A fair amount of b.s. around all that? Sure looks that way.
This article from Gourmet Magazine about wine glasses is pretty interesting reading if you’re convinced that there are physical explanations for wine tasting ‘better’ when consumed in expensive glassware vs. a Flintstones jelly jar: Shattered Myths.
Also, boxed wine vs. bottled: most people can’t seem to tell which is which, from the little bit of reading I’ve done on that.
None of this should surprise us. At least, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Our sense of taste is subjective, and therefore subject to biases. And one of those biases, it appears, is that we expect things to taste better when we believe we are ‘pampered’ with higher-quality utensils and packaging. And there’s really nothing wrong with that, as long as we understand it is actually more about our individual senses and biases than the wine itself.
And just today, this from the Wall Street Journal: A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion, about wine ratings and judges. Apparently, they aren’t all that.
According to a series of studies done by Robert Hodgson, a retired math professor and winemaker, when you point the harsh light of double-blind studies at wine judging, the wheels start to come off. For instance, even when tasting the same wine, individual judges are all over the map, depending on all kinds of uncontrollable factors like when they ate last, the time of day, the other wines in the competition, etc. And wines that win gold medals at one competition get dismissed at others, which seems unlikely if there is a truly objective hierarchy that we can decipher accurately with our individual senses of taste and smell.
Again, unsurprising. I’ve long been openly antagonistic to the whole idea that if Robert Parker rates a wine a 94, then by golly, we’re all going to like it, too! Here’s why. If I don’t like it, I don’t care what the number is on the label. A rating from somebody who is not me is useless. And likewise, if I do like it, I also don’t care what the number is. I already know that I like it, so what other info do I need, exactly? Ratings might be useful in some situations, but they can never be more useful than your own taste buds telling your brain “this tastes good” and “this doesn’t”.
So, my advice is: Drink what tastes good to you, poured from boxes or bottles into jelly glasses or fine glassware, without regard to price or awards or ratings, and ignore everything else. It’s all good. It is wine, after all.
Back in the fall of 1975, when the monster album “Kiss Alive” was released, I remember buying it at Korvette’s for $5.99.
In fact, that might have been my first “hard rock” album. I was a junior in high school, and was just starting to get into Led Zeppelin, Kansas, The Who, all that, and Kiss was in the mix too.
Kiss, of course, was outrageous. They wore ridiculous makeup and costumes, and bass player Gene Simmons used to spit fake blood and do crazy things with his huge lizard tongue. To me, that whole thing seemed a tiny bit campy and silly, but they quickly developed a reputation as a great live act, and sold out shows accordingly. For me, it was more about (some of) the music. “Rock and Roll All Nite” was a decent party anthem, and I liked a few other songs, especially “Room Service” from the Dressed to Kill album.
But, seriously, if somebody had told me back then that 34 years later, Kiss would still be spitting blood, wearing ridiculous makeup, and selling out large arenas for live shows, I would never have believed it. Outrageous is strictly for the under-30 set, right?
The crowd at the United Center was a bunch of old guys and gals, some even dressed up like their favorite Kiss band member.
Yow! The mind reels.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the founders of the group, must be doing pretty well for themselves: for just another $30 last Friday night at the UC, you could get a “USB leather wristband containing digital files of the night’s performance”.
Do the math on that profit margin, and multiply it by all that other crap you can buy at concerts. Think about all the other old fogeys doing concerts today, and how much cash is made from all that crap people buy at the shows. Say, how’s that career choice looking now?
My Kiss fascination ended pretty quickly. Within 4-5 years I wasn’t even listening to much hard rock any more. Maybe their wimpy ballad “Beth”, from their next studio record, had something to do with that. That song, in fact, might have started a huge 1980s trend: power ballads from hard rock bands. Gosh, thanks for that, guys! Really, that’s just awesome. Thanks again.
For completists only, I imagine: a 1994 tribute record called Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved, featuring Stevie Wonder, Garth Brooks, Lenny Kravitz, among others.
Right after a crushing playoff loss in cold, windy weather, the football coaches of my son’s youth team gathered the kids around for the usual post-game talk.
The season is over now, there’s no getting around it. This is the end.
After 13 weeks of practice six hours a week … after 9 games … after all the team-building that results from good leadership of 25 ten-year-old boys who love football and get along well with each other … here we are now. Done. Over. After all that effort, and all that investment, suddenly, it’s all over.
