Official Great Works Draft (2 Viewers)

[krista4]

We took a 2002 E&E Black Pepper Shiraz, a Merry Edwards Pinot Noir, and a Viognier that I don't remember the name of (this will be a theme).

My friends Talita and Neil brought Graham Beck Brut (bubbly from South Africa), an Argentinean Malbec whose name I don't remember, and a Sincerity (Chile) Merlot/Cab blend.

My friends Jim and Cindy brought a HUGE white Burgundy that I must get the name of from them, an Eroica Riesling, a red Bordeaux, and two bottles of Hungarian Tokaji (the 2000 Disznoko 6 Puttunyos).

At my house we had a bottle of Cava and half bottle of Frances Berwyn Zinfandel.

So only 12-1/2 bottles, now that I recount.

In our defense, we were having a 10-course tasting menu and decided to have a wine with each course.

As an educated man raised in a bar like the one in Deer Hunter, I find dinner parties like these fascinating. I've been invited to many and rarely attend. Their conversations bore me. I'm much happier in wood-paneled dens where the choice of a Guinness over a Budweiser is dangerously sophisticated, and the topics of discussion revolve around tales of the addicted, decadent, obscene and twisted. The names of our drinks are simple, but also far less haut monde. Still, I admire the sheer volume of alcohol you winos consume. I take my ballcap off to you....and cringe at the jackhammer headaches you must suffer. Wine hangovers are the absolute worst. I'd much rather puke oil at 3am and crap black logs than suffer the agonies you go through. This tells me that you people really love your grapes, and I've always respected that, even if there's something silly about the way you cite vintages and years like so many hipsters who wear obscure band names on the sleeve as a psychic self-defense mechanism.

Cheers.

Wasn't a dinner party; we were at a restaurant. What I can't figure out, though, is why you think you have any idea what the conversation consisted of. Shockingly, I'm not really feeling too bad today. Wine hangovers have never bothered me.BTW, my husband is an educated man who actually grew up where The Deer Hunter was filmed. I'm certain he wouldn't recommend a visit, though.

You ate a 10 course tasting menu. You ate. You drank wine. While the location and menu may exclude it from your technical definition of a dinner party, this is kinda what it was. Also, I never said I knew what the conversation at your little soiree (please don't correct my use of this word, just roll with it) was. I just said I've been to a few wino dinner parties that sounded similar to what you described, and found the conversation boring. Perhaps yours was wild with monkeys swinging from the rafters. Who knows. I don't care.

I'm sorry I responded to you, both then and now. I sort of forgot who I was responding to the first time; I was just responding to the content.

Thanks for reminding me.

 

[krista4]

I will add to my titanic non-fiction collection and select another important writing to American history.

It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. It was signed "Written by an Englishman", and it became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. It presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. It reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, it was structured like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make its case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described it as, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era.”

I select Thomas Paine's Common Sense

This is a great selection at this point in the draft.I love when Yankee picks because his all-American team makes him unlikely to snipe me.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

For my next pick I was going back and forth with a lot of ideas but I think I'm just going to take a personal favorite and move on. I'm finishing up my non-fiction category.

It is a review of the founding generation through certain particular acts of the great men who created this nation. The duel of Hamilton and Burr, the Assumption Plan as directed by Hamilton with Madison and Jefferson playing a role. The Farewell of Washington. The placing of the capital by Washington, Madison and Hamilton. The silence on slavery.

It is perhaps the greatest look back at these great mem through a few powerful certain moments and through those particular moments, we see the entire story of our founding, and what they thought our history would be, ending with the letters of Adams and Jefferson to each other, each describing for all posterity the America they believed was created.

I select, Joe Ellis' Founding Brothers

 

[krista4]

For Tirnan:

Movie Schindler’s List as directed by Steven Spielberg 1993

Winner of 7 Academy awards, 63 other film awards and nominated for a further 21 awards. One of the most recognizable and awarded movies in the past 25 years. The only film released in the last quarter century to make it onto the American Film Institute's top ten list of best American movies of all time. Aside from that, its just a movie that moves me every time I see it. It speaks to me of the ultimate portrayal of both the good in man and the inherent evil. Without doubt there are better movies in many different ways. To me this tops the medium for its overall ability to draw me into the story.

