#the center one was really cool- it's a wine vessel

[echidnana]

some creatures from the national palace museum :)

[beforetheflowers]

Poinsettia

SPNAdventCalendar2020 prompt: day 13, poinsettia

Read complete on AO3!

Ok, I’m a little late with this, but here we go. Read the first half below the cut!

Hunters might not get paid for doing their jobs, but it was not uncommon to receive gifts of appreciation. These gifts ranged from invitations to sit down for a home-cooked meal, boxes of snacks and drinks, a good bottle of scotch, gift cards to restaurants… actually, the gifts took the form of food quite often. 

It was curious, this human impulse to show their love by feeding each other. Taking care of each other’s most basic need, giving the blessing of not needing to worry about where the next meal was coming from. 

Though angels did not, as a rule, feel hunger, Castiel understood it intimately. He’d been human quite a few times in the last decade, and he knew the dull ache that could only be filled by sinking his teeth into something delicious.   

Of course, Castiel made a point of breaking heaven’s rules. He never told Dean this, but occasionally he would fly out into a field or forest and let his grace drain into the Earth, depleting his own power so that he could become something close to human. It wasn’t easy to do in winter; someone would probably get suspicious if a grove of trees suddenly sprouted greenery under their blankets of snow, but he made it work. 

Let’s just say that a particular river in Kansas was full of incredibly vigorous fish, and leave it at that.

Draining his power in that way allowed Castiel to experience mortality with Dean. His vessel aged, so subtly that Dean hadn’t even noticed yet, but Cas was determined to grow old with him. They had their eternal youth to look forward to in the afterlife. 

It also allowed him to feel human drives; hunger, thirst, desire, pain. All the risks and rewards of freedom.  

Castiel also felt that taking care of the Earth was a proper angelic duty. He wasn’t interested in being an agent of fate, or a tool in Chuck’s arsenal. But blessing the Earth with life gave him great joy and contentment in his role as an angel. His grace was a gift he could give to wild things. 

So, although Castiel understood humanity’s gift-giving impulse on a personal level, he found it quaint and charming nevertheless. In times of hardship, humans reached out for each other instead of turning away, they gave more generously instead of less. Despite the flaws of their species, Castiel believed they were good at their core. He wasn’t sure he could say the same about angels.

The winter holidays seemed to motivate humans to give more than any other season. Perhaps it was simply the darkness and lack of plant growth in winter that pushed them to share resources, but… they took care of each other.

Cas was, however, sometimes baffled at their choice of gifts. 

One day in late November, he had gone grocery shopping while Dean was at work and had seen rows and rows of tiny replicas of popular fictional characters, stuffed animals in unnatural colors, pink models of kitchens, and even boxes of toys that weren’t assembled yet. How any of these objects helped humans survive winter, Cas didn’t know. 

Musing about the nature of humanity along the ends of the toy aisles, he had walked past a little red creature that started singing at him. He finished his shopping quickly after that. 

Also in November, Cas had received another bewildering gift from a family he had saved from a poltergeist. Dean had been at work again when Cas heard a strange report on the police scanner; officers had responded to a call about a strange man smashing up the neighbor’s house while everyone was out. 

When they had arrived, they found all the doors and windows closed and locked. Inside was indeed smashed up; the dining table was broken down the middle, stuffing was ripped from the couches, glass littered the floor from shattered picture frames and ceramic decorations. There was nobody in the house.

The mom left work right away after the cops notified her, and - Cas perused the subsequent report - she had mentioned instances of paintings falling off the walls, doors slamming, furniture being moved, but nothing close to the destruction of that day. The police had chalked it up to a very clever home invader and told the family to invest in a better security system. 

A security system wouldn’t work against a poltergeist, if indeed that was what the family was dealing with. 

Cas packed a duffle bag with ghost-hunting paraphernalia and teleported to the end of the family’s driveway. The family had been unwilling to trust him at first - apparently, they didn’t appreciate blunt honesty - but when the sun went down and the poltergeist started hurling knives around the kitchen, they welcomed Cas back inside, where he made quick work of the poltergeist. 

As it turned out, they had recently purchased a painting of a sunset from a charity auction. All seemed normal until Cas tore off the paper backing, revealing the signature of the painter; it was not created by some local artist as the family had assumed, but by someone who went down in history as a serial killer. The alizarin crimson was fortified with actual human blood, and the victim had become a restless spirit, tethered to the painting and unable to rest. 

Cas burned the painting and the spirit finally moved on. In their gratitude, the family had insisted he take home the apple pie that had been cooling on the counter and shoved a plant into his hands. Arms full of ghost-hunting equipment and the family’s generous gifts, Cas left, waiting until he reached the cover of shadows before teleporting home. 

The pie was a good gift because it made sense. Food. And a dessert at that, a delectable treat. Dean especially would like it. But the plant?

It had broad red leaves with tiny yellow blooms in the center. The lower leaves were dark green. A poinsettia. 

The Aztecs had cultivated this plant for its usefulness as medication and dye, but surely the family didn’t expect him to use it for those purposes. Of course, Cas knew about its association with Christ. Legend held that an angel encouraged a girl in Mexico to give a gift, no matter how plain, for Christ’s birthday. She gathered a bouquet of roadside weeds, but when she placed them on the altar, they became the blazing red, star-shaped leaves of the poinsettia. 

Cas had no idea which angel had performed that particular miracle, but it sounded on-brand for the heavenly host. Most angels only helped humanity when it served the glory of the Lord. Or maybe Cas was just a cynic. 

Either way, it didn’t explain why the family had given him one. They didn’t know he was an angel, right? The plant symbolized sacrifice, success, happiness, or purity; was it perhaps a wish that he would experience one of these? He’d take success or happiness, but he’d sacrificed far too much already, and he was so far beyond purity that it was almost a joke. 

Dean was already home when Cas, bypassing the struggle of opening the door with his hands full, teleported into the kitchen. 

“Hello, Dean.”

Flinching mightily, Dean nearly flipped the contents of the pan straight onto the floor. He chuckled weakly when he saw who it was. “Jesus Christ, man. Could you try knocking first, or something?”

“My hands were full,” Cas explained, finally setting everything down. He put the pie and the plant on the table and returned the duffle bag back to its place in the basement before returning to Dean. 

The smell that pervaded the house was wonderful; garlic and rosemary under the scent of sizzling steak. Cas’s stomach growled, and he realized he hadn’t eaten since yesterday. It was easy for an angel to lose track of such things, but Dean always took care of him. 

“Have a glass of wine,” Dean said, handing him a cab sauv. He leaned his back against the counter, watching Cas and his cooking at the same time. “Tell me about your day, baby.” 

Cas told him about the poltergeist and the gratitude of the family. “I don’t understand why they gave me this plant,” he ended the story, brushing one soft, red leaf between his fingertips.  

“What do you mean? It’s a poinsettia.” 

“Yes. It’s a holy symbol that often represents the crucifixion in the Western, Christian tradition. Why would they want to remind me of that? It was a horrible event, really. A man died.”    

Dean gave him that look, half exasperation, half amusement, that usually meant Cas had failed to understand some social norm. “People always give each other poinsettias around Christmas. It doesn’t really have any deep symbolic meaning these days, it’s just pretty to look at.”

Well, that was certainly true. It was a vibrant little thing, with plush crimson leaves and yellow center, like it was both reaching out for the sun and reflecting it deep within. Cas could feel the life buzzing inside it, drawing water and nutrients from the soil and exhaling oxygen through its broad leaves. 

It was a good gift, he decided with a little smile. 

But that wasn’t the end of it... 

[snicketstrange]

The Great Unknown 2.0 - I was partly wrong

On May 24, I was eating an octopus at a themed seafood restaurant. All the waiters were wearing clothes by character, and I felt surrounded by an atmosphere of ASOUE. That's when I paid attention to the octopus suction cups on my plate. Then I had a revelation about the Great Unknown. Because of this revelation, I had to read again some texts, I had to consult a marine biologist, a mechanical engineer, and Laerte. Laerte is an English expert, who knew nothing about ASOUE, so his opinion was completely neutral. And after these considerations I came to the conclusion that I was wrong about the Great Unknown, at least in part.

To begin with: Lemony refers to the interrogation format seen in Queequeg's sonar with being an 'underwater craft' (TGG p 85).

Lemony wrote about the first appearance of the question mark:

"There was a third shape of glowing green light, this one the biggest of all, a huge curved tube with a small circle at the end of it, slithering toward the center of the screen like a snake. But this third underwater craft didn't look like a snake."

So ... There's a big difference between believing The Great Unknown is a submarine in 2007 and continuing to believe The Great Unknown is a submarine in 2019. The difference is the ATWQ series of books. ATWQ explains that there is a gigantic marine animal in the form of a question mark, which moves at high speeds, and is able to be controlled by sounds. So a person who continues to believe in 2019 that The Great Unknown is a submarine is consequently a person who believes there is this gigantic animal in the form of questioning, AND ALSO there is a submarine that was built in the form of a gigantic question mark. That is, whoever believes that the Great Unknowing is a submarine, do not fail to believe that there is also a gigantic question-mark animal in the oceans of the universe of ASOUE. And when I thought better of it, I realized that I have no real reason to disagree with it. In fact, it was I who created the theory called "Daniel Handler duplicates events to confuse you". So, from my lunch at the seafood restaurant, I came to believe that Daniel Handler doubled the Great Unknown to confuse us. And this is not just a non-canonical hypothesis. In fact, the Carmelita submarine explains everything.

The first correct question is: Who built the Carmelita submarine?

The second right question is: Why does the Carmelita submarine have no torpedoes?

The third right question is: Why the submarine Carmelita has the shape of a giant octopus?

The fourth correct question is: What did the sailors of the universe of ASOUE look at in the oceans in the shape of a question mark?

But before answering these questions, I need to confirm to explain what I have found about sonars and echolocation systems used by some animals. I believed that when Olaf spoke about the sonar that the huge question-mark entity possessed, he might be talking about a biosonar. But I was wrong. The functioning mechanism of the echolocation of some animals consists of the following: the animal emits a sound, the sound is reflected by the objects, then the animal hears the reflected sound. Even if the object in question does not emit any sound, it will be detected, for what the animal hears is the echo of the sound that it produced. On the other hand, there are artificial sonars of two types. One of them works using the same operating principle as the echolocation system. The other type works by listening for the sound produced by the objects that are detected.

The wikipedia explains thus:

"Two types of technology share the name" sonar ": passive sonar is essentially listening for the sound made by vessels, active sonar is emitting pulses of sounds and listening for echoes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar

Fiona explained which of the two types was the Sonar used at the time in the universe of ASOUE:

"We can tell if any other undersea craft are approaching us by detecting the sounds they make." TGG, chapter 4.

Olaf also did the favor of explaining the kind of sonar that he believed existed in the giant question mark format thing:

"I guess you'd better come with me," the count said wearily. "But no tap-dancing! We don't want to show up on their sonar!" (TGG capítulo 13)

  Thus, Olaf certainly believed that the sound produced by the tap dance could cause the Queequeg or the Carmelita to be detected in their sonar. This means that Olaf was talking about a submarine with passive sonar, not a biosonar.

 So who could have built that submarine in the form of a giant question mark? Certainly it was the same organization that built the sub in the form of giant octopus. In fact, when you come to that conclusion everything starts to make sense. There is an evil organization that is an enemy of both the firefighting side of the Schism and the incendiary side of Schism.

This evil organization has the habit of building submarines in the form of marine beasts. But the most interesting thing is to understand why this organization had this custom.

And to understand this you just have to understand why the Carmelita did not have torpedoes.

And the answer to that question is so cool ... I do not know if I was the first to realize it ... And if I went, I feel really proud of myself.

The answer is that there are no more firearms in the universe of ASOUE, or at least there are no more firearms in the region where the main story takes place.

But the firearms already existed, and were known. In the play "La Fuerza Del Destino" was portrayed a firearm. But at no time during the ASOUE events or during ATWQ, is a firearm portrayed, not even by villains. I'd rather believe that at some point VFD, by fighting against fire, managed to eliminate the technology of building firearms. So the villainous organization that built submarines of war, needed other mechanisms to destroy other submarines and ships, and even airplanes. Olaf explained how the Carmelita worked in this respect:

"This submarine is one of the greatest things I've ever stolen," he bragged. "It has everything I'll need to defeat V.F.D. once and for all. It has a sonar system, so I can rid the seas of V.F.D. submarines. It has an enormous flyswatter, so I can rid the skies of V.F.D. planes. It has a lifetime supply of matches, so I can rid the world of V.F.D. headquarters. It has several cases of wine that I plan to drink up myself, and a closet full of very stylish outfits for my girlfriend. And best of all, it has plenty of opportunities for children to do hard labor!” – TGG chapter 9.

The way the Carmelita attacked the Queequeg, using the tentacles, shows that the submarine was octopus shaped for functional reasons: in addition to allowing navigation, the tantacles were designed to be used as weapons.

But note the detail: Olaf had to steal the Carmelita. Did he steal from VFD? I think not. One reason is this excerpt from Chapter 9:

. "I'm going to lock all of you in the brig, which is the official seafaring term for Jail." "We know what the brig is," Klaus said. "Then you know it's not a very pleasant place," the villain said. "The previous owner used it to hold traitors captive, and I see no reason to break with tradition."

The idea I have about this dialogue is that the owner already owned a place intended for traitors ... As if that was already part of the submarine's design. It is unlikely that you will create a submarine already thinking there will be several uprisings in the crew, and already create a place to arrest those who revolt if the organization that you are part of is formed by volunteers. However, if your crew is made up of slave laborers, this is more likely. If you stop to think about the means of Carmelita propulsion, you will realize that it was designed to be moved to human labor. In fact, the whole scenario of children being rowing to move the submarine, is very reminiscent of a type of real vessel, called Galley. The wiki explains:

 "A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by rowing. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft and low freeboard (clearance between sea and railing). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used in favorable winds, but human strength was always the primary method of propulsion. Galleys were the warships used by the early Mediterranean naval powers, including the Greeks, Phoenicians and Romans.... It was only in the early 16th century that the modern idea of the galley slave became commonplace. Galley fleets as well as the size of individual vessels increase in size, which required more rowers. ... All major Mediterranean powers sentenced criminals to galley service, but initially only in time of war."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galley

 If you've already watched Ben Hur you must remember his scene in a Galley. Well then, the Carmelita was built like a Galley. VFD would not do that. Queequeg's propulsion does not require a large crew, only one captain and two crew members. Did the Carmelita come from the incendiary side of Schism? No. Olaf would not need to steal the Carmelita from the incendiary side. The Netiflix Series left those details aside. They showed that the Carmelita came from members of the incendiary side of Schism, but for this they needed to change the original story. In the books, the Carmelita was stolen by Olaf. He can only have stolen from another organization.

