Mexico: adulterated alcohol deaths rise to over 100 amid ban on official sales
Booze is back in PA, so I hit a state store this morning and did some minor hoarding.
Just in case.
Showing posts with label adult beverages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adult beverages. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
More chaos coming
Wolf is allowing 77 state liquor stores to open for in-store shopping on May 8.
For a moment I had the insane thought of driving to one of them.
But of course all are in counties out in the boonies.
Just as Pennsylvanians overran stores in Ohio, New York, Maryland, and West Virginia, folks from counties still without open stores will clog the highways and parking lots of stores in the favored few.
More mess coming.
Is Wolf intentionally torturing PA tipplers?
For a moment I had the insane thought of driving to one of them.
But of course all are in counties out in the boonies.
Just as Pennsylvanians overran stores in Ohio, New York, Maryland, and West Virginia, folks from counties still without open stores will clog the highways and parking lots of stores in the favored few.
More mess coming.
Is Wolf intentionally torturing PA tipplers?
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Monday, April 20, 2020
Fake news! Booze in PA still not really available.
"Your call is NOT important to us.
"Nor is your custom at the LCB website for online business."
A message to Pennsylvanians from your governor, Tom Wolf.
State Stores offering curbside pickup orders starting Monday at certain locations
Fine Wine & Good Spirits is offering curbside pickup to customers starting Monday at a limited number of locations.
Each store will take orders by phone from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until the store reaches the maximum number of orders it can fulfill that day, Monday through Saturday.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said customers will be allowed to place one order of up to six bottles.
I tried a few of the local stores. Phone lines were busy both before and after 9 am, at every story I tried. Did they just leave them off the hook?
Same result for various spot checks during the day.
They probably did nothing to increase call capacity, just as the online site did nothing to increase its capacity when the governor closed all the stores and decided all the buyers in the state could just go to the website.
PPG said about a week ago that 1 try in a thousand actually succeeds in reaching the site to make an order.
I can think of a Democratic governor who may never win another election.
"Nor is your custom at the LCB website for online business."
A message to Pennsylvanians from your governor, Tom Wolf.
State Stores offering curbside pickup orders starting Monday at certain locations
Fine Wine & Good Spirits is offering curbside pickup to customers starting Monday at a limited number of locations.
Each store will take orders by phone from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until the store reaches the maximum number of orders it can fulfill that day, Monday through Saturday.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board said customers will be allowed to place one order of up to six bottles.
I tried a few of the local stores. Phone lines were busy both before and after 9 am, at every story I tried. Did they just leave them off the hook?
Same result for various spot checks during the day.
They probably did nothing to increase call capacity, just as the online site did nothing to increase its capacity when the governor closed all the stores and decided all the buyers in the state could just go to the website.
PPG said about a week ago that 1 try in a thousand actually succeeds in reaching the site to make an order.
I can think of a Democratic governor who may never win another election.
Monday, April 13, 2020
No hard liquor in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, the state liquor stores have a monopoly.
Governor Wolf closed them with the restaurants and movie houses at the first moment of the state lockdown.
Their website claims to be open but nobody has modified it in the least to enable it to deal with the surge in demand resulting from Wolf's decision to close all lawful retail outlets in the state.
The Post Gazette says one attempt in a thousand to get through on line actually succeeds.
Websites for commercial or out of state sources will not ship to PA.
Meanwhile, surrounding states, on lockdown or not, still allow liquor sales on the usual terms, with availability not at all compromised.
Governor Wolf got a problem with hard liquor?
People have been complaining to him about this since the beginning.
As of last Friday he was still being a prissy dick about it.
He has no plans to do anything to restore availability in Pennsylvania, and we all know he'd rather take a bullet in the head than relax the state store monopoly.
It's a ludicrous sacred cow for Democrats in this state based on the need for union campaign money, despite being a vote loser.
The people and voters of PA have wanted privatization for decades, and everybody knows it.
