Riddle Me This, Jishman

Tonight, we watched the movie Bottle Shock and opened a bottle of 2008 Sterling Vinter’s Collection Central Coast Chardonnay. For those of you who have not seen Bottle Shock, go and rent/Netflix/Hulu it. It is based on the book Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine and tells the story of a 1976 in Paris where a California Chardonnay beat a number of French wines in a blind tasting (i.e., the judges did not know what they were drinking).

The wine was also excellent. It smelled a little like light citrus (a little grapefruit perhaps) and has a very mellow, buttery flavor with only a hint of oak. It is a refreshing wine that is not overly oaked like so many other Chardonnay’s that have been recently produced. It is a widely available wine (we bought our at Shopper’s Food Warehouse, a grocery store, near the house). Enjoy!

I have to thank my parents for sending this one along…. enjoy!

An 18 year old Italian girl tells her Mom that she has missed her period for 2 months. Very worried, the mother goes to the drugstore and buys a pregnancy kit. The test result shows that the girl is pregnant. Shouting, cursing, crying, the mother says, ‘Who was the pig that did this to you? I want to know!’

The girl picks up the phone and makes a call. Half an hour later, a Ferrari stops in front of their house. A mature and distinguished man with grey hair and impeccably dressed in an Armani suit steps out of a Ferrari and enters the house. He sits in the living room with the father, mother, and the girl and tells them: ‘Good morning, your daughter has informed me of the problem. I can’t marry her because of my personal family situation but I’ll take charge. I will pay all costs and provide for your daughter for the rest of her life. Additionally, if a girl is born, I will bequeath a Ferrari, 2 retail stores, a townhouse, a beach-front villa, and a $2,000,000 bank account. If a boy is born, my legacy will be a couple of factories and a $4,000,000 bank account. If twins,they will receive a factory and $2,000,000 each. However, if there is a miscarriage, what do you suggest I do?’

At this point, the father, who had remained silent holding a shot gun, places a hand firmly on the man’s shoulder and tells him.
‘You gonna try again.’

I know we try to ignore politics in this forum but this was too good to pass up, especially considering the current state of affairs:

A little boy goes to his dad and asks, ‘What is Politics?’

Dad says, ‘Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I am the head of the family , so call me The President. Your mother is the administrator of the money, so we call her the Government. We are here to take care of your needs, so we will call you the People. The nanny, we will consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we will call him the Future. Now think about that and see if it makes sense.’

(more…)

I am tired of swapping emails with Yahoo! I want service and not of the lip/email variety, I want results. I am therefore resorting to an open plea:

Dear Yahoo!

In 1999, I signed up for an email account with your company! It has worked nicely for most of the past decade. BUT over the past six months to a year, you have been trying to compete with other companies and much to my dismay, my satisfaction with your product is suffering greatly!

I get error codes. I send messages to you and you tell me nothing is wrong. I get another error code and I follow your directions to take a screen shot of the page but nothing ever changes. I am unable to access my email multiple times a day and it is frustrating to have to hit the refresh button ten times in a row before I can log into my email because your servers cannot support your new changes. I would love to blame IE but it happens when I log in at home on Firefox as well. It’s not them and it’s not me! Sooner or later, the problem can’t be everyone else.

(more…)

In light of Kanye West’s sensitive and tactful way of showing his support for Beyonce on Sunday Night’s MTV VMAs, Barack Obama, when asked, highlighted that he thought Kanye was missing the point…actually, I think he called him a jackass:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/09/obama-calls-kanye-west-jackass.html

Also, in light of the recent Beer Summit at the White House, I have decided this is something we can all get together on - conservatives, liberals, black, while, rap fan, country fan - this could be a moment of national healing! Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken could get behind this! “Kanye is a Jackass” could be almost as big a rallying cry as “Remember the Alamo” or “40 Acres and a Mule.”

Conversations like this will be happening across the US:

Candidate: “Support me, I’m running for congress.”

Voter: “Really, on what ticket?”

Candidate: “The Kanye is a Jackass ticket.”

Voter: “Here’s my wallet and I’ll be there on election day!”

I mean come on, who’s with me!?!

Many thanks to Niner McHates-You for her contributions to this post…including…well, mostly all of it.

