I was at Infinite Spirits, picking up some items for the top shelf, and ran across the clerk who'd advised me to try a particular bourbon. I know they push certain brands. It's built into the conversation.
Wolcott is one of the "Expert Pick" brands that Total Wine employees shill to try to get the uninformed chasing the latest Blanton's or Eagle Rare drop to get something instead of going home empty handed.
Uh huh. Well, I wasn't going to go home empty-handed, and I know that the ones they push are pushed for a reason. I am not, let us agree, a Blanton's Chaser.
If you are hellbent on getting something distilled by a Sazerac Brand company (Barton/Buffalo Trace, etc.), or are captivated by the stories told by Total Wine employees eager to share with you their "favorite" replacement for whatever unicorn you are after, give this one a try. There's nothing to hate here, but it's just boring and there are so many better options out there I'd buy instead of getting this one again.
I found it struck a nice balance between Maker's and another brand I get for its midly peppery aspect. But what do I know? The Redditor reviewer noted one of the tasting notes as "leather," and I am afraid my palate is not so finely tuned that it can detect the subtle flavors of "underside of a saddle" or "shoe."
We talked about some Irish whiskeys, and I mentioned the Red Locks I'd bought, and how it was surprisingly toffee-forward, although that mellowed quickly. I said I was fairly forgiving, really, and held no animus towards any bourbon or whiskey except one, which I'd tried once and then poured straight down the drain. He said he'd only done that once as well, and turned around to pick a bottle off the shelf.
"This one," he said. Proper Twelve.
"That's what I poured down the drain," I said. "Okay, now I trust you."
The Reddit review of the one I'd bought included a reply from someone who poured it down the drain. Okay. Well, I guess I know nothing, and will chastize myself for not being appalled. In Scotland I tried different brands, recommended by the bartender, and they ranged from wonderful and unique to concentrated sheep urine.
The other highlight of the day was visiting the library at the office, and finding that there wasn't any library anymore.
It's being reconfigured for offices. Half the reference books will be saved. There used to be a wall of magazines but the subscriptions stopped after COVID and they cut them from the budget. The world was frozen on that wall for five years. There were some booths for reading or conferring, and I have memories of Natalie working there on her laptop, writing something. There were the old microfilm cabinets I used to scour back in the old building, along with an old reader. I don't think one (1) person used them in the last decade. It was a nice quiet spot, though, and I used to wander back there and pore through ancient compendiums of hagiographies, the thick musty books of early 20th century biographies, the old U of M records, the odd reference book someone had spent their life compiling.
Very little changed for years at the New Place since we moved in, but now everything is changing. Every connection to the idea of the paper is being erased, line by line.
Thus I suppose it always goes. I am making my peace with that.
Wrote a piece about AM radio last night, a thousand words about another medium in which I once worked, and I really like it. Filed it at noon. But not for the paper! They wouldn't want it.
I think if I'd pitched it, they would've wanted me to find an expert who could talk with assurance about AM radio in the 80s & 90s. Not someone who'd actually been in the business, of course. But someone who'd studied it.
Did I mention that the paper - and I have to stop calling it that - is ramping up podcasts, and YGH was not invited to audition? I'm still laughing about that.
Okay, this is as high as it can go.
Remarkable, really - a custom job done by guys who know what the hell they're doing. After they're done here they will pack up and do it again somewhere else.
I was trying to get everybody drinks, and the dog was running around and barking, and I had to go upstairs and fix things, then while I was up on the countertop getting a glass to make a drink for my cousin, who was not my cousin at all that actually was Chuck McDonald from high school. I had asked him what he wanted when he arrived, a beer or water or gin and tonic, and he signaled the latter, which I found odd because it wasn’t really G&T season, but never mind.
While up on the counter the chair I had used to climb up suddenly disappeared from underneath me and I almost fell and hit my head of the counter. Upon learning that it was my cousin’s wife who had done this, I inquired of her why and she said that she and my cousin had a "bear book" which was indicated as a series of amusing irritations that they would inflict on me to see my reaction. I was incensed by this and stomped downstairs and headed my cousin his drink and asked him about the bear book and he seemed to shrug it off and say that he thought that the chair just flown away in the direction of the water tower, as he put it, of its own volition.
Not exactly. Try again . . .
Well okay, fine
LANCE MEATJAW. I wonder if this is an early iteration of Tiny. And I'm not sure if they're smoking enough.
Did he have to change the Frenchman's name, or did he make a blank spot where he'd write the name once he figured it out?
Well, it was top ten on the soul charts. Melba Moore's backup singers.
One of their bio pages says their second album was Slugs & Toads, but I don't think so. I mean, one of the tunes was written by Roky Erickson, of the 13th Floor Elevators.
Update: oh no it was certainly not their second album.
That will do. An ordinary week, I'd say. Enjoy your weekend, and I hope you've lots to look forward to. I do! Pizza Whiskey Ice Cream / The Big Breakfast / The Best Burger. And more. I hope. Oh, by the way - I set yesterday's Substack to FREE for all, a Gallery of Regrettable Food entry. Sign up for updates! Easy to ignore, but you never know if I'm going to add a free entry in addition to Monday's Column-For-All.
