrainian oak, and then seven months in additional Jim Beam Barrels. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 11th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 20, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 12th DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 21, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in Jim Beam barrels for ten months. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Russian Imperial Stout aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (9.20% alcohol by volume)
CASK BARLEYWINE
1. 2007 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel for one year. (9.85% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged nineteen months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
CASK: all of the above, repeatedly. . .
It was a good run. I'm deeply pleased.
I did reasonably well; below is my end tally for the twelve days:
THE 1ST DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 10, 2007
1. 2001 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (9.88% alcohol by volume)
THE 2nd DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 11, 2007
2. 2003 Big Woody Barleywine aged one year in American oak wine barrel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
THE 4th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 13, 2007
1. 2004 Big Woody Barleywine aged steel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2004/2005 Wine barrel/Hungarian barrel Big Woody Barleywine blend. Aged one year on the respective oaks. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 5th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 14, 2007
1. 2005 Big Woody Barleywine aged in virgin American oak barrels for one year. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Razz XXX. (10.00% alcohol by volume)
THE 7th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 16, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine aged one and a half years in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Russian Imperial Stout aged two years in Ukrainian oak barrel. (9.20% alcohol by volume) Gold Medal winner and People’s Choice award at the 2006 Bistro Barrel Aged Beer Festival, Hayward, CA
THE 8th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 17, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged 19 months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Triple Barrel. Aged five months in Jim Beam barrels, then five months in Ukrainian oak, and then seven months in additional Jim Beam Barrels. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 11th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 20, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 12th DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 21, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in Jim Beam barrels for ten months. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Russian Imperial Stout aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (9.20% alcohol by volume)
CASK BARLEYWINE
1. 2007 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel for one year. (9.85% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged nineteen months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
CASK: all of the above, repeatedly. . .
It was a good run. I'm deeply pleased.
Glacier Twelve Days of Barleywine, and me:
I did reasonably well; below is my end tally for the twelve days:
THE 1ST DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 10, 2007
1. 2001 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (9.88% alcohol by volume)
THE 2nd DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 11, 2007
2. 2003 Big Woody Barleywine aged one year in American oak wine barrel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
THE 4th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 13, 2007
1. 2004 Big Woody Barleywine aged steel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2004/2005 Wine barrel/Hungarian barrel Big Woody Barleywine blend. Aged one year on the respective oaks. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 5th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 14, 2007
1. 2005 Big Woody Barleywine aged in virgin American oak barrels for one year. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Razz XXX. (10.00% alcohol by volume)
THE 7th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 16, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine aged one and a half years in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Russian Imperial Stout aged two years in Ukrainian oak barrel. (9.20% alcohol by volume) Gold Medal winner and People’s Choice award at the 2006 Bistro Barrel Aged Beer Festival, Hayward, CA
THE 8th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 17, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged 19 months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Triple Barrel. Aged five months in Jim Beam barrels, then five months in Ukrainian oak, and then seven months in additional Jim Beam Barrels. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 11th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 20, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 12th DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 21, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in Jim Beam barrels for ten months. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Russian Imperial Stout aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (9.20% alcohol by volume)
CASK BARLEYWINE
1. 2007 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel for one year. (9.85% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged nineteen months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
all of the above, repeatedly
It was a good run.
I did reasonably well; below is my end tally for the twelve days:
THE 1ST DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 10, 2007
1. 2001 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (9.88% alcohol by volume)
THE 2nd DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 11, 2007
2. 2003 Big Woody Barleywine aged one year in American oak wine barrel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
THE 4th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 13, 2007
1. 2004 Big Woody Barleywine aged steel. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2004/2005 Wine barrel/Hungarian barrel Big Woody Barleywine blend. Aged one year on the respective oaks. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 5th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 14, 2007
1. 2005 Big Woody Barleywine aged in virgin American oak barrels for one year. (10.75% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Razz XXX. (10.00% alcohol by volume)
THE 7th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 16, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine aged one and a half years in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Russian Imperial Stout aged two years in Ukrainian oak barrel. (9.20% alcohol by volume) Gold Medal winner and People’s Choice award at the 2006 Bistro Barrel Aged Beer Festival, Hayward, CA
THE 8th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 17, 2007
1. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged 19 months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Triple Barrel. Aged five months in Jim Beam barrels, then five months in Ukrainian oak, and then seven months in additional Jim Beam Barrels. (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 11th DAY OF BARLEYWINE - DEC. 20, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
3. Cask conditioned selection.
THE 12th DAY OF BARLEYWINE – DEC. 21, 2007
1. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged in Jim Beam barrels for ten months. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
2. 2007 Russian Imperial Stout aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery. (9.20% alcohol by volume)
CASK BARLEYWINE
1. 2007 Big Woody Barleywine aged in steel for one year. (9.85% alcohol by volume)
2. 2006 Big Woody Barleywine - Double Barrel. Aged nineteen months in Jim Beam barrels and then one year in American oak wine barrels from the Silverado Winery that were re-toasted to our brewer’s specifications (11.16% alcohol by volume)
3. 2008 Big Woody Barleywine aged ten months in American oak wine barrels from the Honig Winery. (11.03% alcohol by volume)
all of the above, repeatedly
It was a good run.
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