FlaSoxxJim

Buck Wheat never made the grade I guess.

XLII is not that old. I'm two (II) years younger than the Super Bowl Dammit!

Ugly bags under my eyes from staying up last night.

QUOTE (BigEdWalsh @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 03:38 PM) Ryan Rowland-Smith is gonna get his a$$ kicked tonight! Sydney, Australia is the birthplace of this southpaw. The first player with a hyphenated last name ever to appear in a major league game, btw.

QUOTE (Brian @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 01:08 PM) So, Megan, I apologize. Call me. She tried, but her toe thumbs got in the way of dialing.

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 11:51 AM) While it might be true, Bill gates never said any of those things. Linky Thanks for saving me the trouble of finding the Snopes link to debunk this chestnut. . . . During a recent speech, Bill Gates talked about company vice presidents and their fancy car phones. Man, I wish I could get me one of these babies to show the world I have ARRIVED!!

Perhaps I'm just jealous that I didn't think of it first.

No need to break a sweat with that post, eh?

Lindsay, Mark, was the lead singer of the above-referenced musical group.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 16, 2009 -> 12:04 AM) Ahhhhh YOU CAN SAVE IT. It all seems so obvious when you spell it out for me. :lolhitting Step away from the cachaca. . .

QUOTE (Tex @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 10:17 PM) We always paid the person with the most points. 100 less the age of the celebrity. And typically it was 50-30-20 split. So the payout was always the same no matter how many celebrities dies. We also limited your list to 20. I must again commend you on your ingenious Dead Pool point calculation methodology. You morbid bastard.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 10:26 PM) so you don't need to make a whole pot of simple syrup huh. Gosh no, one cup of water and two cups of sugar is good for 12 oz. or so of 2:1 syrup that will last a good while. There is actually not a huge spoilage issue because of the super-saturated sugar levels, as long as you use up a batch in 1-2 months or so.

QUOTE (G&T @ Sep 13, 2009 -> 11:51 AM) Switching gears: what do people look for in a sipping liquor? Specifically, what makes a rum a sipping rum? I'm not much into hard liquor and I'd like to learn a few things about tiki drinks and the world of the hard stuff. I never specifically commented on the part about your wanting to explore classic tiki cocktails. First off, let me say you are a fine human being, Bravo! Second, I'll urge you to seek out lots of good authorities on the subject, but in particular you need to become acquainted with the works of Jeff "Beach Bum" Berry. The thoroughly reserched books by this self-proclaimed "urban anthropologist" have single-handedly saved literally hundreds of classic drinks from extinction as the last of the old guard bartenders die out and take their cocktail secrets to the grave with them. Jeff's Grog Log and Intoxica are now-classic self-published, no-frills recipe books that are out of print and tough to track down, but are due to be republished as an expanded single volume, Remixed, due out in November. This book, and Jeff's phenomenal follow-up Sipin' Safari are absolute must-haves if you want to get serious about classic tiki cocktails. If you are more technophile, then you want to get the brand new Tiki+ Recipe App for iPhone and iPod Touch that includes just about every recipe from the Grog Log, Intoxica!, Sippin’ Safari, and also drinks from Jeff's food and drink book, Taboo Table. The drinks forum at Tiki Central is also a great clearinghouse of information, and many professional tiki bartenders and other industry types post there. Good drink blogs like those mentioned here earlier are also great sources of information. The Ministry of Rum and Scotts Rum Pages are good places for rum reviews, though like all critical reviews your impressions of various rums may not fully jibe with theirs. Still, as with reviews on Beer Advocate and elsewhere, it is educational to read what sorts of flavors other seasoned tasters are picking out in these products and to try to see if you can pinpoint some of them in your tasting. I had better stop now so as not to give you info overload.

I think I'm going to try making my own orgeat syrup soon. It's the almond syrup that is the "secret" ingredient in an authentic mai tai, and it's about the only syrup I still buy commercially rather than making from scratch. I usually use Torani and am pretty happy with it. It's a lot better than Collins and I don't have to mail order it like Trader Vic's. But, if I'm using high quality Jamaican and Martinique rum/rhum in my mai tais, I'd hate to think I'm still getting less than perfect results by using commercial brand orgeat. Mind you, my mai tais already totally kick a$$ (enjoying one with Appleton reserve and Rhum St. James Royale Ambre right now), so this tweak may make them immorally good. Several well-regarded recipes are available online. This is the one I'm leaning toward. Oh, and if you think I'm alone in my Quixotic quest for the perfect mai tai, take a look at RumDood's Month of Mai Tais (and counting). The Dood's basic recipe ratios of: 1 oz Rum #1 1 oz Rum #2 .5 oz Orgeat .5 oz Clement Creole Shrubb .25 oz Simple Syrup .75 oz Lime Juice . . . is what I use for a classic mai tai, except that I'll use traditional orange curacao instead of the Creole Shrubb liqueur unless I'm really going all out. This is the drink that launched a thousand tiki-torch festooned ships, and more people are discovering the beauty of traditional mai tai recipes compared to the cheap juice-loaded imposters served in modern bars. DRINK MAI TAIS!!

Rex was up to his tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Si-ix. Every day he writes The Book.

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:58 PM) There's quite a bit in Wilson's history to support a racist allegation about him specifically. Otherwise, Hank Johnson can kiss my white ass too. However, I prefer the adjective "sultry." The sultry Hank Johnson can kiss my white ass?!? Oh my. . .

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:46 PM) This will fix the offense. You can say that again! QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:46 PM) This will fix the offense. kthnx

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:41 PM) It's perhaps one of my more liberal positions, but I want the entire Patriot Act gone. Agreed

QUOTE (CanOfCorn @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:41 PM) Dead pool payouts are going to be VERY small this year. Wait 'til the Jonas Brothers private plane goes down. Then I'll be in the money, baby.

Last sentence in your first paragraph, that should be "affected" and not "effected". I'm outraged by that slip-up, but it is 100% manufactured.

Ach, truth is I wouldn't know who Taylor Swift is if she bit me on the ankle, and I'm pretty sure I've never heard any of her songs and cartainly wouldn't recognize them. Of course, I'm an old Fart and could practically say the same thing about this Kanye feller, whoever he is. After all, I'm old enough to remember when they actually played music videos on MTV.

QUOTE (bmags @ Sep 15, 2009 -> 04:25 PM) The absurd thing is the vindication of these awards that by all accounts started out as a joke and are more embarrassingly irrelevant than even the grammys. If this was Taylor Swift's moment in the sun, than a plague on both houses. Don' Be Taylor Hatin'

Ach, it's a snarky bit of a thread that nobody needs to get bent out of shape over. We all know Alpha's political bent, so the over-the-top allcaps is a nice lead-in to the snark that you know is coming. In other words, Lighten Up Francis.

Come on. . . You are just angling to be invited to the WH for beers with Kanye and the President when the summit is called to hash out the misunderstanding.

Just coast along and hope it all works out.