Modern Vespa

I'm currently drinking Mtn Dew Fruit Quake (I'm at work).

Motovista,

Great photos - whole lot of oinking going on at your place.

Ba dee ba da, that's all folks,

Bob Copeland
Snowing here in Frostbite Falls

I like some whisky with my peat

These two are my all time favourites, Lagavulin clear nro. 1

Both great whiskies, can't go wrong there. I tried that Laphroaig PX Cask last year, very nice indeed.

From the three big peaty Islays, I'd place Ardbeg a little ahead of Laphroaig and Lagavulin. But Laphroaig 10 is better value here (it's frequently discounted by 25% in the supermarket) and that's the one that follows me home more often.

Not sure why but it does grow on you

Ardbeg is right there in my favourites too, actually have one almost empty bottle of the 'very basic' 10yrs old right now at stock

My taste seems to drift a bit: Ardbeg was my nro 1 a few years back. Recently a surprise runner-up have been Talisker Disteller Edition (can't remember the year, I'm not at home right now), a very, very smooth, yet strong taste.

Still, Lagavulin's 16 year old seems to be my go-to whisky. It has just the right balance of peat and smoke to my taste buds.

With the Finnish alcohol taxes all strong alcohol is ridiculously expensive here. I used to travel quite a bit, got used to the idea of 'tax free'....not to mention that many airports have an amazing selection of whiskies.

[shudder]

RRider,

I am aware of he high alcohol sales tax in Europe. When I
was in the US Navy stationed ashore in Naples Italy, we
had a tax free store on the military base.

Beefeaters Gin was .85 cents (US). That means that all the price
after that is taxes. I would buy my nice Italian Landlord a bottle
of whiskey each year for Christmas - he was pleased - he would
say "Roberto, you are a rich Americano"

Historical Note: Most of the US National Government was funded by
Liquor Tax for 150 years. When prohibition (Booze was illegal) was
enacted into law, the Government introduced the income tax for the
first time to recover the loss of their source of income.

I expect most of the world thought that prohibition in the USA was
ridiculous. Obviously, most Americans felt the same way and
repealed the law.

Bob Copeland
Snowing in Minnesota

"Through 1860, Americans did not pay individual income taxes. Instead, the government collected revenue through excise taxes, like the whiskey tax. The government started collecting income taxes from citizens with at least $800 of annual income starting in 1861 to help fund the Civil War, but repealed the tax a decade later after the war had ended.

"When Congress tried to implement another income tax in 1894, the Supreme Court ruled the tax unconstitutional even though it had upheld the income tax during the Civil War. This led to the ratification of the 16th amendment in 1913, allowing for a federal income tax."

https://www.hrblock.com/tax-center/newsroom/income/the-history-of-income-tax/

"The Prohibition Era began in 1920 when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, went into effect with the passage of the Volstead Act."

https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/prohibition

Because it tastes like something from a medicine cabinet, Laphroaig whisky evaded the alcohol ban and was legally sold in chemists during the prohibition era.




True facts!

Does anyone know anything about this Bourbon Whiskey?

In insurance, I refer customers to different contractors that over
time have done the best work and produced the least complaints.
There is no exchange of money for these referrals - just don't
want follow up problems.

Occasionally, the agency gets a Christmas present from these good
guys.

I do not drink Bourbon very often and have no palate for what
would taste good.

I received a collector decanter of: 1978 produced 7 year old
"Old Commonweath Bourbon Whiskey in Sons of Erin II Porcelain
Decanter. My contractor got it from a collector (original owner)
He indicated never opened - but the cork is probably hardened and
will have to be removed using a wine cork scew.

So, anyone, is this good stuff?

Bob Copeland
Bourbon Clueless

As near as I can tell, Old Commonwealth Bourbon was part of what is now the Buffalo Trace / Rip Van Winkle conglomerate, which itself is owned by Sazerac. Of course, that might not have been the case in 1977 -- I am very hazy on the timeline, and likely someone else can fill in some of the details.

Old Commonwealth shows up in these collectible decanters quite a bit -- there are a number of references on eBay and elsewhere to them. No idea if they are valuable or not, though -- seems like more of a collectible than a drinkable.