And that includes Democratic voters, though the margin is smaller than among Republicans.
But the GOP isn't the only party on which voters get ignored by office holders in favor of donors.
Grocery stores all over the state already sell beer and wine, and beer distributors, the more customary source for both retail and wholesale beer purchases, are all still in operation.
Beer and wine are essential but hard liquor is not?
The Giant Eagle can sell Miller Lite and Barefoot Merlot but not Jim Beam?
Phooey.
Governor Wolf closed them with the restaurants and movie houses at the first moment of the state lockdown.
Their website claims to be open but nobody has modified it in the least to enable it to deal with the surge in demand resulting from Wolf's decision to close all lawful retail outlets in the state.
The Post Gazette says one attempt in a thousand to get through on line actually succeeds.
Websites for commercial or out of state sources will not ship to PA.
Meanwhile, surrounding states, on lockdown or not, still allow liquor sales on the usual terms, with availability not at all compromised.
Governor Wolf got a problem with hard liquor?
People have been complaining to him about this since the beginning.
As of last Friday he was still being a prissy dick about it.
He has no plans to do anything to restore availability in Pennsylvania, and we all know he'd rather take a bullet in the head than relax the state store monopoly.
It's a ludicrous sacred cow for Democrats in this state based on the need for union campaign money, despite being a vote loser.
The people and voters of PA have wanted privatization for decades, and everybody knows it.
And that includes Democratic voters, though the margin is smaller than among Republicans.
But the GOP isn't the only party on which voters get ignored by office holders in favor of donors.
Grocery stores all over the state already sell beer and wine, and beer distributors, the more customary source for both retail and wholesale beer purchases, are all still in operation.
Beer and wine are essential but hard liquor is not?
The Giant Eagle can sell Miller Lite and Barefoot Merlot but not Jim Beam?
Phooey.
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
PA restrictions now cover all counties
My county, Allegheny, was already covered by the previous order.
Pennsylvania placed under statewide stay-at-home order
Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday placed all of Pennsylvania under an order to stay at home, dramatically expanding the geographic footprint of the quarantine as state officials combat the coronavirus pandemic.
In one stroke, Wolf added 34 counties to his stay-home edict, meaning that residents of all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties must now stay home as much as possible to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
With coronavirus infections continuing to rll 12.8 million Pennsylvanians; we are in this together,” Wolf said in a statement.
Residents may leave their homes for a number of reasons that include working at a business that’s still open, going to the grocery store or pharmacy, visiting a doctor, caring for a relative or heading outside to exercise.
Police will continue to focus on informing residents of the order rather than on enforcement, according to the governor's office.
Pennsylvania placed under statewide stay-at-home order
Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday placed all of Pennsylvania under an order to stay at home, dramatically expanding the geographic footprint of the quarantine as state officials combat the coronavirus pandemic.
In one stroke, Wolf added 34 counties to his stay-home edict, meaning that residents of all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties must now stay home as much as possible to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
With coronavirus infections continuing to rll 12.8 million Pennsylvanians; we are in this together,” Wolf said in a statement.
Residents may leave their homes for a number of reasons that include working at a business that’s still open, going to the grocery store or pharmacy, visiting a doctor, caring for a relative or heading outside to exercise.
Police will continue to focus on informing residents of the order rather than on enforcement, according to the governor's office.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Saturday, June 22, 2019
A technology whose time is not yet. Not by a very long ways.
L.A. to Vegas and Back by Electric Car: 8 Hours Driving; 5 More Plugged In
Most electric cars need to be plugged in after they’ve traveled 200 to 250 miles — a much shorter distance than similarly sized gasoline vehicles can run on a full tank — and charging them can take an hour or more.
. . . .
To better understand what life with an electric car is like, I hopped into a Chevrolet Bolt recently and traveled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, a 540-mile round trip that many people make regularly.
The Bolt is the first in a lineup of electric cars that General Motors hopes to sell in the coming years.
