The Wine Commonsewer™

Happy Mundane™

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Here in the Great Southwest it isn't really autumn quite yet.

I don't know if Southern California is considered part of the southwest, but September over there is quite often the hottest month of the year. Here in southeast Arizona, we should be enjoying temps in the mid-80's, but we're still at the tail end of a now-fading heatwave. Sure, it's a balmy 75°this morning, which is suitable for enjoying the cool morning air with a cup of sissified dark roast in the Peace Garden. However, it will tick the century mark later this afternoon. Hotter still in Phonics™ and along the Mexican border to the west.

Photo Credit

As Ever,

National Coffee Day

Good Morning Gentle Readers, 

Starbucks customers, whether in Zurich or Beirut, are drinking an American version of an Italian evolution of a beverage invented by Arabs brewed from a bean discovered by Africans.

~~Jackson Kuhl

The progressive lefties quite often will call something like this an example of cultural appropriation. It really is a concise example of how innovation, specialization, and relatively free trade make all of our lives better.

 

Note: National Coffee Day for me is every day. But just one gigantron™ cup of sissified dark roast in the morning. After that the theory of diminishing marginal utility kicks in and the satisfaction drops exponentially.

 

As Always,

Feeling Anxious?

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I've only had Xanax that one time when I had laser eye surgery. Boy Howdy™, when it kicked in just before the cutting began, I immediately asked for another. Hey, the guy was about to hack on my eyeballs. Doctor Vishteh chuckled and declined. Said he needed me in a functional state, not knocked out. He promised to send me home with another Xanax, though. He also warned me to go home and sleep. I did. Woke up about nine in the evening, drank a glass of wine to wash down the second Xanax. Slept like the dead and the next morning I could see perfectly. 
 

This is important: I chose the Lasik guy because Every. Single. One. of his reviews on Yelp was 5 star. 

The new vision was great until years later when the cataracts tinted my vision in shades of pumpkin spice. Got that fixed too. Had I known, I would have skipped the Lasik and gone straight to lens replacement. That's good advice for anyone considering Lasik. Costly? Sure. Lasik is all out-of-pocket and if you do an early, optional lens replacement, it's all out-of-pocket as well. However, it's way more efficient to do it once and done. Here's the other thing, if you wait until you need cataract surgery, about 75% of that cost is also out-of-pocket. At least if you want the really good eyes it is. 

As Ever,

National Daughter's Day

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

It's Daughters' Day and Wayback Wednesday™. Here's Katie doing a walking handstand back in the old country in 2005. Today, she's pursuing a doctorate in chemistry at UCLA and I'm pretty certain that she can still do this. Part of her work involves protein folding and some sort of magic involving combining organic and inorganic materials (polymers and proteins) to provide better medical outcomes.  

As Always,

It's Not Hum Day

Good Morning, Gentle Readers,

As Always,

Happy Mundane™

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

As Ever,

Lost at Twenty

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Been twenty years since Lost premiered with The Crash. We blasted through my birthday DVD of S1 while vacationing over New Years at Cibola Resort, near Lake Pleasant in Arizona.

 

Season One hooked us and when my kids were growing up, Lost became that *one* family show that all of us could share. My kids, Jacob and Katie, were smart kids and old enough to comprehend the plot but still young enough to get big eyes and goosebumps at the scary parts.

Over the years, it became a tradition for Santa to bring Pops the most recent season of Lost on DVD and we'd binge watch each new season between Christmas and New Years Eve.

My favorite characters were Juliette, Sawyer, Desmond, Frank, AND, Mr Eko. Yours? My real-life doctor was Mr Eko incarnated, right down to the Jamaican lilt. He was so Eko that I cannot recall his real name and he was always just Doc Eko.


This is one of my favorite scenes and if you watch carefully toward the end it looks like Jack seems like he is trying real hard to keep a straight face.

With the exception of the lame smoke monster and the disappointing finale, the show was really well-done.

 

The photos are not mine. 

As Always,