LB will also be there for a quick drink.
And she thinks anybody else with the evening free should show.
The Fresh Salt on that island off the coast of New Jersey?
Let me be the first to suggest Fresh Salt.
JP Stormcrow reiterates that the first line of the post is true, and he will be at Fresh Salt tonight.
Sifu Tweety recapitulates earlier reiterations. (See heebie, this is how the pros do it.)
This is all very meta. If I stop by, will anybody be there but JP and maybe LB? I'm sure that would be disappointing for JP.
If you stop by, there will be somebody there besides JP and LB. If you don't stop by, there may or may not be anybody there besides JP and LB.
D'oh. Let's focus on the scenario where I do not stop by.
If you don't stop by, there is a small but non-zero probability that there will not be anybody there but JP and LB assuming that 'anybody' is limited to people who won't want to run away if you ask them about their interest in sexing Mutumbo.
10: Unless Yawnoc is secretly either JP or LB.
Right. I think we need a grid to keep track of the possibilities.
As someone has surely said elsewhere, NMMT Bob Guccione. And to think I was *just* talking about Omni Magazine.
Let's focus on the scenario where I do not stop by.
Oh, if I had a dime for every time someone's responded to my party invitations with that sentence.
13: I may be, secretly. There are periods of time I can't account for. And I'm currently wearing my court clothes.
12: And possibly my brother-in-law--with whom I have not explored the degree of his interest in sexing Mutombo. But Yawnoc, don't cry for me, Argentina worry about attendance, my plans were late in firming up and I certainly don't think the NYers should feel any compulsion to gather every time a provincial shows up in town.
So, whether or not Yawnoc appears at Fresh Salt, Bob Guccione won't. That's one column we can remove from the grid.
17: Did you recently start a secret society called Litigation Club?
23: No comment. But 17 should read "I am currently wearing my courting clothes."
OMG. I'm sitting here bored, waiting for my case to be called, and suddenly realized that the case being argued now is a hotly contested Rule Against Perpetuites issue. I had no idea that ever came up anymore.
I might be there. I'm wreckage today.
So Bave -- pay attention in Property. You never know when you might run into a fee tail on the hoof.
||
I just saw a segment on CNN about a man, whose son is a scout, who has been barred from being a leader in the Boy Scouts because he is gay. CNN ran a brief clip of a Boy Scout spokesman saying that they ban gays and atheists from leadership. The CNN anchor made an acerbic comment about "tolerance" not being in the Boy Scout law ("A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, ..."). The anchor then started a live, sympathetic, interview with the father and son. The first question to the father was, How does it feel, being grouped with atheists?
Atheists. Obejectively worse than ____.
|>
A friend of mine is insanely curious about the Rule Against Perpetuities. I think I eventually had to send him something from Blackstone.
I'm sitting here bored
Well, don't think you can pass the time by masturbating to Bob Guccione.
30: Let apo be the first to say.
I thought it was pretty important to share: I won't be at Fresh Salt tonight. But have a Sixpoint on my tab. (Also, if I have a tab there, let me know. Because that would be unexpected.)
31: But he's only the 2nd to mention it in *this* thread... so value added!
||
Google-stalking people is a lot harder than I remember. Maybe the problem is the fact that I'm (a) looking for one specific Web site or (b) doing it from work, where some sites that might be useful intermediaries are blocked, but still, I'd expect to have found more by now.
|>
28: That's hilarious.
I'm sure that I blew the unborn widow question on the bar.
the 2nd to mention it in *this* thread
Huh. Was I really the last one still doing that? Boy is my face red. Also, my heart rate is up and I'm breathing heavily.
Speaking of the Bar/bar, make sure you understand the ficticious payee rule. By the way, is neb going?
Thanks to comment renumbering, I can now not tell if JP finds apostropher or CharleyCarp hott. Clarification needed!
||
I am officially too wimpy to change a shower head. Ridiculous. I can't even tighten the wrench enough for optimal grabbing, much less actually turn the thing. Bah. Bah. Bah.
|>
If only we had someone at Unfogged who could advise you on strength training. And water usage.
44: Barring that, this hypothetical water-minded strong person could also be an expert in the art of holding grudges—in this case, a grudge against shower heads and wrenches.
42: Charley, because otherwise a comment would had to have been added, rather than deleted.
Damn you and your maths, apostropher.
And here I thought the correct answer was "Charley, because Charley is objectively hott."
Follow-up to 35: when looking for someone's blog, it should not take two hours to think of checking the blog of a friend of that person. I feel stupid.
I was *just* talking about Omni Magazine.
