Month: November 2005
Ontario: Pilsner, Steam Whistle Brewing, Metro Toronto
Every once in a while I have a lager and then I remember that I don’t like lagers much. You may have noticed this in the reviews set out here. But I have been meaning to try Steam Whistle for sometime to make sure I am not missing something good and local.
Good thing as this is my kind of lager. It pours a medium straw and fades to a white rim. While the body is quite watery – without being thin – there are lots of grainy malt as in a quality pale ale but it is a notch sweeter and rounder. That roundness is accentuated by a creamy lager malt strain with a concession to the style in the metallic hops that cut the cloy. But the hop additions come from a measured hand and there is a freshness to them that compliments the sweet malt rather than fights it. This is the one beer the brewery brews and it is quite worthy.
It would be interesting to see what these folks could do with a pale ale. Oddly – the BAers are brutal with over one third saying no way.
News From Gary
It was pot-a-cide apparently. Gary sent me an email with the sad story from the potter’s perspective.
I got a call from the Wolfeboro, NH League gallery. A drunken teenager, his 2 friends, and his father’s NEW 32,000 pickup truck drove through the front of the gallery! And guess whose work was prominently featured in the nice big window at the front of the store??????????? Yes, Gary’s! My whole stock, worth hundreds, except four tough little mugs, and items from one other person’s stock, pulverized. Just us 2, out of the many artists there (isn’t it nice to be a featured artist in the window?) The little cretin was caught and charged with a variety of offenses, the store hopes to reopen this weekend. As for me, I will receive payment for the ruined work….nice way to sell a few pieces, yes? And the front page article with photos, good advertising for the store.
Crimes against art in New Hampshire. Who knew?
Better Before
I need more information. When the yogurt says “best before” is there a second time period which could be called “better before” followed by “it’s up to you” and maybe then “roll the dice until” and finally a “you got to be kidding me” deadline? And can yogurt really go bad?
Where The Heck Are You?
I have asked you all before who you are and where you might be. Now you can show it on a map of the GX40 Nation from Frappr! Click on the “Ad Yourself” link to the right of the Frappr screen. I’ll figure out how to run an updating version of this map sooner or later.
Let me know where you are or if there are any other widgets we could add to this space.
Naval Memorial, Kingston, Ontario
It turned out to be much colder that I would have expected yesterday given the sunshine. There seems always to be something in the weather on Remembrance Day. We stopped at the Naval memorial downtown and I watched this vet read the plaque as he waited for the ceremony to begin. Click below for a larger image. Another cheery chatty gent, now small and stooped in a dark great coat, wore the black cloth officers cap with a small badge at the front I had seen in black and white films on the wavy navy, those guiding and protecting corvettes of the North Atlantic.
You might wonder why the there is a naval memorial here in Ontario but Kingston was a key naval port of the Empire as this plaque references – and which let to our martello towers.
Good Pizza
I don’t talk about products much. I don’t talk too much about food that comes from freezers – but to be fair freezer food is one of the great wonders of the western world.
A hint to all Canada: the new President’s Choice Chicago pizza is really good. It is what it promises. Then, for dessert, there is Creamsicle ice cream from Breyers. It is like a bucket of Creamsicles without the sticks. As Creamsicles are proof of intellegent design in themselves, I am very much in support of the 2 litre format.
I actually eat mostly not from the freezer but when one is going to eat from a freezer to placate the needs of those who are both under five feet and under ten years old these are the things I recommend.
Remembrance Day
It looks like a fine day for Remembrance Day this year – no lashings of sleet as if often the case.
It is still hard to understand why Ontario is not on full shut down today but it was good to see the kids have a pretty full week of activities in elementary school based on remembrance. I wrote this last year. I suppose I think today more than any other of great-uncle John as a teen ninety years ago in the trenches.