Oskar Schindler is a vain, glorious and greedy German businessman who becomes unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric Nazi reign when he feels compelled to turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler who managed to save about 1100 Jews from being gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Interesting trivia from the film:

As a producer, Steven Spielberg shopped directing duties on this film to numerous colleagues, because he was afraid he couldn't do the story justice. He was turned down by Martin Scorsese (who was interested but ultimately felt it was a subject that should be done by a Jewish director), Roman Polanski (Polanski turned it down because the subject was too personal. He had lived in the Krakow ghetto until the age of 8, when he escaped on the day of the liquidation. His mother later died at Auschwitz concentration camp.), and Billy Wilder (who turned it down because was in retirement). Apparently, it was Wilder was convinced Spielberg to direct it himself.

Director Steven Spielberg was unable to get permission to film inside Auschwitz, so the scenes of the death camp were actually filmed outside the gates on a set constructed in a mirror image of the real location on the other side.

In October 1980, author Thomas Keneally was on his way back to Australia after a book signing when he stopped en route to the airport to buy a new briefcase in a Beverly Hills luggage shop owned by Leopold Pfefferberg - who had been one of the 1200 saved by Schindler. In the 50 minutes Keneally spent waiting for his credit card payment to clear, Pfefferberg persuaded him to go to the back room where the shopkeeper kept two cabinets filled with documents he had collected. Pfefferberg - who had told his story to every writer and producer who ever came into his store - eventually wore down Keneally's reluctance, and the writer chose to make the story into his next book.

During filming, Ben Kingsley, who played Itzhak Stern, kept a picture of Anne Frank, the young girl who died in a concentration camp and whose personal diary was published after the Holocaust, in his coat pocket.

At his insistence, all royalties and residuals from this film that would normally have gone to director Steven Spielberg instead are given to the Shoah Foundation, which records and preserves written and videotaped testimonies from survivors of genocide worldwide, including the Holocaust.

When Steven Spielberg returned to Cal State Long Beach to earn his BA 34 years after dropping out, his film professor accepted this movie in place of the short student film normally required to pass the class. This movie had already won Spielberg Golden Globes and Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture.

Steven Spielberg's resolve to make the film became complete when studio executives asked him why he didn't simply make a donation of some sort rather than wasting everyone's time and money on a depressing film.

 

[Tirnan]

I will add to my titanic non-fiction collection and select another important writing to American history.

It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. It was signed "Written by an Englishman", and it became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. It presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. It reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, it was structured like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make its case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described it as, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era.”

I select Thomas Paine's Common Sense

This is a great selection at this point in the draft.I love when Yankee picks because his all-American team makes him unlikely to snipe me.

Nice pick! I still haven't read founding brothers, I'll look into doing so soon. Back to the Honey Do list, and thanks Krista for getting my Movie pick in for me.

 

[TidesofWar]

I will add to my titanic non-fiction collection and select another important writing to American history.

It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. It was signed "Written by an Englishman", and it became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. It presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. It reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, it was structured like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make its case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described it as, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era.”

I select Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Yankee, I sent you a PM with a question re my last selection

 

[Genedoc]

A little something to entertain you while I write up my

.

 

[Genedoc]

Sorry for the delay...there were about 10 things I want to pick right here. I know most of them aren't going to make it back to me, but I think a few of them have better chances that others. I'm going to go with a personal favorite that I am pretty sure won't make it back to me. I think it should have been selected before several of the ones in it's category that have been selected. I'm not going to pretend to know enough about music history to cite it's influences and impact, it's simply one of the most familiar, popular, and well written pieces of classical music ever, and the one that moved me the most while performing it during my brief high school music "career". We studied it in college during my one music appreciation class, and I grew to love it even more.

Genedoc and Bonzai select...

14.03 - Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak - Composition

 

[El Floppo]

We took a 2002 E&E Black Pepper Shiraz, a Merry Edwards Pinot Noir, and a Viognier that I don't remember the name of (this will be a theme).

