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Saturday, August 25, 2007
Didn't he put down the Whiskey Rebellion?: Next week visitors to Mount Vernon will get a rare treat, watching experts follow George Washington's actual recipe in -- no, not his kitchen, but the Father of His Country's newly reconstructed distillery.
Yes, our first president not only led the way in stepping down after two terms but was the model for Uncle Jesse Hazzard: Urged by his Scottish-born farm manager to make a double profit from the rye and corn grown on the plantation, Washington in 1797 built one of early America's largest whiskey distilleries. In 1799, the former president produced 11,000 gallons of rye worth a hefty (at the time) $7,500.
Credit for the five-day show of liquor companies' master distillers taking turns at the copper pots, and for the $2.1 million restoration of George's moonshine still, belongs to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS). The trade association's next event is National We Don't Serve Teens Week, September 10 through 15.
4:40 PM
Thursday, August 23, 2007
We all float: This, via First Draft, is a wonderful story that not a few of us can relate to. But I mention it because OMGPONIES is The Greatest Internet Exclamation Ever.
7:10 PM
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Product recommendation of the month: Goo Gone doesn't whisk away unwanted bumper stickers as well as advertised (the trick for that is to use a hair dryer), but it works wonders in scrubbing off unwanted paint transferred to your car by backing into a wooden gate. Except for its gas mileage the Fusion is the best car I've had, but it does seem to hit things (three in eight months).
4:30 PM
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Re Karl Rove:
David Horsey rules.
11:50 AM
Thursday, August 9, 2007
You notice these surveys are always sponsored by somebody like Slim-Fast or Gardenburger: Back on the self-defeating female self-image beat, Slim-Fast has spent some of its dough from diet shakes and inedibars to underwrite a survey of 2,000 women -- and find that more than three-quarters (78 percent) of them say they're bigger than they'd like to be. Only one woman in five considers herself to be her ideal size, with others feeling an average of 38 pounds above it -- 56 percent of respondents said they wanted to be a size 8 or smaller, even though the average size is 12.
Some women have such low opinions of their bodies that they avoid possible exposure. Of these, 65 percent don't go to the beach or pool, 42 percent put off shopping for clothes, and 40 percent avoid being nude in front of their partners.
Slim-Fast, whose sponsorship of the poll coincides with a new "Find Your Slim" ad campaign that follows Dove soap's much-buzzed-about daring to show Real Women in commercials, tries to spin the survey as empowering to women: The idea is that, permitted to feel better about their weight, women might decide they'd be glad to drop just 10 pounds or only one dress size instead of crash-dieting in dreams of being mistaken for Charlize Theron. In fact, almost three-quarters of the respondents agreed that you can wear a large size and still "feel good about yourself."
Of course, 64 percent also admitted that it's "very difficult" for women to have a positive self-image if they wear a large size of clothing. Hence, the weight-loss product of which Elayne Boosler exulted, "A tasty shake in the morning, another for lunch, and you've got headaches and diarrhea all day!"
7:15 AM
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
 Nerd nirvana: Never mind the string bikini -- at a computer show last week in San Diego, there was an exhibit of high-tech fashions including a solar bikini. The custom-made swimsuit was fitted with 1 by 4-inch photovoltaic film strips sewn together in series with conductive thread, terminating in a 5-volt regulator with USB connection to power or recharge an iPod or other personal music device. Or to give would-be gropers and harassers the surprise of their lives. Do the words electric eel mean anything to you?
Actually, there already was an iPod bikini; seriously Brazilian-waxed supermodel Marisa Miller posed with a strategically placed music player and earbud cords for a shot in this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. I know pin-ups are more about exploitation than empowering, but I should confess that I've tried to objectify women myself: On two occasions, as editor of two different computer magazines, I pitched a Special Summer Issue cover that would feature a glamorous bikini model with a pocket protector full of pens in one cup of her bra. The circulation department never went for it.
8:35 PM
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Get Ed "Too Tall" Jones on the phone! The 2008 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records -- actually, I see they've changed the title to the hipper and more fly Guinness World Records 2008 -- has debuted with a nationwide contest to find the Tallest Man in the U.S. The lucky winner will have to stretch to beat the new Tallest Living Human Being: veterinarian Leonid Stadnyk of Podoliansky, Ukraine, who hits the ceiling at a spectacular 8 feet, 5.5 inches.
If you ask me, the publication of a new Guinness book is the only consolation left for fans of the famous and fabulous Weekly World News, closed this month after 28 stranger-than-truth years. The Guinness publishers promise that the '08 edition contains many additional new records, such as "An elephant with the Largest Prosthetic Leg" and "The unbelievable World's Hairiest Family."
8:10 PM
Press release headline of the week:
DEATH From COSMETIC SURGERY Is Never Acceptable Claims Dr. Friedberg
That maverick Friedberg, always staking out radical positions.
7:30 PM
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Planned that vacation yet?: Two breaking news stories bring new opportunities for summertime travelers. First, shopping-mall gadget HQ the Sharper Image proclaims that it's gone "beyond high-tech products to life-altering experiences," becoming the exclusive retail source for FAA-approved Zero-G Weightless Experience flights.
Regularly scheduled, specially configured Boeing 727s depart from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral -- or, more prosaically, Las Vegas -- to perform the same series of parabolic maneuvers used to train astronauts for zero gravity in space. Only those who truly possess the right stuff will not barf up their breakfasts before capping the 90-minute flight with "a festive re-gravitation celebration" with champagne toasts and souvenir DVDs. The $3,675 price includes a flight suit that's yours to keep.
If that whets your appetite, of course, Space Adventures has already taken five sightseers on its $40 million Soyuz rocket trip and week's stay in orbit at the International Space Station, though nobody's splurged yet on the 16-day package with the first civilian space walk ($55 million). By 2009 the company hopes to have a customer for the first private flight to and around the far side of the moon, though I'd have hoped you'd get at least a lunar orbit if not a landing for your $100 million.
For a different kind of vacation fun, Dublin-based Reva Health Network says that over 2.5 million people will consider "dental tourism" this year, finding financial savings by recreating the movies Hostel and Turistas heading overseas for an implant, veneer, or crown. As the company's downloadable Dental Tourism Information Pack reveals, Hungary, Mexico, and Poland are the most popular destinations; an American traveler to Costa Rica can save 60 percent on a dental implant, while a Mexican veneer is barely a quarter of the price of the U.S. procedure.
5:30 PM
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Young at heart, but not that young: As I count the dwindling days till my 49th birthday, I take comfort in my immature behavior. I bet not many other 50ishes usually eat dinner lying on the TV-room floor. I bet not many cruise I-95 with the CD player on loud enough to clear three lanes of traffic, or at least not playing The Faders -- a female pop/punk trio from the U.K. whose combined ages approach mine; their 2005 single "No Sleep Tonight" is best played at stick-your-head-in-the-drum-set volume with the bass cranked up so the side-view mirror appears to show an earthquake.
Except while watching the coming attractions before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the other day I heard "No Sleep Tonight" as part of the soundtrack to the upcoming Bratz movie. Ewww! Thanks for ruining that. Back to Abba for me.
8:10 PM
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