Tired on this end. Thought I would try something new and exciting, so I bought a bottle of absinthe (Pernod something or other), made it with a spoon and a sugar cube, took one swig and poured it out.
I now know why it was illegal- it tastes like death. We’ll be sticking to diet root beer tonight.
urizon
Try diluting it with cold water till it clouds up, a la regularPernod. It’s really quite nice.
And you’d do better with a small distillery, as opposed to one of the giant manufacturers. There are quite a few good ones out there.
stuckinred
Try mushrooms.
Moses2317
What do folks think about this DNC ad about the secretive corporate cash that is being used in an effort to buy Congress for the Republicans? I think it is pretty effective, and am glad to see the Democrats ignoring conventional beltway “wisdom” and, instead, continuing to pound away on this issue.
Winning Progressive
stuckinred
@Moses2317: Mornin Joe just hates it. . .it can’t be all bad!
lacp
Well, if what you bought was real-deal absinthe (I don’t think Pernod makes it), you spent a buttload of $$. Cheapest absinthe I know is made here in Philadelphia, and it’s about $60/bottle.
freelancer
Get yourself a mint or something.
Cat Lady
You have to stick with it until you see the Green Fairy, or you’re a cheese eating surrender monkey. Also.
Bullsmith
I finally had some absinthe that was fantastic: swiss, sold as something like “la veritable fee verte” – though no green tinge at all: clear on the ice, then cloudy white after sugar and water added. Subtle, only slightly licorice flavor that improved sip to sip: decent, then good, then very good, then delicious.
Then kick like a fucking mule. Morning after to be dreaded or worse. The rest of the bottle’s in a cupboard…lurking….
Corner Stone
That’s your idea of something new and exciting?
Jesus, what’s next? You’re going to tell us about your favorite new peach scented bubble bath beads and how you just can’t put down that Anne Rice novel?
Napoleon
I has a seafood recipe that I lost when the ex took that cookbook with her that used Pernod. I can not imagine drinking it since it had a anicine (sp?) (i.e., black licorice taste) to it. But it made the recipe.
Ross
I just want to add that starting Absinthe is like starting Scotch. Meaning you will learn to love it and then nothing else will seem as good.
Also, as said above, you want to dillute it with cold water. Basically, fill the glass with 2 fingers of absinthe – place the sugar cube on a spoon, and sloooooowly pour cold water over the cube (very very light stream). by the time the cube dissolves you should have approximately 1 to 1 ratio of absinthe and water. it reduces the black licorice flavor and brings out the others.
Also, it is absolutely the best kind of drunk there is, bar none.
andy
Dude, you have to dilute it with water. Try it in a Sazerac if you don’t care for that (though a Sazerac is better anyway, in my opinion)
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10330-sazerac
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
That’s exactly the same absinthe experience everyone I know (including me) has had, one by one or whole cocktail parties at a time, over the last year. Sorry you had to find out the hard way, too.
@urizon:
Ugh, no. Sorry, but that just makes a larger quantity of slightly less nasty to choke down.
Cat Lady
@Napoleon:
A little Pernod goes in bouillabaise. It’s the secret ingredient.
Napoleon
@Cat Lady:
That does not surprise me at all.
protected static
Second on the Sazerac recommendation.
stuckinred
NYT
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a government request to temporarily freeze a judge’s order telling the military to stop enforcing its ban on openly gay troops.
freelancer
@protected static:
The thing that killed Boba Fett?
Jim
Try ayahuasca.
lulz. Hey, it’s cool and rainy here. Haven’t been to a cow pasture since spring…
Jewish Steel
Next up: The Laudanum hour with Kubla Cole(ridge)
Welcome to the Pleasure Dome.
aimai
I’ve got to go with Jewish Steel on this one. Why not just chew some wormwood and hit yourself on the head with a stick?
aimai
WereBear
I enjoyed absinthe. But then the herbal thing is something I like, anyway.
The box I bought had a banner, “Now with wormwood!” Sold me.