Some of the coaches got choked up trying to put their intense emotions into words. Just like last year. And listening to them, and watching them, so did I. Just like last year.
And this was a totally different set of coaches from last year.
Two seasons of football, two different sets of coaches, but two identical scenarios at the end of the season: a tough loss, and an emotional message.
Two sets of good people connecting with our young men, doing a wonderful thing for them, and for us. Two sets of dads who throw themselves into coaching with great dedication and desire. with a sincere and earnest wish to teach football to 9- and 10-year-old boys. For nothing. Well, it isn’t really for nothing: the coaches get to spend a little of their own money, and a lot of their own time, energy, and emotion.
Some kids aren’t so lucky, I know, and end up with jerks for coaches, who ruin an entire sport for them forever, but we’ve been lucky enough to go 2-for-2 in the Good Football Coaches category.
The key thin I’ve learned over the last two enjoyable seasons is that football builds bonds like no other sport that I’ve ever seen up close. The investment of time and emotion is so big. SO, so big. And with all that investment comes bonding: boys with other boys, coaches with boys, parents with each other.
It all comes together, slowly, over a period of weeks. At some point, it turns into a team, a real team, where everybody works together for a common goal, without concern about who gets credit.
And it hurts when that finally ends. It hurts a lot. It hurts because you’ve built something real.
There is a very real sense of grief for the end of that bond. Maybe it hurts the adults more than the kids. In fact, I’m pretty sure about that.
And then we drag ourselves back to work, school, or wherever it is we put in our time each day, but we do so as changed people.
We’ve been transformed. Literally, transformed by the power of connecting with other people and working towards a common goal. It’s an amazing and beautiful thing. And I’m pretty sure this is one of the most powerful draws that keeps players coming back to play football, and keeps coaches coming back to coach it, at least in our local youth program.
Football is a great sport outside of all other considerations, but when you add in the teamwork and the life lessons, the character-building, the elevation of team over self, football becomes transcendent.
Someday when I’m old, and Jacob is grown, we’ll talk about the good times we had when he played youth football, and how much we both enjoyed it, and how much we both learned.
Life is mostly about building memories, and it feels good to know you’ve just built another great memory. It feels really, really good.
I’ve avoided discussing Roman Polanski’s recent arrest for skipping bail on his 1978 statutory rape charge, but I’ve been watching it from afar. And I really don’t believe some of the public comments some people have made about Polanski, and about his 13-year-old victim.
I like to poke fun at Hollywood and the entertainment industry. It’s easy, and it’s fun, because these ridiculous people bring it on themselves. Despite that, the media refuses to criticize any of them, because the media depends on access to these yahoos for much of its content. They are, quite literally, “off limits”.
But what we’ve seen lately really ought to make some of us sit up and pay more attention to the types of people who produce our television shows, our movies, our books and CDs, and our newspapers. Because if their recent comments defending Polanski’s disgusting crime reflect their true vision of right and wrong, then we need to confront some ugly truths about our star-centric culture.
The list of such people is long, and disturbing. I’m not going to bother digging up links to all of them here and glorify their ridiculous statements.
So the big picture here is that it’s easy to dismiss cultural influence as unimportant, but I think that’s a mistake. A really big mistake.
And if the fact that Gore Vidal is an amoral twit with nothing useful to tell us wasn’t clear before, then it is pretty damn clear now.
But he’s like 145 years old, so who cares? Here’s why it matters: his outlandish, insane comments in this Atlantic interview a couple of weeks ago didn’t cause any kind of public backlash in the media.
This tells us just about everything we need to know, about both the media and Hollywood in general. And what it tells us is not good.
I’ll break it down for them: it’s ok to come out in public and criticize creeps that drug and rape and sodomize 13 year old girls. Really.
Brad Biggs gives his usual 10Thoughts about Sunday’s Bears game, a dreary 30-6 drubbing of the ridiculous Cleveland Browns.
I have a theory: the Bears’ O-line is so awful that it is screwing up the entire offense.
They can’t run the ball, because the line can’t open any holes. When you can’t run the ball, the defense tees off on pass plays. And since their pass blocking isn’t that great either, this means that on every offensive snap, basically, they are operating at a big disadvantage.
