Observation of the Day

When I see this:

I can't help but think Dave was killing this:

...I'm just sayin'.

Port - ALSO... Churchill's 20-year Tawny

I hasten to add: my father-in-law poured me two half-glasses of Churchill's 20-year tawny. This is a $60 bottle of port!  ...Too rich for my blood.

Perhaps that's why I walked away thinking that the Victoria was still a much better bang for the buck.  ...It was good (very good), but not worth the extra money. Definitely more complex and "refined" than the Victoria, but about as enjoyable, overall.

Trader Joe's (Quarles Harris) 10 Year Old Tawny Port

We don't get up to Trader Joe's that often. But the last time we went, I decided to check out their port selection.

They had several to choose from, and I chose their 10-year tawny, which ran about $15. In a nutshell, I'm disappointed by it.

First of all, it smells awful. I mean really bad. Like earth, metal, and alcohol.

Fortunately, it tastes much better than it smells, but it still isn't nearly as good as other ports in this range. It's decidedly sweet (which is good), it's a bit alcoholic (but that's the nature of the beast), and, to my novice pallate, takes more like Sherry than port: more fig than grape. Some of the smell's "earth tones" are left in the taste, but it is otherwise not very complex.

Here's another reviewer's take. But for me, the Australian "Victoria Tawny" by Buller is a much better bang for the buck.

In fact, I decided to re-try my standing favourite: Taylor-Fladgate's 2003 LBV. ...And, while it's a very good port, I'm convinced it's not so much better than the Victoria that I'm willing to pay the extra $10 for it.


UPDATE: The "R.L. Buller & Son" has apparently renamed itself to simply "Buller", so I've changed that here. In finding this out, I also became aware that they have many other offerings in the fortified-wine realm, and I look forward to trying a few.

Daily sketch, 3/4

Yeah, I didn't do a single daily sketch for all of Feb.  Oops.

But I really want to get back in the habit.  So, here's today's.  REALLY crappy photo.  I should have taken it outside rather than trying to shoot it in this crappy office light:

Video with Mom

I clled my mother last night (I am a dutiful son, no?), and she mentioned getting a new Mac.  Then she asked if I had a camera on my mac... next thing we knew, we'd switched to a video conference.

It was her first time, so of course, I showed her the "effects".  What I didn't show her was that you could take snapshots.  I am a devious son, no?

Note to Shelf: The Gemini Incident

Here's a story idea.

Suddenly, for no obvious reason, all living things on earth leap back two minutes.

Of course, all living things on earth are still *there* two minutes ago.  This creates a rather gruesome catastrophe, where people who hadn't moved in those two minutes are merged with their future selves, and die some horrible convulsive deaths. People who were in planes fall from the skies, people in cars tumble in streets. It would be gruesome, so this is clearly a dark story.  I'm thinkin' zombie-movie-level of gore, for the first scene.

But for the rest of the people--the ones that moved far enough--they are left dealing not only with the catastrophe, but with their doppelgänger.

What would the world be like in the aftermath?