Linda Featheringill
@Moses2317:
I thought it was a pretty good 30-second ad. It covered a lot of points, with clear visuals. The voice-over was calm and confident. No hysteria. Effective.
And, as stuckinred said, if Morning Joe doesn’t like it, it must be good.
[Oh, no! We have offended widdle Joe!]
Edited for spelling.
Comrade Kevin
So, did anyone else see the bit on Rachel Maddow’s show yesterday where John Raese, running for Senate in West Virginia, called Secretary of Energy Steven Chu “Cho”, then “Chow”, then “Chow Mein”? He thought it was hilariously funny.
J.W. Hamner
I really can’t stand the taste of anise, so I’ve never liked absinthe either. In my younger days I was intrigued enough by the talk of the Green Fairy to drink a bottle of some Czech stuff with a friend… and we sure got hammered… but neither of us noticed anything different from typical drunkenness.
anticontrarian
@lacp: Pernod actually only began making the pastis they are famous for when absinthe became illegal; Pernod d’Absinthe is a classic, one of the defining brands of the stuff.
Still, it does taste like death. Unless you really, really like anisette.
@ John: Here’s a recipe that’ll help you use that bottle up, albeit slowly.
Corpse Reviver #2
equal parts:
Gin
Lillet Blanc
Cointreau
Lemon Juice
add a tsp of Absinthe. Shake, strain, enjoy.
You might also try a Sazerac.
J.
If y’all haven’t seen this brilliant modern take on Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Major-General’s Song” featuring President Barack Obama, watch it now.
Mike in NC
Absinthe was dirt cheap on St. Maarten. Brought a bottle home with us last years and couldn’t wait to give it away to the first curious taker. Yuck.
PWL
“Absinthe….tastes like death…”: Not only that. Drink enough and you’ll feel like death.
Omnes Omnibus
@aimai: Wormwood and stick just doesn’t have that same fin de siecle feel. I have had absinthe a couple of times. It was fine, but I like pastis and the other absinthe substitutes as well. Also, I did not have enough that I felt horrible the next day.
Corner Stone
@Comrade Kevin: It’s his running shtick. I didn’t see the RM bit but it’s been documented Raese does it on purpose.
ETA – I mean he does it with other people’s names as well and issues a fake guffaw. Somehow he thinks it’s endearing or demeaning to others in a way he’s gaining by it.
stuckinred
@Comrade Kevin: He’s a fucking punk. I always check these assholes that are my age. No military service, damn, wrong war at the wrong time huh John?
JPL
@Comrade Kevin: I heard about it. It’s interesting that George Allen’s micaca moment is now mainstream. Rand Paul talks about civil discourse, oh my.
freelancer
@Comrade Kevin:
She’s shown several clips last week that has him repeating the same schtick in different forums. Bumbling someone’s name like Sotomayor because it’s foreign-ish, and he did it with Chu’s again. Then she played the clip of one of the Bobs from Office Space.
Naga…Naga…Naga-anaworkhereanymore. Hehehe!
What a douche.
quaint irene
Naah. Since absinthe was a popular drink among artists and bohemians in the late 19c., it was villified as causing anti-social behavior and violence. It’s wormwood flavoring was blamed as the culprit. Wormwood contains thujone, supposed to cause the drinker to flip out.
Analysis shows the liquor never contained anything close to produce any such afffect.
Mr. Furious
Following up on the “The Volt is a crock and GM is the same as Bush” thread from last week…
I drove the car last week on rural roads and a racetrack. The car is by no means perfect, and suffers from some of the same old GM/American car flaws, particularly in the interior, but it is the real deal. It is an electric car to be produced right here in Michigan for purchase by American consumers, on schedule, and as promised.
I verified with an engineer and sources at GM that the car is truly an electric-drive vehicle with a gasoline engine that powers a generator to recharge the batteries that power the car. The gas engine is not connected to the drivetrain, and without the battery the car would not move. The claims by Jalopnik that this is just another hybrid are not true.