And then things get more interesting.

We come to realize that there is a relationship of cause and effect: Why was an entity in the form of a gigantic question mark chasing after the Carmelita? And why was Olaf so afraid of this entity? And why was Windershins so afraid? The answer is as follows: Olaf stole the Carmelita from a maligian organization, which builds war submachines and uses slave laborers. This organization sent an even larger submarine than the Carmelita, to be able to capture the Carmelita back. This even larger submarine had been built in the shape of a legendary monster: Bombinating Beast.

This explains this passage from Chapter 4 of TGG:

"What was that third shape?" Violet asked. The captain shook his head again. "Something very bad," he said. "Even worse than Olaf, probably. I told you Baudelaires that there is evil you can not even imagine."

 The organization that controlled that submarine was a common enemy of Olaf and VFD.

 And now is the time for me to refer to another movie. The Bugs Life, 1998. (In the Bugs Life, you should remember that the ants have built a mechanical device to simulate a bird. The mechanical passer should cut down the locusts. This bird had used several ant-children as a means of propulsion and control. In a way, this is very reminiscent of the Carmelite. But in The Bugs Life, the real bird arrives and kills the villain at the end. It was something that would happen at the hotel.

I still believe that within the sugar bowl there is a whistle capable of controlling the true beast. I still believe that Beatrice summoned the real beast shortly after picking up the sugar bowl, and who came to control it.

This explains why Windershins first feared the entity in the form of interrogation. He said it was probably worse than Olaf. The word "probably" indicates that he had doubts, whether it was the real beast, or whether it was the evil organization's submarine. If it was the submarine, it would really be worse than Olaf. But the beast was just an animal. Although it was mortal, the animal was not worse than Olaf. After the destruction of the Queequeg, Windershins bet that the question mark was the animal being controlled, and therefore went to meet the animal. And one of Quaqumire said the name "Violet", showing that they were right: Someone like Violet was in the beast's mouth. But if it was the submarine, they would be dead. The certainty of Windershins came from the fact that he had already been taken by the woman who owned the sugar bowl. She invoked the Great Unknown. And by the way, Lemony called this animal that way, because it came across him in his teens. The sailors had seen from time to time the gigantic question mark, because it was actually a submarine created to resemble a legendary monster. Hector went to investigate one of these submarine appearances in the ocean using his balloon. Ah, another interesting detail: by creating submarines in the form of animals, the evil organization made sailors not even suspect the existence of submarines. They thought they were giant animals.

But the right question is: has the animal known as Bombinating Beast been around for a long time, or was it a hangfire creation? Because the statuette that imitates the sound of the Bombinating Beast has been around for a long time, we can conclude that it had existed for a long time. However, Hangfire picked up a rare animal that already existed, and made experiments so that it would get much bigger and much more frightening. The original animal was supposed to be the size of a manatee, so many of Moxie's ancestors did not believe that their ancestor had actually captured a monster, just a manatee. In the same way that legends of giant octopuses arose, there were legends of the giant Bombinating Beast. These legends inspired the evil organization to create its submarines, and inspired Hangfire to come up with a scientific method to increase the size and ferocity of the true Bombinating Beast.

So that's all.

[nicolasnelson]

Sizzie fic - Perchance to Dream [oneshot]

Title: Perchance to Dream Relationship: Lizzie Saltzman/Sebastian Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Sebastian’s POV Words: 2,388

Summary: Sebastian has a dream about Cassandra which scares him. Thankfully Lizzie is there to comfort him, but he wonders how long she will stay by his side.

Requested by @fandommatchmaker19​ // Prompt: Would love a Sizzie one-shot in which Lizzie comforts Sebastian about something.

[AO3 LINK]

Sebastian could see her face in vivid detail, every inch of her as fine as an artist’s masterpiece. Her loving gaze and playful smile invited him in, and she whispered a promise to him.

“I will protect you always.” She kissed his palm and brushed her hair aside, allowing him access to her stunning neck.

“I cannot,” he said, though the temptation burned in his chest. Cassandra always did this to him, teased him with what he could not have.

She scooted closer to him on the bed, wrapping a leg around his torso and pushing her body against his. She slipped the sleeve of her silk gown off her shoulder so her breast pressed against his skin. Soft and warm and oh so tempting.

Sebastian nuzzled his cheek against her neck. His body was taut as he fought to maintain his control. If he broke for even a moment, desire might take over.

“Please, Sebastian,” she pleaded. “Blood will increase your lust. I want to feel all of you, to experience you the way only your victims have.”

“You may not survive it,” Sebastian said, his voice soft and strained. He sounded a little scared, even to his own ears, and maybe he was. It was hard to stop feeding once he started. The only times he managed it were when his victims were less than desirable.

She ran her fingers through his hair and pulled his head closer against her neck. “I trust you.”

Sebastian chuckled against her skin. That was a mistake. No one should trust him when he could not even trust himself. The warm, sweet scent of blood tickled his nostrils, and he looked down to see Cassandra had drawn a knife under her collarbone. Red pooled from the cut in rivulets, trickling down onto her exposed breast.

His mouth watered, and he licked his lips. He could feel that his self control was already gone.

Sebastian awoke. He sat up in bed and saw the woman beside him, the long blond hair. He sighed in relief. He hadn’t killed her after all.

“Cassandra, dear,” he whispered and turned her onto her back. Dead eyes stared up, not quite meeting his, and he scrambled backwards off the bed. He hit the floor with a thunk.

And then he opened his eyes and found himself in a different bedroom. He was in bed, a blond woman beside him. It was all so familiar, like he was reliving the same nightmare. He didn’t dare check to see if she was alive.

The room was suffocating him, the floor wobbling beneath his feet. He stumbled to the door and tried the knob, but it wouldn’t turn. Oh, God. He was locked inside.

He slid his back down the cool wood and crumpled up, arms wrapped around his legs. His whole body was shaking, and he felt the tears trickling down his cheeks. Like the blood trickling down Cassandra’s chest. Oh, God. He still remembered the taste on his lips, sweet like strawberries.

“Sebastian, are you okay?”

He jumped, looking up to the blond woman. As his eyes focused on her, a name popped into his head. “Elizabeth.”

He sighed with relief. At least he hadn’t killed her. He hadn’t killed Cassandra either. He knew that now. It was just a dream, a memory, but knowing that didn’t calm him down. He was still on edge, like balancing on a tightrope above a pit of blood.

Elizabeth Saltzman sat down next to him and put a hand on his knee. “What happened?”

“It’s nothing you need to worry about. You should go back to sleep.” He gave her a small smile.

Elizabeth laughed. “That was the saddest smile I’ve ever seen. Come on, Sebastian. You can’t keep this inside. I know what that’s like. It’ll just burn you from the inside out.”

“Like your episodes?”

“Exactly. You’ve seen how bad those can be. I don’t want you to go through that too.” She grabbed his hand, which was still shaking, and squeezed his fingers.

There was something soothing about being with Elizabeth. She understood him better than most, and she had the patience to learn more. It hadn’t always been that way. He could remember a time when she hated him, but now they were at a comfortable place. Not lovers, but certainly more than friends. Partners in copulation and the occasional crime.

“It was a dream,” Sebastian said. It felt wrong to say it aloud, like he was lying, because it was so much more than that. “Not a dream. A memory. There was a time I nearly killed Cassandra. I managed to stop myself, but it has always haunted me.”

“The past tends to do that,” Elizabeth said, sighing. “And you have more of it than most.”

Sebastian laughed, but it was soft and self-pitying. “I wish memories were not so long lasting. You would think I would forget after all these years, but I can never forget. Even when I am not actively thinking of them, they influence my actions.”

Elizabeth pulled out her cellular device. “I’ve got a playlist I like to listen to when I think I’m about to have a meltdown. It doesn’t always work, but sometimes it helps to get my mind off what’s bothering me.” She hit a button and music sprung forth from the device. She set it on the floor in front of them and leaned her head on Sebastian’s shoulder.

Sebastian squeezed her hand, grateful to have her by his side. The music was indeed soothing. He focused on the words and seeing how he could relate to them. The refrain particularly resonated with him.

I don't know if I can stay strong. Hold on, for too long. I've been lost. I need you here to calm me down. I need you here to calm me.

“Thank you, Elizabeth.”

“You’re welcome.”

They stayed like that through several more songs until Sebastian really did feel calm again. He’d never been able to calm himself down with music before. These fits of anxiety had plagued him for many, many years. They always made him feel like he was dying as a memory replayed in a loop in his head.

But Elizabeth had helped get him out of that loop. He had to do more than thank her with words. He had to show this beautiful creature how much she meant to him. How grateful he was that she had treated him like a person and not a child or someone crazy. She hadn’t seen his anxiety as a weakness at all.

And he’d never seen her struggles with her mental health as a weakness. So why all the self pity? He was strong and capable too. He was allowed to break down sometimes. His life was complicated and difficult. It was a wonder he hadn’t had a big meltdown after waking up in another century.

Everything was still so new, and he was still adjusting. Some things were amazing improvements that made life more convenient, like these devices that played music and relayed messages to other people. Some things were more annoying, like the doors that would open suddenly when you walked near them. Others were downright mind boggling, like the game of matching candy that people played on those devices for hours on end, wasting their lives away, chasing the satisfaction of reaching each new level.

It was a whole new world, and he wanted to make the most of it.

“Can we go for a ride in your vessel?” Sebastian asked.

“Right now?”

Sebastian chuckled. “Why, yes, my dear, it is my time of night after all.”

“We’d have to sneak out,” Elizabeth said, though there was a smile on her face and a glint of mischief in her eyes.

“Add it to our list of crimes, Bonnie.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, laughing. “I should never have shown you that movie. You relate far too much to Clyde.”

“Only for his dedication to Bonnie,” Sebastian said, drinking her in. Elizabeth really was the most wonderful creature he’d ever met.

...

They snuck out through the kitchens in the dorms. Pedro was in there having a snack, but he promised Elizabeth he wouldn’t tell anyone. Sebastian wasn’t sure whether they could trust the small child, but he didn’t really care if they got into trouble. He was used to it by now.

Elizabeth put the top down on the car and drove them through the town and onto the interstate. Sebastian enjoyed the cool air against his face. It reminded him of horse riding, but it was so much smoother and faster, much more exhilarating. He looked over at Elizabeth to see her blond hair whipping all around her like a tumbleweed.

“Oh, hush. Your hair doesn’t look any better,” Elizabeth said when she caught his amused smile in the mirror.

He glanced at himself. The wind was slicking his hair back, much like the 1931 version of Dracula. “This is very old wine. I hope you will like it,” he said, smirking.

Elizabeth barked out a laugh at the reference. “Aren't you drinking?”

“I never drink”—Sebastian paused dramatically—“wine.”

Elizabeth jerked the car to the right and took the exit. She drove into a small patch of woods and parked the car. “Should we put the top back up?”

“Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, God. I love it when you quote Gone with the Wind.” Elizabeth grabbed his neck and pulled him into a hungry kiss.

Her breath still smelled of peppermint toothpaste, and Sebastian found it downright intoxicating. He helped maneuver Elizabeth over the center console so she could straddle his lap. It felt nice to look up at her, like she was some goddess smiling down at him, bestowing kisses upon him like gifts no mortal man deserved.

Sebastian had to remind himself he was no mortal man. He’d made his share of mistakes, but this beauty believed he was worthy of her affection. He had confidence that he looked the part, but he never believed he had the personality to match. All his charm was heavily practiced, as he’d spent years studying (and flirting with) the masters. Kings and prostitutes and everything in between.

Elizabeth pushed her hair behind her shoulder, exposing her neck to him. “Do that thing I like.”

Sebastian was hesitant for a moment as the old fear gripped him, but he obliged, pressing his lips against Elizabeth’s smooth skin. He ran his tongue along the back of her ear, playing in the corner just behind her earlobe. Elizabeth melted in his arms, goose pimples prickling all along her skin as she shivered in delight.

He was still surprised she trusted him to do this. Was she even a little afraid he might be tempted to bite her instead? Or was she like Cassandra, naively trusting he’d be able to stop once he started?

Witches couldn’t know the allure of blood, how it wasn’t like a delicious cake they could eat bit by bit over time. Blood was like wine to an alcoholic, drugs to an addict, that stupid candy game to mindless teenagers. You didn’t have to be a ripper to become consumed by that hunger.

Elizabeth nuzzled her nose against his, pulling him from his thoughts, and he couldn’t help but think instead about how adorable she was. And how unfairly lucky he was to have her in his arms. He wasn’t good enough for her, and she knew it, but she wanted him anyways.

Their lips met again, tongues dancing to the familiar choreography, and he ran his fingers through her hair, marveling at its softness. He imagined transporting her to his time. Not his drab life on the colony, where he was devoted to Cassandra, but the time before he became a vampire. His life in Europe, the elaborate parties he had attended. Elizabeth would look wonderful in one of those ball gowns, with her hair pinned up, that lovely neck on full display. Dainty gloves on her dangerous hands. Pink slippers on her beautiful feet.

Oh how she would have turned heads. He would never have gotten the chance to dance with her then, only to admire from afar.

“I am pleased with how my life has turned out,” Sebastian admitted, a little surprised that he’d uttered the thought aloud.

Elizabeth sat back a little to study his face. “Because of me?”

Sebastian let out a chuckle. “Well, yes, you’re a big part of it. But there’s more to it. If I hadn’t been desiccated in that box, the colonists would have killed me. I never would have gotten the chance to see the twenty-first century, to attend a school of witches, werewolves, vampires, and other things I had never heard of, like tribrids and phoenixes.”

“Well, they are one of a kind,” she said.

