Saturday, April 12, 2008

What glass is this?

The only stupid question is the one you fail to ask... but let us not mince hairs.

Brandy is usually served in a snifter, this familiar stemmed, low-slung, bell-shaped glass thingum. One effect of the design is pointing the aromas directly into one's nose, and should never be filled beyond the widest part—the snifter, not the nose... though a word to the wise should be sufficient.


That's why a little brandy (relatively speaking) is often served in a large snifter (also relatively speaking). Small snifters (aka brandy glasses) are for pubs, cafés, discount shops, farm supply store holiday fêtes, where the focus is necessarily some other kind of beverage and/or aroma—or the avoidance of aroma, in the case of the farm supply store. Of course, an overly large snifter is also a cause for much embarrassment, unless inhabited by well cared for fish.

The possession of a nice snifter—one which is 5 or so inches at its widest diameter—will hopefully induce one to occasionally languish with a jigger of decent Cognac or Armagnac, without audience, pretext or pretense. In these solitary moments, one's senses open to something very old, very complex, yet unmediated by the maws, the haws and guffaws of our noisy world.

Easy, as they say, does it.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Pope Finds The Holy Grail!

No, the Knights who say “Ni!” didn’t go to Rome. But, when meeting the Pope it is customary to offer the Holy Father a nice gift. The story begins:

Archbishop delivers 'Holy Grail' to Pope - It could have been the moment the world was waiting for - the Holy Grail being hand-delivered to the Pope.

But that is exactly what the Archbishop of York did when he made his historic visit to Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican.

Dr John Sentamu took the Pontiff some quintessentially Yorkshire gifts - including a bottle of Holy Grail beer and Black Sheep Ale from the Black Sheep Brewery.

Original story continues.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Michigan AG: No beer at barber shop.

Barber Pole BeerBy offering gratis brewsky, or a quaff avec le coif, a Grand Rapids chop-shop scraped the state Attorney General le wrong way. (Shoot! Guess we'll have to just let it grow until we reach Westchester.)

No beer at barbershop, attorney general says
GRAND RAPIDS -- The owner of Jude's Barbershops, which had offered a free beer with a cut, is disappointed in a state Attorney General ruling that says he needs a liquor license if he wants to hand out beer.

Read full article.