My USA

The trail of red is a big disconcerting
The states of these United States with which my corporeal state has been united

Via Mike, is this interesting if fairly useless web tool to make a map if which states you have visited. Much of my claim is based on the big 1966 trek from Mississauga to San Diego, California. A bit of a guess as to the route we took but I recall the painted desert and the Grand Canyon. Why have I never tasted the delights of Delaware? Best state? Maine.

Good Planning

Pub, Art, Hair, Curry, Texmex. I like this block – kitty corner to S&R – which incorporates a 1870’s firehall, some limestones a few decades older as well as a new brick build with a hair place that fits in the scheme. Next to it, tucked behind down the alley to the right is Curry Village, one of the great Indian restaurants in the downtown. Behind to the left you’ll see a Holiday Inn which was built on an old wharf like others in the downtown – rather than on land occupied by historic buildings. At the intersection, Cornerstone is a private art gallery with Inuit art among other things. The 1876 firehall half shown to the right of the picture is a Lonestar. To the left, the newish pub Merchant MacLiam built in the last year or two fills the oldest space in the scene, an 1840 warehouse with a very similar build to Halifax’s Lower Deck with more of a Middle Deck crowd. The pub, curry and texmex all meet in patios at the back with view of the river.

Poached

Have a look at this. Someone is taking my RSS feed and those of others I know and aggregating them on another site and sticking up advertising. How odd. I don’t know if I feel good about this or bad. I certainly have not been asked permission or offered a share of the likely tiny revenue stream from the Google ads. Reminds me of all the bother in the mid-90’s about deep linking, focusing on two news web sites on the Shetlands. Whose stuff is this that I do? I understand it to be mine under the Copyright Act. To the credit of the aggregator, there is no doubt that the attributation to me is there. But does someone else get the chump change for my writing that ought to buy me that Friday Guinness?

Three Winter Ales

These are three great candidates for the best have-one-bottle beer.

Nothing for the faint hearted, though: Young’s Double Chocolate Stout ($3.10 for 500 ml at 5.2%) from London, UK; Victory Storm King Imperial Stout ($2.40 for 355 ml at 9.1%) from Pennsylvania; and Anchor Liberty Ale ($3.55 for 650 ml at 6.2%) from San Francisco and all at the LCBO these days.

Each one is big in its own way – Liberty is massively hopped, Youngs has chocolate malt as well as real chocolate and the Victory is like licking the coffee grinds out of the percolator. Maybe you have to brew to like beers this big but I have so I do. Snazzy labels, too.