Tag Archives: alcohol

Drinkin'

Review or Rant? The Snowbird Tiki Bar

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Pic courtesy of D&C old-timer/contributor C.G.

It’s a weird feeling to sit down to write a somewhat negative review. I know several bloggers and vloggers who won’t do it. If a product is bad, or falls beneath a certain threshold, they won’t review it. I can respect that. Especially when it comes to restaurants and such, a bad review can really damage a reputation, and if it is based on only one visit, maybe it’s not even representative. I distinctly remember a very lackluster evening at one of Montreal’s perennial best restaurants. It might have been unfair to judge them on that one off night, though the argument could be made that when you demand a certain (very hefty) price from your customers, you really can’t afford off nights, but I digress. So yeah, speaking ill isn’t chill and all that, plus it feels like trashing somebody else’s dream. That being said, it would not be doing you a favour (all eight of you), to pretend the Snowbird doesn’t have substantial woes to work out, or in corporate-speak “significant opportunity for improvement”. This is all according to my own tastes, of course, most people seem to love the place and it currently rates a 4.6 out of 5 on google. Kids these days… Read more

Chillin'

So This is Christmas

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I’m not going to bore you with a long talk about the origins of Christmas and why it is where it is on the calendar, though I really want to. Suffice it to say that it is extremely unlikely that Jesus was born in what is to us the end of December. The gospel of Luke tells us shepherds were out at night guarding their flock, and that is not a winter activity.  Neither is it true, sorry my neo-pagan friends, that Christmas’s date was chosen to replace an older festival, in a sort of religious sleight of hand, as if people would not notice. No, according to some recent scholarship, it has to do with the winter solstice, thus the return of the Sun, and the equation of that Light (and Life I assume) with Christ, but this is not what this post is about. This post is about you guys, all eight of you, and wishing you, and yours, a festive, memorable and all around kick ass Christmas, I mean it. Merry Christmas. Read more

Drinkin'

The guide to drinking part 1: Our Drinkskultur

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For we are not rude beasts.
For we are not rude beasts.

Drinkskultur: /drinkskultur/

Noun.

  1. The customs of a specific time and place surrounding the consumption of alcohol.
  2. The best etiquette and practices surrounding the consumption of alcohol.

Exemples.

Ti-punch is the backbone of the drinkskultur of the French Antilles, but it can also be found as far afield as Reunion island in the Indian ocean.

Johnny crushing that beer can on his forehead during his wedding was a glaring demonstration of his lack of drinkskultur. Read more

Chillin', Drinkin'

On the Civilizing Beauty that is Beer

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Yes, these are ice crystals in the bottles.
Yes, these are ice crystals in the bottles.

There’s a legit anthropological theory that says humans went from nomad hunters and gatherers to sedentary farmers because of beer, which thus becomes responsible for the greatest shift in the history of humanity. Alcohol, which we have been producing since about 7000-5000 BC (Sept. 2018 edit, 13000 yr old “brewery” found in Israel) is also credited (along with other drugs) with the birth of art and religious thought. True that. I’m not sure I’m prepared to go that far or get drawn into a debate about the evils of the materialism that comes from a sedentary society or the origins of religious experience (booze? magic mushrooms? aliens? divine revelation?). What I can say, is that for the Diving & Chillin’ Club, the chillin’ usually involves some sort of fermentation. Read more