My friends Talita and Neil brought Graham Beck Brut (bubbly from South Africa), an Argentinean Malbec whose name I don't remember, and a Sincerity (Chile) Merlot/Cab blend.

My friends Jim and Cindy brought a HUGE white Burgundy that I must get the name of from them, an Eroica Riesling, a red Bordeaux, and two bottles of Hungarian Tokaji (the 2000 Disznoko 6 Puttunyos).

At my house we had a bottle of Cava and half bottle of Frances Berwyn Zinfandel.

So only 12-1/2 bottles, now that I recount.

In our defense, we were having a 10-course tasting menu and decided to have a wine with each course.

As an educated man raised in a bar like the one in Deer Hunter, I find dinner parties like these fascinating. I've been invited to many and rarely attend. Their conversations bore me. I'm much happier in wood-paneled dens where the choice of a Guinness over a Budweiser is dangerously sophisticated, and the topics of discussion revolve around tales of the addicted, decadent, obscene and twisted. The names of our drinks are simple, but also far less haut monde. Still, I admire the sheer volume of alcohol you winos consume. I take my ballcap off to you....and cringe at the jackhammer headaches you must suffer. Wine hangovers are the absolute worst. I'd much rather puke oil at 3am and crap black logs than suffer the agonies you go through. This tells me that you people really love your grapes, and I've always respected that, even if there's something silly about the way you cite vintages and years like so many hipsters who wear obscure band names on the sleeve as a psychic self-defense mechanism.

Cheers.

Wasn't a dinner party; we were at a restaurant. What I can't figure out, though, is why you think you have any idea what the conversation consisted of. Shockingly, I'm not really feeling too bad today. Wine hangovers have never bothered me.BTW, my husband is an educated man who actually grew up where The Deer Hunter was filmed. I'm certain he wouldn't recommend a visit, though.

You ate a 10 course tasting menu. You ate. You drank wine. While the location and menu may exclude it from your technical definition of a dinner party, this is kinda what it was. Also, I never said I knew what the conversation at your little soiree (please don't correct my use of this word, just roll with it) was. I just said I've been to a few wino dinner parties that sounded similar to what you described, and found the conversation boring. Perhaps yours was wild with monkeys swinging from the rafters. Who knows. I don't care.

I'm sorry I responded to you, both then and now. I sort of forgot who I was responding to the first time; I was just responding to the content.

Thanks for reminding me.

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

 

[El Floppo]

For my next pick I was going back and forth with a lot of ideas but I think I'm just going to take a personal favorite and move on. I'm finishing up my non-fiction category.

It is a review of the founding generation through certain particular acts of the great men who created this nation. The duel of Hamilton and Burr, the Assumption Plan as directed by Hamilton with Madison and Jefferson playing a role. The Farewell of Washington. The placing of the capital by Washington, Madison and Hamilton. The silence on slavery.

It is perhaps the greatest look back at these great mem through a few powerful certain moments and through those particular moments, we see the entire story of our founding, and what they thought our history would be, ending with the letters of Adams and Jefferson to each other, each describing for all posterity the America they believed was created.

I select, Joe Ellis' Founding Brothers

Never ever heard of this. for bringing it to light

 

[DCThunder]

14.04--Poor Richard's Almanack-Richard Saunders, aka, Benjamin Franklin-Non-Fiction

Lest Yankee take all the early Americana, I'll take a little number issued annually by Ben Franklin between 1732-1758. The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanac of the period would contain. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features an early example of demographics. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.[5]

In the spaces that occurred between noted calendar days, Franklin included proverbial sentences about industry and frugality. Several of these sayings were borrowed from an earlier writer, Lord Halifax, many of whose aphorisms sprang from, "....[a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age."[6] In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanac as the address of an old man to the people attending an auction. This was later published as, The Way to Wealth, and was popular in both America and England.[7]

Popular with the average American colonist, press runs for the Almanack often reached 10,000, an astronomical figure for the times. It made Franklin well known in the colonies and in England and France. Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and French, and it was reprinted in England.Over 600 proverbs and aphorisms were published in the Almanack over the years, a list of them are here http://www.richhall.com/poor_richard.htm

 

[krista4]

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

SchwaThe people who said it's "like someone's stoner friends decided to open a high-end restaurant" and "a restaurant you think up with your best friends when you are just sitting around dreaming up wild " are about right. Crazy place, like no other high-end restaurant you could imagine. And it only seats 26 people.