The first time I ever heard of Al Gore was in Omni magazine. A '79 or '80 column praised then Rep. Gore's interest in science and technology and encouraged him to keep the Presidency in his sights. My memory is that Omni was a combination of popular science writing, science fiction, and fringy pseudo-science, all with a real Marin Country hot-tub vibe, but at the time it made a deep impression on the young me.
My impression of Omni was that it was the print version of that TV series where Nimoy went "In Search Of" the plausible sounding urban/pre-urban legends.
Huh. I had no idea there was a Guccione/Omni connection.
||
In the "NPR does something right" department, they've shitcanned Juan Williams. Several years too late, but still.
|>
My impression of Omni was that it was an overpriced hotel. But, then, if we're doing anything other than cheap for a hotel, my heart belongs to Westin, if for no other reason than their pleasant-smelling lotion and soap.
53.2: Let Jesus be the first to say.
Oh fucking hell. Now I have to read every goddamn thread before I comment?
48 -- You might want to get your gauges checked. Or glasses cleaned.
I have to read about the Rule Against Perpetuities tonight. What I know so far: it can only apply to contingent remainders, not vested ones.
Off to drink.
That's key, because the point is to eliminate uncertainty. Once a remainder is vested, it's no longer a source of uncertainty.
I just had no idea that it was even possible to accidentally draft a commercial lease that violated the RaP.
Speaking of uncertainty, where were people meeting for drinks?
62: So this thing is actually happening? Am I there yet?
I'm leaving now, so I should be there in about thirty to forty minutes.
And you can watch Body Heat, the RaP classic.
So to check with the bar-going crowd: when one orders cognac, one doesn't expect to hear "how do you like it?", right?
Especially when the waitress follows with "like, a shot?"
67: You said, with amaretto, sour mix, and a splash of soda, right?
69: I don't think I know this drink. Should I?
I would make the obligatory VM reference to 65 but I wouldn't want to be predictable.
70: No. I made it up. It just sounded gross to me. (Although something called an Amaretto Sour was the girl drink in Chicago in the early aughties. But I never had one so I am not sure how they were made.)
When I tended bar, I was surprised by the number of people who ordered Hennessey with Dr. Pepper.
I didn't think it sounded very good, but I wondered if I was missing something.
73: I'd think one would be enough to surprise me. It is over ice?
Although something called an Amaretto Sour was the drink my roommate who later dramatically announced he was gay and was pissed off when we were all like "yes, and?" used to force on everyone in the early aughties.
77: Was the problem lack of support or lack of surprise?
JP Hulk speak simple sentences. No like complexity.
Hennessey is brandy, right? I'm thinking if you find brandy too dry, you may as well go for the Zima.
80: Lack of surprise, I guess? I don't know. I kind of feel bad about it, in retrospect, because I guess it was a major step for him to tell us. But we just didn't see it as a huge deal.
I comment too much when I've been drinking, don't I? Oh well. Sorry for boring you all. The people at Fresh Salt should liveblog more.
||
The same water that goes into the toilet tank comes out of the faucet, right? (in places that don't have eco-conscious grey water laws) Because I think our toilet is a clue to why I am getting sick all the time.
|>
Wait. Amaretto sours can turn you gay?
NEd, just because it comes from the same source doesn't mean you should drink from the toilet.
The same water that goes into the toilet tank comes out of the faucet, right?
I think grey water is supposed to go the other way around. Try the sink water going into the toilet tank.
I mean without the whole grey water thing. Your water from the water company, the same stuff goes to the toilets and the faucets, right?
85: If you mean your toilet is getting reddish-brown stains even when you haven't let your leavings brew for a couple of days, get a filter pitcher or something. But that shouldn't make you sick, its just rust and dirt.
90: Ned, there are six separate systems bringing water to your house. One for the kitchen sink that you can use for anything. One is for the bathroom sink and it can be used topically, but not internally. One is for the toilet tank. One is for watering the garden. One is for dogs to drink. The last isn't even hooked to a facet. It is just because digging trenches is widely held, but seldom acknowledged fetish and some people can't stop themselves.
It is often pointed out in emergency preparation advice that the toilet tank will hold a decent amount of potable water.
I dunno. If it doesn't have mold and the water hasn't been sitting too long I can't imagine it has much of a bacterial load.
Assuming also that no one has intenstinal parasites.
Okay, Moby, you've convinced me now that I was an ass. I thought being blasé was the right way to convey that I didn't view him any differently from the rest of my roommates, but I should have been more vocally supportive.
98: If I know me, I'm fairly certain that wasn't my intention.
99: Yeah, I'm just in a self-flagellatory mood or something. Also, Kobe.
essear, I had a HS friend who, just pre-graduation, told us he had an announcement to make. We were all excited that he was finally coming out, but then he said he was headed to West Point. Now that was a surprise.
I didn't explicitly ask before now, but I'm curious about what NEd is doing with his toilet water.