The hatchback, which costs about $37,500 before federal and state tax breaks, can travel about 240 miles on a full charge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
But for Bolts as for other electric vehicles, experts generally recommend keeping it 30 to 80 percent charged for optimal battery life.
I rode with representatives of EVgo, a company that is building fast-charging stations across the country.
On top of the eight hours or so that we were actually on the road, we spent close to five and a half hours charging the car.
In one case, the Bolt could not accept the fastest charging speeds from the most powerful units.
In another, the charger could not deliver the power as fast as the Bolt could accept it.
It could have been worse: We always found a charger available, though more than once we got the last one, and drivers arriving after us had to wait.
. . . .
On our way to Las Vegas, we met Alina Yamaeva, a 27-year-old law student from West Hollywood, Calif., who was napping while her BMW i3 charged at an EVgo charger behind a J. C. Penney at the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, Calif., on Interstate 15.
Her two-year-old car cannot charge as fast as more recent models — for each hour it was plugged in, the car’s range increased by just 10 miles.
All told, her i3 travels less than 120 miles on a full charge, though it also has a gasoline engine that can add 66 miles.
. . . .
Heading back to Los Angeles, we met Tiaerra Young, a Chevy Bolt owner, at the same station.
Though she was more satisfied with her vehicle, she was huddled under a blanket at 11 p.m. because it would take about an hour to charge her car.
Ms. Young estimated that it would take her and a friend a full day to get to Las Vegas from her home near San Francisco, a trip that would require about 10 hours in a conventional car.
“It’s been fun, though,” she said cheerfully, noting that they had watched three movies at their charging stops, including the Beyoncé documentary “Homecoming” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.
. . . .
Engineers haven’t created batteries that can store as much energy as a gas tank, or be filled as quickly.
While costs have come down a lot, batteries remain expensive, adding to the cost of the car, and they degrade over time, which means maximum mileage might decrease.
These cars have been held back partly by decisions that automakers and other businesses have made.
Companies have often gone their own way, rather than adopting universal standards.
Tesla, for example, has built more than 1,500 charging stations around the world, but they can fill up only Tesla cars; Teslas can generally be fueled at stations built by other businesses.
There is not a single standard for plugs, so some electric-car drivers have to carry multiple adapters.
Nor is there a single approach for how car owners pay for electricity, with some companies charging by the power consumed — as with a home utility bill — and others charging by the time spent at the charger.
. . . .
Charging on average costs $10 for about 200 miles, depending on the car, or about half the typical cost of gasoline for that distance, according to AAA.
Our experience was not as economical: We spent about $67 on electricity, perhaps $10 less than we might have on gas.
. . . .
All told, the United States has about 24,000 public charging stations, with an average of fewer than three charging posts.
By comparison, there are about 150,000 gas stations, some with dozens of pumps.
. . . .
Chargers are classified by how quickly they dispense electricity.
A Level 1 charger is about as fast as a standard wall outlet and can take a day or more to fill a car battery, depending on the model.
A Level 2 charger, akin to a 240-volt outlet used for dryers and other large appliances, can replenish a car battery in a few hours.
Level 3 chargers can achieve similar results in a fraction of the time but can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The fastest Level 3 public chargers available fill up electric cars like the Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S in 30 minutes to an hour.
Later this year, Porsche will start selling a Taycan for $130,000 that it claims can be topped up in 10 minutes at newer, faster Level 3 chargers.
Companies like EVgo and Electrify America have begun installing such chargers.
But in practice, car chargers are often much slower than their advertised top speeds, especially when many cars are plugged in at the same time.
That’s because banks of chargers typically share a single power source.
John de Lancie, the Hollywood actor, didn’t realize that limitation until he recently showed up at Tesla’s charging station in Hawthorne, Calif., with his Model S for the first time.
When he arrived, one charger was available among eight stalls.
He was lucky.
Tesla owners have been known to wait an hour or more for a charger to open up.