If I had to choose one wine to drink, I would probably choose a good Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a very versatile wine that goes well with red meat and with chocolate dessert. During our recent trip to wine country, Sarah and I made a special stop in Napa to buy some Cabernet (more reviews to follow). Besides visiting some wineries, we stopped at the Wine Garage in Calistoga. The Wine Garage is an awesome wine store that gets wine from all over California and sells everything in the store for $25 or less a bottle. Here is their philosophy:

Our philosophy:
No wine over $25
Everything must taste great before it goes on the shelf
No wine snob attitudes
Impeccable and personal customer service
No wine questions go unanswered, or are deemed insignificant
Have fun…It’s only fermented grape juice!

The 2005 James Creek Vineyards Napa Valley Cabernet was one of the wines we bought there. It is a wonderful example of the type of Cabernet produced in Napa Valley. Big and jammy, this wine has notes of chocolate and ripe red berries on the nose and a wonderful dark chocolate taste with a slight bit of oak. We drank it with dark chocolate and it was a prefect pairing. Our only regret on this bottle is that we didn’t buy more than one!

1.) The Lions finally did something right! - apparently, they released Shaun Smith, DT, formerly of the Bungals and the Browns (aka the mini-Manginis). In and of itself, this is not necessarily a good thing or a bad thing (for the Lions). The day after they released him, however, it was announced that he was going to be suspended for 4 games because of a water pill he took that could be used to mask anabolic steroids (wait for it). Now, because of his status as a vested veteran, had he stayed on their roster for week 1, they would have owed him his full salary for the season (minus the games he was suspended for). Because they released him (here it comes), however, even if they resign him in 3 to 4 weeks, they will only owe him the weekly salaries that he’s on the roster not his full salary (nor do they take the cap hit). This is BRILLIANT for the lions (for any other team, it’s just standard operating procedure, but this is the lions, thus, BRILLIANT!) Already forgetting the Matt Millen era. Had Millen been there, he would have been signed to a long term, GUARANTEED CONTRACT and then been suspended, so he would have gotten his money either way.

2.) Steelers v. Titans - The Steelers rushed for 36 yards. THIRTY SIX!!!! The Titans ran for 86 yards. Weren’t these two teams known for running the ball a year ago? Combined, they had fewer rushing yards than the Titans averaged last year. Whatever happened to smash mouth football?! Next you’re going to tell me that Ben Roethlisberger had over 350 yards passing…oh wait! He did! He had 363! Pinch me. What is this, Madden Football?

3.) J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS! We’re undefeated! Yeah! - I just had to do it, since I sense there are going to be “Just End The Season” calls from the Peanut Gallery soon enough.

4.) Brett Favre throwing the Jets under the bus - Yes, the Jets apparently screwed up by not listing you. This just in, you were injured. No kidding. You know what? I was listening to Mike & Mike the other day, and Mike Greenberg was talking about Brett Favre as a stand up guy and one that every one likes and respects. I’m sensing that tag has pretty much been ripped off. How many passes (no pun intended) does one guy get? Brett got kicked out of Green Bay but screwed around with them. Retired. Wanted to go to Minnesota, but GB won’t let him. Gets traded to Jets. Un-Retired. Pissed off people in THAT locker room. Retires. The Jets let him go (no obligation, but they do). He un-retires so he can go play with the team he wanted to in the first place, Minnesota. Says he probably won’t play all 16 games and that he doesn’t care about records (please see my a$$ on that one! you’re two games from an unheard of record and you expect us to believe it doesn’t matter to you. Yeah, sure. I’ll believe that one on game 3 once you’ve broken the record, thank you very much.). Are you kidding?!! I’m sorry, but this guy gets no more passes. Brett, you’re an idiot. Please retire. Your legacy is now one that no one can be proud of.

5.) Seymour-gate enters day 5 - yes, Richard Seymour still hasn’t reports and now, apparently, the Raiders have sent him a letter saying “report or be suspended”. Tom Cable punched 2 people during the time it took me to type this part. I love the RRRRRRRrrrrraiders.

Recently, Sarah and I opened a 325ml bottle of the 2001 Francis Coppola Diamond Collection Blue Label Merlot (2006 seems to be the most recent vintage) and was awed by how well it held up over time. With bright cherry quality on the nose, it was easy drinking and presented complex characteristics of cherry and plum.

We initially pared it with pizza (I personally think that almost any red wine goes well with pizza!). The wine almost overpowered the pizza, but was still enjoyable. While I did not decant this bottle, I should have. After having a little with dinner, we finished the bottle later in the evening, and even a little time open improved its drink ability. I wish I had more, but alas, this was the only bottle.

I am so draft happy this time of year. As is often said about December, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”

This year, in the Piazza league, aka league FFFL, here is my team:
(more…)