Stated another way, if they had the O-line of the Colts, or the Broncos, or the Patriots, how many of their current issues just go away? A lot, I’ll bet.
I was not convinced when Jerry Angelo said after last season that the QB was the biggest issue to be solved. It seems like I was right, and Angelo was wrong:
Just sticking to offense, and in approximately the order I’d fix them:
old, slow, offensive line,
bad, small receivers,
no discernible fullback,
a general lack of depth across all positions,
mediocre position coaches,
unproven quarterback who has never been given a real chance with a real offense.
Does bringing Tom Brady, or Drew Brees, or whoever else you like, fix all that, too?
Cutler, Brady, Brees, same difference.
Note that Kyle Orton seems to be doing just fine in Denver, with that great offensive line, big physical receivers, and good coaching.
Feel free, then, to draw important conclusions about the people running the Chicago Bears, both on the field, and off.
Well, sure. It’s not like we have freedom of speech or anything. Wait … turns out, we do! Huh.
Very odd. I mean, this is the Attorney General of the United States we’re talking about here. He knows about the Constitution, right? The rule of law? Stuff like that?
Also, exercising restraint when you hold a huge amount of power?
Respect for the guaranteed right of others to hold their own opinions and even advocate for them, in public? How scary is that!?
So very, very odd.
Because seriously, come on now, a President wouldn’t nominate a political operative for Attorney General, would he? A guy to do his political bidding, and oh-by-the-way, also run the entire Department of Justice, where he could direct thousands of attorneys and FBI agents to harass enemies of the President?
And even, you know, make idiotic demands in public that show his true colors, along with a disgusting lack of respect for free speech and how essential that is to our overall freedoms?
Nah! That would be a big conflict of interest. So we know that is completely off the table. Phew!
Obama is a Democrat. And we all know that Democrats don’t have conflicts of interest, or a lust for power, or a tendency to tell everybody else what to do.
The main concern seems to be traffic. OK, so a few more cars come and go at the same times every day. How big can that “problem” get? It’s a Montessori pre-school, in a town with tons of stay-at-home moms. We’re not talking 200 kids here.
Ron Repking and his wife (name not given) own Diamante Montessori Preschool, and they bought a vacant church to house it in 2007. And it’s been a contentious battle ever since, with yard signs, lawsuits, and everything in between. When driving past the area, I’ve noticed the signs, and wondered just what they were all about.
Now I know, and I think it’s pretty lame.
Who knows, maybe some benefits accrue to the neighborhood from having young kids educated there, Montessori-style? Is that possible? Good kharma, and all that?
And even if the answer to that is “no”, and you have to put up with the auditory horrors of children squealing with delight now and again, we think you just might survive it. We really do.
And if you get supremely annoyed by a few extra cars cruising on public streets, to deliver and pick up children to/from a licensed school run by responsible adults, then maybe it’s time to lighten up a tad. Just a teensy bit.
Or, continue to push hard on an issue that no reasonable person sees your way.
The Wildcat formation is causing defensive coordinators in the NFL to do some adapting, and this article does a nice job of explaining the whys and wherefores.
In reading them, it’s very easy to see how he got to be so popular: he went out of his way to engage people. Probably because he’s just a nice guy and a people person. You know who could stand to loosen up a little bit in that department? Tiger Woods. But then, he wouldn’t be Tiger Woods. He thrives on focus and drive, and those things are incompatible with being a people person.
Golf could really use a guy like Arnold Palmer right now. How many people started playing golf entirely because of Arnold Palmer’s charisma? It sure sounds like a lot, from reading those letters.
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One of my favorite bands, Steely Dan, played the Chicago Theatre last week. Monday night they played “Aja” in its entirety at the start, and then a bunch of their other great songs. Check out this set list:
1 Black Cow
2 Aja
3 Deacon Blues
4 Peg
5 Home at Last
6 I Got the News
7 Josie
8 Black Friday
9 Time out of Mind
10 Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More
11 Bodhisattva
12 Babylon Sisters
13 Show Biz Kids
14 Hey Nineteen
15 Dirty Work
16 Love is Like an Itching in My Heart (Supremes)/band intros
17 Do It Again
18 Don’t Take Me Alive
19 My Old School
20 Kid Charlemagne
Encore
21 Reelin’ in the Years
Color me bright green with envy. I’ve listened to most of these songs sooooo many times over the years, I know every solo, every chord change, every note and lyric. Except for the songs on Gaucho … never a big fan of that record.