Most electric cars need to be plugged in after they’ve traveled 200 to 250 miles — a much shorter distance than similarly sized gasoline vehicles can run on a full tank — and charging them can take an hour or more.
. . . .
To better understand what life with an electric car is like, I hopped into a Chevrolet Bolt recently and traveled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, a 540-mile round trip that many people make regularly.
The Bolt is the first in a lineup of electric cars that General Motors hopes to sell in the coming years.
The hatchback, which costs about $37,500 before federal and state tax breaks, can travel about 240 miles on a full charge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
But for Bolts as for other electric vehicles, experts generally recommend keeping it 30 to 80 percent charged for optimal battery life.
I rode with representatives of EVgo, a company that is building fast-charging stations across the country.
On top of the eight hours or so that we were actually on the road, we spent close to five and a half hours charging the car.
In one case, the Bolt could not accept the fastest charging speeds from the most powerful units.
In another, the charger could not deliver the power as fast as the Bolt could accept it.
It could have been worse: We always found a charger available, though more than once we got the last one, and drivers arriving after us had to wait.
. . . .
On our way to Las Vegas, we met Alina Yamaeva, a 27-year-old law student from West Hollywood, Calif., who was napping while her BMW i3 charged at an EVgo charger behind a J. C. Penney at the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, Calif., on Interstate 15.
Her two-year-old car cannot charge as fast as more recent models — for each hour it was plugged in, the car’s range increased by just 10 miles.
All told, her i3 travels less than 120 miles on a full charge, though it also has a gasoline engine that can add 66 miles.
. . . .
Heading back to Los Angeles, we met Tiaerra Young, a Chevy Bolt owner, at the same station.
Though she was more satisfied with her vehicle, she was huddled under a blanket at 11 p.m. because it would take about an hour to charge her car.
Ms. Young estimated that it would take her and a friend a full day to get to Las Vegas from her home near San Francisco, a trip that would require about 10 hours in a conventional car.
“It’s been fun, though,” she said cheerfully, noting that they had watched three movies at their charging stops, including the Beyoncé documentary “Homecoming” and “The Emperor’s New Groove.
. . . .
Engineers haven’t created batteries that can store as much energy as a gas tank, or be filled as quickly.
While costs have come down a lot, batteries remain expensive, adding to the cost of the car, and they degrade over time, which means maximum mileage might decrease.
These cars have been held back partly by decisions that automakers and other businesses have made.
Companies have often gone their own way, rather than adopting universal standards.
Tesla, for example, has built more than 1,500 charging stations around the world, but they can fill up only Tesla cars; Teslas can generally be fueled at stations built by other businesses.
There is not a single standard for plugs, so some electric-car drivers have to carry multiple adapters.
Nor is there a single approach for how car owners pay for electricity, with some companies charging by the power consumed — as with a home utility bill — and others charging by the time spent at the charger.
. . . .
Charging on average costs $10 for about 200 miles, depending on the car, or about half the typical cost of gasoline for that distance, according to AAA.
Our experience was not as economical: We spent about $67 on electricity, perhaps $10 less than we might have on gas.
. . . .
All told, the United States has about 24,000 public charging stations, with an average of fewer than three charging posts.
By comparison, there are about 150,000 gas stations, some with dozens of pumps.
. . . .
Chargers are classified by how quickly they dispense electricity.
A Level 1 charger is about as fast as a standard wall outlet and can take a day or more to fill a car battery, depending on the model.
A Level 2 charger, akin to a 240-volt outlet used for dryers and other large appliances, can replenish a car battery in a few hours.
Level 3 chargers can achieve similar results in a fraction of the time but can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The fastest Level 3 public chargers available fill up electric cars like the Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf or Tesla Model S in 30 minutes to an hour.
Later this year, Porsche will start selling a Taycan for $130,000 that it claims can be topped up in 10 minutes at newer, faster Level 3 chargers.
