I'm doing 25 things
Please, folks...
4 years ago
...get a grip. It’s the right thing to do.
Bywater's Life List
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1. Win a seventy-five million dollar lottery.
2 cheers5 people -
2. Relieve friends and family of their money woes.
1 person -
3. Move into a sixth-floor, West Side apartment with tree-top views of Central Park.
2 cheers1 person -
4. Use a portion of my lottery winnings to hire an interior decorator.
1 person -
5. Get a maid.
50 people -
6. Alternately, take up residence in a high-ceilinged luxury hotel, built in the 1930s.
1 cheer1 person -
7. Alternately, find work I love (in case the lottery doesn't pan out and I'm stuck forever in my current, hellish apartment).
1 cheer1 person -
8. Be able to afford 4 or 5 good restaurant meals per week.
1 person -
9. Always have a bottle or two of high-quality absinthe in the cupboard.
1 cheer1 person -
10. Learn to bartend.
621 people -
11. Learn to make piecrust.
1 person -
12. Help elect more liberals.
1 cheer9 people -
13. Elect a woman president...or Barack Obama.
2 cheers6 people -
14. Take America back from the jerks.
1 cheer8 people -
15. Legalize same-sex marriage.
1 entry . 4 cheers29 people -
16. Spend a couple of months a year in Venice, Italy.
1 cheer1 person -
17. Visit Prague.
1 cheer344 people -
18. See a total solar eclipse.
262 people -
19. Chase a tornado.
240 people -
20. See the northern lights.
16,919 people -
21. Make my peace with aging.
3 people -
22. Enjoy rude good health until I croak.
1 cheer1 person -
23. Die peacefully in a cheerful hotel room.
1 cheer1 person -
24. Resolve never to reincarnate as anything.
1 cheer1 person -
25. motivate myself, damn it!
1 cheer8 people
Recent entries
But do your homework!
4 years ago
If you live in the United States….
Absinthe (unlike, for example, Marijuana) is not a controlled substance. Possession is legal. However, it is illegal to manufacture, sell, or import it. Absinthe brought in from another country can, strictly speaking, be confiscated by U.S. Customs. That being said, it’s easy to order absinthe online, and I have yet to hear of an order being confiscated. Use a reputable exporter, and you’re unlikely to run into trouble.
The 95-year ban on absinthe has been lifted in most countries in the European Union. It’s widely available there and in other countries, including Japan, Brazil, and parts of Canada. The drink’s new-found popularity has sparked a resurgence of interest in nineteenth-century recipes and methods of distillation; as a result, the quality of commercial absinthes is improving.
Don’t get ripped off! Barely-palatable absinthes abound! A list of good commercial absinthes would include those made by:
Jade Distillery (Eduoard, Nouvelle Orléans, Suisse Verte)
Eichelberger Distillery (Eichelberger Verte 68%)
Artemisia-Bugnon Distillery (Suisse La Bleue Clandestine 53%)
Paul Devoille Distillery (Blanche de Fougerolles)
Kübler-Wyss Distillery (Kübler 53%)
New absinthes are hitting the market all the time.
Check out (if you haven’t already) the exhaustive forums at la Fee Verte ( http://www.feeverte.net/ ). Fee Verte has product ratings, links, and answers to any question you might have…..and a thousand others you haven’t thought of!
If the history of Absinthe weren’t fascinating enough, it’s a wonderful drink.
Go. Just go!
4 years ago
Montreal is my favorite Canadian city, and one of my four favorite cities on the North American continent (the other three being New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco).
Architecturally, it’s gorgeous. If you love food, the city’s restaurants are first-rate. Best of all are the people—French Montrealers have an insouciance that is Gallic to the core. (It being Canada, all that fine Frenchness is very warm and relaxed.)
Winters are long and cold. Go in June or July, when everyone is puttering in their gardens or heading to the parks in celebration of the beautiful summer weather.
I love Montreal!