As for GM misrepresenting the mileage: GMs claims of 200+ mpg ARE achievable and realistic if used as intended. I was in the car twice when it transitioned from full battery power to gas-assisted charging (once as a driver and once as a passenger) and the transistion is undetectable except for the sound of the motor turning on. When operating on a full overnight charge the Volt’s battery power lasted for around 35 miles both days under aggressive driving conditions. During that time it was getting 250+ mpg (really infinite if plugged in and recharged within that time). At 50 miles it had used 0.2 gallons of gas, and over the rest of a day’s driving the mpg slowly declined, but never fell below 46.
Not too shabby—in the neighborhood of hybrids and good diesels. And remember. If driven as intended, it would have been back home in the garage within that first 20-50 miles and used little or no gas at all.
The Leaf on the other hand had to be delivered to us on a trailer because it was coming from 200 miles away, and was accompanied by a truck with a generator to recharge it every seventy miles thereafter. I was driving it when it fel below ten miles remaining range and experienced a brief bit of the anxiety driving a car without a backup would produce in real life. If that battery goes dead, you’re stuck.
I was impressed with both cars—each should do well in their intended, but different, roles.
Have to run and put kids to bed, but will return later tonight if anyone has questions.
Morbo
Posting once again since this blog has a cat blogging tag:
Longest cat is really friggin’ loooooong.
bkny
@Comrade Kevin: what a friggin creep — and a jackass to boot. that’s the kind of crap you’d do in junior high. did you notice the audience laughing at one point…
Linda Featheringill
@J.:
Ah yes. The modern president. Cool. I enjoyed it.
Toreador Red
Forget the absinthe. Just put some dark rum in that diet root beer.
erlking
@Napoleon
Years ago, while on a date I misheard a special as "scallops and squid in a pasta with Pernod cream sauce." Turned out to be "scallops and squid INK pasta, etc."
Imagine scallops in a bowl of milk with black licorice. With parmesan cheese.
Mark S.
WTF?
That’s a valid excuse from practice? That’s seriously lame.
Shouldn’t he at least be practicing his cheap shots on Big Ben?
DaddyJ
It all sounds like that Douglas Adams concoction that made you feel like your brains had been smashed out with a gold brick.
stuckinred
@Mark S.:
SiubhanDuinne
@Moses2317: Hey, Winning Progressive, it was good to see your comment to MoDo’s column in the NYT this morning. (I saw the signature and thought, “I *know* him!”)
:-)
RSR
@lacp:
Philadelphia? I was going to mention Vieux Carré myself, and almost dropped the fantastic Blue Coat American Dry into the gin thread a few days back.
Their Penn 1681 Rye vodka is very nice too.
http://www.philadelphiadistilling.com/
JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: How was your vacation?
Crusty Dem
@Mr. Furious:
Thanks! As an EV aficionado, I was disturbed that the Volt might be delivered with a transmission, good to know Jalopnik was as full of shit as I’d hoped. Where’d that ridiculous BS come from???
Ash Can
@Morbo: That’s a big kitty!
John Cole
@Mark S.: Harrison is nuts. Everyone knows this.
J.
@Linda Featheringill: :-)
Crusty Dem
@DaddyJ:
Pangalactic Gargleblaster! Makes you feel as if your brain has been smashed by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick, IIRC (and I probably don’t). Great stuff!
WereBear (itouch)
@Toreador Red: Now you’re talking.
Snayke
I learned how to make absinthe from watching Suicide Girls’ Guide to Living.
Jason T.
Sully’s references to “The Balloon Juice Gang” made me think of Johnny Puleo and His Harmonica Gang, and now I can’t get them out of my head.
Anyway, have y’all thought about wearing yachting caps and taking up the harmonica?
stuckinred
@Jason T.: There was also the Harmonicats.
Corner Stone
@Snayke: I’m not sold on the Suicide Girls.
I keep trying but they just seem like overpriced masochists to me, with no actual talent except getting artistically naked on stage.
Which I’m cool with, don’t get me wrong. But they just don’t do it for me.