91: More like brownish-gray staines.
67/68: I once had cognac served to me in a balloon sniffer, tipped over a candle to warm it. Pretentious, and not an improvement over just holding the damn glass in your hand. But no, a waitperson should never ask if you want a shot of cognac. Did you order it in a TGIFriday's or something?
106: we have that sort of snifter. I kind of love them. We don't have the candle-angling thing, though. Nor do we have cognac.
But no, a waitperson should never ask if you want a shot of cognac. Did you order it in a TGIFriday's or something?
A place called the Vil/lage Crêp/erie in Kitch/ener, Ontario, which had surprisingly good food for a restaurant choice made with no prior knowledge. The drink did come in a snifter, so I maybe by "a shot" she meant "not mixed with anything". Or maybe the local college students like to do cognac shots after eating their crêpes. Though there was surprisingly little of it in the glass...
Though there was surprisingly little of it in the glass...
That's sort of the point of brandy balloons. A small amount of brandy is poured so that it has a wide surface area to warm in the palm of your hand.
There was a story about an ingenue attending a very posh dinner where the brandy was served in immense balons (for some reason, the bigger the posher), and when the waiter came to pour it she asked him, "Only half full, please."
111: Still, it seemed to be less of it than I've been served in the past in similarly sized and shaped glasses.
Meet-up Report by JP Stormcrow.
I was at the place and then LB was there and then Mr. Blandings and then Smearcase and then Yawnoc came. And then LB and Blandings left and then teraz came and then Smearcase left and then later Yawnoc, teraz and I left, and then I went and proofread legal documents. Something like that. I thank LB for being a gracious and hospitable front page poster as well as the others for stopping by.
The End.
Maybe Canadian shots are smaller than American. I believe an American shot is 1 (US) fluid ounce. A British shot is 5/6 of a (British) fluid ounce. A British fl.oz. being either 1/14 larger or 1/15 smaller than a US fl.oz, but I can't remember which.
112: My the waitress surreptitiously took a hit on it. Or they were ripping off the rich dumb American like they love to do in those Canadian provincial towns.
113: Carefully eliding the inevitable knife fights?
116: What do you think the "legal documents" were about?
Knife fighting against perpetuities?
Actually the perpetuities stuff did come up in discussion. But I can't tell you about it until you've been dead for 21 years or something.
114: I think shots are supposed to be 1.5 ounces.
The wikipedia page for "shot glass" supports me, but it also says Canada has the same shot sizes as the U.S. However, it also describes a 1.0 ounce "small shot, which would be roughly the same size as the British shot.
120. Well then. If Canadians run a similar rig to the Brits, the difference would be huge.
Missed 121. Yeah. If the American ounce is the smaller, then a "small shot" would be only a little bigger than the British one. Maybe Canadians serve expensive liquor in small shots by default. Because they're careful. Or something.
Apparently, the U.S. uses two definitions for a fluid ounce. One is 29.6 ml and the other is 30 ml. The later isn't called the "Rounding Kicks Ass Ounce" but it should be. Both of these are a bit larger than the British ounce (28.4 ml).
Apparently, the U.S. uses two definitions for a fluid ounce. One is 29.6 ml and the other is 30 ml.
This is called the No Further Excuse to Avoid Metric Position. although I think the only exceptions to metric left in British official measures (as opposed to colloquial ones) relate to alcohol. Presumably they think that you can't be expected to work out the conversions if you're drunk. They're likely right.
It might have been because I was mostly drinking in student pubs, but it seems that in England they really measure your liquor. In the U.S., I've never seen anything like that.
126: You've never seen a jigger? They're pretty common at catered events, where the bartender's mostly opening beers, pouring wine, and making simple mixed drinks (e.g., Jack and Coke).
126. No they do. For most common shots they use a device called an "optic" which is attached to the bottle and stops it at the right point. For less usual stuff they use a measuring glass. One sixth of a gill, sonny, and not a drop more or less.
If you go to one of those fancy cocktail bars such as heebie posted curiously about you'll often get drinks that involve quite a bit of accurate measuring.
127: I've seen a jigger. I own a jigger, because I don't know what I'm doing and I can't eyeball 1.5 ounces. I've just never seen one used for a shot at a bar in the U.S. and I've never seen an English pub not use the blantantly obvious measuring hickey noted in 128. I have seen jiggers used for mixed drinks, but not often.
131. Except in Britain, where the tot is 23.33ml, for obscure early 19th century reasons. You can alway order a double. Many people always do.
A British double being, apparently, 1.67ml bigger than a US jigger.
I can't imagine ordering a double in this country, except maybe at an airport or someplace else stingy. Too much chance they'd bring you a goldfish bowl full of bourbon.