My favorite Steely Dan records, in order:
(tie) Can’t Buy a Thrill and Aja
Royal Scam
Pretzel Logic
Countdown to Ecstasy
Katy Lied
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Locally, Chicago’s attempt to remake public housing has fallen somewhat short. So, to review, the Federal Government created the publc housing mess which helped destroy our cities, and then the city government has distributed that mess into the neighborhoods and suburbs, and done an inferior job at it, too. Maybe it’s time to bring sanity back to housing policy?
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Finally, Tony Woodlief writes about the quality of education today. I agree with everything he says there. We don’t home school, but I support and sympathize with many of those who do. And then we have this Education school lunacy. Do people realize what is going on under their noses? On their dime? To their kids? I really don’t think they do.
“If I had it to do all over again, I would not have changed anything I did. I felt we had a player that was treated unfairly, and it was my responsibility as the head coach to stand up for that player. I have three sons of my own, and if they ever went and played ball or did anything with their career and there was someone responsible for them (who) didn’t try to stand up for them, it would disappoint me as a parent.
When it first came out, lots of folks had a laugh, and the rant does seem a little over the top in a couple of parts. But lost in all the laughing and the making fun of his “I’m a man! I’m 40!” line is this: he was exactly right.
His larger point was that we’ve forgotten that college athletes are amateurs. Or, “student-athletes”, if we want to be extremely generous and take the NCAA at their word on that terminology.
We all know that some of these amateurs aren’t as good at their chosen sport as some others. But then, as “student-athletes”, they have lots of responsibilities off the field as well. Where is the media attention for that? Oh, right, there isn’t any.
College athletes have amateur standing for a reason. That’s what we’re told, anyway. But take a look around, at the huge TV contracts, the shoe deals, the under-the-table payola from connected alumni and prominent boosters. Look at the big money coaching contracts, and all the advertising revenue that flows to the NCAA and then to the big conferences and member schools.
Money just flying into and out of everybody’s pockets except the players.
Does that sound like amateur athletics to you? Me neither.
Yet, despite all that money flying all around them, the players themselves are still expected to lead the monastic life of an amateur athlete. Sure, OK, if the NCAA says so.
And as money has invaded college sports, so has the focus on individual stars. ESPN puts you on SportsCenter if you make outrageous plays, or act like an idiot after scoring touchdowns. What’s the difference, any more? It’s all about celebrity more than athletics, and it has been like that for years..
So I think Mike Gundy is here to remind us that we should respect our student-athletes, our amateurs, for being good people and working hard and doing their best. That’s all we can really ask of our young people.
Take care of your business the right way off the field, too. That’s really what Gundy is saying here. Watch for yourself:
He has a very good point, and it doesn’t get made often enough: we’ve completely lost our minds about what is important with the student-athlete today.
As fans, we hitch our hopes and dreams on the backs of kids so that we can feel a little better about ourselves and our pathetic, empty lives. I know that’s harsh and maybe a little hyperbolic, but when you really back away from it, and shine a bright light on what is going on there, isn’t that pretty close to the truth?
As parents and boosters, we lie to ourselves and to our kids when we ignore the most honorable among us, the kids who probably aren’t going pro, but still study hard and show up at practice and contribute to the team in any way they can. Instead, many of us promote harmful ideals like celebrity and glorifying the individual.
We did a much better job preparing our young people for life after college when we took the “student” part of “student-athlete” seriously. Today, we cater to the needs of the top .1% who might become professionals someday, for a couple of years.
Speaking as a parent of a college age son, with two more to follow in a few years, I think I can speak with confidence when I say that most parents of college athletes want to know one thing, just one thing above all others: who is going to advocate for my kid’s interests while he/she is away at school?
If you can’t be there to provide parental guidance day-to-day, you want somebody you can trust to take over that role. Especially in the shark-infested waters of big-time athletics.
So when a coach like Mike Gundy takes on great risk to stand up for what is right, and to stand up for a kid on the team who does everything right, even if he is not the most talented on the team, that tells a recruit’s parent just about everything they need to know.
And unlike the sordid tale of another coach recently, I’m pretty sure Mike Gundy won’t be caught doing some random gold-digger on a restaurant table, paying for her abortion, and then getting sued six years later. Some coaches are more about celebrity; some are more about leading young people.
