My wine journey began at 16 one Saturday afternoon in the garden with a pint of my parent’s home made peapod otherwise known at the time as “Mad Dog”. The wine stayed with me only briefly, and I won’t attempt to describe the myriad of senses and flavours that were involved. Fortunately my first experience was not a harbinger of wines to come.
Since then I’ve managed to drink many wines, mostly with better flavors than the first. But after all of these years and wines, I have still feel a bit uncomfortable expressing how I felt about a particular bottle, especially after hearing people describe the same wine as “flowing with chocolate and cinnamon, intermixed with blah, blah, blah”.
Perhaps my palate died on the lawn. In any case, I’ll leave the lengthy descriptions to those with better imaginations than me and stick with more elegant descriptions like “it’s nice” or “not bad”
Americans have contests to contest who can shove more food into themselves (with their nations problem with obesity and other parts of the world starving).
By attaching its name to the ultimate in overdoing it, Pepto, which is owned by Procter & Gamble, may have found a receptive audience. “[Competitive] eaters have been using it for years,” said George Shea, chairman of Major League Eating, the event organizer…. Sauce
It is a sad commentary on our society. That they have a “major league eating” that can actually exist as an organization is even a sadder commentary .
However I believe in a free market, and defend the right of people to engage in any commerce they desire. The most important market is that of ideas. To be “frank” , hot dog eating contests are among the “wurst” entertainments in the culture, though they seem to be “on a roll.” I do not “relish” such events, have never “mustard” any interest, and hope the participants “ketchup” with better alternatives.
A funny NY Post headline from many years ago: “blokey (can’t remember the name) wins by a nose.” The winner stuffed his mouth so much that bits of hot dog were coming out through his nostrils!
Summer brings expecations of balmy evenings sitting outdoors in the garden sipping refreshing drinks wearing loose clothing and enjoying the peace – all very well for most but consider those with less regular working patterns – seasonal workers may be required to stay on to satisfy customer demands at tourist attractions, IT technicians who work long into the night running system updates sweltering in server rooms installing financial software so essential treasury management system will be effective next day.
Folks who return home after dark should plant white flowers (or salmon pink, which also shows up well in the dark) around their walkway and front steps. Planters or beds near a deck or porch where folk sit after dark can be planted with salmon pink, white, or silvery foliage plants. All this can be done on a small scale, to add great pleasure to evenings at home, without planting a full garden for evenings.
Don’t forget Evening Primrose (Oenothera).
The common Evening primrose (yellow) makes a delightful evening flower display. It is a tall biennial and looks like a weed (in some places it IS a weed), but a whirl of new bright yellow blossoms opens on every plant every evening just after sunset – you can watch them POP open in a few seconds.
The blooms have a rich dark scent of musk and fresh ground black pepper, a strong draw to their pollinator of choice, ghost-like hawk moths the size of hummingbirds.
Come morning the flowers will shrivel, unless the day is cool and overcast…
But evening will bring a fresh new round, and will do so for two months or more.
You would have thought that the news that some airlines (mainly US) are giving their economy cabins a make over would be great – that is until the full story is revealed that the airlines are simply trying to fit more into the space – roomier overhead bins, better entertainment systems, Wi-Fi access, more electrical outlets and sometimes more seats crammed in – leather ones at that!
Flying in economy can be so unpleasant and leather seats won’t help.
I’m tall – leather seats don’t make you “more comfortable” when you’re completely crammed for hours. I don’t need a meal or a smiling flight attendant as long as I have room. So it seems to me that the airlines have their priorities wrong.
Leather seats are hot and make people sweat … won’t that be sweet? It will also be more difficult to muffle escaping gas. Imagine the inflight entertainment on a return flight from Mumbai – up, up and away!
Are they planning to fix my pet peeve? I don’t think seats in economy should recline. It’s like asking someone if they want to steal space from the person behind them at no cost to them. They should just put in those bendable head rests, pick an average seat recline angle and leave it.
Forget the wi-fi – forget the drinks – forget the toys – MORE space is priority #1. When a person is physically uncomfortable, nothing else matters.