There was a bar back home that sold mixed drinks in fishbowls. They'd give you a bunch of straws so you could share.
There was this bar that closed in Hyde Park right around the time I got there where they had a drink so large you had to get approval from an employee to order a second one.
I kind of hate places where the mixed drinks are too big. If I want six ounces of hard liquor, I'll order four drinks. (Over the course of an evening, I generally will, but I don't want them handed to me all at once in a brimful giant martini glass. Too much committment.)
Was that the Pink Flamingo? Or is my memory completely farked? It's the latter, isn't it. Too many fishbowls.
I'm not a fan of big drinks either. The last sip is 33% spit.
I'm convinced backwash is almost exclusively a myth.
Probably backwash is a myth. But, if you've got a mixed drink with ice, getting a big drink is almost always a mistake because it gets too watery before you can finish.
136: Siril's? Or however it was spelled?
I once ordered a gin swizzle (I think -- I ordered it specifically because it was something Bertie Wooster drank) at the Trader Vic's downtown and the bartender refused to serve it to me because I was "too little." And then chose and made for me something else entirely.
Yeah, ice is always a problem. I don't know why more people don't serve mixed drinks in thermoses.
131, 132: Except in Britain, where the tot is 23.33ml, for obscure early 19th century reasons.
Not any more - almost all the optics I've ever seen in the UK are marked 25 ml. Sometimes they're larger (40ml).
Cyril's? Something. "The Tiki" in the parlance of my friends who made it out to be a fun place. It must have closed about a week after I moved there. I thought about going to the last night because I like the endings of things, last episodes, what have you, but I figured a bar has limited capacity and it should be attended by people who knew and liked the place.
"The Tiki" in the parlance of my friends who made it out to be a fun place. It must have closed about a week after I moved there.
We must have moved to Hyde Park at almost exactly the same time.
142. I wouldn't go there again if I were you.
Back in the 1950s Elizabeth David, who was the first superstar cookery writers in Britain (think Julia Child with a more exciting back story) went to a restaurant on her own and ordered a bottle of wine with her meal, because she wanted to be sure it was freshly opened. And the sommelier said, "Madam, do you know how big a bottle is!?"
Oh hey look, I was just reading a paper about the "paradox" that Americans drink on average less than other countries but have 20x the number of fetal alcohol syndrome diagnoses. It talks about the use of "drink" as a metric for studies, and says that 1 "drink" in the UK has 75% less booze than 1 "drink" in the US (8 v 13g). The citations given are Plant, 1985 and Abel and Kruger, 1995.
145: It was def. not spelled normally. Aha -- Ciral's House of Tiki.
149. Using ajay's revisions, it looks like 1 drink in the UK has 37.5% less booze. How do prices compare (I haven't bought a short in a pub for years)?
145-147: My roommate waitressed there when I was at Chicago undergrad, which simplified getting served underage. Also, they had a wicker monkey.
Julia Child with a more exciting back story
I don't know anything about David's bio, but for more interesting than Child's, it's got to be pretty good.
149: Is the difference because the U.S. has more women who drink heavily?
154. Hmm. I think David has the edge.
the U.S. has more women who drink heavily?
Only on Unfogged.
155: Not at all actually. It's an interesting read. The takeaway seems to be a combination of our shitty health care system and the fact that FAS is largely diagnosed in two marginalized populations (black folks and Native Americans) who are naturally more likely to possess the physical characteristics (eye shape and nose shape) used to diagnose FAS in babies.
148: More exciting than being ex-CIA from China in WWII? This I gotta hear.
156: I'd accept it as a tie, but I'm not seeing a clear win for David.
149, 157: Yeah, I find the higher rate of FAS here mystifying (assuming it's not some kind of artifact from different diagnostic strategies) from my direct impression of how much Americans drink versus Brits. I'm not thinking about stats on numbers of drinks, but on how much people I know actually do drink, in terms of getting drunk.
Maybe Brits drink more than Americans, but beneath an FAS-causing limit, but for some reason we have more alcoholics? I don't see why that would be, but it's a way to explain the apparent facts.
Also, they had a wicker monkey.
But the drunk undergrads preferred the cloth monkey?
The interesting thing is that as far as I can see neither of them would have taken a professional interest in European food if it hadn't been for the war.
162: It's an interesting read. I just sent it to you.
Americans contain a lot of vim and vigor by volume. Vim and vigor are both soluble in alcohol, but only in high concentrations, and this simple reason is why your average hale and hearty American puts away more booze than those poofters over in Europe. Fact.
There was a young man of Arminium
Who would jump into rivers and swim in 'em.
When friends called him "You fish!"
He responded "Oh, pish,
Fish can't swim like me, they've no vim in 'em."