So, all in all, I’d be honored to have a fine man like Mike Gundy watch after one of my kids. Even if he does say funny things on Youtube videos when he’s angry.
It must be Philosophy in Old Rock Songs Day today.
On the drive into work, I heard “Live for Today” by the Grass Roots, followed by “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones. Also, “I Can Help” by Billy Swan was the first song out of the radio when pulling away from the house, a song that I really like a lot. There is a guitar riff in there that sure reminded me of Les Paul, a connection I’d never made before. One of those runs down the neck, and back up, repeating the same sequence of notes. Here’s a recent version:
Something about the mood I was in made it all sound extra good. I think it’s because I was already in a very good mood, after getting my first good night’s sleep in a quite a few nights. I’m pretty sure this is directly due to my bike ride last night, also for the first time in many days. Went with my youngest boy Jordan, just the two of us, so it’s a win/win. I’ve noticed over the last few years that on days when I get zero exercise, my sleep is low quality. It’s shorter and not as deep, and during the next day, I don’t feel as good, I don’t have as much ability to concentrate, my mood is often inferior, etc. I often wonder how many people who fight problems with sleep and are taking medication for it are sort of barking up the wrong tree.
On to the links:
A night of healing in Iowa – A summation of Friday night’s tribute to Ed Thomas, the coach at Aplington-Parkersburg who was killed by one of his former players in June. He was instrumental, also, in helping rebuild Parkersburg after a devastating tornado mostly destroyed the town in 2008.
Ichiro defies critics and odds – Computers sometimes don’t throw Ichiiro Suzuki lots of love. Proving, I don’t know … that computers can be stupid? Is there a GM that wouldn’t sign him if they had a chance to start a team from scratch and wanted to win a World Series? I sure would. The guy creates team offense by getting on base at a ridiculous rate.
Political Economics 101 – Eric Raymond explains how health care would respond to government intervention in that market. See if you can guess how it turns out!
Oh, come on: one extra club costs Jim Furyk over $130,000 – And that’s why golf is the most honorable game in the world. Rules is rules. It sucks when you forget and break one. Which encourages not breaking them, and rewards those who follow them. The higher the cost of breaking them, the more value they hold.
Randy Brown hit a low point in April. A really, really low point.
He got fired from his NBA assistant coaching job with the Sacramento Kings. Even worse, all of his possessions were auctioned off in bankruptcy court.
As if all that weren’t already bad enough, among his possessions were three irreplaceable items: his three NBA championship rings from his years with the Chicago Bulls.
You can always buy another house, and more cars, furniture and clothes. It’s just stuff. And like all “stuff”, none of it really matters all that much, even though we tell ourselves that it does.
When you can buy another one pretty much any time you want, it is less valuable, by definition.
It is another thing entirely to lose a championship ring. A championship ring oozes with meaning. It symbolizes sacrifice, teamwork, and achievement. It represents something few players ever experience: the pinnacle of success for your sport. It demands respect from peers and fans alike. And it reminds you of many good memories and the people that made up one of the best parts of your life. Along with much more, I’m sure.
Brown admits it’s all his fault:
”It’s my fault. I can see how it all happened and the mistakes I made. Like others, I trusted the wrong people, people who were my best friends. Some even lived with me. I never thought of myself as being a big spender, but I did loan and give away a lot of money to so-called friends who never paid me back.”
And Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Bulls, has even promised to replace those irreplaceable championship rings.
New job with your old team: check.
Replace irreplaceable rings: check.
Randy Brown is one lucky man.
And he has some good advice:
”I can’t wait to address the incoming NBA rookies at the next retreat. I want them to know that the wisest things they can do are save, trust the right people and be very, very careful where you invest. I learned my lessons the hard way. Thank God my wife, Tamara, and I have a chance to start all over again with our three children, Justin, Janel and Diamond.”
"As I wrote in my common sense, bulldozer of truth book "Ted, White and Blue," you do not have a "right" to health care, but rather a personal responsibility for it. From my vantage point, too many Americans obviously do not care about their health but have the unmitigated audacity to want someone else to pay for their health care damage control. That attitude is soulless, irresponsible and un-American. I am not of the same species as these bloodsuckers."
Ted Nugent, from "Fedzilla Goes Quack", Mar. 10, 2009