WaterGirl
@WereBear: Two quick questions for our resident cat expert, if you don’t mind…
Q1: My boy kitty runs away from the litter box like he is scared, but only when he pees, not when he poops. I keep the litter box really clean, scooping multiple times a day, so it’s not that. I seem to recall that your kitty 911 document said that might be an indication of a bladder infection. Am I remembering that correctly and/or do you have any other ideas about what’s going on?
Q2: I cleverly renamed your ebook when I purchased it last year, but I can’t remember what I called it, so I can’t find it on my computer. Can you think of a distinctive word from your ebook so I can try searching for that word on my computer?
SIA
@Mr. Furious: No questions, but that is thrilling.
Anyone watch Sestak-Toomey tonight. I thought Joe did better than I would have expected. He still has a weird, halting speech pattern but he had some strengths too.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: A file type is a file that has an embedded signature that tells the operating system how to manage that file. You can tell what type of file you eBook is by looking at the file extension at the end of the file name. The most common file types used for eBooks are:
Plain ASCII text files have the extension .txt
Microsoft Word files have the extension .doc
Adobe acrobat files have the extension .pdf
Gemstar eBook files have the extension .prc
Palm files have the extension .pdb or .prc
Hiebook files have the extension .kml
Html files have the extension .html or .htm
Adobe eBook files have the extension .pdf
MobiPocket files have the extension .prc
WaterGirl
@J.: Very fun! And it makes a lot of good points. The cigarette and dog poop parts really broke up the seriousness quite nicely!
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL: Thanks for asking! I’m still on the road (Franklin, NC tonight, about 50-60 miles from Asheville), should be home by tomorrow afternoon, and then I *still* have a week before I have to be back at work on the 28th! Sweet.
It’s been great, chillax almost the entire time (but you don’t want to know about getting lost in Gary/Hammond in the rainy dark). Mostly perfect weather and spectacular autumn colours. I love long-haul solo driving anyhow, and will have added something like 2500 miles to my ancient creaky odometer when this trip is done.
So with the better part of a week to play with . . . any chance of getting together with you and/or SIA in the next few days? (ellaesther can vouch for me; she says I am “a lovely person,” and who am I to dispute her?)
SD
stuckinred
@SiubhanDuinne: You could eat at the Dillard House
SIA
@SiubhanDuinne: hi SD! Great to hear about your trip. I…er…once got in a bit of TROUBLE in Franklin, NC in my wild days. Get the heebie-jeebies whenever I hear the name of that town. I’m in AL for the week – still working, just had to get out of the city for a bit, so can’t meet in the next few days. Let’s try for the 2nd half of the month? (We already knew you were a lovely person!) What’s happened to demo woman? What did you and EE do in Chi-town?
Original Lee
In the nothing new department:
The Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration evaluates the GOP proposals to “fix” Social Security.
He very nicely says that these would screw over the retirees. Except the rich ones, of course.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: Sadly, I have about a zillion files on my computer with those file extensions. I should have been more clear in asking if there was some distinctive word within the document itself that I might search for that wouldn’t bring up a thousand matches.
Hey, I have been meaning to tell you… You posted a link to your photo (a month or more ago) when we were talking about C-U. I can’t believe I didn’t see it the night you posted your picture, because when I opened my laptop the following morning your photo in the open window just jumped right out at me. I knew you! We must have either had friends in common or hung in the same circles.
SiubhanDuinne
@stuckinred: You’re too late. I’m just finishing a wonderful meal at the Caffe Rel even as I thumbtype. It’s kind of a hole in the wall behind a gas station, but just outstanding menu.
dopealope
@anticontrarian:
One of my all time favorite cocktails, and demands to be made with fresh lemon juice. I served it with a maraschino cherry in the bottom of the martini glass. The red of the cherry with cool opaque color of the cocktail are a cool contrast.
arguingwithsignposts
@SiubhanDuinne:
BTW, SD, I know someone who was at the matinee of the Wagner opera you watched streaming. She said it was lovely, very impressive. Safe trip home.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl:did ya get it? Did you ride a motorcycle?
