Moments Hotels Missed The Mark Completely! Tabs, May 2, 2022
Well look at the New York Times, finally (FINALLY) calling a racist a balls out racist! Nick Confessore three parter on Tucker Carlson, Racist As Fuck. (Free link)
I am told this was very very good, sorry we apparently forgot to put up a livestream for you! *Shakes fist at sky* ROBYNNNN!!!!
Joe Biden had some good lines (and some fumphers), aw Old Handsome Joe :) "The president hasn't attended the White House Correspondents Dinner in six years. That's understandable. We had a horrible plague followed by two years of COVID."
And as always, re-treat yourself to Barack Obama just murdering Donald Trump after literally killing Osama Bin Laden. Which was absolutely terrific until we realized it was the villain origin story of Trump deciding to run for president and murder us all :(
THANKS OBAMA.
Using the power of the government to punish "woke" companies, for freedom. (Media Matters)
Congressional Democrats and Joe Biden inching up in the polls. — Washington Post free link
Meet Summer Lee, the (holy wow beautiful!) Black organizer who's the frontrunner for a US House seat in Pennsylvania. (19th News)
The people who were kids during the LA riots:
He remembers being left alone for hours. His mother and her boyfriend had gone out to join the people who took to the streets that day, and she wouldn’t come home for several days — she was arrested, and Quinnie and his brother were left to fend for themselves. Ralph’s, a regional grocery store chain, was delivering food vouchers to people’s doorsteps for free sausages and bread as part of a promotion for its new stores in the area. The brothers would use them to get food for the coming days.
Two Wisconsin DAs, and it sounds like they might have been baddies! As always with podcasts, let me know how it was! (WPR)
Victorian taxidermied hats, obviously. — Forgotten Files
The single blue-eyed ancestor of all blue-eyed people, 6000 to 10,000 years ago. (Old Science Daily post)
Ohhhh grilled strawberry salsa fresca! — Better Homes & Gardens
Hotel badness! I like the tiny toilet in No. 5. (Nature World Today)
And one last one for Martini:
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Welcome To Wonkette Happy Hour, With This Week's Cocktail, The Scofflaw!
So tasty it's criminal.
Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. Today’s cocktail was inspired by an emergency text from Yr Editrix. It’s also got a funny story about Prohibition attached to it, and uses leftovers from your fridge.That’s a lot to cram into one glass, so let’s get started. Let’s make a Scofflaw. Here’s the recipe.
Scofflaw
1 oz Four Roses Bourbon
1 oz house grenadine
½ oz Cinzano dry vermouth
½ oz dry white wine
½ oz fresh lemon juice
1 dash orange bitters
Shake and strain into a chilled Nick and Nora or coupe glass. No garnish.
A few months ago, Rebecca texted me with a cocktail question: “Can you use dry vermouth in a Manhattan?" The answer is an emphatic “no.” I tried to warn her, but it was too late. She tried it. It was terrible. Yr Editrix is hardly the first person to try to make this work. I’ve seen recipes for “improved” or “perfected” Manhattans that use dry vermouth. It never works. These monstrosities are never improvements. They certainly aren’t perfect. They’re always terrible.
I did file away the cocktail disaster in the back of my head to explore later. Maybe there was a cocktail out there that used dry vermouth and bourbon that worked? Sometimes flavor combinations that don’t make sense just need a little help. Peanuts and peppers sound terrible together, but pad thai is great. As it turns out, there is a nice dry vermouth and bourbon Prohibition era cocktail out there. And it’s got some fun history behind it.
The word “scofflaw” is entirely made up. A prohibitionist by the name of Delcevare King held a contest in a local newspaper. He wanted to find an epithet to shame lawless drinkers, “to stab awake the conscience.” Harry’s Bar in Paris got wind of the contest. They immediately crafted a cocktail to celebrate all the unstabbed consciences among their customers. (It seems that when the Supreme Court tries to legislate morality from the bench by banning something, it doesn’t work. I’m certain this observation has no relevance whatsoever to our current Supreme Court session.)
The original Scofflaw cocktail was okay, but this modern take is much, much better. Interestingly, the vermouth is extremely prominent in the glass. The other ingredients balance out. The white wine gives the vermouth a little space to breathe. You can pick out the vermouth in the cocktail without being overwhelmed. This drink would be a great way to test vermouths for summer martinis.