There is a nine-course and a three-course, but the chef--he of truly bizarre facial hair--comes out at the beginning and tells you that it is never actually that number. We had 10, all amazing.

 

[krista4]

14.04--Poor Richard's Almanack-Richard Saunders, aka, Benjamin Franklin-Non-Fiction

Lest Yankee take all the early Americana, I'll take a little number issued annually by Ben Franklin between 1732-1758. The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanac of the period would contain. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features an early example of demographics. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.[5]

In the spaces that occurred between noted calendar days, Franklin included proverbial sentences about industry and frugality. Several of these sayings were borrowed from an earlier writer, Lord Halifax, many of whose aphorisms sprang from, "....[a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age."[6] In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanac as the address of an old man to the people attending an auction. This was later published as, The Way to Wealth, and was popular in both America and England.[7]

Popular with the average American colonist, press runs for the Almanack often reached 10,000, an astronomical figure for the times. It made Franklin well known in the colonies and in England and France. Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and French, and it was reprinted in England.Over 600 proverbs and aphorisms were published in the Almanack over the years, a list of them are here http://www.richhall.com/poor_richard.htm

Wow, what a great pick. Had completely slipped my mind. I keep looking at non-fiction, but the category is sooooooo deep.

 

[El Floppo]

14.04--Poor Richard's Almanack-Richard Saunders, aka, Benjamin Franklin-Non-Fiction

Lest Yankee take all the early Americana, I'll take a little number issued annually by Ben Franklin between 1732-1758. The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanac of the period would contain. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features an early example of demographics. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.[5]

In the spaces that occurred between noted calendar days, Franklin included proverbial sentences about industry and frugality. Several of these sayings were borrowed from an earlier writer, Lord Halifax, many of whose aphorisms sprang from, "....[a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age."[6] In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanac as the address of an old man to the people attending an auction. This was later published as, The Way to Wealth, and was popular in both America and England.[7]

Popular with the average American colonist, press runs for the Almanack often reached 10,000, an astronomical figure for the times. It made Franklin well known in the colonies and in England and France. Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and French, and it was reprinted in England.Over 600 proverbs and aphorisms were published in the Almanack over the years, a list of them are here http://www.richhall.com/poor_richard.htm

Wow, what a great pick. Had completely slipped my mind. I keep looking at non-fiction, but the category is sooooooo deep.

Wasn't thinking of this one at all and it's a great, great pick. Plus, Yankee is going to be SO pissed.

 

[El Floppo]

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

SchwaThe people who said it's "like someone's stoner friends decided to open a high-end restaurant" and "a restaurant you think up with your best friends when you are just sitting around dreaming up wild " are about right. Crazy place, like no other high-end restaurant you could imagine. And it only seats 26 people.

There is a nine-course and a three-course, but the chef--he of truly bizarre facial hair--comes out at the beginning and tells you that it is never actually that number. We had 10, all amazing.

ya lucky big-city folk.sounds amazing- kinda what wylie dufresne might do if he was from n cal and not such a science freak.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

I will add to my titanic non-fiction collection and select another important writing to American history.

It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. It was signed "Written by an Englishman", and it became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. It presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British rule at a time when the question of independence was still undecided. It reasoned in a style that common people understood; forgoing the philosophy and Latin references used by Enlightenment era writers, it was structured like a sermon and relied on Biblical references to make its case to the people. Historian Gordon S. Wood described it as, “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era.”

I select Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Yankee, I sent you a PM with a question re my last selection

I thought I answered it in the thread. I have no problem with speeches in the category at all. Many of them are just as important to political reality as some of the actual 'documents' that will be selected.

 

[krista4]

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

SchwaThe people who said it's "like someone's stoner friends decided to open a high-end restaurant" and "a restaurant you think up with your best friends when you are just sitting around dreaming up wild " are about right. Crazy place, like no other high-end restaurant you could imagine. And it only seats 26 people.

