First Friday of December Links

by | Dec 6, 2024 | Cocktails, Daily Links | 100 comments

We’re well into shopping season, as all of the %random% day events are over (I hope), so for those already complaining about it, let’s start with a song. For the past several years, I’ve had a tradition of getting each of the households in my family an advent calendar, it has usually been a tea one. The company I order from recently expanded their offerings to include a coffee and a spice one. The coffee one was knocked off immediately (as it was full of flavored coffees), and I figured I’d order one of the spice ones for myself to see if it would be worth it. I am amazingly underwhelmed. Small sample pouches of spices (that can’t be resealed), no blurbs, suggestions, recommendations, or reason to what you’re getting (what is someone going to do with maybe an ounce of high fat cocoa powder?).

If only there were some sort of forces that could be employed to find the correct prices for items. Oh well, regulations will have to do, and additional legislation since the regulations aren’t working.

There is something to be said for preaching where the sinners are.

Now, I’ve not watched the show, but based on my understanding, this seems to be a poor fit for a collaboration.

See, this is why I hate putting X days in a headline. Just put the actual final date (in this case December 13th), having stories like this in my feed after the deadline has passed just pisses me off.

If R.J. ever needs more fodder for Thursdays, we could do a month of ashcan copies.

“First class-style”

For those who were interested in a Flipper Zero, but didn’t want to drop the coin. You can build your own now.

First time I saw someone ordering these in public was sitting at a table in Vegas. Surprisingly, it wasn’t by someone older than me, but someone in their 20’s. They tried to sell the drink to me by saying it was like a milkshake. This is not a winning sales pitch for me. But when made correctly (which they will not be if you’re sitting at a Vegas table), these can be quite tasty.

Brandy Alexander

  • 3 parts (1.5 ounce) cognac
  • 2 parts (1 ounce) creme de cacao
  • 2 parts (1 ounce) cream (I suppose you could use whole milk, but for the love of all the gods, don’t do this with skim)

Iced: Put everything into a shaker with ice, shake until combined, and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with some fresh nutmeg if you would like.

Warm: Warm up an Irish coffee glass with boiling water. Let that sit while you warm up some cream (not to boiling, just to a simmer at most). Dump out the water from the glass, add the spirits, and the warmed dairy, and give it a quick stir with a bar spoon. You can garnish this with some fresh whipped cream and nutmeg if you’d like, or just the nutmeg. I mean, it’s your drink. You could garnish it with a cocktail onion, but I would question your life choices at that point.

See you all next week, I’ll still be here, with the rest of the misfits.

About The Author

Nephilium

Nephilium

Nephilium is a geek of multiple types living in the vast suburban forests of Cleveland.

100 Comments

  1. Shpip

    Frontier Airlines is the latest no-frills carrier getting into the premium seating game — with what it’s referring to as “first class-style” seats.

    Sure… but you’re still sharing the aircraft with people who shouldn’t be allowed inside an airport except to clean the bathrooms.

    • Drake

      I’ve flown Frontier a few times. It avoided flying in and out of Newark, so it felt like first-class and avoid encounters with thousands of unpleasant people.

    • Ownbestenemy

      45-60 min flights on them are okay. Beyond is unbearable

      • kinnath

        New to me. Well done.

    • SDF-7

      Another stirling example.

    • Nephilium

      Oh, I’m trying to stick with the more… shall we say… unexpected bands doing Christmas albums/songs.

  2. UnCivilServant

    So on an impulse I decided to make chicken salad wraps for this weekend. I have bonesless skinless thighs that will be cooked with salt, pepper, and paprika, then chopped up. It will be added to mayo, celercy, vidalia onion, more salt, pepper, and paprika, put in a keto tortilla…

    But I’m debating whether it needs mustard and/or vinegar in the filling mix.

    • creech

      On the same scale of critical decisions that Joe has to make (Dr. Jill just flips a coin. ) Go with the mustard.

      • Ownbestenemy

        If it’s good enough for MAD

    • Aloysious

      Where are you getting a Vidalia onion in December.?

      Not trying to be a twunt, I just didn’t know they were available after August.

      That being said, My. Olive sells a sliced and pickled Vidalia onion that is fantastic.

  3. Mojeaux

    The pie crusts I took out of the freezer last week have been mocking me. wHeN aRe YoU gOiNg To MaKe ThE pIeS?! Well, today as a matter of fact. Now shut up.

