ROHS++

Well, that doesn't make sense to me. Is it good stuff because somebody says it is, or is it good because it tastes good?

During the Dot-com boom here, the restaurants around here discovered that the more the wine cost, the more people would buy it. So decent eateries like Boulevard wound up having a couple of $3000 wines on the list.

Not any more.

We buy what tastes good to us, and if it does, we go back to the store and try to buy more. Education past that point is just expensive. We have friemds with "sophisticated palates", and we tolerate their silliness so long as they keep it within reason. I suspect their preferences are determined more by their expectations than by the way the wine actually tastes, sort of like audio.

John

I'm sure decent hams and the like are also expensive because of the same.

I've got into goat's cheese in recent years. It's rather yummy.

Graham

Reminds me... anyone remember Jim Solomon? At one point in time he was my boss. His wife, at the time, Anna was quite an art snob. You were supposed to like art because you were told it was good. Her artist "du jour" was Udinotti, noted for her welded nude creations. Anna showed me a work that was supposedly two nudes on a teeter totter... I opined, "MY! What a long dick!"

Really got her riled up ;-)

Absolutely!

Sloman is unemployed. Can he afford wine ?:-)

Sloman probably buys "Monster Wine" ;-)

...Jim Thompson

Is that the cheap stuff that comes in paper milk cartons, or in used, unwashed 55 gallon drums?

Hello John,

Not mine either. And not Apples, and iPods, and...

And from Fremont. After we bought my wife's Toyota I found out it was not built in Japan but Fremont, Caleefoaniah. Works fine.

Hello Jim,

For some kids there may come a point when they'd simply die without it:

I guess that would truly qualify for the "can't exist without" category. In med technology there is a whole slew of other products like that. Oh, and Aspirin was invented over there.

Sometimes it is good because it is going to taste better in a few years time.

So do we. But some of the "stores" are the vine-growers cellar doors in Burgundy.

Sure - my Dutch unemploment benefit is generous enough that I wouldn't have to give up decent wine if I had to pay for it myself, but when I'm on my own I don't drink all that often anyway. My wife has a well-paying job, and a distinctly greater enthusiasm for wine.

Wine tasting is skill. You have to work at it. As with most skills, there are people around who claim more expertise than they can actually demonstrate.

And Jim is silly enough to think I could buy it in the Netherlands - in fact the non-fancy wine we keep aound is Lindemans Shiraz and Chardonnay, in a cask when we can get.it. Tonights half-bottle of white was a 2005 Macon-Village Chardonnay - Blason de Bourgogne that we picked up in supermarket in Rheims a couple of weeks ago. Nothing fancy, but pleasant enough.

No, it wasn't. It was invented by Mother Nature, and discovered by some European colonist somewhere in South America.

Cheers! Rich

Hey Joerg,

have you tried the Cowgirl stuff?

John

Toyota also has a big plant in WV, my home state.

...Jim Thompson

Beta blocker? I tried one, but I got winded so easily I couldn't get any exercize. I use an ACE inhibitor and hydrochlothiazide, which work just fine, just enough to null out my coffee and chocolate intake.

John

Atenolol doesn't really faze me, plus I'm allergic to *any* sulfonamide-derived compound.

Two mugs of (Columbian super-charged) coffee standard every morning ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I interviewed with HP. The guy looked at my resume for maybe 30 seconds and said "Look, the first thing you have to make up your mind about, are you an engineer or a programmer?" so I left.

John

My last 2 cars, VWs, were built in Mexico.

John

What idiots !

Graham

That seems to be VW's downfall in the American market as I understand it.

Graham

The drive train, engine and transmission, are German and feel like it. Some of the details don't match up. Bad locks, noisy heat shields, various buzzings and rattles. But the handling is tight, the shifter on my new Rabbit is like velvet, so I tolerate the little quirks. My wife has a Honda and The Brat has a Toyota, which are better cars but have no soul.

Here in San Francisco, you see a lot of VWs. A lot of Minis, too.

John

On Tue, 25 Jul 2006 21:30:43 GMT, Rich, but drunk wrote in Msg.

They are indeed well-suited as baby baths, and older children like to use them as washing basins. I've never used one for its intended purpose, and never met anyone who did even in countries where they are ubiquitous.

robert

And English criminals were still being transported to the American colonies ...