There is a nine-course and a three-course, but the chef--he of truly bizarre facial hair--comes out at the beginning and tells you that it is never actually that number. We had 10, all amazing.

ya lucky big-city folk.sounds amazing- kinda what wylie dufresne might do if he was from n cal and not such a science freak.

Wait, did you move? The place is about a block from my house, which was perfect for stumbling-home purposes. If you scroll down to about the fifth review, by "Emily S.", we had pretty much exactly that menu.

ETA: Only downside was loud heavy-metal music. The hip hop I could do, but the heavy metal just wasn't my thing.

 

[krista4]

I'm surprised no one commented on the Schindler's List pick. Possibly the best American movie of the last 20 years, IMO.

 

[Tirnan]

Yeah, I am positive there are better movies, but this for me was the quintessential top of the movie list. A story that tugs the heartstrings and makes me see the best and worst in my fellow man. It may be a wild pick, but it just seemed like the right pick at the right time, Some of my other short list picks should make it through the gauntlet to my next pick. I didn't think this would.Maybe an amusing anecdote will liven things up...

When things in your life seem almost to much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar........and the beer.A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large, empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed."Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things- -your family, your children, your health, your friends, your favorite passions--things that, if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else--the small stuff"."If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house, and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers."

and another favorite...

True story from Orange County, California:A man goes to a party and has too much to drink. His friends plead with him to let them take him home. He says no - he only lives a mile away. About five blocks from the party the police pull him over for weaving and ask him to get out of the car and walk the line. Just as he starts, the police radio blares out a notice of a robbery taking place in a house just a block away. The police tell the party animal to stay put, they will be right back - and they run down the street to the robbery.The guy waits and waits and finally decides to drive home. When he gets there, he tells his wife he is going to bed, and to tell anyone who might come looking for him that he has the flu and has been in bed all day. A few hours later the police knock on the door. They ask if Mr. X lives there and his wife says yes. They ask to see him and she replies that he is in bed with the flu and has been so all day.The police have his driver's license. They ask to see his car and she asks why. They insist on seeing his car, so she takes them to the garage and opens the door where they find: the police car, lights still flashing.This true story was told by the driver at his first AA meeting, according to the newspaper account.

 

[krista4]

True story from Orange County, California:A man goes to a party and has too much to drink. His friends plead with him to let them take him home. He says no - he only lives a mile away. About five blocks from the party the police pull him over for weaving and ask him to get out of the car and walk the line. Just as he starts, the police radio blares out a notice of a robbery taking place in a house just a block away. The police tell the party animal to stay put, they will be right back - and they run down the street to the robbery.The guy waits and waits and finally decides to drive home. When he gets there, he tells his wife he is going to bed, and to tell anyone who might come looking for him that he has the flu and has been in bed all day. A few hours later the police knock on the door. They ask if Mr. X lives there and his wife says yes. They ask to see him and she replies that he is in bed with the flu and has been so all day.The police have his driver's license. They ask to see his car and she asks why. They insist on seeing his car, so she takes them to the garage and opens the door where they find: the police car, lights still flashing.This true story was told by the driver at his first AA meeting, according to the newspaper account.

 

[rodg12]

Great stuff there Tirnan.

 

[Tirnan]

thanks, there is always room for a little light humor among the great works of man.

 

[Abrantes]

Sorry for the delay...there were about 10 things I want to pick right here. I know most of them aren't going to make it back to me, but I think a few of them have better chances that others. I'm going to go with a personal favorite that I am pretty sure won't make it back to me. I think it should have been selected before several of the ones in it's category that have been selected. I'm not going to pretend to know enough about music history to cite it's influences and impact, it's simply one of the most familiar, popular, and well written pieces of classical music ever, and the one that moved me the most while performing it during my brief high school music "career". We studied it in college during my one music appreciation class, and I grew to love it even more.

Genedoc and Bonzai select...

14.03 - Symphony No. 9 in E Minor "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak - Composition

Arrrrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh! Wonderful pick.