    • SDF-7

      They were nagging at you over 22 hours a day, 7 days a week?

      • Mojeaux

        Every time I opened the refrigerator, anyway.

    • Suthenboy

      This reminds me of the old joke: “Look, I said I would get that done. You dont have to nag me about it every six months!”

      *glances up at patched ceiling needing paint*

    • Aloysious

      Put them thangs in their place.

      Make quiche.

      • Mojeaux

        Punkin.

  4. Ownbestenemy

    All about balance. Pickle, mustard, relish…anything to get some acid in there.

    • UnCivilServant

      I’m going to assume that was a brooksed reply.

    • Gender Traitor

      I presume this is re: UCS’s chicken salad. A little mustard, but no pickle or relish. Chicken salad is divine enough without it.

      Now I really, really want chicken salad. 🤤

    • Suthenboy

      Meanwhile Biden is dropping coin around the world.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        There’s plenty of money for people outside our borders and none for those within. Biden can’t get gone soon enough.

      • Drake

        Wars and coups everywhere too. Nice fucking mess they’re walking away from.

      • DrOtto

        I’m assuming in addition to Joe stirring up shit on the world stage, Hunter is hard at working pulling copper out if the walls of the White House before they leave.

  5. Ted S.

    If R.J. ever needs more fodder for Thursdays, we could do a month of ashcan copies.

    Dostoevsky dictated the book The Gambler in order to get it completed before a deadline that would see him lose publishing rights otherwise. Dostoevsky ended up marrying to woman to whom he dictated the book.

  6. Brochettaward

    What is this? 2000’s internet conspiracy hour?

    When they find hidden German u-boats that were intentionally sunk off the coast of Argentina that the Argentinian government refuses to let anyone examine and which they dismiss as simply “rock formations,” I think it goes beyond conspiracy theory. You have an actual conspiracy of some kind.

    Also, US document released by the CIA in the Kennedy document dump stated outright Hitler was still alive.

    • Brochettaward

      The Why Files isn’t some loony conspiracy channel and they do their best to DEBUNK baseless conspiracies. That they couldn’t really debunk this and have evidence within the last decade that has only just surfaced now means it’s well beyond the conjecture that existed (conjecture based off a number of eye witnesses who claim to have seen Hitler in Argentina, by the way) and it’s a legitimate avenue of research.

      Russia also never bought the whole Hitler suicide thing.

      • Brochettaward

        Who would have dropped the dime? There are a number of people who claim to have interacted with Hitler in Argentina, but they’re testimony is just shrugged off. Already cited the CIA document released recently.

      • Brochettaward

        Also, he apparently died in 1961 from Parkinson’s.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        A housekeeper, a neighbor, even a friend: he’s certainly been dead for a while by now and people’s lips tend to loosen when they’re not finking on a live person.

      • Brochettaward

        We have that.

    • creech

      Living in NYC aka “Mr. Pitt “

      • Brochettaward

        Daniel Penny didn’t go far enough.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Well good (sorta).

    • Urthona

      Criminally negligent homicide still sounds bad, but I am too lazy to look it up.

      • rhywun

        It still puts him in jail for 4 years.

      • rhywun

        And that’s before the civil suit(s) that are waiting the wings to ruin his life.

      • juris imprudent

        The decision, which came at the request of prosecutors, means jurors will consider only the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide. It carries a maximum sentence of up to four years. Jurors were not told that prosecutors made the request. Penny has pleaded not guilty.

        Your labor, enacted. Or RTFA.

      • LCDR_Fish

        Per Andy McCarthy – Bragg is a POS (as we already knew)

        https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/unbelievable-at-braggs-insistence-judge-dismisses-the-reckless-homicide-count-to-force-jury-to-consider-negligent-homicide/

        ……So what has happened here? As I have contended from the start, rather than bring a one-count criminally negligent homicide case, Bragg added a baseless recklessness charge to the indictment so the jury would have two counts, increasing the odds of conviction by giving the jury something to compromise on. Instead of deciding negligence as the central question, that count was treated as a fallback position for the jurors to have something to pin on Penny — i.e., they could feel good about convicting him of negligence, not because he was guilty but because they had already acquitted him of the more severe recklessness charge.

        Now, after the jury could not find Penny guilty of recklessness after four days — and how disturbing it is that one or more jurors were apparently in favor of doing so — the judge is letting Bragg remove the recklessness count from the case. It will go down as an acquittal for Penny on that charge, so he is no longer facing a potential 15-year prison term. For the jury, however, it makes the hard work of the last four days pointless.