Let’s talk ingredients:
Ingredient shot. The bulge to the left of the cocktail is my cat, Nightshade, who is being super helpy. Matthew Hooper
Four Roses Bourbon: I wanted a mild, middle of the road bourbon for this cocktail. A nice rye, like Rittenhouse, would also be a solid choice. Bulleit or Larceny would be fine. Bourbon is a strong team player in this glass, but it’s not the star of the show, so don’t pour a $40 bottle in here.
Grenadine: Use the home-made version I put together for a Hurricane a few weeks ago. Rose’s grenadine is garbage. A quick reminder: Grenadine is equal parts pomegranate juice and sugar, with a few dashes of orange blossom water, heated until clear.
Cinzano dry vermouth: This cocktail does a great job of supporting dry vermouth without letting it dominate the glass. I’d love to try making Scofflaws with Martini and Rossi, Gallo, and some other cheap vermouths just to see what the differences are.
Cheap Dry White Wine: The brand is irrelevant. Use the bottom end stuff. We’re talking Charles Shaw, Crane Lake, Barefoot — basically, Kool-Aid for grownups. Pino Grigio or Riesling are both fine. The vermouth needs some room to expand and breathe. If for some reason you’ve got some Lillet Blanc in the fridge, by all means use that. Death & Co’s Scofflaw uses dry and blanc vermouths. But buying two vermouths for one cocktail is a big ask. Everyone’s got a half a bottle of white wine hiding in the back of their fridge. Use that instead.
Fresh Lemon Juice: Always fresh, never from a plastic lemon.
Orange Bitters: The sweetness from the grenadine needs to be tamped down just a touch, and the flavors in the cocktail need to blend. One shake of orange bitters does the trick.
It’s not easy to make a direct NA version of this cocktail. You could put grenadine and lemon juice into a glass with seltzer and ice. But that’s a Shirley Temple, not a Scofflaw. I talked about Shirley Temples last year. On the other hand, Shirley Temples with house grenadine are really, really good, so make one up and drink along if you’d like. Proportions are up to you, but I’d go heavy on the house grenadine. Adding a few drops of orange blossom water or rosewater might be interesting too. Don’t be afraid of bold, complex flavors in your glass. No one will stab your conscience if you indulge.
In summary and conclusion, drink well, drink often, and tip your bartender — donate to Wonkette at the link below! And if you'd like to buy some bar gear or books from Amazon, please click here!
What Kitchens Looked Like The Year You Were Born! Tabs, Wed., April 27, 2022
What to know about the Supreme Court and MPP (the Remain in Mexico policy for asylum-seekers). — Ian Millhiser at Vox
New: The Court seems fucking annoyed by the judge who ordered Biden to maintain Trump's MPP. (That judge is Michigan Democrat Elissa Slotkin JUST KIDDING. OR AM I????) (Millhiser at Vox again)
And same regarding religion in public schools and how the Supreme Court's going to rule on that. (PROBABLY NOT AWESOMELY!) — Millhiser at Vox again more also
Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva what now?
BREAKING: @LACoSheriff says he is investigating @latimes reporter @AleneTchek in connection with a leak of information, displaying a photo of her at today\u2019s newser. This is an extraordinary escalation in the sheriff\u2019s attack not only on the paper but also on the First Amendment.pic.twitter.com/BaXAGRkI5M— Frank Stoltze (@Frank Stoltze) 1650996740
More at LA Times. Believe it or do not believe it, but that sumbitch ran for sheriff as a progressive criminal justice reformer SPIT SPIT MAD EYE PTUI.
