This Week's Meaningless Topic (#188)(April 10)

[Rodger Pettichord]

Hi all. Not naming any names, it seems several regulars on this thread know their beers, wines, and spirits. Just in case such a connoisseur gets a chance to travel, let's provide a guide list of local beverages. If you are a teetotaler like me, feel free to recommend a sparkling water or soft drink.

 

THIS WEEK'S MEANINGLESS TOPIC: (A) your country;  (B) recommended beer/wine/spirits/soft.

 

[W2DR]

I'm in the United States and my picks are.....Magic Rock Unhuman Cannonball beer/Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon wine/Wilderness Trail Small Batch High Rye Bourbon Whiskey/and the best soft, by far, is Sandi Lee. 

[gumbypickett]

Australia

Carlton Draught.

I don't drink wine but I'll put in Mercury Hard Cider.👍

Spirits has to be any kind of Bourbon.

Soft drink has to be a Ginger Beer or Sarsaparilla.

cheers

Gumby  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BradB]

God help us when Karl (Flying Leaf) gets a hold of this topic ..........😉😄

 

 

For me Texas Sweet tea in the Summertime .

Cheers

John

[Rodger Pettichord]

Not very exotic for me -- any seltzer. I have the gustatory sophistication of an oyster. 

[Ken Q]

Long Island, New York, USA.

 

When visiting England we both fell in love with typical English bitters.  Here simular beers are (erroneously) sold as IPAs.  We have complained to our local distributor that this is false advertising.  An IPA starts as a good English bitter, but must be put in an oak barrel and sailed to India in a sailing ship around the Cape of Good Hope.  So semantics aside we have found a US brand that seems to come close.  That is Founder's "All Day". IPA.  Crisp, clear, reasonably hoppy, and fairly low in alcohol.  Besides that we like some of the beers by our local micro breweries, but they vary from time to time.

 

We enjoy a crisp white or red wine from.time to time, depending on the day's menu.

 

Also enjoy a scotch now and again.  Wife prefers Clan MacGregor, I like Lauders.  But I have a soft spot for Curry Sark, which I get for really special occasions (Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and my birthday). 

 

The year was 1969.   At this time a great effort was being put into preserving some of the historic waterfront of old New York along the East River.  A new museum, South Street Seaport, was just getting started. Then it was great plans, and a couple of historic vessels, and a few storefronts in Schermerhorn Row.  1969 though, was the 100th anniversary of the launching of the Cutty Sark.  South Street Seaport and the importers of the whisky held a birthday party for the Grand Old Lady.  There were interesting presentations on the history of the ship, capped by an address by one of the last surviving captains.  And the whisky flowed! And Flowed!!  I don't recall if there was an admission fee, but it if so, it was not enough to deter a couple of inpecunious college students. We (my buddy Jim and I)  were young and foolish, and I'm surprised that we made it back to Poughkeepsie!  I have a lovely Cutty Sark pitcher as a momento of the occasion.

 

Ken

 

[adambar]

Doesn't matter after a few they all taste the same to me even Karl's home brew. 😄

[Rob Abernathy]

Anything that made the girls prettier at 2 AM.

 

Didn't work so that's why I'm 39 yrs sober this year.

[TuFun]

I don't drink... never liked it, but I would drink wine from the Master you know water into wine that is!

[wain71]

locally it would be Thatchers Cider  or a nice IPA, something crisp and with a hint or citrus...

 

when I lived in Berlin in the 80's I was partial to Grolsch or Berliner Kindl, but I avoided schultheiss bier as that put me in the s##thouse the next day!!!!

 

I do like a very simple rum and coke and the only wine would be a nice cold Rose.....

 

all that being said though I actually don't drink much now maybe no more than a glass per week, I think I did all my drinking in the Army...

[boetie]

I buy a carton of Coopers Sparkling Ale every fortnight. One of Australia's last Australian owned big breweries. Other than beer, my wife and I enjoy a few bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon a week. We own our own business and it gets quite stressful, red wine is our evening chill. I actually had some good luck a few weeks ago, every carton of Coopers purchased at the local bottle/liquor/off license shop gained an entry to win a BBQ. Guess who won?

They sent me a photo, I'll post it when on the PC, I was stoked!

 

Cheers 

Graeme

[flyingleaf]

Howdy guys. Have a great weekend. Cheers k 

 

 

[Rodger Pettichord]

11 minutes ago, flyingleaf said:

Howdy guys. Have a great weekend. Cheers k 

 

 

What, Karl, no Molson's??

[boetie]

As per my above post, my new barbie!!

 

 

Great timing, my wife and I are going glamping on Sunday, will have to put a few steaks in the fridge

[flyingleaf]

2 hours ago, Rodger Pettichord said:

What, Karl, no Molson's??

Actually the third one from the left is a Molson Rodger.

[flyingleaf]

39 minutes ago, boetie said:

few steaks in the fridge

With all that lovely display behind you, Y'all "just" put a few steaks in the fridge? That place you're standing in sure looks like a great "medicine dispensary". Good looking barbie though I must say.k

[Rodger Pettichord]

1 hour ago, boetie said:

As per my above post, my new barbie!!