        Wiley has now dismissed the jury for the weekend, with the news that they must come back to court Monday morning to start from scratch deliberating over count two, negligent homicide. The potential term on that charge is up to four years’ imprisonment.

        This is a disgrace.

      • Brochettaward

        I’m no legal expert, but that was my reading of the situation. They are determined to get a conviction here. Just have to hope that the people who want to acquit are just as stubborn as the double mask wearer.

  7. Tundra

    Southwest Airlines announced in July that it would eventually do away with its longstanding open seating policy — allowing it to charge a premium for certain seats with extra legroom.

    Dammit. It’s one of the things I like about SW. Not flying Frontier, even if they offer free drinks and a hummer.

    • The Other Kevin

      We’ve been flying Southwest for hockey. They let us board first, and we grab the first few rows, and it works out fine. Sad to see that go. And for the record, most of my teammates and I don’t need extra legroom.

      • Tundra

        LOL.

    • Urthona

      As someone who was not a frequent flyer of SW I fucking hated it, because I got to pick last. Always a middle seat.

      • Nephilium

        At least here, the frequent flyer part doesn’t matter. Checking in immediately when the window opened up was the important thing.

      • Tundra

        Or just paying a few bucks for early-bird check in.

    • juris imprudent

      A guy from my high school went there as a QB. He was Catholic – quit after two years I think, and a year or two later some kid named McMahon showed up.

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      Oh man.

    • R.J.

      Boy that is going to get ugly. Clearly a B.S. commie decision.

    • rhywun

      I wonder how many American social media accounts promoted the correct candidate.

    • grrizzly

      The rules-based international order sounds more and more ridiculous. I guess the main rule is if the wrong candidate wins then the election was illegitimate.

      • Brochettaward

        This basically goes back to what Benz said in his Rogan interview. It’s a refrain I and others around here have made, though not as eloquently and as thoroughly as he did. Elections no longer matter. Democracy is defined as the will of the institutions.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Yeah, that was a great interview…highly recommended.

    • Raven Nation

      Pie had a take on this earlier today (can’t remember which post). In summary, the sudden rise of the guy who was ahead after the first round was odd.

      • grrizzly

        Pie is too much of a Russophobe. He sounded too willing to believe in the provided justification. Which was preposterous. And even Russia used the power to TikTok to promote that candidate, it’s not a good reason to cancel the vote. The US government has been promoting its favorable candidates by any means for decades.

      • Ted S.

        Pie is local and knows what’s going on there, but he doesn’t think Putin is a genius so he can’t possibly be right.

      • Brochettaward

        Given the history, I can understand Pie’s issues with Russian influence in his home country.

        That said, I have a hard time believing there’s any basis in Romanian law from saying that if Russia supports a candidate in an election, that it’s ground to throw the entire election result out completely when that guy wins. And America and the globalists supporting a candidate obviously wouldn’t be grounds to do the same.

        Your knee-jerk anti-Putin stances are far more ridiculous than anything coming from the supposed Putin supporters around here (speaking of TedS).

      • Ted S.

        More seriously, a rather odious development of the past three years is the idea that anybody who finds the collectivism that developed out of Western European development to be less bad than that which sprung from Russian Orthodox development cannot possibly be thinking for themselves.

        That, and the corollary that anyone opposing the Western collectivism must be right about everything else.

      • Swiss Servator

        Or, Grizz…you might be a bit of a Russophile? Just sayin’…

        I mean, why would countries near Russia think anything but positive vibes toward them? I mean, other than the military attacks, annexations, etc? (Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, nod solemnly) Not like Poland, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have any experience with Russian…uh, influence, eh?
        Right?
        Well…TEAM Z here might back you, as the Former KGB Colonel is doing nothing other than saving Christianity and Western Civilization from TEH GHEYZ AND PUSSY RIOT!

  8. groat scotum
    • Old Man With Candy

      That said, I have a hard time believing there’s any basis in Romanian law from saying that if Russia supports a candidate in an election, that it’s ground to throw the entire election result out completely when that guy wins.

      Can you say Maidan? I knew you could.