 

[TidesofWar]

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

SchwaThe people who said it's "like someone's stoner friends decided to open a high-end restaurant" and "a restaurant you think up with your best friends when you are just sitting around dreaming up wild " are about right. Crazy place, like no other high-end restaurant you could imagine. And it only seats 26 people.

There is a nine-course and a three-course, but the chef--he of truly bizarre facial hair--comes out at the beginning and tells you that it is never actually that number. We had 10, all amazing.

Jellyfish Pad Thai and Chicken Liver Peanut Brittle??? :X What looks to be 10 ridiculously small portions for $110??

I like to think I have a somewhat refined palate when it comes to the culinary arts and fruit of the vine, but some of that food looked like castoffs from the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom Feast.

Maybe you could expound on some of the individual courses?

I could take a hundred bucks, fire up the smoker, and feed 20 people probably the best BBQ, beans, slaw, and potato salad they have ever had

 

[Postradamus]

order update

Round Fourteen

5. Scott Norwood (pm sent)

6. Bob Lee Swagger

7. Misfit Blondes

8. Uncle Humuna

9. Mister CIA

10. El Floppo

11. thatguy

12. wikkidpissah

13. Tides of War

14. BobbyLayne

15. Abrantes

16. DougB

17. timschochet

18. Postradamus

19. Rodg12

20. Krista4

 

[krista4]

Wait a sec... Krista was at a restaurant that offered a 10-course tasting menu AND it was BYOB?

SchwaThe people who said it's "like someone's stoner friends decided to open a high-end restaurant" and "a restaurant you think up with your best friends when you are just sitting around dreaming up wild " are about right. Crazy place, like no other high-end restaurant you could imagine. And it only seats 26 people.

There is a nine-course and a three-course, but the chef--he of truly bizarre facial hair--comes out at the beginning and tells you that it is never actually that number. We had 10, all amazing.

Jellyfish Pad Thai and Chicken Liver Peanut Brittle??? :X What looks to be 10 ridiculously small portions for $110??

I like to think I have a somewhat refined palate when it comes to the culinary arts and fruit of the vine, but some of that food looked like castoffs from the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom Feast.

Maybe you could expound on some of the individual courses?

I could take a hundred bucks, fire up the smoker, and feed 20 people probably the best BBQ, beans, slaw, and potato salad they have ever had

The Jellyfish Pad Thai wasn't on our menu. The chicken liver was the husband's favorite (I don't eat meat so had substitutions on a couple of courses)--the peanut brittle was WITH the chicken liver, not part of the chicken liver. Most portions were reasonably sized; only the amuse bouche was small since that's what an amuse bouche is. I miscounted; we had 11 courses. At $10/course more than worth it.It's great to have a meal like this every now and then, but not an everyday thing.

Let us know what day you're firing up the smoker, though. I got the husband a Weber Smokey Mountain for his birthday on Thursday, so I'm sure he'd appreciate any tips.

 

[ScottNorwood]

Go ahead and skip me

 

[Yankee23Fan]

14.04--Poor Richard's Almanack-Richard Saunders, aka, Benjamin Franklin-Non-Fiction

Lest Yankee take all the early Americana, I'll take a little number issued annually by Ben Franklin between 1732-1758. The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanac of the period would contain. Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features an early example of demographics. It is chiefly remembered, however, for being a repository of Franklin's aphorisms and proverbs, many of which live on in American English. These maxims typically counsel thrift and courtesy, with a dash of cynicism.[5]

In the spaces that occurred between noted calendar days, Franklin included proverbial sentences about industry and frugality. Several of these sayings were borrowed from an earlier writer, Lord Halifax, many of whose aphorisms sprang from, "....[a] basic skepticism directed against the motives of men, manners, and the age."[6] In 1757, Franklin made a selection of these and prefixed them to the almanac as the address of an old man to the people attending an auction. This was later published as, The Way to Wealth, and was popular in both America and England.[7]

Popular with the average American colonist, press runs for the Almanack often reached 10,000, an astronomical figure for the times. It made Franklin well known in the colonies and in England and France. Napoleon ordered it translated into Italian and French, and it was reprinted in England.Over 600 proverbs and aphorisms were published in the Almanack over the years, a list of them are here http://www.richhall.com/poor_richard.htm

Wow, what a great pick. Had completely slipped my mind. I keep looking at non-fiction, but the category is sooooooo deep.