Sebastian smiled. “As are you, Elizabeth. I am at an odd place in my life right now. While I am grateful to have the chance to live in this world and interact with you, I fear that all of this will not last. No one in that school trusts me, even after everything I do to help all of you. It feels like I may never earn my place. I am merely being used for my muscles and my vampiric abilities.”

“That is not how I think of you,” Elizabeth assured him.

“Do you think the others will ever change their minds? Or will they continue despising me forever?”

Elizabeth pressed her forehead to his. “Forever is a long time. I think they can warm up to you eventually. I’m doing everything in my power to persuade them.”

Sebastian felt that bubbly happiness in his chest. The kind that made him nervous. Elizabeth was doing so much for him, and all he was doing was helping her when she asked, offering his body to her when she asked.

Maybe it was time he did a favor for her without asking. A gift perhaps, or a special day just for her. An idea was already forming in his mind.

“Elizabeth, how would you feel if I took you on a proper date?”

She blinked in surprise, then smiled sweetly. “I would like that very much.”

[tlatollotl]

DURING THE CLASSICAL PERIOD OF the Maya, from approximately 250 to 900 A.D., chocolate was a cornerstone of daily life. It was currency, a ritual ingredient, and a pleasurable drink. But until recently, the details of Maya life were fairly opaque, largely due to the destruction wrought by the conquering Spanish. In the 1980s, after intense effort by Mayanist scholars, there was breakthrough after breakthrough in deciphering Maya glyphs, the written symbols that survived in codices, stone carvings, and pottery. One milestone was the examination of a remarkable ancient vessel, which was found, by an unlikely party, to contain chocolate.

In 1984, archeologists discovered a pristine Maya tomb in the Río Azul region of Guatemala. Among the royal offerings, they found an exquisite pot. Topped with a twist-top and a handle painted like jaguar skin, it contained an intriguing residue. One member of the excavation told the New York Times that had it been “sold in New York, [it] would bring enough to finance a year’s worth of excavations.” Several Maya glyphs adorned the sides and lid.

It was two of these glyphs that stuck out to Mayanist David Stuart.

Even though he was only a teenager, Stuart was already an old hand. He began studying Maya writing as a young child, and received the MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the “genius grant’) at the age of 18. Now professor of Mesoamerican Art and Writing at the University of Texas at Austin, he recalls it as an exciting time in the field. “Everything was kind of breaking open in those years in terms of deciphering,” he says.

But he has a soft spot for the Río Azul vessel. “I was actually the person they brought on to read all of the hieroglyphs that they found in their excavations, which was a pretty cool job to have,” Stuart says. While Stuart only saw photographs of the pot, he was nevertheless struck by it. “Wow, that is one bizarre vessel,” he remembers thinking. Not only did it have an unusual shape, but the glyphs adorning it were remarkably well preserved. “And then it was like, ‘Wait a minute, two of them spell out the word kakaw.’”

The “fish” glyph that represents chocolate, drawn by David Stuart. COURTESY OF DAVID STUART

Cacao: that is, chocolate. “It’s one of the few words we use that’s actually Mayan,” Stuart says. The Maya glyph for cacao, as it appears on the Río Azul vessel, looks like a fish. But “it turns out the fish is a phonetic sign,” Stuart says. He recognized that the glyph combining a fish (ka), a comb or fin (ka), and the sign for -w(a) was, of course, kakaw. While Mayanist Floyd Lounsbury was the first to phonetically decipher a cacao glyph a decade prior, deciphering the cacao glyph on a Maya vase was a breakthrough.

Mayanists had long debated the meaning of glyphs upon ceramic vessels from the Classical Maya period. Some believed they had little meaning, while others considered them mostly “prayers, or you know, orations to dead ancestors,” says Stuart. “I was like, ‘Wait a minute, if they’re talking about chocolate, it’s probably not a prayer to the dead.’” Having noticed the same glyph on other vessels, Stuart thought they could be chocolate pots.

The archeologists and anthropologists working on the Río Azul project mused over whom to send the residue to for analysis. “Okay, well, who knows the chemistry of chocolate really well?” Stuart says with a chuckle. So, they called the number on the back of a Hershey’s bar and got in touch with W. Jeffrey Hurst, an analytical chemist at the Hershey Food Corporation Technical Center. The chocolate company had labs full of PhDs, where Hurst and chemist colleague Stanley M. Tarka tested the residue.

Of these glyphs on the vessel, drawn by Stuart, the top two on the right read cacao. COURTESY OF DAVID STUART

Sure enough, says Stuart, “they ran the chemical signatures, and they were spot on.” Hershey chemists found caffeine and theobromine in the residue. “The only plant or organic material in all of ancient America that can produce those two chemical signatures together are cacao.”

The vessel wasn’t adorned with prayers at all. Instead, it and similar containers were emblazoned with the name of who it belonged to, and its usage. “We realized they’re not writing esoteric stuff. They’re writing down something like ‘This is his cup for chocolate,’” Stuart says. Kings and other elite members of society “were trading them around. They were kind of like souvenir mugs.” The glyphs also reveal that the vessel belonged to K’inich Lakamtuun, an early ruler of Río Azul who likely lived around 400 A.D. Other glyphs refer to two different varieties of chocolate, which perhaps are “long-lost place names that gave particular growing-spots, like our wine varieties,” Stuart notes in an email.

At the time, cacao residue from Río Azul was the earliest discovered chocolate. But that didn’t last long. After Stuart and others published papers on the vessel and its residue, other people started testing ceramics as well. It turned out that cacao was the most common glyph upon Maya ceramics. The Río Azul vessel “jumpstarted a lot of research in the decipherment of what’s written on pots,” Stuart says. Later, Stuart would write that much of the progress in the 1980s and early ‘90s was due to the study of “repetitious and highly formulaic pottery texts.”

While many historians and linguists once doubted that Maya glyphs had much to say, scholars can now read over 90 percent of them, and they have provided historical, political, and anthropological insights. Today, the Río Azul vessel resides in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología y Etnología in Guatemala, having played its own small but sweet role.

[frangipanilove]

The “Mary Magdalene Theory” Part Seven:

Coolers, The North Star, Bears and Beer

My “Mary Magdalene theory”is turning into quite the monster, I hereby present to you part seven (they are picture heavy posts, don’t worry)! This is going to be a direct continuation of the first six posts, so I’m afraid much of this is going to sound utterly ridiculous if you haven’t read parts one to six. But to quickly summarize it I attempt to explain how I believe that The White Trash Brunch from “Alone” is the TWD version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting “The Last Supper”. The painting depicts Jesus’ last meal with the Apostles the night before sacrificing himself, and to commemorate this last meal Christians perform a ritual (The Holy Communion) by eating small piece of bread, (representing “The Body of Christ”), as well as drinking a small amount of wine (representing “The Blood Of Christ”). Last time I explained how there are certain symbols that keep appearing in the show, and long story short, feet and horses represent “The Body Of Christ” which in turn represents Beth.

In this meta I will try to explain the “Blood Of Christ” part, and the way this affects Beth’s story. In the picture below you’ll find the Frosty Cola and the pigs feet in in center. The Frosty Cola from the White Trash Brunch represents the Blood of Christ, and the show utilizes this symbolism in a multitude of ways. As in parts one to six, most of what I discuss here are symbols and connections that has been subjected to intense analysis within the TD community for years. I do however believe that I can offer some new perspectives.

Let me begin by referring to a deleted scene from 4x12 “Still”, in which Beth and Daryl are walking through the woods, searching for the alcohol she suddenly decided that she needed. Beth explains how she, due to her fathers alcoholism, never drank before, she couldn’t even hold one of those red party cups, she always just had a can of soda instead. It’s a short scene, but in it she manages to mention no less than THREE of the symbols that we’ve known to be so heavy attached to her character. By having her mentioning them, the writers effectively establish a connection between her and the symbols beer, red party cups, and soda cans. I think alcohol in general, but beer specifically, represents Beth. Of course I’m not the first to notice a connection between Beth and beer/alcohol, but I will later explain exactly why I think beer/alcohol is such a potent Beth symbol, and it’s not quite the same that’s been discussed before. But I’ll get back to it.

We first see the red party cups in 4x2 “Infected”, in a scene where Beth bandages Michonne’s ankle (remember how feet represents “The Body of Christ”, as I explained in my last meta), while Judith sits on the floor, playing with red party cups. The cups are purely symbolic, and most importantly, they are red. Red means resurrection, as I explained in part one of this series of posts.

Then 4x4 “Indifference” happens, and it’s an episode so loaded with symbolism I could easily write tens of thousands of words on that episode alone (don’t worry, I won’t). But let’s hone in on the Suicide Gang in the service station that Bob and Daryl search through looking for distilled water for the batteries. Daryl calls them “douchebags”, committing suicide kumbaya style when they could have gotten out instead.

The important part here is not the fact that they committed suicide, it’s HOW they committed suicide. They drank antifreeze from red party cups! The red color symbolizes resurrection through the Mary Magdalene Easter egg symbolism that I discussed in part one. The red objects in the show represents resurrection. Sure, they committed suicide by drinking antifreeze, and yes! Suicide means death, there isn’t really any way around that.

Except there is.

They drank the antifreeze out of red party cups. Red items represents resurrection (due to the red Easter egg symbolism). The resurrection symbolism of the red objects cancel out the death symbolism of the consumption of antifreeze. Antifreeze without the “anti” ? It’s just freeze. A reference to the Frosty Cola from “Alone”. The Blood Of Christ from the symbolic Last Supper/White Trash Brunch!

The antifreeze is a coolant, and cold/cool/icy/frosty is a recurring theme that I’ve been paying attention to for quite some time. The first time it really stood out to me was in 5x10 “Them”. Again, an episode where Beth’s presence is heavily felt all the time. When they enter the barn, they find a walker in a room, and among random clutter on the floor are two blue coolers. In and of itself not highly suspicious, however when the exact same blue coolers appear in the sanctuary in 7x3 “The Cell”, I knew there was a cooler theme going on. On top of the kitchen cabinets in the room that Negan tries to tempt/torture Daryl into accepting, we find two blue coolers, identical to the ones from 5x10 “Them”.

So how are the coolers tied to Beth, and why are they relevant to TD? See, the White Trash Brunch is a parallel to the Last Supper, but not the last supper from the Bible! The last supper from the Da Vinci Code, which is a different thing, and represents something else entirely. The plot of the Da Vinci Code is that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married, they eventually had a child, and that child carried on the blood line through history and into present day. And the Holy Grail, rather than being a chalice, a drinking vessel, is Mary Magdalene herself, whose remains rests in a secret tomb below the inverted pyramid at the Louvre. I’ve explained the significance of the greenhouses/glasshouses in TWD in earlier posts. They parallel the secret tomb below the inverted glass pyramid at the Louvre, but I won’t go into that here.

The important part is that during the White Trash Brunch/The Last Supper, they drank “Frosty Cola”. Taste that name, it’s virtually antifreeze without the “anti”. When TPTB decided to name that soft drink “Frosty Cola”, they also signaled that everything that is associated with cold, frosty, freezing, cool, coolant, ice and so forth, points back to the White Trash Brunch/Last Supper. Antifreeze, coolers, fridges (remember Jessie’s fridge with the drawing of a blond girl and a car?)...And what’s the ultimate frosty freezing thing imaginable?

North!

The North Star, that always, without exception, points north (let’s not be too rigid and start discussing the difference between The True North and the magnetic North Pole, that’s for a different time). Remember how Beth stared at the polar bear blanket in 5x9 ”WHAWGO”. Also, remember how Beth in the deleted scene from “Still” explained how she always ended up with a can of soda instead of holding those red party cups. And remember how Carl explained to Judith that the North Star was the star to identify if you’re ever lost. And finally, remember how the North Star is at the end of the Little Dipper, and that Beth represents the Little Dipper through the spoon symbolism from “Still”.

@twdmusicboxmystery has made a wonderful edit to illustrate this point:

http://twdmusicboxmystery.tumblr.com/post/143078069994/little-dipper-td-bethgreene-bethgreenelives

So, take in this polar bear from Tyreese’s death hallucination for a second. Notice how it has a red scarf tied around it’s neck:

At this point, we need to discuss bears and bear symbolism. Let me explain! There has been a lot of bear references on the show, and they have a tendency to show up alongside other important Beth symbols. Check out @twdmusicboxmystery’s master post on bear symbolism:

http://twdmusicboxmystery.tumblr.com/post/171698126634/bear-symbolism-master-post

The reason for that is that in my opinion, bears are used as symbols of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, or the Greater Bear and the Lesser Bear. The first really significant Beth/bear connection was of course when she picked up the spoon in “Still”, the spoon representing the Little Dipper. The spoon scene, in combination with the scene where Carl talked to Judith about finding the North Star and how it’s located at the end of the Little Dipper, lay the foundation of the rest of the bear references on the show. Because even though Carl was technically right in his description of the North Star being located at the end of the Little Dipper, that’s not actually how you locate the North Star. I believe they wrote the scene like that solely to bring attention to the Little Dipper, and by doing so, connecting it to Beth’s spoon from “Still”.

That brings us to one of my absolute favorite things on the show; the Alaska license plate from 5x16 “Conquer”, that made Aaron the license plate collector so exited. At the time it seemed kind of random, but if you look closely at the license plate, you’ll discover that it has on it an illustration of the Big Dipper, as well as the North Star/Polaris. This is because the Alaska state flag includes this image, and I believe this is the reason why TPTB decided to include this particular license plate in the show. It functions as a way to illustrate how you really go about locating the North Star/Polaris. While the stars in the Little Dipper are faint and difficult to identify on the night sky, the stars of the Big Dipper are among the brightest stars on the night sky, making the Big Dipper one of the easiest constellations to identify. If you want to find the North Star, you first find the Big Dipper. Then you draw an imaginary line from the two stars at the edge of the ladle of the Dipper, and you’ll eventually find the North Star. The Alaska license plate illustrates exactly this, and that is the reason it was included in the episode.

And the reason that is so incredibly important for Beth’s story, is because locating the North Star is the first step of finding you way home when you’re lost. It’s canon, Carl said so! He told it to Judith, but Judith’s not going anywhere for a good while, that conversation was all about Beth.

Also, I can’t resist to mention Daryl’s choice of weapon in his fight with Justin in 9x2. A skillet!

