Hard Root Beers Like?

October 26, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

We tried two brands of hard root beer that are available in my area – Not Your Father’s Root Beer and Coney Island Hard Root Beer.

When we poured the Not Your Father’s Root Beer (NYFRB) into the mug, the head disappeared within a few seconds. It had a nice vanilla scent and flavor, followed by light spices. It tasted like root beer. There was a light alcoholy after taste, but that problem was solved by taking several more swigs.

NYFRB has a 5.9% alcohol content. It’s very smooth, not too fizzy, but it still made me burp, so there had to be some carbonation left, right? It is made by Small Town Brewery and distributed by Paabst. Although the location finder they have on their site showed on a few places near me where it’s available, I’ve seen it in my local grocery and liquor stores.

To another taster, NYFRB tasted like sasparilla with alcohol. A fourth said it tasted like bubblegum. (He’d been drinking other alcoholic beverages before the taste test so he might not be the most reliable judge.

The head on the Coney Island Hard Root Beer (CIHRB) also disappeared quickly after pouring. It had a spicier flavor, kind of a wintergreen. (My other taster compared it to the smell of Icy Hot patches, but in a good way.) We didn’t notice an alcohol taste at all with this one.

CIHRB is 5.8% alcohol. It’s brewed by Coney Island Lager which is owned by Samual Adams. It has a sweet syrupy taste, but one taster compared it to A&W with hairspray. He had also been drinking beforehand and I don’t know how he knows what hairspray tastes like anyway.

The four of us were evenly split over which of the two was better. Kind of. One taster liked the CIHRB best but only in limited quantities – having one with a pizza, for example. If he were going to drink a lot of hard root beer, he would go with the NYFRB since it is less sweet.

If I find other hard root beers in my area, I’ll add tasting notes for them too.

Entertainment, Food & Drink

Easiest Halloween Party Snacks?

October 23, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

You want to have a party but you don’t want to spend a lot of time on preparing food? These recipes are quick and tasty!

Barbecued Meatballs

1 32-oz. package frozen meatballs
1 bottle (12 oz) chili sauce
1 jar (10 oz) grape jelly

Put the chili sauce and jelly in a slow cooker. Stir.

Add meatballs and stir to cover with the sauce. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until heated through.

Makes about 5 dozen.

Deviled Egg Eyeballs

Hard-boiled eggs
Ingredients for your favorite deviled egg recipe (see link below if you need ideas)
Black olives
green and red food dye

Cut a small slice from the end of each hard-boiled egg. Cut eggs in half horizontally rather than lengthwise. This will make them look round instead of oval.

Make your favorite deviled egg recipe. Add green food coloring to the yolk mixture and put a spoonful into each egg hollow.

Put a slice of black olive in the center of each. If you want, use red food dye to paint veins on the egg white.

Haunted Pizza

Frozen pizza (or your favorite take-out/delivery*)
Mozzarella slices
black olives (optional)

Using a ghost-shaped cookie cutter, cut ghosts out of the mozzarella cheese slices. Finely dice a black olive to use for the ghosts’ eyes.

Begin cooking the pizza as directed on the package. Set the timer for five minutes less than the total cooking time.

When the pizza is mostly cooked, place the mozzarella ghosts on top. Add pieces of black olive for the eyes, if desired. Finish baking for the last five minutes. Serve hot.

*If using take-out pizza, place the cheese ghosts onto the pizza. Bake at 350 degree for 3 to 5 minutes, or just until the ghosts begin to melt.

Pumpkin Patch Dirt Cake

2 cups cold milk
1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant chocolate pudding
1 pkg. whipped topping (Cool-Whip), thawed
1 pkg. (16 oz.) Chocolate sandwich cookies (Oreos)
Candy pumpkins

Put the cookies in a large zip-lock bag and crush with a rolling pin.

In a bowl, combine pudding mix and milk until well blended. Then fold in the whipped topping. Fill rectangular glass baking dish with pudding mixture alternating with the cookie crumbs. Top with cookie crumbs.

Refrigerate for at least one hour, then decorate with candy pumpkins.

Reese’s Witches’ Brooms

Reese’s Miniature Peanut Butter Cups
small stick pretzels
1/4 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or milk chocolate)

Don’t make these until shortly before your party, otherwise, the pretzel sticks will do what pretzels do when left out – get soft and no one wants a soft shaft. Broom shaft.

Fortunately, they’re quick to make. Unwrapping the candies takes the most amount of time.

Unwrap peanut butter cups.

Melt chocolate chips in the microwave at half power (50%) for 30 seconds. Stir until completely melted. (Microwave a few more seconds if needed.)

Dip 1/2″ of one end of each pretzel into melted chocolate and then press it into the bottom of a peanut butter cup. Set aside until chocolate is hardened. (When I checked mine after an hour, the chocolate was firm.)

Politics

Reasons People Like Donald Trump?

October 23, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

1. He says what they can’t say. Even when he’s too extreme, it’s still refreshing to hear someone who doesn’t care about being politically correct. He’s not afraid of controversy…maybe even craves it.

2. He would have to do better than what we’ve had lately.

People watch the news about migrants in Europe – closing the Chunnel between France and England – or setting their own tents on fire in Slovenia.

The current administration’s failed policies in Syria have played a big part in forcing these people to leave their homes. What would Trump have to do to screw up more than this? We were promised “smart diplomacy” that would bring the world back to our side. Instead we got failure in Iraq, an increase drone strikes, and inept negotiations with every country from Russia to North Korea.

3. He’s a leader. People want to hear him tell the Republican establishment politicians, “You’re fired!” Okay, so he can’t actually fire them, but he won’t put up with their bullshit either.

