Wednesday W(h)ines

It's cold.

Okay, now we've gotten the whine out of the way, let's move on to the wine.

I'm not much of a wine connoisseur, and truthfully I can't tell a good one from a bad one. I like champagne, and every once in a while a glass of merlot or cabernet. I don't know what kind of glass they're supposed to be poured into, and frankly I don't care. I don't distinguish different plates for chicken, fish, or beef, so if I find myself with a bottle of wine, the contents get poured into whatever glass is handy

However, about two years ago I ran across a wine I really like. Manischewitz Cherry Wine. It's kosher, it's sweet (hubby says it's too sweet), and it's cheap, selling for about $5 a bottle. I'm not embarrassed to say I like a cheap wine. Although for some, this revelation is more horrifying than anything they'll see or hear on this day of horrors. (Halloween for those who may read this sometime in the future.)

And, if you visit the company's website here, you'll find an excellet recipe for Cherry-Chocolate Tam-Tam Pie. I have no idea what Tam Tam crackers are, but anything cherry and chocolate gets my mouth watering. Sounds like a good dessert for Thanksgiving dinner.

Jessie

Tuesday Tunes

I thought I'd start with a random hit off my computer catalog of music and blog about the first song that played. But, after staying up to watch Brett Favre's magnificent 82 yard touchdown pass in overtime, I changed my mind and decided to do a football song. I'm not talking about the songs performed during the promo spots or at the beginning of the shows, I mean a one-time top 40 hit about football. Sort of.

The year: 1969
The artist: Mel & Tim
The song: Backfield in Motion

You can find the lyrics here.

In football, it's a five yard penalty against the offense- more than one man in motion at the snap, and is called as illegal motion. The referee's signal is described as "Horizontal arc with one hand" and can be seen here.

The song also mentions the penalties of off-sides and holding, and strangely enough, a short baseball reference to balking. Must've been written in October.

I'm not sure when they started using illegal motion instead of backfield in motion, and haven't found any references to the switch. If anyone knows, please share the knowledge.

Jessie

Monday's Moments

I'm not much of a history buff. But every once in awhile I run across something interesting while doing research for a story, or just browsing the web.

For instance, I learned that today is the anniversary of the sale of the first ballpoint pen in America in 1945 at Gimbel's Department Store for $12.50. The marvel of the ballpoint pen shows up in a lot of time-travel fiction, and for the common man prior to 1945, it was pretty amazing.

However, did you know it was patented in 1888? Me either. In fact, the ballpoint pen went through several transformations and patents before the first "Rocket" was sold in the US.

Personally, I still like writing with a ballpoint pen. I like the feel of it in my hands, the movement of making words, the differences in my handwriting depending on my mood and what I'm writing. And my favorite pen?

The Bic Stic, now named the Bic Cristal - black ink, medium point.

Jessie

Sunday Surprise

Yesterday, DH & I went furniture shopping. I like lots of splashy color. He likes neutrals. He got the slate couch and I got a new bookshelf in lieu of the set I really wanted. I think it's a fair trade-off.

So, I've been rearranging books. This morning, I pulled one book off an old shelf entitled, Standing the Gaff. It's been in my family forever. Published in 1935, by umpire Harry "Steamboat" Johnson. I've never read it. I've kept it for sentimental reasons. My uncle Kyle played minor league baseball for a few years, and might've made it to the big league if he hadn't been a mean drunk. By the time I was born, he was pretty much a washed-out has been who lived off my grandparents. He played the harmonica with a natural ability I've rarely seen, built model airplanes with perfection, taught me how to roll a cigarette, and died at an early age. Oh, there are plenty of stories there, but back to the book.

Apparently, my dad either bought or inherited the book, and he's written all through it. Sometimes his name, sometimes baseball stats by inning (probably watching my uncle's games), the birth years for everyone in my father's immediately, family and sometimes it looks like he's just practicing his penmanship. (It didn't help.)

Between the pages of the book, I found what looks like my grandmother's recipe for chocolate pie, a free offer cutout from the newspaper for salad dressing which was never sent in, another cutout of an advertisement, and another cutout, my birth announcement. I sat down, handling that small scrap of newspaper with the utmost care and read about the other births at the same hospital, two girls and two boys, and thought about how far we've come as the announcements started, Mr. & Mrs. John Q. Doe announce of the birth of... No mention of the mother's name whatsoever.

This ratty book which I've kept for years because of my uncle Kyle, held a treasure trove of bits of my family's history. What a nice Sunday surprise.

Jessie

Friday's Fiction

Disclaimer: This is not a review, only my personal take on books I am currently reading.



Barry Eisler Home Page

I picked this book up last weekend at the Expo after meeting the author. It's the first in a series about assasin John Rain.

John is Japanese-American, and doesn't feel fully at ease in either culture. He likes jazz and a good single malt. Does he like killing? I think if you were to ask him, he'd shrug and answer, "It's a living. One I'm good at."

He doesn't really have a place to hang his hat, and although the reader can tell he doesn't have a lot of respect for the nine-to-fivers who simply work for the paycheck and retire, I think he envies the sort of life which offers family, stability.

He believes he's a man without hope...without redemption.

But he has a few rules which belie those beliefs. He won't kill women, children, or a second tier to the principle. Two of those I understand, children (obviously) and the second tier. I don't remember how he phrases it in the book, but it just seems like a stupid risk for little to no return to me. He doesn't explain why he won't kill women, so the reader is left to his or her assumptions.

(Here's where I have to admit I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the Japanese phrases in the story. However, I'm sure it's only my Southern showing through.)

I haven't completed reading Rain Fall, but I can already tell you it's a fantastic story. The fight scenes are written as clean and quick as the kills, and the description gives the reader a glimpse into a Japan which the average reader never sees in other media. John Rain is a mesmerizing character, and I find myself wanting to know this man intimately -- not in a sexual sense, but more like an old friend. The one you haven't seen in a decade, but when you meet it feels like the years haven't passed.

Status: Keeper Shelf

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Jessie

Thursday Thesaurus

Refurbish.

Some suggestions from my handy-dandy thesaurus are: recondition, reequip, repair, restore, recondition, spruce up, & clean up.

Now, I don't have a problem purchasing refurbished products. However, I just saw an ad for refurbished defibrillators.

Excuse me?

When my life's on the line, I do not want the paramedics pulling out a reconditioned, cleaned up, spruced up defibrillator. Call me crazy.

I didn't click on the ad, so I can't make any cost comparisons to a new defibrillator. I don't know what kind of warranty the proprietors offer, or if there are any regulations governing such things. I should hope there are, but it still makes me a tad uncomfortable thinking that some Joe off the street could purchase a refurbished defibrillator, or worse that a high school could. Think about that the next time you see the battery commercial where defibrillator saves the basketball player's life. I'm thinking the effectiveness of the defibrillator should be more important than the batteries.

So, what would you buy, or refuse to buy, refurbished?

Jessie

Free E-Book from Phaze

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