well, the trend in net lingo is to use 'because' to introduce a phrase ("I can't see this guy because problems") instead of a clause ("I can't start a sentence with a conjunction because teachers hate it").
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:00 (nine years ago) link
The science teachers explained that is a 'rule' in their classes because students tend to just use the dependent clause as a sentence: "Because of condensation."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlLPJG9Cvg
― when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:02 (nine years ago) link
OTOH I remember thinking as a student that "always answer as a complete sentence" was just a waste of time:
Q. Why does your water bottle get covered with sweaty beads of water in the heat?A. A water bottle gets covered with sweaty beads of water in the heat because of condensation.
So much pointless writing! Could they not read the question themselves??
― when you call my name it's like a prickly pear (Crabbits), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:05 (nine years ago) link
oh god it reminds me: one of my pet peeves is improper or promiscuous use of "due to," which theoretically you use only with a linking verb ("I was absent due to a cold"). Even worse: "due to the fact that."
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:05 (nine years ago) link
i like that use of because (xxp) as long as it's in the service of melodrama. "But the evaporated water can never remain free; it is doomed always to be recaptured by gravity. Why? Because of condensation."
after blaming college professors for no-opening-conjunctions i should say that it was my experience in college that professors were constantly frustrated (and sorta blindsided) by the elementary-school paragraph recipes you guys are talking about tho. that isn't their fault. cuz man yeah it's beaten in deep, young. i still remember the posters: The Writing Process.
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:07 (nine years ago) link
In the halcyon early eighties, I too was taught "You must restate the question in your answer." None of my teachers were pedants though! This was how they were taught -- ugh
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:10 (nine years ago) link
i meant "you guys" in its rather spurious gender-neutral sense btw. i should have used "y'all". only being so detailed about this cuz the conversation's abt words.
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:11 (nine years ago) link
btw I haven't see this Great Wave of Broken Sentences as a result of social media use; the sentences were pedantic and useless already.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 9 August 2014 01:14 (nine years ago) link
i appreciate all the recs, and i'm going to go look into them now. thank you for taking the time to write that out
― markers, Monday, 11 August 2014 00:46 (nine years ago) link
I hope these recs were impactful.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 11 August 2014 00:50 (nine years ago) link
Came real close to making a "now that's what I call humanizing the vacuum" tweet after that last post, but thought better of it.
Flippant, but I would've meant well.
― pplains, Monday, 27 April 2015 03:47 (nine years ago) link
read any good books about lobbying / lobbyists? i'm RAing for a game theorist who studies political access and proves all these counterintuitive results about lobbying and it's cool and all but I'm kinda like hmm
― flopson, Monday, 27 April 2015 06:20 (nine years ago) link
This classic account is worth the read but it's about the nineteenth century. Matt Taibbi's Smells Like Dead Elephant examine the influence of money on the GOP Congress of the 2000s. I'd like recs too!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 27 April 2015 11:13 (nine years ago) link
thx. 19th century definitely relevant
this is a brand new book on the topic that i will prob read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Business-America-Lobbying-Corporations/dp/0190215518
when i asked the prof this question he told me to watch tv series 'house of cards' and movie 'thank you for smoking' lol
one of the things these game theorists study is how politicians interact strategically with lobbyists, to extract the most $$$ out of them with the least political favours granted, so it's not obvious how effective a lot of the money thrown at politicians is. i'd love to read some first-hand accounts to see how the theory lines up
― flopson, Monday, 27 April 2015 22:18 (nine years ago) link
Alfred, would you recommend a biog of FDR?
― beer say hi to me (stevie), Monday, 22 August 2016 19:40 (seven years ago) link
Sure!
H.W. Brands' wrote a solid conventional one in 2008 called Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt; it's where I tell the curious to go. If you liked it, go to:
Ira Katnelson's Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time documents the lengths to which the New Deal and the Solid South, with its poverty and racism, remained wedded together.
The Coming of the New Deal, the second part of Arthur Schlesinger's battleship cruiser of a bio, deals with the nuts and bolts of the legislation. I think it's surpassed by Michael Hiltzik's The New Deal: A Modern History.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 August 2016 20:14 (seven years ago) link
All of those except the first would be great mixtape titles.
― thrill of transgressin (Eazy), Monday, 22 August 2016 20:35 (seven years ago) link
I bought Traitor to His Class on Alfred's recommendation and yeah it's good. Oddly, I still did not entirely understand *why* he was such a staunch traitor to his class, that aspect of his character is still a bit of a mystery to me. The ending is also a bit abrupt, it's basically "and then he died. The End", with no real conclusion or summation or anything. Minor quibbles both, granted.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 22 August 2016 20:38 (seven years ago) link
Hiltzik was a regular patron at UCI's library where I worked for years -- very personable fellow.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 22 August 2016 20:42 (seven years ago) link
Thanks Alfred!
― beer say hi to me (stevie), Monday, 22 August 2016 22:03 (seven years ago) link
my pleasure!