  9. Suthenboy

    Rambling on about the Penny case on the teevee. Ohhhh it’s a really difficult case for the jury. Given the evidence and their sympathy for the defendant it’s just so hard to decide!.
    What no one is saying: The judge went to law school. He is a legal expert. The defense attorney went to law school. They also, are a legal expert. The prosecutor went to law school. They are a legal expert. The court is chock full of legal experts. Why would we inject into the court a jury composed of legal non-experts? What is their purpose? Their purpose is not to judge the defendant. Their purpose is to judge the court and the law. They are there to judge the DA’s office as well. They are a check on the abuse of judicial power. The Penny case is a no-brainer.

      • Suthenboy

        I am not sure what that means. My expectation is that it is some shitheel that thinks juries are supposed to find as they are told.

      • groat scotum

        It means Bragg and the judge are complicit in a conspiracy to violate Penny’s civil rights, in my obvious inexpert opinion.

    • Mojeaux

      One of my dad’s besties was a judge. One time, he got so mad about a jury verdict, he just said, you’re all idiots and overturned it right then. I don’t know any details of the case, but the guy was wonderful and moral to a fault, so I have to think it was the correct thing to do.

      I am right now looking at the wedding present he and his wife gave us.

      • LCDR_Fish

        As McCarthy has been saying all along – Penney should never have been charged in this case whatsoever. The process is the punishment and the city will wind up burning one way or another.

      • cyto

        My youtube and X feeds have been showing me a lot of body cam footage out of Canada where silencing political opposition is the clear motive.

        The government goes to GoFundMe and others to stop them from fundraising for their defense.

        Process as punishment indeed.

      • rhywun

        Penney should never have been charged in this case whatsoever

        In the current political climate there is no way on earth he would not have been charged. Not when you have racist, pro-crime DA’s running the show in most major American cities – guys who care more about narrative and cocktail parties than about justice.

  10. Aloysious

    what is someone going to do with maybe an ounce of high fat cocoa powder

    Add to an icing made with powdered sugar?

    • UnCivilServant

      Cocoa powder is supposed to be the part of chocolate left over when the fat is removed.

    • groat scotum

      Jail can’t be all that bad, right? And only sixty days? I’d do it for a tenth of that. Hell, a hundredth would be a steep pay cut but I’d consider it.

  11. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    It’s a beautiful day here in the part of Northern California that wasn’t wiped out by the earthquake and tsunami. Time to go raw dog some air and sunshine.

    • Spudalicious

      I was texting with my sister in Crescent City yesterday. No one was that concerned because it was coming from the wrong direction.

  12. Spudalicious

    Wow. I haven’t had a Brandy Alexander since the 80’s.

    • Old Man With Candy

      Neat or on ice?

      • KK, Plump & Unfiltered

        flambee

  13. cyto

    When I heard they dismissed 1 charge in the Penny trial i immediately concluded that they intended to produce the jury to render a compromise verdict.

    Then I heard that the prosecution asked the judge to do it and I was sure.

    Now I see that this was the obvious conclusion that everyone else reached as well.

    I hope they can hold the line. If the police, prosecution and every eyewitness didn’t think he committed a crime, I just don’t see how you can get past reasonable doubt.

    Anyone know how the judge did on admitting evidence? I know these NY trials of late have been fairly well stacked against the defendants with bizarre rulings on admissibility.

    • creech

      Perhaps the jurors are pondering why Penny kept the choke hold on long past when the perp went limp and bystanders begged him to stop? If prep was faking, didn’t Penny already have a few more men there helping hold perp down?

      • R C Dean

        What’s the timeline on that claim? What counts as “long past” and who is saying the bystanders were begging him to stop?

      • R C Dean

        Remember – the perp was still alive when the cops got there. He was just so filthy and disease-ridden they declined to do much first aid.

      • EvilSheldon

        Everybody keeps bringing that fact up, but legally it doesn’t matter. Penny used deadly force, and the victim died. The question that the court is going to resolve is whether the use of deadly force was justified.

    • R C Dean

      We already know he won’t be acquitted. There was at least one juror who wanted him convicted of the more serious charge. No way they will vote to acquit of the less serious charge.

      • Sensei

        Yup. Unless a change of heart which seems highly unlikely.

      • Tundra

        What happens if there is another hung jury?

      • Sensei

        The state either drops the case or goes to a new trial with a new jury.

        You can guess what’s going to happen…

    • cyto

      Why does Remy usually understand the issues better than any of the writers at Reason?

      • kinnath

        Interesting question.

        He is the only thing that I will pay attention from reason.