Companies like EVgo and Electrify America have begun installing such chargers.
But in practice, car chargers are often much slower than their advertised top speeds, especially when many cars are plugged in at the same time.
That’s because banks of chargers typically share a single power source.
John de Lancie, the Hollywood actor, didn’t realize that limitation until he recently showed up at Tesla’s charging station in Hawthorne, Calif., with his Model S for the first time.
When he arrived, one charger was available among eight stalls.
He was lucky.
Tesla owners have been known to wait an hour or more for a charger to open up.
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Mount Gay Eclipse 80 proof
Picked some up on sale, along with a bottle of Plantation 5 years aged.
A comparison test.
I'll let you know..
Update.
The Plantation is darker, more aromatic, a bit sweeter, a stronger flavor, more body and fuller mouth feel.
And it's usually cheaper.
Both are beautifully clear over ice in the glass.
Monday, February 19, 2018
Barbancourt Reserve Speciale Haitian Rhum
Aged 8 years, made from cane juice and not molasses.
86 proof.
Not as sweet as Plantation, nor as rich an aroma.
But nice, all the same.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Plantation 5 year old rum.
A very pleasant Barbados rum.
And quite a bit cheaper than Mount Gay.
Very nice mouth feel, and comfortable at 80 proof.
Some Seagrams blended American Whiskey that I bought a few weeks back was so unbearably awful I poured more than 4/5 of the 1.75 liter bottle down the sink.
The roughly equally cheap Heaven Hill bourbon is much better.
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Teachers Highland Cream
Smells medicinal, to me.
More so than whiskey generally, I mean.
Not much for Scotch, at all.
It does go down easy, though.
Makes my tongue feel somewhat stung.
Cutty does that, too.
A Scotch thing?
Some of the new Ryes are good.
Canadian Club and Wild Turkey, for instance.
Or Redemption.
Among dirt cheap Bourbons, Heaven Hill is nice.
And noticeably a Bourbon.
More character than Canadian Gold, whose chief virtue is having none.
Being cheap is its other virtue.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
OK, I'm late to the party. Still.
Having for years liked Jack but preferred Irish Whiskey, though frequently settling for Canadian Gold, I have lately been trying again various Bourbons and Ryes.
Before Prohibition, Rye was the staple American whiskey, and Old Overholt used to be produced in Pennsylvania, home of the Whiskey Rebellion.
Tastes change over time, much like susceptibility to seasonal allergies.
The Rye revival has made things more interesting.
I picked up an Old Grand-Dad 80 proof Bourbon labelled High Rye, just for a lark.
About those mashbills . . . .
Before Prohibition, Rye was the staple American whiskey, and Old Overholt used to be produced in Pennsylvania, home of the Whiskey Rebellion.
Tastes change over time, much like susceptibility to seasonal allergies.
The Rye revival has made things more interesting.
I picked up an Old Grand-Dad 80 proof Bourbon labelled High Rye, just for a lark.
About those mashbills . . . .
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Lo! I tell you a mystery!
Canadian Gold costs about a quarter what Jack Daniels black label does.
Yet its taste is considerably less nasty.
And that's how you judge, not just whiskey, but all hard liquor.
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Hirsch Small Batch Bourbon
A birthday gift from my step-daughter, Thursday.
I turned 68.
Good whiskey, but at 92 proof a bit more potent than I am used to.
At $ 37 for 750 ml, it kind of has to be good.
The stuff I regularly buy is 80 proof Canadian Gold, about $16 dollars for 1,750 ml.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
From Obama to Trump
It makes you want to cry.
Or maybe that's just the wine.
A nice Italian Pinot Grigio.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Thursday, August 4, 2016
No wonder the Russians are drunkards
Stolichnaya goes down like water and has a delicate, mildly pleasant taste and aroma.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Stolichnaya
Goes down almost like water, with remarkably little aftertaste.
Reading The Dain Curse, Dashiell Hammet, 1928.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)