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 22 August 2016 22:06 (seven years ago) link
jaymc had asked upthread for mixology tips. I wrote the following a few months ago and updated it yesterday.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 February 2017 17:31 (seven years ago) link
You will know me by my hatred of bad drinks.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 June 2017 01:45 (six years ago) link
Each of those drinks has their place, (except the LI Iced tea)
― Treeship, Friday, 30 June 2017 04:13 (six years ago) link
Actually lemon drops are gross too and moscow mules are for ex girlfriends. Mimosas are the lifeblood of the economy.
― Treeship, Friday, 30 June 2017 04:14 (six years ago) link
Of the brunch economy.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 June 2017 10:20 (six years ago) link
Some of those cocktails are more defensible than others, but few are irredeemable. Even the Long Island Iced Tea, my fave bar in Chicago does a classy version of that, along with a classy Pink Squirrel and a classy White Russian (with fresh coffee in it). However, I am so not a fan of beer-based cocktails, which taste like someone had been drinking a beer out of the glass, dumped out the dregs, then filled the glass again with a cocktail without washing out the glass first.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 30 June 2017 12:12 (six years ago) link
I can't really defend any of those, although perhaps a skilled mixologist could make decent versions
― Moodles, Friday, 30 June 2017 12:33 (six years ago) link
Do you know that your Buñuel roundup may be your best one yet?
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 August 2017 01:37 (six years ago) link
Oh, I see you already posted on other thread
― When I Get To The Borad (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 21 August 2017 01:47 (six years ago) link
ha -- thank you!
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 21 August 2017 01:50 (six years ago) link
Summer's here, the time is right for Negronis.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 June 2019 13:28 (four years ago) link
I recently had an excellent negroni with capoelletti (which I don't think I had ever heard of) and cochi torino (same).
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:00 (four years ago) link
See, that's what I hoped for – suggestions.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:08 (four years ago) link
Spanish vermouth with a slice of orange on ice is a great summer drink!
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:25 (four years ago) link
I was just trying to remember that Italicus bottle this weekend during some spirits shopping! I could not recall it.
― Yerac, Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:29 (four years ago) link
Beefeater seems out of place to me in that selection of good quality spirits.
― Tim, Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:47 (four years ago) link
love this local gin, well worth a try if you ever see it (the Small batch one with the yellow label)
http://swallowtailspirits.com/our-vodkas-gins-and-whiskeys
― Ambient Police (sleeve), Thursday, 20 June 2019 15:51 (four years ago) link
My lovely wife sometimes makes a fantastic negroni using Antica formula, Gran Classico bitter and then a decent clean gin (often Plymouth or Martin Millar's, that kind of thing).
I may have mentioned it elsewhere on here but my current favourite Friday night just-got-home-from-work drink is a thing we copied off a bar in Santander last autumn, that they called a "gin vermutonic" - single shot of gin (usually Plymouth or Hendricks, I think) double shot of vermut negra or other sweet vermouth, topped up with decent tonic water, all over ice, slice of orange, cherry if you can be bothered, absurdly refreshing.
― Tim, Thursday, 20 June 2019 16:09 (four years ago) link
― Tim, Thursday, June 20, 2019 11:47 AM
A solid martini gin when done well.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 June 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
As I read this I am sipping a Blood Orange Beefeater gin (which I didn’t know existed) negroni. I heartily approve.
― i really, really, really, really, really, really like glue (fionnland), Thursday, 20 June 2019 17:08 (four years ago) link
I like Beefeater because it's a straightforward gin at that pricepoint.
― Yerac, Thursday, 20 June 2019 17:15 (four years ago) link
I'm so glad my 36-year-long revulsion for gin has passed. Also that I discovered Bristow (made by the Cathead vodka people).
― I am curious (george) (slight return) (WmC), Thursday, 20 June 2019 17:30 (four years ago) link
The St. George's recommendation is of course choice, signed, someone who lives across the bay from where it's made, so.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 20 June 2019 17:31 (four years ago) link
I like gin as a cocktail ingredient, and I do notice variations in gin, but it's nothing I can ever get excited about the way I like (and enjoy) bourbons, tequilas/mezcals and rums. But then, I don't like martinis, and that seems to be the drink most beholden to gin.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 20 June 2019 17:38 (four years ago) link
*waves away vodka 'martinis'*
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 June 2019 19:20 (four years ago) link
1:1:1 ratio is what makes a Negroni a Negroni, though everyone has their own taste and I would gladly accept your variation if you were making one for me.
Try a Bijou: Gin, Green Chartreuse, and sweet vermouth in equal parts. Stir with ice and strain. Garnish with cherry. One of my favorites.
― Rolling Thunderdome Revue (PBKR), Thursday, 20 June 2019 19:45 (four years ago) link
I think ingredients make recipes not ratios. Agree w this ratio too fwiw.
― Ornette is blowing bubblegum spiderwebs (outdoor_miner), Thursday, 20 June 2019 19:52 (four years ago) link
"this" = Alfred's negroni
― Ornette is blowing bubblegum spiderwebs (outdoor_miner), Thursday, 20 June 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
Negroni, like the corpse reviver #2 (more or less), is awesome for being an equal ratio cocktail. Easy to remember!I avoid vodka entirely. I'm a total snob in that regard. I once heard vodka described as an elaborate prank played on Americans by Europeans.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 20 June 2019 19:56 (four years ago) link