It looks suspiciously like a super-big dipper to me. They could have given any weapon in the world, but they went for something that looks exactly like the Big Dipper.

The next time we encounter any significant North Star symbolism is in 7x2 “The Well”. The writing is literally on the wall in the Kingdom. We see Morgan pushing Carol in a wheelchair past some writings on the wall that reads “Hope is the North Star, let it guide you”. In part six I discussed how wheelchairs represent cars/tombs. Carol in the wheelchair parallels Beth in the car/tomb, but the North Star symbolism on the wall suggests that she made it out of the car/tomb, and will follow the North Star to find her way home. TPTB is blatantly encouraging us to let the North be our guide, and at the same time also emphasizing that the North Star represents hope. Hope is of course something we strongly associate with Beth, due to her “if you don’t have hope, then what’s the point of living” speech in 4x10 “Inmates”. Carol in the wheelchair symbolizes the tomb of Christ.

So! The North Star is located at the end of the Little Dipper, but to find it it will be far more useful to locate the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper consists of the seven brightest stars part of the constellation Ursa Major, which means Greater Bear. It goes under many different names. For those of you in the USA the name The Big Dipper will be most familiar, but in many countries in Europe it’s called “The Plough”. In Scandinavia it’s called “Karlsvogna” (referring to both “Carl’s wagon and “The Man wagon” Interestingly, in 9x1 “A New Beginning”, a plough and a wagon was given a considerable amount of screen time. For those who has read my previous metas on glasshouses with holes through the roof, you might recognize a familiar theme when Ezekiel went through the glass floor (which of course was the ceiling of the floor below, so it lines up perfectly with the glasshouse with holes through the roof theory). As he went through the glass he shouted “Save the plough!”, drawing even more attention to it, really emphasizing how important it was to save it. Now, consider the emphasis on the plough in relation to the fact that the Big Dipper (how you find the North Star) in many countries goes under the name the Plough. Consider how Ezekiel went through a glass floor while carrying the plough. How he shouted “Save it!” You might also have noticed that the wall in the downstairs area he fell into was covered in stars, confirming that there is indeed a star theme present. And ultimately, you might have noticed how a member of (the extended) TF had a close encounter with death but was saved at the last minute, much like we believe Beth was lost in a walker-related incident.

Later, when they were on their way home, they ran into unexpected difficultiesbecause a bridge had collapsed. I recommend reading up on the”Bridge” theme, here’s @twdmusicboxmystery’s master post on bridges:

http://twdmusicboxmystery.tumblr.com/post/175470337254/bridge-theory-master-post

They then encountered a horde, and lost one of their own, not by the walker bite, but rather from the kick from the horse that likely caused internal bleeding. If you’ve read part six of my Mary Magdalene theory you’ll remember how both feet and horses represent “The Body Of Christ”. Shoes are also a part of the “feet/foot” symbolism, and TPTB gave Ken a horseshoe mark on the chest and made sure it was in focus for several seconds, suggesting it has some symbolic meaning. I believe that the horseshoe mark on Ken was put there to remind us of that “The Body Of Christ” symbolism is still in play. This was further confirmed in that all of this took place next to a wagon and a plough.

And what do you know! The plough, (that represents the Big Dipper) got left behind!

I repeat; the plough, which is a different name for the Big Dipper, fell out of the wagon and got left behind! The plough represents the Big Dipper, which is how you identify the North Star. The wagon also actually represents the Big Dipper, as “Karlsvogna/Carl’s wagon” is also a different name for the Big Dipper. And a wagon is naturally symbolic of car/tomb. And I repeat, because this is important, the plough fell out of the wagon and got left behind!!!

(Judging by Maggie and Michonne’s dialogue in 9x2 they later retrieved the plough, but initially it was left behind)

So to summarize; saving the plough was of utmost importance. Ezekiel almost died for it! “The Plough” is a different name for the Big Dipper, and the Big Dipper is important because that’s how you actually locate the North Star on the night sky. The sole purpose of the Alaska license plate from 5x16 was to show how you find the North Star. And the North Star represents finding your way home! Beth finding her way home! Just like Carl explained to Judith in 6x10, and also remember how the writing on the wall in the Kingdom in 7x2 “The Well” encourages us to follow the North Star, to let it guide us, and to keep hope alive!

And now that we’ve established the importance of following North Star, I’d like to remind everyone of Ana’s severed leg in 4x4. She very obviously had a compass tattoo on her leg, TPTB was very diligent in making sure nobody missed that. They zoomed in on her tattoo multiple times, and we were to be very aware of her compass tattoo. Compasses point north.

Then, let me also remind everyone on the foot symbolism from the White Trash Brunch, how the pigs feet on the table established foot/feet as a Beth symbol, representing “The Body Of Christ”. Ana’s leg from 4x4 represents “the Body Of Christ”.

Then, we need to remember how Daryl drew attention to both the pigs feet and the Frosty Cola. All things frosty, freezing, cold, cool, coolers, coolants, polar bears represents something cold, and what could be colder than the actual north? This point is further emphasized in 4x13 “Alone”, when Sasha carries around a broken compass. Obviously this particular compass doesn’t point north because it’s broken, but Sasha stares at it, the camera focuses on it, and the next thing that happens is that we see Maggie “waking up” right next to an ice cream truck. It’s such a random sequence, it makes you think “how do they come up with this stuff”, but really, if you consider the symbolism of it all, it makes quite a lot of sense. They draw attention to the compass, it’s broken. It doesn’t point north. But then we immediately see an ice cream truck (ice cream? Cold. Represents north), and whatever the broken compass was missing in cold/north symbolism, the ice cream truck has plenty of it. And Maggie, who inexplicably decided it was a good idea to lay down to rest on the ground among the dead walkers, suddenly “comes to life”! She wakes up from the dead! North = coming back to life, find your way home after having been lost.

Now, consider again the compass on Ana’s leg. Compasses point north, always, without exception, much like the North Star always points north, always, without exception. The Frosty Cola from the White Trash Brunch represents “The Blood Of Christ”, which in turn makes Ana’s leg a combination of two major Beth symbols: the Body Of Christ and the Blood Of Christ. Feet symbolism and North symbolism in one.

And here’s the amazing part: there has actually been another incident on the show where TPTB utilizes the exact same symbolism!

Remember Boots? The mysterious figure that followed Rick and Aaron back to ASZ after their struggles to get to the food on the house boat on the walker-infested lake? Before I say anything else I want to really stress the fact that Boots followed the guys home! Boot = foot/feet symbolism, which means the Body Of Christ, which in turn represents Beth. We now know that Boots in reality was Tamiel, Jadis’ right hand, but for a while we only knew that character as “Boots”.

“Boots” had red and green wires wrapped around her ankle, and that is no accident. It is a direct callback to 4x4 “Indifference”, where Daryl explains to Bob how you start up a car. “Just use the red and green wires, it’s not rocket science”. Remember car represents the tomb of Christ as I explained in part six.

And of course, the image of “Boots” with the red and green wires around the leg is a perfect parallel to Ana’s leg with the compass tattoo. Because here’s the big thing: when TPTB chose to put such heavy emphasis on the compass, you could say that they in reality were focusing on the compass rose.

That means we can officially introduce rose symbolism into this mess, because behold! On Tamiel’s boot, what do we find, if not a compass rose!!! I believe that the Star thing on Tamiel’s boot is a compass rose! And Tamiel’s boot with the compass rose perfectly parallels Ana’s leg with the compass tattoo, and now I’d like to remind everyone that compasses point North, and following the North Star is how you find your way home, and the wonderful thing is that the compass rose on Tamiel’s boot followed Rick and Aaron home to ASZ!

And we know that’s not a coincidence, because later when Tamiel kidnapped Father Gabriel we got a shot of the back of the car driving away that was an exact parallel to when Beth were kidnapped by the Grady cops.

The compass rose on Tamiel’s boot is interesting, because we’ve actually seen it before. In 6x14 “Twice As Far”, we see a 16-pointed star on the wall in Edison’s Apothecary, where Denise, Daryl and Rosita are searching for antibiotics.

First of all, they were searching for antibiotics, it’s an exact parallel to 4x4 “Indifference”. Then Denise finds a keychain that she holds on to, the camera focuses on it quite a bit, much like in 4x4 when Bob finds a key with a screwdriver keychain. The camera focuses on it, makes us notice it. Then, as they are on their way home, Denise spots a blue cooler in a car. We know by now that coolers represents North/North Star/finding your way home/the “Blood Of Christ”. We also know that cars represents “The Tomb of Christ”.

Denise struggles to get to the cooler, she has to fight for her life to get to it, but she eventually kills the walker in the car, and is awarded with the exact can of soda she was searching for. Remember how Beth in the deleted scene from “Still” mentioned soda cans in the same sentence as the red party cups that represents resurrection. Denise overcoming her struggles and killing the walker in the car (tomb) represents Beth actually getting out of the car/tomb post-Coda. The fact that Denise later dies doesn’t change that, because that happens after she’s won over the walker. She escaped. Then something happened later, but she got herself out of the car situation. She got to the cooler, and got the can of soda. She lived.

But let’s return to the rose/star decoration on the wall, let’s return to the star on Tamiel’s boot. Remember how I in part one described how Abraham found a box of cigars in 6x6 “Always Accountable”. Remember how Tamiel put out a cigar in 7x16, while crouching behind some cars, the camera focusing on the star/rose on her boot, the star that I believe represents a compass rose. It’s a Body Of Christ/ Blood Of Christ symbolism combination, the boot representing the Body Of Christ, the compass rose represents the Blood of Christ through the cooler/coolant/Frosty Cola/North Star symbolism. And then the weird guy with the red umbrella walks by, the red umbrella representing Mary Magdalene and resurrection. It’s the same umbrella the Heapsters utilize to prevent the gates from opening, in an anti parallel to Ana’s leg keeping the gates from closing in 4x4. When TPTB chose to have Ana’s leg keeping the gate open, I think that’s symbolic of rolling away the stone that kept the tomb closed. It’s TPTB’s way of facilitating a hypothetical resurrection.

Now seems like a great time to talk about roses and rose symbolism. Of course when speaking of roses on TWD, one has got to mention the Cherokee Rose. We all remember the beautiful scene with Daryl and Carol, Daryl’s touching monologue about the Cherokee Rose legend. Daryl said that the rose was there to provide hope and strength, hope of finding missing loved ones, hope of finding Sophia. I find the “hope” part interesting because of the writing on the wall in the Kingdom.

Also, there’s the incident where Daryl spots a Cherokee Rose in 6x6 “Always Accountable”. He initially tried to escape from Dwight and the girls, however after realizing that he’d run off with Tina’s insulin he decides to return. The insulin container comes with specific instructions to keep it cold, which makes it a part of the cold/cool/frosty/ice cream/North/North Star symbolism. I also believe that the insulin is a pretty solid “Blood Of Christ” reference, as insulin is injectied in order to regulate blood sugar. Tina, who was basically unconscious at that point, “woke up”.

I believe that the North Star symbolism and the rose symbolism is one and the same. Remember Ana’s leg, with the compass (rose) tattoo. The markings on a compass, a map, a nautical chart etc. that indicates the cardinal directions as well as their intermediate points is called a compass rose. A compass rose usually have 4, 8, 16 or 32 points.

Remember how I initially mentioned that the TWD follows a template of The Da Vinci Code, rather than the Bible? In TDVC, Robert Langdon follows the Rose Line through Paris in order to locate the secret tomb of Mary Magdalene? In a TWD parallel to that, Daryl sees the Cherokee Rose, then decides to follow the rose and return the insulin to Tina. She was unconscious, but thanks to Daryl following “The Rose Line”, she gets the insulin and subsequently wakes up. The symbolism in that is significant. It’s a combination of the rose symbolism and the cold/frosty/North Star symbolism leading to a “resurrection” of sorts.

This is also the same episode where Abraham finds the box of cigars named “Dona Maria”, which is decorated with pink roses. That’s significant both because of the Cherokee Rose/North Star symbolism, but also because Tamiel later will come to act out a callback to this scene by putting out the cigar while the camera focuses on her boot with the compass rose. And for anyone who thinks the symbolism of putting out a cigar sounds scary and ominous, remember that the weird guy with the red umbrella walked by seconds later. Red represents resurrection. Red umbrella represents Mary Magdalene, who in Eastern Orthodox iconography often were depicted holding red Easter egg, representing the resurrection of Christ! To have Tamiel put out the cigar (while the camera focuses on the compass rose on her boot), and then have the red umbrella appear seconds later sort of parallels the Suicide Gang scene from 4x4. Just as the act of suicide is canceled out by the red cups they were drinking out of, Tamiel’s act of “putting out the light” is canceled out by the red umbrella that represents resurrection. And the “Antifreeze” from 4x4 without the “Anti” represents freeze/frosty/ice cream/North Star, just like the compass rose on Tamiel’s boot represents north/North Star.

Finally, let me say a few words on alcohol in general, and beer in particular on TWD. Much has been said about how alcohol represents Beth. I agree with all the existing theories on that, and I’d like to offer my interpretation of alcohol as a symbol. I’ll later do a theory on the Sirius/Dog Star symbolism and how whenever they use the word “Serious” on this show, it is code for Sirius. I know it sounds absolutely ludicrous, but I’ve systematically gone through all the the episodes after 4x1 and out and checked. There is not one single instance of anyone using the word “serious” on TWD post season 4 that cannot be tied to some sort of Beth symbolism. I dare you to find an example, I promise you that it will be tied to Beth. I’ve checked. But I won’t get into that too much here, because it belongs in a different theory, and I’ll get back to it later. But one very bright anonymous reader of @twdmusicboxmystery suggested that just like the writers use “serious” as code for “Sirius”, perhaps they use “beer” for “bear”?

!!!!!!

And I thought THAT’S BRILLIANT WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?

And I went through every “bear” reference on the show (well, most of them), and it totally fits! As we know, “bear” represents the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, or in bear terms; Greater Bear and Lesser Bear. And the North Star, as we know, is at the end of the Little Dipper/Lesser Bear.

