The first 80s remake I really am looking forward to. The Frantics apparently have made a one-hour special for CTV. They were the best on radio as it is easier to imagine a man with a canoe welded to his head fighting crime without actually seeing it. Nonetheless, I will park myself in front of the tube when it comes on.
Author: Alan
St. Veronus, Peterborough, Ontario
So we went to Peterborough yesterday to see old friends and we had lunch at St. Veronus, a cafe/bar with a subtitle: “Belgian beer temple”…truer 
words were never writ. We are now looking for jobs in the Peterborough area. Unaccustomed to great selection, great service, reasonable prices, care and attention to interesting beer and fantastic food selection am I in a Canadian beer spot that I kept mentally making US exchange rate calculations as I browsed the menu and the beer lists. Then I would shake my head and say…this place is actually in Ontario…and Ontario is in Canada.
I was overwhelmed at the outset when I realized what lay before me. I did not know what to order for a first drink so I just wandered around the two room cafe taking pictures. I mentioned the fact of this here website and, without shifting into a higher gear of service in any respect, the extremely helpful staff answered any number of my deer-in-headlight questions. They even allowed themselves to engage in a little beer porn for the camera as illustrated below. I settled on a Rochefort 6, a new beer to me. At 7.5% it was off their “new arrivals” short list. It was heaven. From recollection malty, a tad burlappy with even a little chocolate perhaps. Others had various lambics and Gueze as well as a very nice Barbar honey ale which I got to sip. Loverly. Just look at the bar fridge – now that’s real shock and awe.
Despite the excellent price and variety of the beer, however, it was the food that actually made the visit. St Veronus offers a selection of grilled thick sandwiches with thoughtful ingredients that match the beers very well. The best I thought was the cheddar, slow cooked onion goo and slow cooked apple goo sandwich – it has an other better name but whatever it is called it was scoffed down by a seven year old in mucho haste. For my second sip, I had a local micro, Church-key Northumberland Ale. I did not get a six of that when I visited the brewery last winter but I will next time I go. It was a full malt-fruit forward rich pale ale under what must be the best beer handling conditions I have met in Ontario. And only 4.50 CND for a 500 ml pint.
Definitely a first of many visits.
Oh Dear, Mr Harper, Oh Dear
Looks like the public only find the new Tory TV ads useful for identifying the people they plan not to vote for:
The federal Liberals had the support of 40 per cent of respondents in a new poll — virtually the same level of backing they received in rolling to their majority government in 2000. The Leger Marketing survey, conducted Sept. 6-11, pegged Conservative support at 24 per cent, while the NDP stood at 15 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at 13 per cent. The numbers were reached after distribution of the 20 per cent of respondents who were undecided.
Quick Note: St. Peter’s Old Style Porter
This beer from St. Peter’s is a ruby brown ale under an oddly ivory head. I’ve never seen an ivory head: tan plus hints of green-grey. This is old style, like Burton Bridge porter: barley candy plus molasses with lime and green hops. The yeast is sour cream or soured milk or something in between. Yet all well balanced.
Is this the holy grail? A 1750s porter? Likely not sour enough but colonial US farmers drank diluted vinegar so go figure.
Little Britain, Ontario
Who knew? It’s a real place!
Run With It
I have no ideas why Fridays are the quietest day of blogging. Could it be people yak on blogs to divert themselves from work and you’re not really working on your Friday? Do you have day dreams of a lawn chair and a brown pop to keep your mind occupied? Please do me a favour and trigger a long and mindless discussion or argument on the comments today. Suggested topics:
- Gen X at 40 is magnificent / in a rut.
- Bush / Martin is visionary / a waste monger.
- iPods are for losers / cats.
- TV was better in the 1970s / 1990s.
- The Red Soxs will repeat / not make the playoffs.
Just don’t be rude.
CBC Morning
They played Beck this morning. They are trying to sway me towards management. Why does labour never play Beck on the morning show on CBC? When did I last head bop to CBC in the morning?
Word Heard
“Bureautic” (pron. “byur-aw-tic”): used for “bureaucratic” but sort of merged in the pronunciation with “neurotic”.
Five Blades
Boing has a good post making fun of razor blade manufacturers given Gillette has now introduced a five-blade shaver because you know just scraping your face is so last year – everyone now is removing their faces day by day, one thin slice at a time.
Dead Cat Fuel
The oddest news I’ve seen for a while:
Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, said his method uses old tyres, weeds and animal cadavers. They are heated up to 300 Celsius to filter out hydrocarbon which is then turned into diesel by a catalytic converter. He said the resulting “high quality bio-diesel” costs just 15 pence per litre.
CNN gets this point into the story:
Koch said around 20 dead cats added into the mix could help produce enough fuel to fill up a 50-liter (11 gallon) tank.
Scientists! So clever. Have some to tea. It’s almost a perpetual motion machine given enough road kill.