respublica

Glass Wine Cork!

Imagine my surprise when I opened a new bottle of wine I bought at Parkers Table today. After peeling off the foil top, there was a glass cork which only needed a flick of the finger to get it out. I've never seen this before.

This is so cool I can hardly stand it. Googled the cork and here is what the Wine Spectator said,

"These elegant stoppers resemble a T-shaped decanter top, and they are one of the ways to attack the problem of cork taint, which is caused by the chemical compound 2,4,6-trichloroanisole, or TCA. TCA can develop in corks because corks are from trees, and plants have phenols, which are one of the ingredients of TCA. But glass doesn’t carry this risk, and is easier to recycle, which is why I’m a fan of these stoppers."

This is an Italian red wine, Scaia Covina, from Veneto, an area in northeast Italy which extends from the Adriatic Sea to the Dolomites mountains. Jonathon Parker, the owner of Parkers Table, told me this is one of his most popular wines, he can hardly keep up with the demand. It isn't expensive, but it is one of those good wines which appeal to many...and the glass cork doesn't hurt it sales.

If you've never been in Parkers Table, the next time you're driving along Clayton Road off Skinker, you turn south at the Tip Top cleaners just before the Demun stoplight and you'll see it. It's a fantastic wine shop with some other fun food things. And everyone who works there is helpful and as nice as can be. It's a cool place.

Rose Parade 2015

The order of appearance for each entry in this year's Rose parade can be found here. Of local interest, the marching band from O'Fallon Illinois high school is in this year's parade and will be appearing 64th out of 89 in the line up.  The Lutheran Hour float is marking its 65th year and is the only Christian float in the parade. It will show up 19th in line.

The best channel on which to watch this parade is HGTV,  shown it in its entirety and without commercials. 

New Year's Food

There are many food customs relating to New Year's all around the world. Food is eaten according to what is considered good luck and what is bad luck. Frankly, I have never bothered with this kind of thing, only setting out what tastes good. But here's a look at some of the foods commonly eaten on New Year's.

Lucky foods

Legumes or beans. They are symbolic of money in many places. Here in the US, Black-eyed peas are commonly served.

Cooked greens, including cabbage, collards, kale, and chard, are consumed at New Year's in different countries for a simple reason — their green leaves look like folded money, and are thus symbolic of economic fortune. The Danish eat stewed kale sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon, the Germans consume sauerkraut (cabbage) while in the southern United States, collards are the green of choice. It's widely believed that the more greens one eats the larger one's fortune next year.

Having pork is based on the idea that pigs symbolize progress. The animal pushes forward, rooting itself in the ground before moving. Lots of moving forward when it comes to looking at the new year. We have ham.

Fish. All except lobster which swims backward and that's a no no. Germans also enjoy carp and have been known to place a few fish scales in their wallets for good luck. Lots of homes have a plate of caviar.

Cakes and other baked goods are commonly served from Christmas to New Year's around the world, with a special emphasis placed on round or ring-shaped items.

Noodles and grains. Noodles symbolize a long life and rice and barley mean abundance.

Pomegranes-the seeds again indicate abundance.

Unlucky food

Lobster because they move backward and chicken because they scratch backwards which could cause regret or dwelling on the past. Another theory warns against eating any winged fowl because good luck could fly away.

 

On this date

Last year at this time it was 11 degrees. Today it's currrently 14. Not a whole lot of difference and it is my sincere hope that we don't see another polar vortex. It began snowing and sub zeroing at the beginning of January and just kept coming. Our Christmas village didn't get put away until the last days of that month because everything was snowed and iced in.

Here's what New Year's and the days following looked like last year.

New Year's Day. Non threatening snow, kind of fun. And then a day or two later...

The seminary houses and campus buildings have very steep, slate stone roofs which will hold snow just so long before it roars down. You can hear it before you see it, kind of like the sound of a train in the distance. Problem is you never know exactly when it will happen or what part of the roof it will come from. This was right in front of our front door. Thankfully we were inside. Everyone here has learned not to walk to close to the edge of buildings after a big snow or ice storm.

Gallup's most admired list for 2014

Click to enlarge

 

The Christmas Village

For some years Dale has been constructing small buildings which he then places in our side yard during the Christmas season. There's a church and parsonage, barn and store all surrounded by lighted trees and backed up by a full moon. This week he has been finishing up a farmhouse to go next to the barn. Here's a look.

No snow this year to reflect off the scene, but still really pretty and fun in this darkest of weeks.

New laws for Illinois 2015

Here are a few things to look out for beginning January 1.