Wasn't thinking of this one at all and it's a great, great pick. Plus, Yankee is going to be SO pissed.

Nah. It's the best form of flattery. I'm killing in here so naturally everyone is trying to get on the bandwagon. 13 rounds too late, mind you, but still. When I'm wearing the crown I won't forget the little people.

 

[TidesofWar]

The wine and food got talk got to me

For dinner I am doing grilled red snapper, topped with a grapefruit-thyme mojo, served with Caribbean rice and black beans, paired with a 2005 Chalk Hill Sauvignon Blanc.

For dessert - a blackberry-raspberry infused creme brulee. I have 4 bottles of 1999 Sauternes, and think I might as well open one.

Time to start the fire in a moment, and pop a brew....................

 

[krista4]

The wine and food got talk got to meFor dinner I am doing grilled red snapper, topped with a grapefruit-thyme mojo, served with Caribbean rice and black beans, paired with a 2005 Chalk Hill Sauvignon Blanc.For dessert - a blackberry-raspberry infused creme brulee. I have 4 bottles of 1999 Sauternes, and think I might as well open one.Time to start the fire in a moment, and pop a brew....................

What time should we be there? And would you mind making that dessert into a cobbler or something? I love blackberries but not creme brulee. TIA.

 

[Abrantes]

Mmmm...food talk.

 

[wikkidpissah]

the wikkid menu for this evening begins with fricaseed chickadee lips on a bed of spring bedsprings, cream of giraffe soup with rhino bits, Irish washerwoman fingers in a peat moss coulis, blackened moccassin with a rawhide aioli topped off by a Double Bubble flambee. I havent decided whether an '87 Aqua Velva or the footbath water of a 8 yo Mexican virgin (about as aged as they get) will be the best accompaniment.

 

[flysack]

I'm in the process of feasting on some fine Cool Ranch Dorritoes served with Southwestern veggie dip, a dozen deep fried mozzarella sticks, and some chocolate soufflé, not because I like baked goods, but because I intuited from this thread that an accent aigu was essential to fine dining.

 

[anborn]

Go ahead and skip me

Team Anbnorwood has decided to pick...14.05 - Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, Martin Luther, 1517.

The start of the Protestant Reformation.

Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, etc. etc. etc... all stem from the fallout from this document and its views.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ninety-Five_Theses

 

[Postradamus]

damn, nice pick

 

[BobbyLayne]

Team BobbyLayne™ is on hiatus from the Great Works Draft® until May 26.

Special Adviser Flysack© has the Con.

 

[TidesofWar]

Team BobbyLayne™ is on hiatus from the Great Works Draft® until May 26.

Special Adviser Flysack© has the Con.

Have Fun

 

[flysack]

Team BobbyLayne™ is on hiatus from the Great Works Draft® until May 26.

Special Adviser Flysack© has the Con.

That team is so F$%@ed.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

MMMMMM..... food talk. I grilled up a hamburger had some fruit salad and a little Jack.

As for the draft, I will be out all day tommorow so feel free to skip me. I have some hard lawyer work to do that will take all day. Unless the rest of the guys in the group manage to stay on the fairway on a semi-regular basis, that is.

 

[Postradamus]

bump

order update

Round Fourteen

6. Bob Lee Swagger OTC @ 10:00

7. Misfit Blondes

8. Uncle Humuna

9. Mister CIA

10. El Floppo

11. thatguy

12. wikkidpissah

13. Tides of War

14. BobbyLayne

15. Abrantes

16. DougB

17. timschochet

18. Postradamus

19. Rodg12

20. Krista4

 

[Bob Lee Swagger]

14.06 - Composition - The Marriage of Figaro - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The overture is one of the most famous pieces of classical music ever. Never had the pleasure of attending a performance myself, but I enjoy listening at home just fine.