 

 

Great timing, my wife and I are going glamping on Sunday, will have to put a few steaks in the fridge

Graeme, one is tempted to trot out the stereotypes about Australians and shrimp on the barbie, but one will resist 😇.

[adambar]

4 hours ago, flyingleaf said:

Howdy guys. Have a great weekend. Cheers k 

 

 

Well that was short and sweet, didn't expect that. 🤔

[gumbypickett]

6 hours ago, boetie said:

As per my above post, my new barbie!!

 

 

Great timing, my wife and I are going glamping on Sunday, will have to put a few steaks in the fridge

Looks like a new ironing board.

Very nice.

cheers

Gumby

[W2DR]

On 4/11/2024 at 12:40 AM, Rob Abernathy said:

Anything that made the girls prettier at 2 AM.

 

 

[gumbypickett]

classic.👍

[adambar]

12 hours ago, boetie said:

As per my above post, my new barbie!!

 

 

Great timing, my wife and I are going glamping on Sunday, will have to put a few steaks in the fridge

Nice folding grill Graeme that will fit nicely in your vehicle. All that liquid stuff behind you is that just for the days outing. 😄

[adambar]

I enjoy Cape May IPA. 

American IPA named for America’s Oldest Seaside Resort, Cape May IPA is loaded with floral and citrus notes, well-balanced with a zesty finish. A West Coast-style IPA brewed in the heart of the East Coast, it’s the beer that’s Crafted on the Cape. Cape May is located at the southern tip of New Jersey.

 

0

[wain71]

nice variety of beverages suggested here and a lucky barbie winner, nice....send a ;little sun over here and I'll crack open some bottles and celebrate your good luck....

[boetie]

Cheers dears

 

[boetie]

On 4/12/2024 at 4:26 PM, gumbypickett said:

Looks like a new ironing board.

Very nice.

cheers

Gumby

This is very apt Grant. An Amazon delivery arrived on Friday. As I do all the ironing in our household, it was a new ironingboard cover for my upcoming birthday! My wife thought it was hilarious. I didn't think so.

Edited April 13 by boetie

[gumbypickett]

9 hours ago, boetie said:

This is very apt Grant. An Amazon delivery arrived on Friday. As I do all the ironing in our household, it was a new ironingboard cover for my upcoming birthday! My wife thought it was hilarious. I didn't think so.

Spooky.😲

[W2DR]

Here's my favorite Barbie.....

 

 

[John Burgess]

A great topic and some fantastic reply's 

 

As for making the gal's look prettier Rob, these days I just need to take my glasses off!

 

However, in answer to the original question.

 

If you ever get to visit the area I was born in - the English Lake District - enjoy. Great scenery, great hill walking, and when you get down off the fells many wonderful pubs serving locally brewed ales to quench the thirst.

 

Where I live now, Scotland, has been a bit behind but now produces some lovely beers. Cairngorm Brewery Trade Winds and Loch Fyne Brewery Jarl being particular favourites on draught if you can find them.

 

In the international class I have to give the prize to the local brewery in Golden, Colorado which I was taken to last year. Many and varied delicious ales.

That was after visiting Buffalo Bill's grave and driving past the Coor's Chemical works. Which reminded me of how easy it is to make bad beer, and how much better it is to find the pints made by people who care 

 

All the best,

 

John

 

 

[W2DR]

You should be aware of the Beer Goggles Effect John.

 

The "Beer Goggles" Effect:

In 2002, researchers at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University in Scotland took 80 college students and had half of them drink a "moderate" amount of alcohol -- between one and four servings, depending on gender and body weight. The other half, the control group, remained sober. Scientists showed each subject pictures of people of the opposite sex. In all cases -- male and female alike -- the experimental (tipsy) group rated each picture an average of 25 percent more attractive than the sober group did.

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you're looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being's face is. If you look at, say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, this area of your brain probably experiences increased neural firing. In other words, it's stimulated. As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you've have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In a more recent study, this one conducted by researchers at England's Manchester University in 2005, scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the extent of the "beer goggle" effect on a given individual in a given situation. Their reasoning for creating this formula is that alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:

How brightly lit the area is
The observer's eye-sight quality
The amount of smoke in the air
The distance of the observer from the observed
The formula goes like this:

              (An)2xd(S+1)
       g=      -----------
               L x (Vo)2

where:

An is the number of servings of alcohol
S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

The formula works out a "beer goggle" score ranging from 1 to 100+. When g = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10.
 

[adambar]

2 hours ago, W2DR said:

You should be aware of the Beer Goggles Effect John.

 

The "Beer Goggles" Effect:

In 2002, researchers at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University in Scotland took 80 college students and had half of them drink a "moderate" amount of alcohol -- between one and four servings, depending on gender and body weight. The other half, the control group, remained sober. Scientists showed each subject pictures of people of the opposite sex. In all cases -- male and female alike -- the experimental (tipsy) group rated each picture an average of 25 percent more attractive than the sober group did.