1. Drivers will no longer have to hand over their drivers license if they are pulled over for speeding or some other violation, they sign the ticket and go on their way.  I know from experience (some years ago) that the license was taken when ticketed and it went to the court house in whatever jurisdiction the violation occurred. Supposedly the ticket could substitute as a license form of ID. This is a good thing, photo id's are needed for everything these days and waiting for yours to be returned is problematic.

2. Tollway speeds will rise to 70mph to get in line with the other highway speed limits.

3. Truckers in Chicago area counties will see their top speed limit rise to 60 from the current 55. This is not my favorite new law.

4. The gray wolf, American black bear and cougar will become protected species, with a few allowances for landowners to kill any of them if lives or property are threatened.

5. Preganancy at work would require employers to give workers "reasonable accommodations" to continue doing their jobs while they are pregnant. 

6. Forbids local police departments from having ticket quotas.

7.  Regulate the use of drones by police by prohibiting law enforcement agencies from using a drone owned by a private third party to acquire information. The law does allow the use of a drone without a search warrant if the police are using it during a disaster or public health emergency. 

8. Amish residents will be able to get an state id card without having to have their photographs taken.

9. Water Buffalo's were added to the list of animals whose milk can be regulated.

10. The list of places where a parent can be held liable for underaged drinking will now include campers, boats and other vehicles.

11. Schools will be required  to address cyber bullying even if it occurs off-campus on private computers and personal cell phones. 

There are more new laws which I'll add in the coming days.

Don't buy these in 2015?

WTOP news out of DC has an end of the year story from Market Watch which presents a list of things we shouldn't buy or use this coming year. 

Number one is cable tv. Here is their reason and alternative: "cable companies continue to raise their rates even as cheaper alternatives such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu are getting more popular."  I wonder, though, if we'd be satisfied not having access to local news, live shows, sports. Maybe Netflix and the others do offer local/national news, but I doubt it. 

2. Name brand razor blades. Now this is an odd one. According to the story, more shavers are turning to membership programs which sell blades on a mail-order subscription basis for a fraction of the cost. I never knew this and blades are expensive.

3. Bottled water. Get yourself a home filter system and a reusable bottle.

4. Credit monitoring systems and identify theft insurance. Hmmm

5. Compact discs and dvds. Obvious. Will Blu Ray players be heading for the electronic recycling bins? 

6. Memory Sticks and thumb drives.  Oh no! I use these things all the time and I'm not ready to trust the longevity of all these Cloud storage sites. I can remember when photo sharing and storage sites were a big deal for saving digital pictures. Then one day they all went belly up and nothing was retrievable.

7.  MIni tablets.  Yeah, I can see that and add the big old iPhone6 to that.

8. Online dating services which charge a fee.  

9. Boutique Moonshine.  Hahahahaha. There have been lots of places selling moonshine in canning jars recently. We even have one which we've never touched other than to take one small, hard to swallow sip.

10. 4K ultrahigh definition televisions. Not enough programming available to warrant the high cost. 

An Awesome day

This is one of my favorite pictures from Christmas at the Baileys. It was Christmas Eve just before leaving for church and the boys were so happy. Neither really knew what was going on, just that it was pretty darn great.

In the car going home from church Drew's voice came out of the dark saying, "This was an awesome day."

Yes.

Lane lines revisited

Last month I posted on the poor or non-existent lane line markings on many St. Louis area highways and surface streets. For some unknown reason the powers that be on local road work don't make delineating lanes a priority. This was made very clear to us on Saturday as we drove home from Maryland. We left at 3 in the morning which meant driving in total darkness through Maryland and Pennsylvania. In those states the lane lines were as bright as anyone could want. I mean those lines glowed, there was no mistaking what lane you were in.

We stopped briefly in Collinsville to pick up my truck which we'd left in the driveway and then headed over to Clayton. It was 5 in the afternoon when we took off for St Louis, it was raining and full dark. For some reason the traffic on the bridge and throughout the STL area was as heavy on a Saturday as it usually is on a Friday night rush hour. All this meant that the almost total disappearance of lane lines beyond the Poplar Street Bridge coupled with rain and darkness proved to be a very dangerous situation indeed. No one driving at that time could tell which lane they were in and with cars entering and leaving the highway into the heavy traffic there were many near misses. It was white knuckle time for sure and there is no good reason for this at all.

I wish someone would tell me why MoDOT or St. Louis Streets department just will not use a bright, glow in the dark lane paint like other states do. Why do they use a faint paint that disappears in rain and darkness?