Reasons to be Cheerful

[Wilfrid]

Quote

 

The entire 2023 Fall Wine Program at Instituto Cervantes in New York sold out in less than an hour. Within ten minutes there were only a handful of places left and soon after it sold out completely.

 

As most of you know, the 2023 FALL SEASON is a special one for me because it marks the 25th anniversary since I moved the Wine Program to the Instituto Cervantes in New York.

 

The Taylor Swift of Spanish wine tutors.

[Mitchell101]

New Orleans Jazzfest now 4 days 1st weekend instead of 3! 33% more food and music! 

[Wilfrid]

Engaged in a potlatch just now at my local produce store.

I select a judicious number of lemons and limes. The guy says, you need more than that, and adds a bunch more to my bag. He asks for $2, the price of what I had originally chosen. I press $4 on him. He accepts. Then gives me an orange.

Fortunately we stopped before I had given him $50 and he had loaded all his produce into a cart for me.

[Wilfrid]

I messaged Ana from Hinds a happy birthday message and she replied. She must have replied to me three or four times now. You don’t get that kind of service from your Taylor Swifts and Zendayas. Catch them on their way up. ❤️

[Sneakeater]

I had one of my faves write about me in an Oxford journal.

Beat THAT!

[Anthony Bonner]

Which Journal? That matters a lot.

[MitchW]

9 hours ago, Wilfrid said:

I messaged Ana from Hinds a happy birthday message and she replied.

I'm very interested to see the "new" band. Hope they come to the states soon.

[Wilfrid]

Yes. Hopefully they'll be populating YouTube with concert performances soon because they have been getting out there. Must check.

[voyager]

7 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

I had one of my faves write about me in an Oxford journal.

Beat THAT!

 

2 hours ago, Anthony Bonner said:

Which Journal? That matters a lot.

Tough crowd.

[Sneakeater]

Oh shit.  It was Cambridge.

TDR:  The Drama Review

[Wilfrid]

I don't think Ana has published many academic articles. She does make pottery.

 

[bloviatrix]

After going on hiatus due to Covid my taste buds have started to re-emerge. We're hoping that I regain the ability to enjoy red wine, which I lost in '15. (I'm sure I've complained about how all red wine tastes over-oxidized to me)

[Sneakeater]

Maybe it's not your taste buds.  Around 2015 it was becoming trendy to market oxidized wines.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Sneakeater

[small h]

I am not drowned? Hopefully none of youse are drowned neither. My feet are still cold though, from slogging through the wet.

[bloviatrix]

The other evening I decided to have a post dinner pear eau-de-vie. The boy asked if he could try it and I let him take a taste. He was absolutely disgusted by it which makes me very happy because it means he's not going to be tempted to try any of my other bottles.

[Sneakeater]

I can remember when I was the boy's age and I hated the taste of beer!

[bloviatrix]

I didn't develop a liking for beer until my 20s. And as much as brother tried to teach me about scotch in my 20s, it wasn't until my 30s that I began to enjoy it. Cocktails on the other hand...granted it was things like White Russians but I recall enjoying them when I started to make the bar/bat mitzvah rounds.

[Wilfrid]

Shandy was the gateway to beer for me. Canned shandy in the UK was almost alcohol free and regularly served to children. Adults would order a bitter or lager "top" in bars: beer with a dash of lemonade.

As a teenager I started on sweeter beers like milk stout.

[voyager]

In France, when it's 'too early" for me for wine, I order panaché, French shandy.    Not very sweet, a good drink.

[MitchW]

On 10/2/2023 at 9:48 AM, Wilfrid said:

Shandy was the gateway to beer for me. Canned shandy in the UK was almost alcohol free and regularly served to children. Adults would order a bitter or lager "top" in bars: beer with a dash of lemonade.

Radler - in AustriaGermany...and at Cafe Katja.  One taste and no mas.

[Anthony Bonner]

On 10/1/2023 at 10:27 PM, bloviatrix said:

The other evening I decided to have a post dinner pear eau-de-vie. The boy asked if he could try it and I let him take a taste. He was absolutely disgusted by it which makes me very happy because it means he's not going to be tempted to try any of my other bottles.

its coming! a boy stole beer from the Country Club snack bar at my son's end of 4th grade party.

[bloviatrix]

7 hours ago, Anthony Bonner said:

its coming! a boy stole beer from the Country Club snack bar at my son's end of 4th grade party.

Considering that the girls are obsessed with their skin care routines and working out, I won't be surprised if there's a kid drinking beer by the end of this year.

[Anthony Bonner]

 

12 hours ago, bloviatrix said:

Considering that the girls are obsessed with their skin care routines and working out, I won't be surprised if there's a kid drinking beer by the end of this year.

third grader already agitating for makeup and a phone. 

[small h]

This should be on Depressing Stuff, imo.

[bloviatrix]

43 minutes ago, small h said:

This should be on Depressing Stuff, imo.

I monitor the boy's group chats (they all have iPads because of Covid). The boy's chats are all about football and fart jokes. And the chats dominated by girls are about clothes and make up/skin care. My 9 year old son knows all about Sephora (we were running errands and I needed to pop in and he started telling me how it's the favorite store of some the girls in his class) - meanwhile, I didn't wear eyeliner until 7th grade AND I had to sneak it out of the house because my mother would have sent me to the bathroom to wash it off.