Merry Christmas to all my followers that celebrate this event. I’m already late for some holidays Hanukkah and Festivus. I’m also a tad early for Kwanza. Whatever holiday you celebrate in your house have a good rest of the year and a Happy Holiday Season.
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My brother in law is a taste tester of single malt whiskeys. He travels around the country where other whisky-o-philes get together to rank and compare how peaty or smooth and what region of Scotland each may come from. Are there hints of Chocolate, is it Speyside or Lowland. His nose is attuned to all of those subtle contrasts in smell and in flavor. What you see above is him sampling something from a recent party he attended, I was fortunate enough to be apart of festivities, though my reviews are limited to “That’s good” or “Hmmmm, not my type” Most decent single malts for me fall into the former and not the latter.
Matt goes through a number of levels in preparation before the eventual tasting. One is to put it in a flask and swirl for a little while and then gently place up to his now to concentrate the aromas that are available. With the flask being mostly empty it allows the aromas to open up more before they are eventually drank and savored slowly. The above picture was captured just as the aromas were reaching his nose.
I liked the above story far better, but the truth is there was a flask from a recent Northwestern football game, he wondered what he was drinking and if it was still good. It was not single-malt though and most couldn’t identify it. Ahh sometimes the lie is much better
As I’ve discussed many times in this blog. I have special memories from my own childhood and many of the ahhh cult followings that I had. Star Trek was among them. I was a Trekkie long before it was popular. My mother has fed this most years with a Hallmark ornament to adorn my tree in many different limbfilled places. Many of these scenes I can relive from favorite episodes. The Trouble with Tribbles, City on the Edge of Forever has scenes that are faithfully rendered in plastic and hung on my tree. My all-time favorite episode a re-telling of Moby Dick called the Doomsday Machine has yet to be adorned on my tree. I would love to see the following scene placed reverently on my tree each and every year. If we could just add a little shuttlecraft in front of the maw of the machine I would even be happier.
I am always pleased when my children attach themselves to things that I love. There last attachment didn’t last long, but it looks as if Buddy watching Kirk, Spock and Scotty beam themselves off the Enterprise might just last a bit longer.
The ornament does a pretty fair representation of the crew using the transporter to “beam” themselves onto some planet. You get the sound and even a subtle effect that something is happening. Kirk, Spock and Scotty don’t disappear. The nano-technology has yet to be invented.
Transporter Ornament from Chris Mielke on Vimeo.
My son’s ritual before he ever leaves the house is to push the button, watch Kirk and Spock and wave bye to them. Once again as a father, a fellow Trekkie Live Long and Prosper my son. Our time together has been favorable.
We traveled to Columbus, OH for my BiL graduation from THE Ohio State we spent some time doing some window shopping and scouting for a resteraunt to eat at this evening. This scene was found outside the Worthington Inn which is registered as a National Landmark. I don’t know what that means, other than it is an old building.
