Spectre’s Sayings

I’ve added a permanent link to Two Guys on Beer, a video podcast where two guys taste and evaluate beers. Some good information there.

There are nine traffic lights along my regular route to work. One day last week, I was lucky enough to have a green light at every one of them. That day, it took me 11 minutes to get to work. Today, I was delayed at every traffic light, either because they were red, or because other cars had bunched up at them so that not all traffic could get through in the amount of time the lights were green. This added 8 minutes to my commute. Just thought it was a frustratingly interesting observation.

Pope to visit Queen, beatify Cardinal Newman during England visit via Catholic News Agency.

I bottled my brown ale last night. I sure hope it doesn’t take as long to bottle condition as it did to ferment.

Looking forward to having a little side-by-side tasting of my homebrews. I’ve set aside 3 bottles of each of my last 4 brews for it. That would be my brown ale, my pale ale, my Scottish 60, and my 2009 Christmas Ale.

I’m planning on a hefeweizen for my next brew day. After that, I’ll be doing all-grain batches of beer. Question is, how long will it take me to get all my gear together for it?

But will fans suffer?

In their long-running court case against record producer EMI, a judge agreed that the clause in their contract which stated that individual songs could not be sold without the band’s permission also applied to online sales through stores such as iTunes.

The BBC has the story here. Go read it.

Off tastes in beer.

No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of the German army by fighting it, not by giving in. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later.

That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it.

- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I found these to be interesting articles, so I thought I’d share.

• Misdialed call connects woman who had scheduled an abortion to pro-life help
• Feedback from Oprah appearance ‘overwhelmingly positive’ for Dominican sisters
• Jewish historian: Pius XII was not ‘Hitler’s Pope’
• Two years after World Youth Day, Sydney sees upsurge in vocations and ordinations
• Despite anti-Christian violence, cardinal urges Iraqis to vote in elections

I got this message in my email box this morning:

Dear Kevin,

I want you to be aware of a conceal carry bill which has been introduced in this Session of the General Assembly. It would allow licensed conceal carry in our state.

It was introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives as HB5221. If the bill became law, it would allow people over the age of 21 to carry concealed fire arms after completing training requirements.

If the bill comes to the Illinois Senate as presently drafted, I will support it. I will continue to keep you updated on relevant legislation coming out of Springfield.

Sincerely,
Dan Rutherford
State Senator

That should cut down on crime, if it passes.

British soldier saves comrades by throwing Taliban hand grenade back.

Yale scientists have figured out the colors of the feathers of a troodontid dinosaur that lived in the late Jurassic period in China. Read about it here.

FoxNews.com has an article about spring seasonal beers. Go check it out.

Oh. My. God.

This is a great beer!

Goose Island’s Pere Jacques comes in a large 650 mL bottle with a plain white label. Knowing it was a Belgian-style ale not unlike a Dubbel, I poured it into a brandy snifter for a better drinking experience. The beer is a beautiful orange-red color with a small head. The aroma is subtle, as is the malt flavor. The hop flavor is definitely noticeable. At first sip, I thought perhaps the brewers at Goose Island overdid it slightly. But as I became accustomed to the Saaz in this beer, I came to appreciate it more and more. It’s not a very complex beer – at least, not when it’s only 8 months old. However, the label indicated that the beer can develop in the bottle for up to five years. I’m tempted to buy some more and try cellaring it to see how it turns out.

But nice. Very, very nice.