Yuletide cheer

This year Mister Booze was a very good boy. Santa Claus came and delivered a present most excellent; Jameson gold. Jameson gold is a blended whiskey, with no parts of the blend less than 12 years old. A portion is a pot still whiskey aged in virgin oak casks. This is unusual for an Irish whiskey, I know of no other of it's kind. I am anticipating that the virgin oak will impart a strong vanilla sweetness. I will definitely give a full report here. Will it stack up well against Red Breast? That venerable pure pot still whiskey is one of Ireland's finest; mr. Booze holds it in high regard.

Winter survival from ages past

What seems like 1,000 lifetimes ago I once commuted 3 hours a day for work. The days were growing shorter and the nights became longer. It was a time of darkness, and I found myself taking naps in my car on my lunch break. I once fell asleep to NPR, who introduced me to the ancient Sami art of Joik. They tell me it isn't called "singing", because they aren't songs. But for you gringos it is Finnish folk singing.



Of course because it is in Northern Europe, there is a Heavy Metal version



Naturally, there is also a lame techno remix



And modernist interpretations



Sometimes I wonder if my life is a myth, created by my own nightmares from which I cannot awaken.

This is my favorite version:



Maybe these girls can wake me from my slumber?

Japan is awesome

I have to find a way to get on this Japanese game show:



Why can't American TV be this good?

Internet quests

Have you ever been on an internet quest? I just finished a coat quest recently, which predictably lead to Ebay. In the past my internet quests were a search for music. Call it atavism, the quest I am about to begin will be another music quest.

My newest adventure is to find a CD (old fashioned I know) with this woman singing:



So the first step is to find her name. From the comments I gleam that it is Nely Andreeva. Finding a CD will probably lead to a website in Bulgarian. Let the adventure begin.

End of year list: Revenge!

This is the time of year when people typically make lists. Children make lists for Santa. Guilty make new year's resolutions lists. Pundits make best of lists. Mister Booze makes revenge lists.

First up is the person pictured below wearing my coat, Mr. Carach Angren



Do you see what I see?

Now I know who outbid me on Ebay for that coat! And look, you're going to smear makeup on the collar. Do you have any idea how much it costs to have a coat like that dry cleaned? Do you? Yes, revenge is in store for you Mr. Angren. Side note: don't you feel bad for the gentleman (gentlewoman?) on the right who could not afford a matching coat on Ebay and had to get a cheaper gray one that is only single breasted?

Next up, the makers of Old Charter bourbon. You know what you did, and when we meet you'll know why you have it coming.



It is all fun and games until someone buys a bottle isn't it?

Sgt. D, for getting the following song stuck in my head:



I don't know what ice cream paint job means, but I spent a week saying "Cream on the inside, clean on the outside". Thanks.

Finally, the office fascists who think they can stop the godmachine.



You cannot stop it. Don't even try.

So there you have it. Sadly, I made very few enemies this year, and have a short revenge list.

Mister Booze takes a holiday: Doing it our way

Recently I had a chance to visit a magical fairytale land. Through magical forces (alchemy?) beyond my comprehension, water was transmuted into beer.



These are apparently some of the secret ingredients necessary to cast the spell.



The witch's cauldrons.

If you ever find yourself in the Northlands with nothing to do on a Monday, I highly suggest going to visit the New Glarus brewery. I'm not a big beer drinker these days, but speaking as a former connoisseur their beers are really good. You walk into the gift shop and buy a beer. You can walk all around the premises drinking your beer, watching more being made. The tour is "self-guided". You can basically waltz around the brewery like you own the place. Everyone there is really friendly and happy to answer your questions.

Oh, did I mention you should go on Monday? Go on Monday. Monday is bottling day.



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 schamiel, schamozel, hasenpfeffer incorporated!



Doin' it our way!

The secrets of aging

The flower of my youth is wilting. Father time is sweeping my leg. Not to worry, I have foreseen this day for a long time coming. There is a secret to aging. You must envision and embrace your future self to become him. This is something Elvis and Michael Jackson refused to learn. Look what happened to them.



This could be you!

There are several roads you can take on life. Will you be a fat old man or a skinny old man? I am gunning for skinny old man. Thus I have cut back on beer and upped my whiskey intake. You don't see old men who've spent a lifetime drinking whiskey on the rocks with fat bellies.



This is what a lifetime of drinking Jack Daniels looks like. Not bad.

Some people try to cover up their gray hair. Why? Don't you love the grizzled old Willie Nelson far better than the young hippie Willie Nelson?





I think I could take old metal artists like Dave Mustaine seriously if they let their grays show and started to write bitter old man songs. Something like this:



I'm not going to even post Hurt. Few men have the guts to age so wonderfully. I can only hope to become so gnarled and grizzled.

So what is my vision like? Simple. I will be the old curmudgeon with a cane and a hat, eating at Denny's and leaving a handful of pennies for a tip. I'll tell you about what it was like back in my day. I will be mystified at all the new technology and listen to weird old music from before you were born that you've never heard. I will wear a tie for no good reason. I will call my daily shot of whiskey my "medicine". I will make air quotation marks with my fingers before using any slang words. And I will tell meandering stories like this:



Good Lord it will be amazing.