Here's some more information linking Rip Van Winkle with the Commonwealth Distillery:

http://www.ellenjaye.com/oldrip.htm

Continuing on my theme of opening the "special" bottles I've put away for a rainy day, I opened up this 51 year old Sovereign today to share with two good friends.

It was really, really good.

But there's no clouds.

ps... thanks for the inspiration, whisky glasses filled that annual what can the Mrs get me for christmas hole.

It was a surprisingly lovely day today -- chilly but quite clear and the sun was out.

Jess,

I just found a biding online sale of this Bourbon Whiskey 5/22
value at $500. The tax labeled cover slip is broken. Some
one may have opened The original collector says it is
original. I don't know.

I think someone may appreciate it more. I expect I will
open it and use a wine cork screw to draw out the hardened
cork. Sip it and let you know.

Bob Copeland

Bourbon, Four Roses Single Barrel to be specific, my favorite "middle value" good bourbon.

One of my faves.

Apparently I'm drinking "Toasted Head" tonight, a lovely house warming gift from family. Best part is drinking in our new home, already filled with the smells of home made pizza and newly discovered music.

Something 2009 and French. Also apparently sideways but hey that's how you pour it.

A few sips of Teeda, a very fine rum.

Just curious -- does the image show as sideways on whatever device you posted from? I'm wondering if I need to chase down another rotation bug.

Shows as straight up in portrait mode - 2021 iPad Pro.

Okay, I'll take a look. Should definitely not be happening.

Doh. Can't tell what's happening in the exif data, because of course we strip all the exif data when we resize and store the attachment.

FWIW, it shows up sideways in both portrait or landscape on my 2014 IPad Air.

Yes, and it will continue to be sideways forever, since the upload process stripped the EXIF data.

There are two ways to rotate an image: actually rearrange all the pixels (swapping rows and columns) or just put a tag in the EXIF data that says "Errr, rotate this 270° when you display it, please". Digital cameras (or what the kids now call "iPhones") generally use the latter method to change from portrait to landscape or landscape to portrait (depending on what the native orientation of the camera sensor is).

Which is all fine and good, but it means that the eventual display process must do the right thing. In the case of MV, "the right thing" is to re-arrange all of the pixels according to what the EXIF data says, strip the EXIF data completely (so that MV isn't complicit in advertising your location, which is often included in the EXIF data) and then permanently store the "bare" image, which (in theory) is now natively oriented the right way.

Which generally works great! Until it doesn't. I think this is a case of "doesn't".

My theory about what happened here is that the image was in the latter class described above (rotated through EXIF data, but not physically rearranged) but the EXIF data was stripped prior to being uploaded to MV.

There may be other explanations, including MV's rotation code just inexplicably failing for some reason, but it works so consistently well* that I am skeptical that's where the problem is.

So, not sure. I would have to know something about the original image and the process it went through prior to being uploaded to know for sure.

* We did have a bug with rotation recently, but it was confined solely to avatars, which are a separate process. And that's since been fixed.

Today, Julmust.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julmust

Not actually very common in Finland, but I've got used to it by my Swedish colleagues at work.

Wikipedia says it is a bit like root beer...but not really. A bit of that, mayby even a hint of Doctor Pepper, a bit of traditional home brewed beer, any old fashioned soft drink...an odd one.

Non-alcoholic.

Sounds similar to back in the day when transferring iPhone photos to a Windows machine.

Very much so.

Back in the day?

You know, a good 15 years ago when life was simple.

But let's get this party back on track!

Cracked open a bottle of Tennessee Malt bottled in Knoxville. Promising young scotch type whisky with vanilla notes. Rather like a Speyside but would be better matured a few more years in a cask.

Homemade lemonade.

Yum!

Today I've fallen into a despicable crevice.

Diet Coke.

I'm sorry. Want me to throw down a rope so you can climb out?

Yes please. And some more roundels and a new scoot... or two.

I'll just scale the pile.

Pretty stout my man.

Go easy on that stuff!

I have always considered Four Roses to be a reliable bourbon whiskey. I find the Four Roses Small Batch to be a good choice for an Old Fashioned.

Back in the day, my uncle ran a barber shop in Arcata, California. Right on the Central Plaza if you have ever been there. Before the Holidays he would buy several cases of Four Roses. When each of his regular customers came in before Christmas, he would give them a bottle and thank them for their patronage. I was only a kid, but that made an impression on me.