Thank you to that very clever anon!

http://twdmusicboxmystery.tumblr.com/post/177659080279/im-thinking-beer-maybe-was-a-hint-that-actually

The beautiful part is that this connection was flat out CONFIRMED in the season 4 finale of Fear. Spoiler alert, I’ll now totally reveal what happened in the Fear season finale, stop reading if you don’t want to know.

First of all, the entire back half revolves around a character we don’t see much of, but in return we hear about him constantly; Polar Bear! I swear I’m not making this up. So in regards to Beth, we remember how she stared at a polar bear blanket in 5x10 “WHAWGO”. We’ve established that all things cold/frosty/freezing/Polaris polar bear/North Star on the show represents Beth. So, here, on Fear, is a character whose name is Polar Bear. Ok.

In an incredible parallel to the Antifreeze Suicide Gang from 4x4 “Indifference”, the “Team Family” of Fear were poisoned by Martha, the villain, who had put antifreeze in their drinking water. The antidote to antifreeze is ethanol, or to put it plainly; alcohol.

Luckily there was a truck filled with alcohol just outside the service station(!), so it seemed like they’d make it. But then walkers attacked, shooting ensued and unfortunately the ethanol truck got perforated with bullets and the ethanol leaked out.

Well that was all very unfortunate, but just when they seemed to be doomed, Morgan showed up with Jimbo’s beer truck! And there you have it. Antifreeze is poison, but without the “anti” it’s just freeze! Frosty! Ice cream! Coolers! Polar bear! North! North Star! Antifreeze is death, but if you take away the “anti” you get “freeze” which is life. It’s both stupid and wonderful all at once!

Get it? They drank beer, in Polar Bear’s service station. It saved their lives!!!

And we see that the ethanol theme continues in s9 of TWD. Apparently it is the Sancuary’s responsibility to provide ethanol fuel for the wehicles in all the communities, and it will be very interesting to follow that theme going forward.

[imjustthemechanic]

Natalie Jones and the Golden Ship

Part 1/? - A Meeting at the Palace Part 2/? - Curry Talk Part 3/? - Princess Sitamun Part 4/? - Not At Rest Part 5/? - Dead Men Tell no Tales Part 6/? - Sitamun Rises Again Part 7/? - The Curse of Madame Desrosiers Part 8/? - Sabotage at Guedelon Part 9/? - A Miracle Part 10/? - Desrosiers’ Elixir Part 11/? - Athens in October Part 12/? - The Man in Black Part 13/? - Mr. Neustadt Part 14/? - The Other Side of the Story Part 15/? - A Favour Part 16/? - A Knock on the Window Part 17/? - Sir Stephen and Buckeye Part 18/? - Books of Alchemy Part 19/? - The Answers Part 20/? - A Gift Left Behind Part 21/? - Santorini Part 22/? - What the Doves Found Part 23/? - A Thief in the Night Part 24/? - Healing Part 25/? - Newton’s Code Part 26/? - Montenegro Part 27/? - The Lost Relic Part 28/? - The Homunculinus Part 29/? - The End is Near Part 30/? - The Face of Evil Part 31/? - The Morning After Part 32/? - Next Stop Part 33/? - A Sighting in Messina Part 34/? - Taormina Part 35/? - Burning Part 36/? - Recovery Part 37/? - Pilgrimage to Vesuvius Part 38/? - The Scent of Hell Part 39/? - She’ll be Coming Down the Mountain Part 40/? - Stowaways Part 41/? - Bon Voyage Part 42/? - Turnabout Part 43/? - The Apple Part 44/? - Vesuvius Wakes Part 45/? - Fire At Sea Part 46/? - The Real Jim

This is totally plot-irrelevant but I wrote it mostly to distract myself.

The radio crackled. The Scorpio II must have sent out some kind of call about the fire and now other ships were on their way to help take care of it.  A voice came over the radio, in French, asking who was still on board and what they thought they were doing.  Natasha reached over and turned it off.

“Somebody put the fire out,” she said.  “I’m gonna look for Jim.”

She hurried back out onto the deck.  As she did, something whizzed over her head – she didn’t need to look up to see what it was. The arrow impacted at the top of the burning panels and smokestack, and the cold fog of the liquid nitrogen hissed out. Another followed a moment later, then a third, and soon all the fires were out.  The nitrogen not only cooled the burning wood and plastic, it smothered it, taking away the oxygen it needed to burn.

Clint was probably thrilled he’d gotten to use them after all, Nat thought with a small smile.

She went down the steps from the Stargazer deck to the Lido, where the pool was now empty with towels draped over the deck chairs and abandoned drinks sitting on the tables. There was nobody in evidence.  She was about to move on, when she heard a thumb behind one of the bars.  Nat paused and looked back, and a moment later, Jim emerged.  His hair was falling down around his face, but he was still wearing his tuxedo, with the bow tie neatly tied.

“What happened?” asked Natasha.

“Nothing,” said Jim.

“Something happened,” she pointed out.  “Where have you been?”

“I slipped,” he said.

Nat knew this wasn’t going anywhere good, and was not at all surprised when she heard a glass break behind the bar.  A hand grabbed the edge of the counter, and a head appeared, with the other hand rubbing a patch of scalp.  This individual was also in a tux, although his jacket was off and his bow tie was hanging loose around his neck.  His white shirt was stained with red wine.

It was, of course, also Jim.

“Shit!”  The tidy Jim grabbed Nat’s arm.  “I thought I got him.”

The disheveled Jim behind the bar looked up, and his eyes went wide.  “Natalie!”

She swallowed – she’d known this was coming, but that didn’t mean she had any idea what to do about it.  The last time this had happened, it had been her who’d been duplicated by a shapeshifting goblin. She’d managed to send a sign to Sharon that she was the real one… would Jim be smart enough to do the same?

He didn’t have time. The one behind the bar ran out, reaching for her.  Nat leaned on the one holding her arm and kicked the messy one in the chest, then somersaulted over the back of the tidy one and went to throw him into the water – then forced herself to stop.  She couldn’t throw either of these guys off the ship until she knew which one of them was their Jim.

She landed on her feet with the tidy Jim sitting dazed on the deck in front of her.  A moment later, messy-Jim tried to tackle them both.  Nat sprang up onto the railing, lost her balance, and fell over the side of the ship herself.

“Natalie!” both of them cried in unison.

Nat dropped only a few feet, then managed to grab one of the ropes used to lower the lifeboats. Although the ship was moving, they were not up to speed yet and not clear of the cluster of boats – people in the nearest one saw her dangling, and cried out.  Somebody turned the boat around to approach the towering Scorpio II.

“Jump, sweetheart!” Natasha heard a man holler.  She glanced down and saw, by the light of the emergency beacon on the lifeboat, a crew member standing and waving to her.  “Let go!  We’ll pull you on board!”

But Nat wasn’t going to do any such thing.  She got her feet onto the pulley hook, which provided a fairly stable place to stand, and looked up.  The two Jims were struggling on the deck above, each trying to toss the other overboard.

She started to climb.

What was she going to do when she got there?  How could she figure out which Jim was the real one, insofar as any version of Jim could be considered ‘real’?  The part of her that remembered the Red Room, the part that had been brought up to show no mercy because she knew she would receive none, thought the easiest thing to do would be to kill them both.  They would both end the same, piles of dust on the deck, and Newton wouldn’t be able to try the same trick with another homunculus in the future.  But the version of herself that Nat had been cultivating for the past few years, the one that tried to at least imitate human warmth, knew she couldn’t do that. Not to Jim, whose whole self was centered on wanting to live just as long as he could.

She wanted to think that the one behind the counter, with the wine on his shirt, was ‘her’ Jim – but was he, or was that just her urge to root for the underdog?  They’d been wrong when they’d guessed that Newton really was on the ship.  They couldn’t afford to be wrong again.

When she climbed back over the railing, she found the two Jims still grappling, having knocked over a couple of deck chairs.  Which was which?  How was she supposed to know.

The tidy one, with his tie and jacket still on, looked up.  “You’re all right!” he said.

The messy one punched him in the face.  He staggered backwards and fell into a chair, and Nat realized that the messy one had been aiming for the throat.  That one knew where the weak spot was… did that mean messy-Jim really was the fake?  Jim himself also had that information, though.  Would he use it against another homunculus?

Tidy-Jim picked himself up out of the chair and picked it up to throw it at the other.  Nat had to intervene before one of them took the decision out of her hands by killing the other.  She hauled the ropes up and grabbed the heavy pulley, winding up to swing it like a weapon, but at which Jim?  She couldn’t afford to be wrong and she would only have one guess.

It came to her.

“Hey!  Jim!” she shouted, twirling the pulley like a lariat.

They both looked up at her.

“Which hand?” she demanded.

“What?” asked messy-Jim. He looked down at his right hand, then at his left.

Tidy-Jim looked confused, too, but then his face lit up.  “Right!” he said.

“Left!” Messy-Jim guessed, apparently figuring whichever one the other guessed must be wrong.

Nat turned to messy-Jim and smiled.  He smiled back and stepped towards her, and she swung the pulley at him.  With it on the end to carry the inertia, the rope wrapped itself around his neck, and she yanked.  He gurgled, clawing at it with both hands.  Nat grabbed him around the neck and squeezed by the bone, and he dissolved into dust.

Tidy-Jim was less tidy now, as he picked himself up.  His jacket was torn, and his hair was askew.  “It was right,” he repeated, panting.  “That was the hand I had to heal after he burned it off.”

Nat could have cried – she’d guessed correctly.  “Yes!” she said, and went to help him stand.

Jim let her take his arm, but insisted upon supporting himself on a table instead of on her as he got to his feet.  “Why the hell did you have to scare me like that?” he asked.

“Because I figured you’d think I must be the evil one!” Jim said.  “It’s always the evil one who hits the other on the head and takes his place!”

“I would have asked,” Natasha said.  “You know – like I just did!”

“I didn’t know!  I didn’t know if you’d have any way to tell!” As soon as he had his balance, Jim pulled her in for a hug.

Nat was startled, and with adrenaline still coursing through her, it was an effort not to throw him into the swimming pool.  Only once she had a handle on that could she put her arms around him and hug him back.

“How many more of them are there?” she asked.  She would have to stay close to him, to make sure this didn’t happen again.

“Madame Desrosiers mentioned four, I think,” said Jim.  “Sir Steve threw one overboard…”

“No ticket,” Natasha greed.  “Newton dusted one to prove he wouldn’t make any more, and we just did for the third one. That means there’s one more.”

“No, there’s two more,” said Jim.  “I mean… there’s me.”

“Yeah, but you just pointed out you’re not the evil one,” said Natasha.  She gave him a gentle squeeze, and then stepped back to look him over.  “We’re not going to get rid of you.  You said you wanted to live.  You hurt at all?”

“I apparently don’t get hurt, remember?” he asked.

“Right.”  That was a relief.  “Okay.  Good.”

They returned to the bridge, where they others were relieved to see that both were okay. They’d turned the ship’s lights off, to make it more difficult for other vessels and the coast guard to keep track of them as they headed east, returning to Naples.  Under other circumstances, it might have made it harder for them to navigate, too – but on this particular night, there was no mistake about which way they had to go.  The glow of Vesuvius on the horizon was a beacon for them.  Little by little, the lifeboats and the other ships that had come to rescue the passengers dropped out of sight behind them.

As midnight approached, Nat and Sharon headed down to one of the bars and returned to distribute sodas to everybody.  Most of the men thanked them for this, as did Desrosiers.  The only dissenter was Clint.

“No beer?” he asked.

“You’re driving the boat,” Natasha told him.

“We’re in the middle of the ocean,” he pointed out.  “What am I gonna run into?”

“I’m sure you’d find something.”  Nat sat down on the edge of a control panel and opened a can of sparkling lemonade.

Allen looked at the can she’d given him, and licked his lips.  “This is stealing isn’t it?” he asked.

“We just stole an entire cruise ship, and you’re worried about a soda?” asked Nat.

“The soda is something I can conceptualize,” Allen said.  “I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the idea of stealing a cruise ship.”

“We commandeered it,” said Clint.  “Saving the world, remember?  You know, I’m pretty sure there’s a jewelry shop on one of the lower decks, by that plaza,” he added thoughtfully.

“You gonna commandeer some diamonds?” asked Sam.  “That’d surprise your wife, all right.”

“We’re not commandeering anything that isn’t essential to stopping Newton,” Nat said firmly.  She was almost certain Clint wouldn’t try it, but she wanted to nip the idea in the bud just in case.  “If anybody tries otherwise, Sharon will arrest them.”

“Uh, no, I don’t have any jurisdiction outside of Scotland,” Sharon reminded her.  “That’s why I didn’t even try to arrest Newton in Athens, remember?”

“Are sodas essential?” asked Jim.

“Yes,” said Nat.

“How so?” he wanted to know.

“I’m thirsty,” she replied, and tipped the can back to drink.

[wineanddinosaur]

Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story

Among the 7,000 or so languages spoken across the globe, only one is universal: numbers. The way we communicate about whiskey is no different. Regardless of a whiskey drinker’s tasting experience or skill, numbers, or more specifically age, are the common denominator to loosely identify a whiskey’s quality.

More often than not, there’s a positive correlation between a bottle’s price and its age statement. The older the bottle, the more money you can expect to pay for it. And frequently, it’s the oldest bottles that tend to claim top spots at spirits competitions. But not always.

As the whiskey world expands, and new, unexpected countries introduce bottles to market, age statements are increasingly unreliable indicators of quality. Proving that time itself is relative, multiple distillers around the world argue it’s not so much about how long a whiskey ages, but where that process takes place.

The Angel’s Share: Whiskey Aging 101

Before we take a deep dive into the complexities of age statements, a quick primer on the whiskey aging process: The longer a spirit spends in a barrel, the greater the concentration of flavor compounds it draws from the aging vessel. As the liquid takes on these complex compounds, the volume of spirit inside the barrel constantly decreases due to evaporation. (This lost spirit is known in the industry as the “angel’s share.”)

At a certain point, oak character can overpower the flavors imparted by the base ingredients and the fermentation process, knocking the overall profile out of balance. This combination of factors explains why it’s highly uncommon to find whiskeys aged for longer than a few decades. It is also the reason why an 18-year-old single malt Scotch retails for more than a 12-year-old expression from the same producer. Those six extra years in barrel add complexity — something that’s usually attributed to quality — but because the volume of whisk(e)y the producer can ultimately sell is lower, it has to charge more for each bottle.

