Funny experience

[PZ]

We were looking at a cocktail recipe for Valentine's day and came across one which contained a spirit called Aperol, which I did not recognize.

I went to their web site and of course was challenged with the "age" widget. Because those are essentially useless, I put my birthday as 01/01/1920 and was greeted with the comment" "Sorry, you are too old to drink" 

After I recovered enough from my resulting fit of laughter I changed the "2" to a "5" to which the site responded "Welcome!" even though they knew I was just gaming the system 

Just to test another, I went to Laphroaig to see what the Scots would do, and using the same birthday they had no problem letting me in.

I guess you're never too old to drink Scotch. 

[Art Blade]

 

"Over here" we know Aperol. I mean, most of the stuff you know is from over here, including Scotch.

[PZ]

Indeed. Many of the best things still come from overseas. For example, the "Camembert" we get here is nothing like the real thing. It is like a flavorless hard Brie.

[Art Blade]

some things are best where they are being produced. Like, France is around the corner yet our imitation of their baguette tastes like random white bread, only the shape reminds of baguettes. The real French ones are typically much thinner and crispier, also they taste so good that you could keep eating them without anything else. Of course, some real Camembert and a glass of French red wine.. yes.. it doesn't taste like that outside of France.

[PZ]

One of the reasons is that the U.S. has in the past insisted that the imported cheeses be pasteurized somewhere in their production resulting in the awful cheeses we get. However, there is one Le Rustique, which is imported from France and has the proper stinky odor and sharp musky flavor that in my book is an absolute requirement.

I remember the last time in France, I kept a wheel of Coeur de Lion Camembert on the floor of the back seat of the car and it was a hot day as we visited the caves in southern France. (my general rule was a 2 Euro Camembert, a baguette of bread, and a 2 Euro bottle of Cahors wine for lunch almost every day). When we came back to the car my wife exclaimed "Oh my goodness that smells awful!!". I told her I did not know what she meant because I thought it smelled heavenly. 

When we drove back to Paris, she would not let me keep Camembert in our apartment there, or in any of the B&Bs we overnighted along the way.   

[Art Blade]

 

There's a saying allegedly used by my grand-grandpa on occasion. I'll always remember albeit it is unclear who coined it. My suspicion is that it was Wilhelm Busch. Before I quote it and before you try to translate it let me point out that it is no common grammar, the sentence is truncated and "je..desto" is a comparison that translates to "the.. the.." (as in, the sooner, the better) which is where it should stop but here it will kind of go back and forth and back again as in "the.. the.. the.." which isn't common, either. It is a comedic sort of poem in a nutshell, so to speak.

"Je Käse desto stinkt er, je besser ist er." 

Which is difficult to translate because of the play on words and truncated (uncommon) grammar but roughly it translates to

"The [more] cheese, the [more it] stinks, the better it is."

[fragger]

 

You know it's gonna be good if it smells like a mixture of gangrene and a used sweat sock

[PZ]

  

On an aside, decades ago for Christmas my aunt and uncle sent me a thick volume of Wilhelm Busch stories. I was young enough at the time that the illustrations were the best part of it for me, but they were sometimes quite dark in nature. 

[Art Blade]

Busch wasn't meant for children even though his works appear to be light and amusing.. they are not always what it seems.

[PZ]

No wonder I turned out strange 

[Art Blade]

don't worry about being strange.. it's currently en vogue and called "diverse."

[PZ]

 

[Art Blade]