General Stuck
After taking a few days off to cool down, been reading some threads and pleased to find largely civil discourse. Maybe it’s time for us shit stirrers to mostly retire from bj and become lurking Dinosaurs or somesuch, Carry on.
SIA
@WaterGirl: It’s “Cat 911” and it’s a pdf file. Author Pamela Merritt. Hope that helps.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: @arguingwithsignposts: It is starting to get six degrees of separation in here.
stuckinred
@SIA: @Omnes Omnibus: There is another regular here that I have a connection with that goes back over 40 years.
Original Lee
From the book lovers that hang out here, I’d appreciate some input.
My dad has Alzheimer’s. He still likes to read, but his reading level is degrading. Also, my mom has to be careful about what he reads because he has trouble distinguishing between fiction and reality and has bad dreams if there’s violence in the book. My mom put away all the murder mysteries because he was convinced the police would come arrest him for the murder he did (that happened in the book). So we are going for either realistic fiction or nonfiction, but not anything that requires a lot of cognition, because he can’t process anything except very simple ideas any more.
I got him a copy of “Dewey the Library Cat” for his birthday, and apparently that went over real well, but now I’m stumped as for what to get him for Christmas. The James Herriot books, except for the short stories, are all beyond him, if that helps at all.
So, suggestions? Thanks a million!
WaterGirl
@SIA: I don’t know why I didn’t think to look up WereBear’s real name and search for that. Found it – thank you!
I had, of course, called the document “werebear cat 911.pdf, and it’s funny, I had searched for “911” before posting this and it didn’t come up.
morzer
I don’t think real absinthe is available in the USA:
http://absinthe.msjekyll.com/usa.shtml
Just sayin’.
stuckinred
@WaterGirl: I posted my email address and then edited it out, did you get it?
SIA
@WaterGirl: It is weird, I searched for “cat” and got nothing, then “cat behavior” and it pulled it up. Glad you found it, has lots of good info in there.
JPL
@SIA: What’s happened to demo woman? Tis me. I went back to my original initials because I got burnt out fixing my house.
Some type of meetup would be great.
SIA
@stuckinred: Aren’t you in Athens? Were you there 1977-1981? I know we’ve discussed Allen’s before (think you said they had moved?). It’s a great town.
SIA
@JPL: That’s funny, I always thought of “demo woman” as demo-crat woman! :)
Would love to meet the rest of the ATL contingency. My only problem is work load/schedule, but I’m taking off several days around Thanksgiving.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: Nope, didn’t ride one, but hung out for awhile with someone who did.
WaterGirl
@stuckinred: Just sent a test message to the address I thought I had seen in your post, and it hasn’t bounced back, so maybe I got it right. We’ll know soon enough.
JPL
@SIA: We might need to commiserate around then, if the tea party takes over.
D-Chance.
Dirty Pittsburgh Stiller player threatens to retire if he can’t play dirty.
BTW, love the Getty Image of him wearing his “pink panties” chinstrap…
SIA
@JPL:
PERISH THE THOUGHT. Hope we’re celebrating instead that all the pundits were wrong, wrong, wrong.
cleek
@stuckinred:
this
KDP
If you are going to drink absinthe, everyone is correct, it does need to be diluted. It does not need sugar, but it does need to be good absinthe.
These are the people to buy from: http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts: OMG, I am very jealous! It was in a proper movie theatre, BTW, in HD live as it happened. So good, I plan to see it again in a week (the Met does encore screenings). But oh, how I would have loved to see it in person like your friend!
SiubhanDuinne
@SIA and JPL: Sometime around Thanksgiving would be great! And yes, let’s hope we’ll have good reason to be thankful and celebratory. (SIA: I had the same mnemonic for “demo woman,” by the way — and so far, haven’t come up with a good one for “JPL”!)
What ever happened with A Mom Anon, has anyone heard? Mom, you still around?
SD
Moses2317
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks! I’m glad to know someone is reading my comments.
