Earth Day

You can do your part... take care of it.
(Stars rotating around the chimney stack on Cape Cornwall, England.)

Wine: Aeration and Aging

Crudely, the molecular changes known to unfold in a sealed wine bottle that has been laid down for years involve the gradual interaction of oxygen and wine. Simple chemical compounds break down and recombine into more and more complex forms called polymeric phenols. Acidity and alcohol soften. The largest compounds - the harsh, astringent tannins - drift down into a carpet of sediment, taking with them the saturated, inky pigments. They leave behind a mellowed, unfathomably subtle flavor and brick-red hue. Everything knits together, resolving into an ever finer complexity expressed fragrantly in the wine's bouquet.

At least that's how it is supposed to work. Just as oxygen yellows newspapers and browns apples, it spoils wine, but the process is more complex. There is also a beneficial oxidation that helps a wine mature. Paradoxically, wine is improving even as it is being destroyed; time will kill a wine, but is also necessary to make it great. This dual process is visible after a bottle has been opened. Aeration of wine - whether by decanting a bottle, swirling one's glass, or sloshing a mouthful around - is a form of controlled oxidation. The aim is to improve the wine by helping it open up after its long confinement in a bottle. Leave an uncorked bottle or glass out too long, and it will be ruined.

The trick that the greatest old bottles of wine pull off is keeping long enough to blossom. The tiny amount of air in a bottle of wine, the porous cork that allows a slow exchange of oxygen over decades, the coolness of a cellar that decelerates chemical reactions in the wine, the humidity of a cellar and horizontal storage that ensure a cork stays moist and maintains a seal - all these practices are aimed at fostering beneficial changes while deterring destructive ones. A wine is considered mature when it has maximized its flavor possibilities but has not yet begun to deteriorate. (an excerpt from The Billionaire's Vinegar, Benjamin Wallace)

It was on the cart path!

Gerald Ford's Got Style!

Check out the laser on his forehead as he starts standing up!

No more sticks.

Everyman

"There's no remaking reality. Just take it as it comes.
Hold your ground and take it as it comes.
There's no other way."

~ Everyman, by Philip Roth (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006)

A little light reading...

The full text of the other white meat,

the Stimuless,
click the following for (i) Appropriations; (ii) Tax package.

And to effect the foregoing,
the full text of the "Over-Stuffed" Turkey,
the Budget... cluck here.

The Obama Inauguration

We doubt you missed it, but the inauguration of President Obama was an incredible event and the speech hit the appropriate tones and notes. Click here if you want to watch it again.

Becoming President

Inauguration

Regardless of politics and in light of the upcoming inauguration, we should all wish our President-elect good luck and hope he does what is best for our country in these difficult times.

I have been reading a great deal about patriotism this holiday season. I hope that people in this country understand that patriotism is not just blind support for the government or a certain administration, but it is support for the philosophical and moral underpinnings of American society. Part of such American ethos is the idea that the opinions of others should be respected and have a right to voice such opinions. No matter how spirited a debate may be or how hot emotions run, Americans should understand that our society was founded on the belief that people have a right to oppose things that they do not feel are right. I have met many people who feel that those with differing political opinions are ignorant, misinformed, lack integrity, etc. If you proceed from the assumption that those who think differently from you are wrong or lack character, you are dishonoring the purpose and intent of this country's founders. While you may disagree, the ability to disagree is one of the things that makes this country so great.