4. He builds things – buildings, a TV show, a business empire, a fortune. Politicians like to tell us about “evil rich” people who are keeping us from getting our share of the pie. Yeah, the economy isn’t a pie. There’s not a limited amount of wealth available. Your neighbor’s success doesn’t prevent you from succeeding. If anything, government regulations that protect established businesses at the expense of entrepreneurs do that.

There are only a few candidates that have been successful in the private sector. (None of the major Democratic candidates can claim this.) Other notable candidates that have done this are Dr. Ben Carson, who was raised by a single mother in Detroit and grew up to become a neurosurgeon. At age 33, as the director of pediatric neurosurgery, he was the youngest major division director in the hospital’s history.

Another candidate that has been successful in the business world is Carly Fiorina. She was AT&T’s first female executive officer and then went on to be CEO of Hewlett-Packard.

5. He’s like a character in Arrested Development.

Entertainment

Worst Sexy Halloween Costumes?

October 19, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

The worst ones are easy to figure out, those are the ones that Martha the Slut™ wears every year. You know the ones I mean and you know who I mean. She’s the one who wears something that’s meant for someone several pounds lighter or a decade younger. (If instead of thinking, “Yeah, I know a Martha” you’re getting pissed off at that statement, then it’s probably because you’re the Martha.)

Compare, for example, these two “sexy schoolgirl” costumes.

You know which on Martha would be wearing, although, if the idea is to get men to notice you, dressing as a slutty version of a child may not be in your best interest.

Sexy Pizza Rat. Really.

It was inspired by the Pizza Rat video. I think what women are trying to say with this costume is that they are up on current events. Hip. Trendy. Test that current even knowledge and ask her what she thinks about deploying troops to Cameroon or whatever is in the news that week.

Slutty Sesame Street characters are another bad idea.

The same goes for minions. These are all characters for children. You are not a child, you are an adult.

Although, it could be worse.

The internet is a great resource for costume ideas. Be creative. Be interesting. Don’t be a Martha. (Not because she’s a slut, because she’s predictable.)

News, Politics

Top Legal Blogs?

October 5, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

October 5 was the first Monday in October and that means that mans the Supreme Court of the United States has finished their summer recess.

SCOTUS Blog does one thing – it’s all Supreme Court, all the time. It’s pretty comprehensive and even has a section to describe the cases in plain English for those of us who don’t speak legalese.

If you just want brief summaries of what’s happening, you can follow their Twitter feed.

Wall Street Journal Law Blog: Supreme Court covers news stories relating to the Supreme Court. The WSJ also has sections for news stories about Law School (Currently – Scores on this year’s bar exam may be the worst in decades), Constitutional law (Wisconsin Court says sex offenders can photograph children in public), Lawyers and Law Firms (New York weighs plan to let foreign attorneys practice in the state), State Legislation (In Ohio, residents fight for the right to mow), and Intellectual Property (Restaurants can finally sing Happy Birthday, To You without worrying about hefty royalty fees. Servers who are tired of singing “fake” birthday songs rejoice. And hope this means bigger tips.)

Find Law: Supreme Court of the United States This section of their site is meant for legal professionals but it’s not that hard to follow for anyone interested in the Court’s goings-ons.

If you’re in a SCOTUS mood now, here’s the trailer from the 1981 movie, First Monday in October. It’s about a fictional first female justice on the Court. The movie had been planned for release in February 1982 but President Ronald Reagan, the first of his name, appointed the actual first female Supreme Court justice, Sandra Day O’Connor on July 7, 1981 so the movie release was moved up to August 1981.

Now that we’ve had our break, time to move on to some general legal blogs.

Above the Law offers insider comments on current legal events.

American Constitution Society posts news stories related to Constitutional law. It’s a good way to get insight that the TV News talking heads won’t provide.

Overlawyered is published by the Cato Institutue, a public policy research organization dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.

And here are some that focus on specific subjects:

Cruise Law News It offers breaking news with legal commentary on what’s happening in the cruise ship industry.

Dashboard Insights covers the auto industry and its unions.

All About Advertising Law is a mystery. I feel like the title is trying to tell me what it’s about. I think that after decades and decades of potentially getting all my ad media via subliminal messaging, the title is too straightforward for me to understand.

Trademarkology covers trademarks and branding with a touch of humor.

Art Law Report covers law relating to museums and visual arts.

BeLabor the Point is about employment law. Some of the weirdest stories (short of Florida Man news stories) are here.

Election Law Blog so you can enjoy the sometimes important, sometimes petty legal wranglings of politicians trying to decide how they will let you exercise your voting rights.

There are a lot of others. If you have a favorite, whether it’s general law or just about criminal law that happens on Thursdays in the Florida Panhandle, leave me a link and if I like it, I’ll add it to the list.

Entertainment

Most Strike Outs in a World Series Game?

October 1, 2015 C.L. Owen Leave a comment

The World Series is the yearly championship Major League Baseball playoff between the American League (usually the Yankees – they’ve played in 40 out of 110 World Series) and the National League.

In 1968, the Series pitted the St. Louis Cardinals (who had won in 1967) against the Detroit Tigers. In the first Series game that year, St. Louis pitcher Bob Gibson struck out 17 Detroit players. This beat Sandy Koufax’s record of 15 strike outs in the first game of the 1963 World Series (LA Dodgers vs. NY Yankees). While Koufax and the Dodgers went on to win their Series championship, St. Louis’s excellent start – they were 3 to 1 after the fourth game – the Tigers won the last three games to win that year’s championship.

Side note: In the late 1800s, there was a baseball team called the Cleveland Spiders. How awesome is that name? Spiders can make grown men scream like little girls,but not dressed like this –

They should have worn spider costumes. Can you imagine facing a team dressed like this?

would have been. Especially if they switched out the balls for balls of spiders.

What Are The?com

Monthly Archives: October 2015