It’s a fairly straightforward equation. But this simple concept and the value of age statements become much more complex when examining the conditions in which barrels and their contents age.

Age vs. Maturity

Pittsburgh-based Raj Sabharwal is an award-winning spirits importer. Among his portfolio at Glass Revolution Imports is Amrut, an equally prestigious, pioneering Indian single malt producer. The distillery shot to fame in 2010 when noted whisky connoisseur Jim Murray named Amrut Fusion, a single malt made with Scottish and Indian barley, the world’s third-best whisky. (He scored it 97 points out of 100, for those interested in the numbers.)

While it’s typically bottled around six years old, Amrut Fusion does not contain an age statement on its labels. “One year in India — at least at Amrut — is like three or four years in Scotland,” Sabharwal says. “So, originally, when we started importing Amrut, we felt that if there was an age statement on it, it would deter people.”

Located in Bangalore in southern India, Amrut’s distillery lies some 3,000 feet above sea level, and around 200 miles from either coast. At this altitude, temperature highs range from 75 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to 120 degrees in summer, Sabharwal explains. Because of its inland location, the humidity at the distillery remains relatively low year-round, swinging between 45 percent in the winter and 75 percent in summer. In Scotland, by contrast, average annual lows and highs range from 36 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit, while humidity hovers between 70 and 90 percent.

The difference in conditions has a big impact on aging. “In Scotland, the angel’s share evaporation rate is 1 to 2 percent per year, whereas in Bangalore it’s 10 to 15 percent,” Sabharwal says.

Additionally, the actual science behind the angel’s share is not only a measurement of evaporation, but of contact and molecular exchange between spirit and cask. In hotter, drier conditions, barrels expand and contract more rapidly, and the spirit gains the barrel’s flavor compounds in tandem. In other words, it matures at a faster pace.

For this reason, Sabharwal says, age statements are flawed. While a single malt Scotch may just be hitting its stride after 12 years in barrel, in other parts of the world, it may have already passed its peak maturity by this point. “I prefer to talk about maturity versus age,” Sabharwal says.

David Vitale, founder of Melbourne, Australia’s Starward Whisky, echoes Sabharwal’s sentiment. While the numbers printed front and center on whiskey bottles are a literal statement of age, he says, maturity “is contextual.”

When prevailing winds hit from the Outback region north of Melbourne, it’s like “opening up an oven door,” Vitale says. Meanwhile, blasts of humid, cooling breezes arrive from the Antarctic. It’s not uncommon for both influences to hit on the same day. Because of this, Starward’s whiskies experience huge diurnal temperature swings throughout the year. These extreme swings account for an evaporation rate of around 5 percent per year, and significantly increase barrel expansion and contraction. “We’ve got some of the hardest working barrels in the world,” Vitale says.

Vessel Variations and Flavor

In order to navigate such volatile conditions, barrel selection is paramount. Starward ages both its single malt (Nova) and double grain (Two-Fold) whiskies in former wine barrels, sourced from nearby producers. In the distillery’s early days, Vitale says, the expectation was that the better the wine that came out of the barrel, the more suitable that vessel would be for aging whisky. Over time, however, he learned that’s not the case. Certain barrels — specifically those that previously held bolder, more extracted wines — are more susceptible to overpowering the spirit. Melbourne’s relatively extreme aging conditions only amplify the phenomenon.

“As much as this is a whisky aged in wine barrels, this is a whisky first,” Vitale says. “Aussie wines are known for being quite brash, and it would have been easy for us to be the Aussie Shiraz of whisky. But we wanted to be more nuanced and layered than that.”

Barrel conditioning versus aging is also a hot topic in arid Oaxaca, Mexico, where master distiller Douglas French makes Sierra Norte’s Mexican whiskeys. Much like Vitale at Starward, French has learned how to optimize the unique aging conditions at his distillery (hot and dry) through years of experience.

Sierra Norte’s whiskeys are made using 85 percent Oaxacan heritage corn and 15 percent malted barley. While other whiskey distilleries focus on cask finishing and different age statements, Sierra Norte offers multiple expressions using distinct strains of corn, such as yellow, white, or black. “Discovering that the different colors made different flavors was mind-blowing,” French says. “I want those natural, raw materials to come through.”

Rather than time, the most important factor in aging Sierra Norte’s whiskeys is the char level of the barrels they rest in, French says. Like Starward, Sierra Norte ages its whiskeys in former wine barrels; but being based in Mexico means French has much less control over the casks he receives. Some have a much deeper char than others, which causes the whiskey to mature more rapidly. Depending on the barrel, Sierra Norte’s whiskeys can reach maturity anywhere between six and 18 months.

French defines the point of maturity for his whiskeys as the moment in which they turn from a “silver” to “brown” spirit, both in terms of flavor and appearance. Overall, it’s the spirit’s flavor that matters, not its evaporation rate (6 to 10 percent per year, French says).

In recent years, producers in far-flung locations from Sweden to Taiwan to Argentina have each released high-point-scoring, critically acclaimed bottles, all without an age statement in sight. Even in Scotland, notable producers including The Macallan, Ardbeg, and Glenmorangie have added non-age-statement bottles to their lineups, none of which are mere lower-cost, budget alternatives. This wild variation of aging conditions reflects the complexity of whiskey maturation — and calls the universal significance of age statements into serious question.

Of course, time will continue to play an integral role in whiskey production. But when it comes to quality, numbers really only tell half the story.

The article Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/do-whiskey-age-statements-matter/

[johnboothus]

Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story

Among the 7,000 or so languages spoken across the globe, only one is universal: numbers. The way we communicate about whiskey is no different. Regardless of a whiskey drinker’s tasting experience or skill, numbers, or more specifically age, are the common denominator to loosely identify a whiskey’s quality.

More often than not, there’s a positive correlation between a bottle’s price and its age statement. The older the bottle, the more money you can expect to pay for it. And frequently, it’s the oldest bottles that tend to claim top spots at spirits competitions. But not always.

As the whiskey world expands, and new, unexpected countries introduce bottles to market, age statements are increasingly unreliable indicators of quality. Proving that time itself is relative, multiple distillers around the world argue it’s not so much about how long a whiskey ages, but where that process takes place.

The Angel’s Share: Whiskey Aging 101

Before we take a deep dive into the complexities of age statements, a quick primer on the whiskey aging process: The longer a spirit spends in a barrel, the greater the concentration of flavor compounds it draws from the aging vessel. As the liquid takes on these complex compounds, the volume of spirit inside the barrel constantly decreases due to evaporation. (This lost spirit is known in the industry as the “angel’s share.”)

At a certain point, oak character can overpower the flavors imparted by the base ingredients and the fermentation process, knocking the overall profile out of balance. This combination of factors explains why it’s highly uncommon to find whiskeys aged for longer than a few decades. It is also the reason why an 18-year-old single malt Scotch retails for more than a 12-year-old expression from the same producer. Those six extra years in barrel add complexity — something that’s usually attributed to quality — but because the volume of whisk(e)y the producer can ultimately sell is lower, it has to charge more for each bottle.

It’s a fairly straightforward equation. But this simple concept and the value of age statements become much more complex when examining the conditions in which barrels and their contents age.

Age vs. Maturity

Pittsburgh-based Raj Sabharwal is an award-winning spirits importer. Among his portfolio at Glass Revolution Imports is Amrut, an equally prestigious, pioneering Indian single malt producer. The distillery shot to fame in 2010 when noted whisky connoisseur Jim Murray named Amrut Fusion, a single malt made with Scottish and Indian barley, the world’s third-best whisky. (He scored it 97 points out of 100, for those interested in the numbers.)

While it’s typically bottled around six years old, Amrut Fusion does not contain an age statement on its labels. “One year in India — at least at Amrut — is like three or four years in Scotland,” Sabharwal says. “So, originally, when we started importing Amrut, we felt that if there was an age statement on it, it would deter people.”

Located in Bangalore in southern India, Amrut’s distillery lies some 3,000 feet above sea level, and around 200 miles from either coast. At this altitude, temperature highs range from 75 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to 120 degrees in summer, Sabharwal explains. Because of its inland location, the humidity at the distillery remains relatively low year-round, swinging between 45 percent in the winter and 75 percent in summer. In Scotland, by contrast, average annual lows and highs range from 36 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit, while humidity hovers between 70 and 90 percent.

The difference in conditions has a big impact on aging. “In Scotland, the angel’s share evaporation rate is 1 to 2 percent per year, whereas in Bangalore it’s 10 to 15 percent,” Sabharwal says.

Additionally, the actual science behind the angel’s share is not only a measurement of evaporation, but of contact and molecular exchange between spirit and cask. In hotter, drier conditions, barrels expand and contract more rapidly, and the spirit gains the barrel’s flavor compounds in tandem. In other words, it matures at a faster pace.

For this reason, Sabharwal says, age statements are flawed. While a single malt Scotch may just be hitting its stride after 12 years in barrel, in other parts of the world, it may have already passed its peak maturity by this point. “I prefer to talk about maturity versus age,” Sabharwal says.

David Vitale, founder of Melbourne, Australia’s Starward Whisky, echoes Sabharwal’s sentiment. While the numbers printed front and center on whiskey bottles are a literal statement of age, he says, maturity “is contextual.”

When prevailing winds hit from the Outback region north of Melbourne, it’s like “opening up an oven door,” Vitale says. Meanwhile, blasts of humid, cooling breezes arrive from the Antarctic. It’s not uncommon for both influences to hit on the same day. Because of this, Starward’s whiskies experience huge diurnal temperature swings throughout the year. These extreme swings account for an evaporation rate of around 5 percent per year, and significantly increase barrel expansion and contraction. “We’ve got some of the hardest working barrels in the world,” Vitale says.

Vessel Variations and Flavor

In order to navigate such volatile conditions, barrel selection is paramount. Starward ages both its single malt (Nova) and double grain (Two-Fold) whiskies in former wine barrels, sourced from nearby producers. In the distillery’s early days, Vitale says, the expectation was that the better the wine that came out of the barrel, the more suitable that vessel would be for aging whisky. Over time, however, he learned that’s not the case. Certain barrels — specifically those that previously held bolder, more extracted wines — are more susceptible to overpowering the spirit. Melbourne’s relatively extreme aging conditions only amplify the phenomenon.

“As much as this is a whisky aged in wine barrels, this is a whisky first,” Vitale says. “Aussie wines are known for being quite brash, and it would have been easy for us to be the Aussie Shiraz of whisky. But we wanted to be more nuanced and layered than that.”

Barrel conditioning versus aging is also a hot topic in arid Oaxaca, Mexico, where master distiller Douglas French makes Sierra Norte’s Mexican whiskeys. Much like Vitale at Starward, French has learned how to optimize the unique aging conditions at his distillery (hot and dry) through years of experience.

Sierra Norte’s whiskeys are made using 85 percent Oaxacan heritage corn and 15 percent malted barley. While other whiskey distilleries focus on cask finishing and different age statements, Sierra Norte offers multiple expressions using distinct strains of corn, such as yellow, white, or black. “Discovering that the different colors made different flavors was mind-blowing,” French says. “I want those natural, raw materials to come through.”

Rather than time, the most important factor in aging Sierra Norte’s whiskeys is the char level of the barrels they rest in, French says. Like Starward, Sierra Norte ages its whiskeys in former wine barrels; but being based in Mexico means French has much less control over the casks he receives. Some have a much deeper char than others, which causes the whiskey to mature more rapidly. Depending on the barrel, Sierra Norte’s whiskeys can reach maturity anywhere between six and 18 months.

French defines the point of maturity for his whiskeys as the moment in which they turn from a “silver” to “brown” spirit, both in terms of flavor and appearance. Overall, it’s the spirit’s flavor that matters, not its evaporation rate (6 to 10 percent per year, French says).

In recent years, producers in far-flung locations from Sweden to Taiwan to Argentina have each released high-point-scoring, critically acclaimed bottles, all without an age statement in sight. Even in Scotland, notable producers including The Macallan, Ardbeg, and Glenmorangie have added non-age-statement bottles to their lineups, none of which are mere lower-cost, budget alternatives. This wild variation of aging conditions reflects the complexity of whiskey maturation — and calls the universal significance of age statements into serious question.

Of course, time will continue to play an integral role in whiskey production. But when it comes to quality, numbers really only tell half the story.

The article Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/do-whiskey-age-statements-matter/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/why-age-statements-only-tell-half-the-story

[isaiahrippinus]

Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story

Among the 7,000 or so languages spoken across the globe, only one is universal: numbers. The way we communicate about whiskey is no different. Regardless of a whiskey drinker’s tasting experience or skill, numbers, or more specifically age, are the common denominator to loosely identify a whiskey’s quality.

More often than not, there’s a positive correlation between a bottle’s price and its age statement. The older the bottle, the more money you can expect to pay for it. And frequently, it’s the oldest bottles that tend to claim top spots at spirits competitions. But not always.

As the whiskey world expands, and new, unexpected countries introduce bottles to market, age statements are increasingly unreliable indicators of quality. Proving that time itself is relative, multiple distillers around the world argue it’s not so much about how long a whiskey ages, but where that process takes place.

The Angel’s Share: Whiskey Aging 101

Before we take a deep dive into the complexities of age statements, a quick primer on the whiskey aging process: The longer a spirit spends in a barrel, the greater the concentration of flavor compounds it draws from the aging vessel. As the liquid takes on these complex compounds, the volume of spirit inside the barrel constantly decreases due to evaporation. (This lost spirit is known in the industry as the “angel’s share.”)

At a certain point, oak character can overpower the flavors imparted by the base ingredients and the fermentation process, knocking the overall profile out of balance. This combination of factors explains why it’s highly uncommon to find whiskeys aged for longer than a few decades. It is also the reason why an 18-year-old single malt Scotch retails for more than a 12-year-old expression from the same producer. Those six extra years in barrel add complexity — something that’s usually attributed to quality — but because the volume of whisk(e)y the producer can ultimately sell is lower, it has to charge more for each bottle.

It’s a fairly straightforward equation. But this simple concept and the value of age statements become much more complex when examining the conditions in which barrels and their contents age.

