Super Bowl Cocktails, part 2a

THE WHO DAT COOLER

1oz. Early Times Bourbon

1oz. Bacardi O rum

1oz. Triple Sec

1oz. Lemon Juice

4oz. Bigelow Constant Comment Tea

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into ice-filled glass and garnish with orange slice.

This is a variation on the "New Orleans" described in Difford's Guide, substituting Bacardi O for regular rum, Triple Sec for Chambord, and an orange-flavored tea for chamomile to create a more citrusy, Florida flavor.

Super Bowl Cocktails, part 1

A friend of mine has commissioned special team-specific cocktails for his Super Bowl party. In honor of the Indianapolis Colts, I present....

PEYTON'S BLUE LAGOON

1oz. Absolut Citron vodka

1oz. Blue Curacao

4oz. Simply Limeade

Stir all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Pour into glass and garnish with orange slice.

This variation on the standard Blue Lagoon features more citrus flavor in deference to the Super Bowl venue, Miami, Florida.

I should probably stop looking at German car magazines...

The forthcoming Audi A7 (autobild.de)
The forthcoming BMW CS

And the new BMW 5-Series

If I were to ever win the lottery, I don't think there would be a garage big enough to accomodate all of the cars I would like to have.

I used to like NASCAR....

This is a 2010 Ford Mustang.

NASCAR would like you to believe that THIS is a 2010 Ford Mustang. But it is not.

First, we get the pointless-as-tits-on-a-boar "Chase" "playoff" scheme.

Then we get the abomination that is the "Car of Tomorrow".

Then they give us this "Mustang," apparently, sadly, with Ford's blessing.

It's not as if we needed any more evidence that NASCAR has become a gigantic stinking dungheap.

Witness the hatchet job that NASCAR did in trying to get the Mustang compliant with the "Car of Tomorrow" template to be used in the minor-league Nationwide Series, starting in 2010. The last I checked, the new Mustang didn't have a trunk. But that's not what NASCAR would have you believe. Toyota and Chevrolet haven't been done any favors by the new Nationwide rules either.

Ford and Mustang fans should be marching with pitchforks and torches on NASCAR's Daytona Beach headquarters.

Chevy fans should be thankful that GM didn't let NASCAR butcher the awesome new Camaro in a similar fashion. Their reasoning here, as told by GM Racing Director Mark Kent to autoextremist.com (emphasis mine):

"We've looked at racing the Camaro, and one thing that we do not want to do is to force a car where it shouldn't be. As we looked at NASCAR, for example, we took a very hard look at running the Camaro in the Nationwide Series. That was a request made of us by NASCAR. We've had a tremendous partnership with NASCAR, so we took a very hard look at it. At the end of the day, because of the quest for very close competition and the need to have templated bodies in that series, we just felt that by forcing the Camaro into the Nationwide templates, we were compromising the lines of an iconic car. At the end of the day, we could not get the Camaro in the Nationwide Series to satisfy our requirements."

It's hard to tell what value, if any, the automakers are supposed to derive from NASCAR participation anymore. The automakers are third-class citizens behind the drivers and sponsors. The cars bear no resemblance, either inward or outward, to the cars that we can buy in showrooms. When was the last time you could buy a new car with a carburetor?

They make very nice Christmas lights in Ingolstadt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjkJCDCxDys

The War On Christmas...Where Do I Sign Up?

On October 11, I went to the Meijer store in Defiance, and what did I see?

Christmas decorations.

Yes, Christmas decorations. On October 11th.

OCTOBER!!!!

Almost 3 full weeks before HALLOWEEN, for crying out loud. Never mind that one could have bought any of this stuff for half price last December 26.

What's next, tinsel on Labor Day? Reindeer on the 4th of July?

Enough already. You shouldn't be able to buy Yuletide bric-a-brac anywhere outside of Frankenmuth, MI before Thanksgiving.

Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Christmas. A lot. I enjoy giving and receiving gifts. I (grudgingly and in a dilatory fashion) send Christmas cards. I like all the baked goods. I don't even mind going to church at unusual hours for Christmas Mass.

But I'm not ready for any of it in f---ing October.

I'm reminded of a "Sesame Street" skit where the characters pondered what life would be like if it were Christmas every day. The first couple of days were pretty cool. Then the garbage started to pile up. The mail wasn't getting delivered. No work was getting done. Most importantly, Christmas lost its special qualities. I feel like we're at that point. The relentless, inexorable expansion of the "holiday shopping season" erodes the meaning of the winter holidays.

I'd like to get through Halloween. Halloween's not my thing, but I've got no beef with those who enjoy it.

I'd like to give Thanksgiving its due. It's about having a nice meal and spending time with friends and family - not a religious/commercial extravaganza. Shouldn't we be allowed to enjoy that before turning our attention to Christmas?

A "War on Christmas"? No. I've got no use for those who complain about multi-religious holiday displays on public property or kvetch about store clerks who don't say "Merry Christmas."
It's time for a different sort of War on Christmas. It's time to send a message to the retailers - we're sick of the expansion of the holiday shopping season.

DON'T BUY ANY CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS BEFORE THANKSGIVING!!!

11/1

Municipal elections today in one of my favorite cities, Montreal. Follow the results here:

http://election-montreal.qc.ca/actualites/detail/Election-Montreal-Actualite-20091030-2.en.html