MikeF
@Mr. Furious: Uh, I’m pretty sure the Volt’s ICE is mechanically linked to the drivetrain, and turns it to assist the electric drive under certain conditions. I agree that most of the Jalopnik-inspired fretting over the Volt was bull though.
Corner Stone
@SiubhanDuinne:
Rocket Sauce, JPL
Jewish Steel
Whoa! It’s old man Contreras on the mound. I’m surprised to see him.
He’s an inspiration to athletes in their 60s everywhere.
Anne Laurie
@erlking:
__
All flavors I enjoy, but not in the same dish. Scallops are about the only seafood I’ll eat voluntarily, but I like them broiled or grilled, not with dairy. If they’re actually scallops and not skate offcuts, they’re too delicate to stand up to a cream sauce.
(Also, I realize it’s a mind trick and not my tastebuds, but I can’t eat squid-ink pasta without flashbacks to chewing those old-fashioned gritty ink erasers. In my day, we learned cursive in the third grade, using fountain pens… and some of the nuns felt even the quick-refill cartridge varieties were ‘cheating’. * shudder *)
platonicspoof
Via the GOS, two posts, one of them also liveblogging, with links to the President Obama / Gov. John Kitzhaber rally in Portland, OR.
Obama just started speaking and the crowd is fired up.
WaterGirl
@Original Lee: This may be completely off the mark, but I wonder about something by James Thurber? Simple, but charming illustrations and pretty simple writing, as I recall.
I also have a beautiful photo book called “cats in the sun” that I could look at all day long and never get bored. Might something like that work?
Jay in Oregon
Here’s a new right-wing meme in the making: Help us fight breast cancer…awareness…
http://visiontoamerica.org/story/susan-g-komen-donated-over-700000-to-planned-parenthood-in-2007.html
SiubhanDuinne
@Corner Stone #94: Thanks, that works!
Anne Laurie
@WaterGirl:
__
Not an expert, but yeah, every time I’ve had a male cat pull that stunt it’s been a bladder infection. Or worse, a blockage, which can become life-threatening very quickly. If your guy has been neutered, I’d plan on a vet visit. And if he seems to be straining in the box & not producing anything… or just avoiding the box in general… get him to the vet ASAP!
SiubhanDuinne
@Anne Laurie #96: I’ll go you one better. In *MY* day we used those pens with interchangeable nibs that you dipped in ink (like a quill) every few words. All the desks (wooden) in my elementary school had drilled-out circles in the corner to hold glass inkwells; and nibs, penwipes, and blotting paper were routinely on the school supply list from about third grade on. Fountain pens were very grown-up; I don’t remember being allowed to use one until somewhere around seventh grade.
WaterGirl
@Anne Laurie: Actually, he pees a surprising quantity when he pees, so no blockage, I assume, but I will heed your advice and take him to the vet. I am trying to figure out how they get a urine sample from a cat??? Or do they just treat for a bladder infection if they have the symptoms?
hamletta
Hey, math geeks!
What’s the best way to estimate the number of jelly beans in a big jar?
It’s a straight cylinder, so figuring out the amount of space in it would be simple, but what considerations do I have to make for space around the beans?
Can I get some similar beans (Jelly Bellies, so they’re small), count them into a small cylinder and extrapolate from there?
It’s a fundraiser at work for United Way, and the prize is a (shitty) laptop. Any tips welcome.
chines
@aimai:
Yes, haha! My husband is on an Absinthe kick, collecting the vile shit.
TooManyJens
@WaterGirl:
They kept mine in the office for a few hours, and when she didn’t pee they eventually gave her a diuretic.
trollhattan
Giants win and then this:
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2010/10/ppic-poll-brown-leads-whitman.html
It’s a good night in California. [Waves to the late-nighters.]
Mr. Furious
@MikeF: The best way to describe the Volt is almost an inverse-Prius.
Parallel hybrids such as the Prius are designed to have a gasoline engine and electric battery work in tandem to power the vehicle. In the Prius’ case the car is primarily powered by a gas engine and the battery kicks in to enhance efficiency by working in tandem with the engine, or allowing the engine to cut out at times.