Age vs. Maturity

Pittsburgh-based Raj Sabharwal is an award-winning spirits importer. Among his portfolio at Glass Revolution Imports is Amrut, an equally prestigious, pioneering Indian single malt producer. The distillery shot to fame in 2010 when noted whisky connoisseur Jim Murray named Amrut Fusion, a single malt made with Scottish and Indian barley, the world’s third-best whisky. (He scored it 97 points out of 100, for those interested in the numbers.)

While it’s typically bottled around six years old, Amrut Fusion does not contain an age statement on its labels. “One year in India — at least at Amrut — is like three or four years in Scotland,” Sabharwal says. “So, originally, when we started importing Amrut, we felt that if there was an age statement on it, it would deter people.”

Located in Bangalore in southern India, Amrut’s distillery lies some 3,000 feet above sea level, and around 200 miles from either coast. At this altitude, temperature highs range from 75 degrees Fahrenheit in winter to 120 degrees in summer, Sabharwal explains. Because of its inland location, the humidity at the distillery remains relatively low year-round, swinging between 45 percent in the winter and 75 percent in summer. In Scotland, by contrast, average annual lows and highs range from 36 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit, while humidity hovers between 70 and 90 percent.

The difference in conditions has a big impact on aging. “In Scotland, the angel’s share evaporation rate is 1 to 2 percent per year, whereas in Bangalore it’s 10 to 15 percent,” Sabharwal says.

Additionally, the actual science behind the angel’s share is not only a measurement of evaporation, but of contact and molecular exchange between spirit and cask. In hotter, drier conditions, barrels expand and contract more rapidly, and the spirit gains the barrel’s flavor compounds in tandem. In other words, it matures at a faster pace.

For this reason, Sabharwal says, age statements are flawed. While a single malt Scotch may just be hitting its stride after 12 years in barrel, in other parts of the world, it may have already passed its peak maturity by this point. “I prefer to talk about maturity versus age,” Sabharwal says.

David Vitale, founder of Melbourne, Australia’s Starward Whisky, echoes Sabharwal’s sentiment. While the numbers printed front and center on whiskey bottles are a literal statement of age, he says, maturity “is contextual.”

When prevailing winds hit from the Outback region north of Melbourne, it’s like “opening up an oven door,” Vitale says. Meanwhile, blasts of humid, cooling breezes arrive from the Antarctic. It’s not uncommon for both influences to hit on the same day. Because of this, Starward’s whiskies experience huge diurnal temperature swings throughout the year. These extreme swings account for an evaporation rate of around 5 percent per year, and significantly increase barrel expansion and contraction. “We’ve got some of the hardest working barrels in the world,” Vitale says.

Vessel Variations and Flavor

In order to navigate such volatile conditions, barrel selection is paramount. Starward ages both its single malt (Nova) and double grain (Two-Fold) whiskies in former wine barrels, sourced from nearby producers. In the distillery’s early days, Vitale says, the expectation was that the better the wine that came out of the barrel, the more suitable that vessel would be for aging whisky. Over time, however, he learned that’s not the case. Certain barrels — specifically those that previously held bolder, more extracted wines — are more susceptible to overpowering the spirit. Melbourne’s relatively extreme aging conditions only amplify the phenomenon.

“As much as this is a whisky aged in wine barrels, this is a whisky first,” Vitale says. “Aussie wines are known for being quite brash, and it would have been easy for us to be the Aussie Shiraz of whisky. But we wanted to be more nuanced and layered than that.”

Barrel conditioning versus aging is also a hot topic in arid Oaxaca, Mexico, where master distiller Douglas French makes Sierra Norte’s Mexican whiskeys. Much like Vitale at Starward, French has learned how to optimize the unique aging conditions at his distillery (hot and dry) through years of experience.

Sierra Norte’s whiskeys are made using 85 percent Oaxacan heritage corn and 15 percent malted barley. While other whiskey distilleries focus on cask finishing and different age statements, Sierra Norte offers multiple expressions using distinct strains of corn, such as yellow, white, or black. “Discovering that the different colors made different flavors was mind-blowing,” French says. “I want those natural, raw materials to come through.”

Rather than time, the most important factor in aging Sierra Norte’s whiskeys is the char level of the barrels they rest in, French says. Like Starward, Sierra Norte ages its whiskeys in former wine barrels; but being based in Mexico means French has much less control over the casks he receives. Some have a much deeper char than others, which causes the whiskey to mature more rapidly. Depending on the barrel, Sierra Norte’s whiskeys can reach maturity anywhere between six and 18 months.

French defines the point of maturity for his whiskeys as the moment in which they turn from a “silver” to “brown” spirit, both in terms of flavor and appearance. Overall, it’s the spirit’s flavor that matters, not its evaporation rate (6 to 10 percent per year, French says).

In recent years, producers in far-flung locations from Sweden to Taiwan to Argentina have each released high-point-scoring, critically acclaimed bottles, all without an age statement in sight. Even in Scotland, notable producers including The Macallan, Ardbeg, and Glenmorangie have added non-age-statement bottles to their lineups, none of which are mere lower-cost, budget alternatives. This wild variation of aging conditions reflects the complexity of whiskey maturation — and calls the universal significance of age statements into serious question.

Of course, time will continue to play an integral role in whiskey production. But when it comes to quality, numbers really only tell half the story.

The article Why Age Statements Only Tell Half the Story appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/do-whiskey-age-statements-matter/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/628878879565676544

[n3rdlif343va]

Domestic Victuuri Prompt Challenge: Day 3

EVERYONE! The wonderful @daysinrussiavictuuri is still doing the August Domestic Prompt Challenge, so send in your domestic prompts and take a chance at writing for the posted ones! We all know I have no self-control so I will be doing all of these that I can. Day 3 Prompt is Date Night! 

So here is my contribution: “Date Night In”

The ice crunched with potential danger under Victor’s feet as the air around him stung with the threat of frostbite. Through his heaviest winter coat, he could feel the layer of sweat on his skin beginning to cool while the damp points of his hair were already freezing against his skin. Huddling tighter into his own waning body heat, Victor moved as quickly as he could over the frozen tundra that St. Petersburg had become.

His solo ice time had been drawn out, used as an excuse for Yakov to release all his personal frustrations built up from the day. Yuri had been mouthy, Mila had made Georgi cry, and Victor had been left to feel Yakov’s wrath. Skittering over the treacherous sidewalk, Victor finally reached the front door of the apartment building, heaving his exhausted body inside. Every part of him ached in memory of all his evening jumps.

Entering the elevator, he leaned heavily on the back wall, letting himself have two minutes of pure self-indulgent sulking. Victor knew when he reached the apartment it would be time to shower and get ready for the next part of his day. He had promised Yuuri a date night, a night for the two of them. No matter how terrible he felt, Victor was going to make good on that promise. He would plaster a smile on his face, wrap his body in appropriate clothing and be the fiancé Yuuri deserved. Even if it killed him.

Pausing only a second longer, Victor unlocked the door and pushed it inside, smile pulled brightly over his face. He stopped short when he was greeted with a mostly dark apartment.

Toeing off his shoes and placing them on the rack, he peered around in curiosity. “Yuuri?” he called into the semi-darkness, trying to process the duel glows coming from the middle of the living room and what seemed to be the bathroom.

“I’m here,” Yuuri waved from the living room, smiling from the corner of a flannel blanket and wearing his poodle pajamas. “Come here, Vitya.”

It was the excitement on Yuuri’s face that had Victor stumbling over his own feet, confusion falling behind him like a forgotten wake. Dropping next to Yuuri on the floor, Victor examined the items spread in front of them. A simple brown picnic basket, a bottle of wine, plates, glasses, and two electric candles. Tears threatened his eyes as Victor turned to Yuuri, raising his eyebrows in question instead of speaking.

“I’m tired,” Yuuri smiled, wrapping an arm around Victor’s waist, “and I saw Yakov before I left, so there is no way you aren’t exhausted as well.” Pulling Victor closer and pecking a kiss to his cheek, Yuuri continued. “I know we said date night, but I thought… it doesn’t mean we have to go out… does it?”

There was no way to avoid Victor’s desire to tackle Yuuri to the ground. Once he had placed an uncountable amount of kisses to Yuuri’s face, Victor leaned back and smiled at the most wonderful man in the world. “Do I have time to shower or will the food get cold?” There was part of Victor that didn’t even want to move now that he had snuggled over top of Yuuri’s chest, but he knew he smelled like a landfill and looked worse. A shower was a necessity.

“Food will be fine… and…” Yuuri blushed ever so slightly and then smiled up at Victor. “I already drew you a bath. Yakov let me know when you left the rink. I think I timed it right, so it is ready for you.”

“I love you,” Victor kissed Yuuri several loud times on the lips, “have I told you that lately?” He chuckled as Yuuri laughed below him.

“Tell me, show me…” Yuuri placed a tender hand against Victor’s cheek, “I know you love, it is never a question.” Pulling Victor back down, Yuuri kissed him deeply for only a moment. Breaking the kiss, Yuuri let his head drop back to the ground. “Now, go bathe… you smell like Georgi’s feet after five hours of skating.” They both made matching horrified faces before Victor smacked a kiss to Yuuri’s head and got to his feet with a groan.

Peeling his clothes off, Victor headed for the bedroom, stopping short again when he noticed the bed. “Yuuri…” he whined, looking over the rose petals and the bottle of what appeared to be massage oil. It looked tempting, but Victor knew that his body was prepared for eating, sleeping and not much else.

“I’m going to massage you until you fall asleep. No other intentions. We need rest tonight.”

The tone in Yuuri’s voice was full of blatant honesty and Victor felt an even brighter surge of love. Without a response, Victor finally made his way into the bathroom, finding more electric candles and a fully drawn bath. The scent that rose in the room was lavender and Victor could see the rainbow reflection of the oils in the water. Not hesitating, he sunk into the water all the way to his neck.

It was the perfect temperature and Victor released another sigh, tipping his head back. Their small luggage rack was next to the tub with a bottle of water, two aspirin, a glass of wine and a small plate of cheese and crackers. On the sink counter, Victor could see his own pajamas and a towel hung on the warming rack. His Yuuri had created a tiny oasis and Victor felt the tears stinging his eyes again.

The feeling of being cared for and loved was still very new. When Yuuri anticipated his needs, swooping in when Victor would have forced himself to stay quiet, it still took his breath away. He was used to putting on a show, running himself into the ground for the sake of an image. Yuuri wouldn’t let Victor do that. He knew when Victor needed to be loved and cherished, and Yuuri did it without giving Victor a chance to say no. It was beautiful, and wonderful, and more than Victor could have ever hoped for.

He let the water seep around his body until it turned cold and then he wrapped himself in the warm towel, followed by the cozy pajamas. Slipping socks over his feet, Victor left the now empty food and drink vessels and ventured back to Yuuri.

“What about Makkachin?” Victor asked, snorting when he spied his sleeping dog sprawled over the dog bed.

“We went for an hour walk and I let Makka sniff everything. Then I made chicken and rice for dinner.” Yuuri also glanced at Makkachin’s snoring form in the corner of the room. “I think she is good for the night.” Smiling brightly, Yuuri flipped open the picnic basket, “now, food!”

The meal was simple, rice, chicken and vegetables in heated containers. The wine was sweet and Yuuri’s soft smile was sweeter. Victor could feel the stress and ache from the day melting from his body, letting Yuuri’s story of Makkachin versus the winter birds wash over him in a wave of amusement.

When their dinners were completely consumed, Yuuri collected the containers and placed them into the sink. Leaning into the fridge, he produced two dessert cups that had Victor squinting in the low light.

“Here,” Yuuri handed Victor a small cup before settling down and digging into his own.

Lifting it closer to his face, Victor studied what appeared to be crumbled chocolate cookies and gummi worms. “Yuuri…” Victor raised one eyebrow at his fiancé before smelling his cup. It smelled remarkably yummy, so he lifted his spoon to cautiously dip it in. “What am I about to put in my mouth?”

Yuuri snorted around his spoon, slightly choking at Victor’s unintentional innuendo. “It is called mud. An American tourist’s kid taught my dad about it and he was obsessed with it for a while.” Seeing the alarm on Victor’s face, Yuuri snorted again. “It isn’t actual mud. It is chocolate pudding, mixed with vanilla pudding, with cookies on top and gummi worms. You know, because there are worms in mud…” Yuuri shoved a huge spoonful into his mouth and smiled. “Ish goodsh,” he said through his full mouth.

“This isn’t on a diet plan,” Victor lifted a minuscule bite to his lips, “really it shouldn’t be on anyone’s diet plan.” Slipping the spoonful into his mouth, he crunched the cookies, gnawed the gummi worms and felt the pudding mash it all together. It was the weirdest, sweetest and most wonderful dessert he had ever had. “Changedsh mah mindsh,” Victor said through the huge bite he shoved in his mouth, “we can hash thees every day.” He was quick to spoon every morsel into his mouth, grinning like a child on Christmas with every bite.

Finishing his own cup, Yuuri wiggled closer to Victor. Running an idle hand down the center of Victor’s back, Yuuri placed a pressing kiss to his shoulder. “When you are finished, I’ll give you a massage okay?”

Victor nodded, stacking his empty cup into Yuuri’s and letting his body sag onto his fiancé’s. “Yuuri,” Victor said, out of habit and because he simply couldn’t stop wanting to say Yuuri’s name, “this is the best date night I have ever had.” Victor nuzzled into Yuuri’s neck, humming as Yuuri continued to run a gentle palm over Victor’s back.

“I’m glad,” Yuuri laid his cheek against Victor’s head. “I love you, Vitya.”

Smiling, Victor let his heart get away with doing a happy dance. Love had vibrated through everything Yuuri had done for him that night and the words didn’t need to be spoken. Knowing that Yuuri was speaking them solely for Victor’s benefit made him feel even more valued. “I love you too, my Yuuri.” Victor whispered, content to let himself be loved for the rest of forever.