But do the Chicago anti-violence trainings work? Yes. Yes they do. (Chicago Sun Times)
Who's grooming who? A list of #republicansexualpredators. — Google doc / National Memo
Inflation may kill your news darlings as people cut discretionary spending on newspapers and other people's substacks and only rich people can afford the news. But not at Wonkette, where we both will never have a paywall and we will NEVER DIE. (The American Prospect)
What if, and Ryan Cooper is just spitballing here, moderate Democrats criticized Republicans instead of Democrats, since "Democrats attacking their own party base and leadership seems unlikely to convince many to vote for Democrats" and Republican plans and policies are actually incredibly unpopular? (TAP)
What's happening with the Colorado River, Lake Mead, and Lake Powell? Just counting some magic beans. (Grist)
Don't drink grave water or you can die young like all the Bronte sisters and one brother I guess. — LitHub
Take your library card and go "check out" some seeds heart hug emoji. — Civil Eats
I don't love this off grid art farm, particularly because I think off grid art farms should not be millionaire shit, they should be crazy person out in the desert shit. BUT. If I were a person who exercised, I might like to exercise there. (Realtor)
Top Chef recipes? That sounds hard. I better click through each one and find out. — Food and Wine
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These Tattoo Covers Let Us Believe In Second Opportunities! Tabs, Mon., April 25, 2022
Macron beats Le Pen 58-42, which is less than you'd like with an honest to god fascist but would probably be far worse if Le Pen hadn't promised to bring France to Putin. I see this like the GOP snatching defeat from the Democrats (I HOPE) by promising to burn all the gays for witches. We will see o.O (CNBC)
Putin's forced deportations of Ukrainians to Russia. It's not great. — NBC News
I'm not seeing anything new in this story about Jamie Raskin saying Mike Pence refused to get in the car with the Secret Service on January 6, but maybe it's new for other people. I guess it's new that Raskin affirms the Secret Service had bad intent. Maybe? Anyway, there'll be hearings soon and we'll see if people can be reminded that REPUBLICANS ARE BAD FUCKING PEOPLE BREAKING THE COUNTRY. (NBC News)
The humiliation of Kevin McCarthy at The Bulwark. But can you shame the shameless?
Why did Florida ban all the math textbooks except the ones published by a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group? Oh, a very good not at all ginned up reason!
In a March interview conducted over email, Mr. [Chris] Rufo stated that while social-emotional learning sounds “positive and uncontroversial” in theory, “in practice, SEL serves as a delivery mechanism for radical pedagogies such as critical race theory and gender deconstructionism.”
“The intention of SEL,” he continued, “is to soften children at an emotional level, reinterpret their normative behavior as an expression of ‘repression,’ ‘whiteness,’ or ‘internalized racism,’ and then rewire their behavior according to the dictates of left-wing ideology.”
(My bold.) What he means, and this is entirely intentional, is that they don't want children learning to disagree respectfully, work as a team, and not bully. They want children bullied. They want adults bullied. So we'll all conform properly. Say you want about National Socialism, at least it's their ethos. (New York Times free link)
"Everywhere Babies" seems like a pretty fuckin crazy book to ban. (Washington Post free link)
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott found zero drugs and zero illegally crossing immigrants in his "enhanced" border search, but it's not like that was the purpose anyway. The purpose was to cause pain to American wallets by keeping trucks from delivering their goods, and it worked. — Texas Tribune
Youngs are unenthused about Democrats this year and Democrats need to take it seriously. Yes, we know it's difficult when two of your 50-seat majority are Sinema and Manchin and the Supreme Court is shitting on everything that does pass. But throwing up our hands is not good enough. (NBC News)
A very dull tick-tock of behind the scenes at CNN+, which shut down after hundreds of millions of dollars and several weeks, because some suits thought it would be their legacy and other suits were annoyed, oh my god is that not what's interesting about that. (Vanity Fair)
Netflix spent $13 BILLION on original content last year? STOP GIVING $13 BILLION TO ADAM SANDLER AND THE GUY WHO MADE SHAUN OF THE DEAD THEY ARE OUT OF IDEAS. — New York mag
I love this story about the funeral home director (nephew of the guy who inspired the best TV show finale of all time, shut up don't you argue with me, "Six Feet Under") who used his equity in the Kmart mansion we looked at some weeks back to buy Detroit's Jew bathhouse that survived for some decades thanks to the swingers orgies, which they don't have anymore, but thank you for your service. — Bridge Michigan
Realtor dot com asks the real question: But what about John Wayne Gacy's house?
Chocolate marshmallow cookies! (And they worked just fine with "plant butter" too!) — Baked the Blog
Okay but a lot of these tattoo coverups are really pretty. (Doc Journals)
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