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you're looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being's face is. If you look at, say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, this area of your brain probably experiences increased neural firing. In other words, it's stimulated. As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you've have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In a more recent study, this one conducted by researchers at England's Manchester University in 2005, scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the extent of the "beer goggle" effect on a given individual in a given situation. Their reasoning for creating this formula is that alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:

How brightly lit the area is
The observer's eye-sight quality
The amount of smoke in the air
The distance of the observer from the observed
The formula goes like this:

              (An)2xd(S+1)
       g=      -----------
               L x (Vo)2

where:

An is the number of servings of alcohol
S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

The formula works out a "beer goggle" score ranging from 1 to 100+. When g = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10.

Say that again, something went wrong. 🤕 Never was any good at math.

[W2DR]

You really don't need the math. Just remember that the more you drink the better she looks. And, as Mickey says, all the girls get prettier at closing time...even if you're stone sober.

[adambar]

1 hour ago, W2DR said:

You really don't need the math. Just remember that the more you drink the better she looks. And, as Mickey says, all the girls get prettier at closing time...even if you're stone sober.

From my experience some are still borderline at closing time and beyond. 😄

[W2DR]

1 hour ago, adambar said:

From my experience some are still borderline at closing time and beyond. 😄

Beyond closing time really doesn't matter. You're either hooked-up by then or you're not. If you're not then it's all a moot point. But if you are, what really matters is what she looks like when you wake up in the morning.

[John Burgess]

On 4/15/2024 at 12:13 AM, W2DR said:

You should be aware of the Beer Goggles Effect John.

 

Thought I replied to this yesterday - beer goggle effect is clearly spreading!

 

I actually studied Maths at Manchester (a bit before 2005) so am glad to see they are still taking a serious (sober?) approach to their research 

 

Formula makes sense but, in my case, An = several more than I'll admit to a 'health professional' 

 

All the best,

 

John

[Stillwater]

On 4/12/2024 at 1:30 AM, boetie said:

As per my above post, my new barbie!!

Great timing, my wife and I are going glamping on Sunday, will have to put a few steaks in the fridge

I do not see a BBQ in this picture, but oh so many delicious bottles.

[Stillwater]

On 4/13/2024 at 2:15 PM, boetie said:

As I do all the ironing in our household

Same here. A new cover for my board would be an idea... And then I come back to your picture...

[Stillwater]

On 4/15/2024 at 1:13 AM, W2DR said:

You should be aware of the Beer Goggles Effect John.

 

The "Beer Goggles" Effect:

In 2002, researchers at St. Andrews University and Glasgow University in Scotland took 80 college students and had half of them drink a "moderate" amount of alcohol -- between one and four servings, depending on gender and body weight. The other half, the control group, remained sober. Scientists showed each subject pictures of people of the opposite sex. In all cases -- male and female alike -- the experimental (tipsy) group rated each picture an average of 25 percent more attractive than the sober group did.

The effect can reportedly be traced to the nucleus accumbens. When you're looking at another human being, the nucleus accumbens is the area of the brain that decides how attractive that human being's face is. If you look at, say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie, this area of your brain probably experiences increased neural firing. In other words, it's stimulated. As it turns out, alcohol, all by itself, stimulates the nucleus accumbens. So when you've have a few drinks, and you look at a face you may have judged as unattractive when you were sober, your brain, under the influence of alcohol, tells you that this face is in fact somewhat attractive. And the increase in perceived attractive seems to be directly proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In a more recent study, this one conducted by researchers at England's Manchester University in 2005, scientists actually came up with a mathematical formula to calculate the extent of the "beer goggle" effect on a given individual in a given situation. Their reasoning for creating this formula is that alcohol is not really the only factor affecting the drunken perception of beauty. Other factors, according to their research, include:

How brightly lit the area is
The observer's eye-sight quality
The amount of smoke in the air
The distance of the observer from the observed
The formula goes like this:

              (An)2xd(S+1)
       g=      -----------
               L x (Vo)2

where:

An is the number of servings of alcohol
S is the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 - 10
L is the lighting level of the area, measured in candelas per square meter, in which 150 is normal room lightning
Vo is Snellen visual acuity, in which 6/6 is normal and 6/12 is the lower limit at which someone is able to drive
d is the distance between the observer and the observed, measured in meters

The formula works out a "beer goggle" score ranging from 1 to 100+. When g = 1, the observer is perceiving the same degree of beauty he or she would perceive in a sober state. At 100+, everybody in the room is a perfect 10.
 

There is a song in German "Geh mal Bier holen, Du wirst schon wieder hässlich" - Go get beer, you´re becoming ugly again.

[adambar]

On 4/15/2024 at 11:21 AM, W2DR said:

Beyond closing time really doesn't matter. You're either hooked-up by then or you're not. If you're not then it's all a moot point. But if you are, what really matters is what she looks like when you wake up in the morning.

The thing is to get up and get out before daylight.