From wiki:

Lorenzo da Ponte wrote a preface to the first published version of the libretto, in which he boldly claimed that he and Mozart had created a new form of music drama:

"In spite … of every effort … to be brief, the opera will not be one of the shortest to have appeared on our stage, for which we hope sufficient excuse will be found in the variety of threads from which the action of this play [i.e. Beaumarchais's] is woven, the vastness and grandeur of the same, the multiplicity of the musical numbers that had to be made in order not to leave the actors too long unemployed, to diminish the vexation and monotony of long recitatives, and to express with varied colours the various emotions that occur, but above all in our desire to offer as it were a new kind of spectacle to a public of so refined a taste and understanding."[13]

Charles Rosen (in The Classical Style) proposes to take da Ponte's words quite seriously, noting the "richness of the ensemble writing",[14] which carries forward the action in a far more dramatic way than recitatives would. Rosen also suggests that the musical language of the classical style was adapted by Mozart to convey the drama: many sections of the opera musically resemble sonata form; by movement through a sequence of keys, they build up and resolve musical tension, providing a natural musical reflection of the drama. As Rosen says:

"The synthesis of accelerating complexity and symmetrical resolution which was at the heart of Mozart's style enabled him to find a musical equivalent for the great stage works which were his dramatic models. The Marriage of Figaro in Mozart's version is the dramatic equal, and in many respects the superior, of Beaumarchais's work."[15]

 

[Uncle Humuna]

14.08 Still Life: Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers - Vincent Van Gogh (Painting)

I'm taking the one housed in the National Museum in London:

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Pain...Sunflowers.html

Van Gogh's paintings of sunflowers have altered mankind's perspective of art and life. These paintings captivate the mind and leave you astounded in their simplistic beauty. The flowing wilted steams and the burst of lovely yellow draws ones attention around the painting, without disrupting the balance of the piece. These paintings are often duplicated but never reach the pure power of Van Gogh's.

 

[timschochet]

Good morning. The Charter of the United Nations will be a good test for our political documents judge. It's importance to world affairs and modern history cannot be denied. Yet something tells me that Yankee has nothing but disdain for this document and the organization it represents. So we'll see.

 

[timschochet]

Three quick picks this morning. Good stuff!

 

[ScottNorwood]

Hey, is it ok if we move Rosetta Stone to either Political Document or Wildcard? The more I'm thinking about it the more it doesn't make sense as non-fiction.

 

[DCThunder]

Good morning. The Charter of the United Nations will be a good test for our political documents judge. It's importance to world affairs and modern history cannot be denied. Yet something tells me that Yankee has nothing but disdain for this document and the organization it represents. So we'll see.

I was hoping people would forget the UN Charter so I could get it to go along with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That would be a combo that Yankee might find irresistable.

 

[timschochet]

Hey, is it ok if we move Rosetta Stone to either Political Document or Wildcard? The more I'm thinking about it the more it doesn't make sense as non-fiction.

You can move your picks around at any time. Where would you like the Rosetta Stone moved to?

 

[DCThunder]

Hey, is it ok if we move Rosetta Stone to either Political Document or Wildcard? The more I'm thinking about it the more it doesn't make sense as non-fiction.

You can move your picks around at any time. Where would you like the Rosetta Stone moved to?

Just for the record, how is the Rosetta Stone a "political document"? I'd like to hear an argument for that.

 

[Uncle Humuna]

Hey, is it ok if we move Rosetta Stone to either Political Document or Wildcard? The more I'm thinking about it the more it doesn't make sense as non-fiction.

You can move your picks around at any time. Where would you like the Rosetta Stone moved to?

Just for the record, how is the Rosetta Stone a "political document"? I'd like to hear an argument for that.

move it to sculpture

 

[ScottNorwood]

Hey, is it ok if we move Rosetta Stone to either Political Document or Wildcard? The more I'm thinking about it the more it doesn't make sense as non-fiction.

You can move your picks around at any time. Where would you like the Rosetta Stone moved to?

Just for the record, how is the Rosetta Stone a "political document"? I'd like to hear an argument for that.

From wikipedia:"The text on the stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples."But it may make more sense as a wildcard, since it didn't have a widespread influence on politics.