The Volt, in contrast, is designed to operate as an electric vehicle first and then the gasoline engine plays the support role. Unlike the Prius, the Volt is capable of operating in solely electric mode with zero emissions during it’s fully charged range. The gasoline engine assists the electric mode at high speed (70+ mph) or when the batteries reach a certain level of depletion, to recharge via the generator.
The dispute comes in with the gas powering the generator—which is charging the battery—which is driving the wheels. I suppose that means it’s a hybrid of sorts since both drivetrains are operating in concert at times, but it is all connected through a planetary gearset and three distinct clutches, so how “Connected” components are (or aren’t) is at least arguable.
All that technical shit aside, the car drives really well, accelerates nicely, has a good ride, and with it’s low center of gravity from the battery pack, has exceptional cornering capability and almost no body roll.
In conclusion, take this for what it’s worth: among all the people that drove the car with me (nearly 20 of us), all of the criticism and complaints were about the details. In other words, the car drives and works so well people could only complain about things like the wind noise, “is the white console ugly?” and the stereo…
trollhattan
Holee shit. I didn’t see this coming.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/21/business/media/21npr.html?_r=1&hp
Good on NPR.
Mr. Furious
@MikeF: Additional research confirms your point. There is a mechanical link because gears rings are in contact, but the gasoline engine ALONE cannot power the car. It can only assist the torque generated by the battery via the electric motors.
From the way the system operates, the engine comes into play to assist when the electrics are at their LEAST efficient (depleted battery or certain speeds/torque requirements)
This Engadget post starts out with the same wise-ass premise as the Jalopnik post, but adds four very good updates that explain all this in increasing detail and veracity.
mapaghimagsik
So different absinthes have vastly different tastes. Tried “Absinthe Original” which was Czech, and wasn’t my cup of cloudy green tea at all.
At an Absinthe bar, I tried Kubler (mit umlaut) and fell in love. Now I use it for everything that requires pastis or herbsaint and drink it with water and sugar too.
Its also a required ingredient (technically pernod) in the very best Mai Tai ever — Which is Don the Beachcombers.
Mnemosyne
@Original Lee:
I would suggest some PG Wodehouse — light reading, small chunks (he wrote lots and lots and LOTS of short stories), and still very funny. The worst crime that happens in a Wodehouse story is that a pompous schoolmaster gets shot in the ass with a BB gun.
You can get a bunch of different omnibus collections from Amazon.com — I’m partial to Jeeves and Wooster myself, but Blandings and Mulliner stories are also hysterically funny.
Steeplejack
@Original Lee:
Late to the thread. I second the recommendation of P.G. Wodehouse. Also the American humorist Jean Shepherd, who has several very good short story collections. (The best is Wanda Hickey’s Night of Golden Memories and Other Disasters.)
Also, you might check out the teen/older-juvenile section at the bookstore, particularly the Newbery Award winners. You can find lots of really good books that don’t contain a lot of violence and are written at a slightly lower level of complexity (but not always).
Original Lee
@WaterGirl: Thanks for the suggestions. He doesn’t like photo books much. Sometimes he’ll flip through one, but he seems to feel his regression much more when there’s no reading required. (Sadly, he is aware that he’s losing his faculties.) I know he used to enjoy Thurber very much, so maybe I’ll find an anthology that works.
Original Lee
@Mnemosyne: Ah, Wodehouse! I love me some Wodehouse. Unfortunately, he uses a lot of metaphors and circumlocutions, so Dad would be at sea most of the time, but I can try a library book when we visit at Thanksgiving, and see how it goes.
Original Lee
@Steeplejack: I’ll try the Shepherd. When I visited over the summer, I tried a couple of Young Adult fiction books, but once he figured out they were intended for teenagers, he wanted nothing to do with them.
Thanks for the suggestions, all. It gives me somewhere to go. It also just occurred to me that Erma Bombeck might work in small doses, not to mention some of the other semi-biographical stories about families that were popular in the sixties, such as “But, Daddy!”.