[my-greatseo-love]

Australian jewellery online

Roman Glass is an antiquated glass, found in archeological exhuming locales in Israel and in other Mediterranean countries.The fine Sterling Silver Roman Glass Jewelry is one of the most well known sorts and styles started from Israel empowering to wear an altogether interesting bit of 2,000-year-old history. The glass in this water shaded gems started life as a container, container, or vessel. Revealed from antiquated Roman archeological destinations in cutting edge Israel, each piece has been finished and shaded by hundreds of years of wind and climate. Each bear the signs of not just its previous existence as a family or sanctuary object yet additionally the very earth wherein it rested until being changed into a special complement. Each bit of Roman glass is encircled by a sterling silver bezel.

The plans for the gems depend on antiques and drawings additionally found on the archeological burrows. The Roman Glass is a lovely bit of history going back 2,000 years to the hour of the Roman Empire. The Roman Glass utilized for adornments today in Israel is found in archeological burrows all through the place where there is Israel. The characteristic wonder which the glass has experienced over the numerous years it has been covered have given it the novel and lovely water conceals we appreciate today.Initially, in the Roman realm, glass was primarily utilized for vessels and accessible just for the well off. Around then, glass was fabricated by center framing, throwing, cutting and pounding. In any case, since the development of the glass blowing, glass was accessible to the general population in huge numbers, mass created in an enormous assortment of shapes and structures. Because of the extraordinary prominence of glass during those antiquated occasions, we today are special to utilize these lovely recorded pieces with which we improve the magnificence of our gems. Old Israel, because of its enormous stretches of sandy ridges and shorelines, was one of the biggest glass makers of the Roman Empire. These equivalent sands helped safeguard the glass as the centuries progressed, molding and hardening it into the gems quality pieces being exhumed today. Today the sections of the 2000 years of age Roman Glass that were once part of the lip of a challis, container, or other vessel are utilized in Israel to make delightful adornments that blends the commonplace blue and green old glass exhumed from archeological burrows with silver or gold making a bit of workmanship and history to wear with adoration. Alexandria bracelet

An authentication of genuineness is accessible for the Roman Glass adornments.

It is fascinating to know a few realities about the glass history and the Roman Glass history, gathered from a few sources.

The History of Glass

Glass is shaped when sand (silica), pop (soluble base), and lime are combined at high temperatures. The shade of the glass can be changed by altering the climate in the heater and by adding explicit metal oxides to the glass "group, (for example, cobalt for dull blue, tin for dark white, antimony and manganese for dismal glass). A revered legend sustained as late as the seventh century A.D. in the works of Isidore of Seville gives a reasonable supernatural clarification for the revelation of this natural - yet genuinely wondrous- - material - This was its inception: in a piece of Syria which is called Phoenicia, there is a bog near Judaea, around the base of Mt. Carmel, from which the Bellus River emerges . . . whose sands are refined from defilement by the downpour's stream. The story is that here a ship of natron [sodium carbonate] dealers had been wrecked; when they were dissipated about on the shore getting ready sustenance and no stones were nearby for propping up their pots, they brought pieces of natron from the ship. The sand of the shore ended up blended with the consuming natron and translucent surges of another fluid streamed forward: and this was the beginning of glass.(Isidore of Seville, Etymologies XVI.16. Interpretation by Charles Witke.) It isn't astounding that the antiquated specialists thought of Phoenicia as the origination of glass, for the Syro-Palestine locale did without a doubt become a noteworthy focus of glass creation in classical times, alongside Egypt. Nonetheless, glass appears to be really to have been "found" not in Phoenicia, however in Mesopotamia. Archeological research presently puts the main proof of genuine glass there at around 2500 B.C. From the start it was utilized for dots, seals, and design embellishment.

Somewhere in the range of 1,000 years slipped by before glass vessels are known to have been delivered. Vessels of glass rapidly wound up across the board in the second 50% of the second thousand years B.C. They were prominent in Mesopotamia as well as in Egypt and the Aegean. The soonest vessels were center shaped. Hazy, dim glass in its liquid state was twisted around an earth center connected to a metal bar. The skin of hot glass was formed with instruments so as to shape its outside highlights. Lighter hued strands of hot glass were then trailed superficially and frequently "hauled" to create trim examples. The pot surface was marvered (that is, moved on a smooth, level surface to deliver a level completion). At last, it was cooled gradually before the mud center was scratched out of the solidified vessel. This dishes ordinarily imitated structures initially settled for clay, metal, and stone vessels . To some degree later, the embellishment system was created, whereby glass chips or liquid glass were pressed or constrained into a form and after that intertwined. After a shaped vessel was strengthened (cooled gradually in an uncommon load of the glass heater), it was frequently ground and cleaned so as to refine the edge and some other unpleasant edges. One run of the mill shape for formed vessels of the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods (c. 150 - 50 B.C.) was the purported column shaped bowl. Here outside ribs transmit up from the base, halting suddenly close to the edge to permit a smooth edge around the periphery. This sort is universal; and it bears witness to the free and quick trade of thoughts in glass-production all through the Greater Mediterranean circle. The site of Tel Anafa in Israel is a little settlement in the Upper Galilee. During ten periods of hands on work somewhere in the range of 1968 and 1986, Saul Weinberg and his successor Sharon Herbert administered the revealing of part of a little settlement of the Hellenistic and early Roman periods. rosetta bracelet

In Tel Anafa I, Herbert displays the engineering and the stratigraphic arrangement (content and a few delineations in fasc. I, locus rundown and plates to Chs. 1 and 2 in fasc. ii). The volume likewise incorporates thinks about by different researchers of the land setting of the site, the stepped amphora handles, coins, vertebrate fauna, and a solitary Tyrian fixing. Tel Anafa II, I is committed to the Hellenistic and Roman stoneware. A future volume (II, ii) will finish the arrangement with production of the pre-Hellenistic and Islamic stoneware, lights, glass, metalware, stucco, stone apparatuses, and the palaeobotanical remains. Tel Anafa (as of late exhumed together by the Universities of Michigan and Missouri) has given basic data on the ordered furthest reaches of these dishes inside the Roman time frame. Glass vessels were at first accessible just to the extremely well off and just in rather little measures. They were made by center framing, throwing, cutting and crushing. The innovation of glass blowing around 50 BC brought glass vessels to the overall population in tremendous numbers, mass created in incredible assortment of structures and henceforth carried antiquated glass into the span of the cutting edge gatherer of even humble methods. One would nowadays be able to possess a Roman glass bowl, or drink from a Roman glass container, or wear antiquated gems where glass was utilized generally. In 63 BC, the Romans vanquished the Syro-Palestine territory. They carried back with them glassmakers to Rome.Soon after, the primary straightforward glass sheets were created in Rome. The word vitrum, which means glass, entered the Latin language.Rome's political, military, and financial dominanace in the Mediterranean world was a main consideration in drawing in talented skilled workers to set up workshops in the city, yet similarly significant was the way that the foundation of the Roman business generally matched with the creation of glassblowing. The new method drove specialists to make novel and interesting shapes; models exist of carafes and jugs molded like foot shoes, wine barrels, natural products, and even caps and creatures. Some joined blowing with glass-throwing and ceramics forming advancements to make the supposed shape blowing process. Further advancements and expressive changes saw the proceeded with utilization of throwing and free-blowing to make an assortment of open and shut structures that could then be engraved or feature cut in any number of examples and plans. Australian jewellery online

Center framed and cast glass vessels were first delivered in Egypt and Mesopotamia as right on time as the fifteenth century B.C., yet just started to be imported and, to a lesser degree, made on the Italian promontory in the mid-first thousand years B.C. When of the Roman Republic (509-27 B.C.), such vessels, utilized as flatware or as holders for costly oils, scents, and prescriptions, were basic in Etruria (present day Tuscany) and Magna Graecia (territories of southern Italy including current Campania, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily). Notwithstanding, there is next to no proof for comparable glass questions in focal Italian and Roman settings until the mid-first century B.C. The explanations behind this are misty, yet it recommends that the Roman glass industry sprang from nothing and created to full development over a few ages during the main portion of the primary century A.D.

Surely Rome's development as the prevailing political, military, and monetary power in the Mediterranean world was a main consideration in pulling in gifted skilled workers to set up workshops in the city, however similarly significant was the way that the foundation of the Roman business generally corresponded with the innovation of glassblowing. This creation reformed old glass generation, putting it on a standard with the other real enterprises, for example, that of stoneware and metalwares (as 20.49.2-12). In like manner, glassblowing permitted craf. Visit This Website=http://gypseye.com.au/

[deviantordivine]

part 5

Leila

The house was...a mansion. All Leila could do was stare.

If this is the kind of housing New Olympus gives to its residents…

Gold and glass and glittering-- it shone like the sun. Every light must’ve been on to greet the two. Leila had to look away from it; it was so bright.

“Welcome home!” Camille beamed. They both got out of the car and she grabbed Leila’s hand and led her up the long driveway. Camille’s grip was stronger than she let on and Leila was starting to think that Camille was a force in heels.

The inside of the house was simple; white arches and white marble with white furniture and gold accents. Large glass vases housed stalks of wheat that Leila suspected were made out of real gold. Camille fit in perfectly.

She led her on a brief house tour-- nodding at the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a pool, her master suite, then Leila’s own bedroom-- that ended in the kitchen. Like the rest of the place, the floor plan was spacious and modern. Leila couldn’t help but wonder if anyone actually cooked in it. The marble was too white to have ever been stained with food.

Leila noticed something as Camille walked through the house, her carefully arranged centerpieces-- curving, crystal horns overflowing with gold fruit and flowers-- to her framed pictures of faraway farmland, how her face shone with pride. And something else, an eagerness.

Leila felt her heart swell at Camille’s waiting face as she realized she wanted Leila to love her home just as much as she did.

She regarded Camille’s manicured hands, folded neatly. Her untroubled, perfect brow. Her eyes, just slightly creased. Leila’s only indication at the undercurrent of emotion, the stress and worry. She remembered how Camille’s eyes hadn’t left Leila all through the ceremony and after, hovering close if Leila ever faltered.

She felt her throat close at the thought that someone was here to look out for her, in this new world. This new life.

Maybe I’m starting to succumb to exhaustion.

Leila carefully rested her hands on the cool marble countertop. She curled her fingers as she spotted the crescents of dirt under her nails.

She coughed. “Your house is beautiful,” she said.

Camille clapped her hands together.

“Thanks, darling. I have food on the way from my favorite restaurant. I hope you like pasta.” Leila gave noncommittal shrug-- she’d find out soon enough.

Camille hesitated, a coy smile on her lips. “While we wait, I thought I could show you my greenhouse.”

A click of her heels and a spin and Camille was off again. Leila’s curiosity peaked and she trailed after her, following the sound of Camille’s heels on the hardwood floor.

How am I going to live here when I have no idea how to get around? Leila wondered as she lost track of her way back to the kitchen.

As they rounded a corner, Leila could feel it. Warmth.

The warmth radiating from a set of crystal French doors at the end of the hall. Light cut through the glass, splashing prisms across the white walls. The warmth of heat, yes but also the warmth of magic, nurturing and sweet. Calling to her own. Her magic was the only thing that felt familiar to her, though Leila could not imagine that magic could be anything near familiar. 

They approached and Camille threw a smile over her shoulder, matching the beautiful warmth and lacking any of the hesitation from before.

She grabbed the doorknobs with both hands and pushed.

A wave of heat gently blew back Leila’s hair and caressed her face. The smell of earth and plants wafted out, floral and wet.

Camille strode in, a torch among the green. Leila followed, her steps more careful.

All she could see at first was blooming shades of green. There were trees and flowers and bushes and fruits and life. This place was alive, thrumming with a sweet heartbeat that beckoned Leila to step farther into the greenhouse.

Her steps grew confident over the mosaic walkway, her curiosity outshining any last reserves of hesitancy.

The white iron and glass structure swirled up above her, the windows fogged from the heat. Spiral staircases jutted up to balconies where even more plants were housed. She spotted rows of vegetables and herbs, making her think that maybe there was some cooking being done in this house after all.

The latin names tumbled around her head.

Nymphaea thermarum, Pseudanthodendron, Leptosporangium

Cyatheaceae, Solanum lycopersicum, Mangifera indica,

She didn’t realize she had grabbed onto a plant, an icy green bush, her fingers brushing over the soft leaves.

“Stachys byzantina,” she murmured.

“Interesting. See, I had to learn all of the scientific names,” Camille said behind her, startling Leila. “Sorry, I know this can be little overwhelming, come this way.”

Camille beckoned Leila to the center of the greenhouse, where the mosaic stone path led to a circular opening. A ring of young trees lined the perimeter and benches were scattered around. Camille stood in the middle beside a large clay pot filled with earth.

She could hear a fountain gurgling softly nearby.

Camille took a big breath, placing her hands on the lip of the vase as if to steady herself. 

“I’ve grown every plant, tree, shrub, and flower in here. I want you to add yours, I have seeds you can choose from…” She trailed off as she gestured to a stone bench at the edge of the circle where an open briefcase lay open, full of corked vials of seeds.

Leila broke into a grin as she practically ran to the briefcase. She gingerly started to pick up each vial, her hands shaking with excitement. They were unmarked but Leila found that she didn’t really need a label to get a feeling for what the seeds could be. Glimpses of petals and branches, fruits, and seasons filled her mind with the touch of each vial.

Her heart fluttered.

Potential.

That’s what she was holding.

Ever since she felt the first flurry of power spring from her hands she had been wanting to try her powers out again, in private. Without the spectacle of ceremony.

A couple of minutes passed while Leila picked her way through the trove of seeds. No doubt Camille had many more stored somewhere in her large mansion. She finally plucked a corked vial filled with dark red seeds. She frowned, looking around at the conservatory, the uniform arrangement.

It’s neatness. 

This won’t fit in one bit.

Clutching the vial, she turned and walked back to the vase where Camille stood at the clay gardening pot. She pulled the cork and shook out some of the seeds onto her open palm. Holding the seeds gave her a surge of energy, heat traveled through her body. She figured she could probably bloom the flowers in her palm but she tried to remain calm. Her hands shook in anticipation.

She looked back up to Camille and she nodded to her encouragingly.

With her other hand she scooped a small hole and placed the seeds inside, then covered them back up with the soil. She felt the soil, cool and moist, as she placed her palm on it.

Leila took a breath and fluttered her eyes closed. She allowed the heat that had built in her limbs, her cheeks, her heart, to flow down through her left hand and drain into the seeds.

For a few moments, all she could hear was sound of her heartbeat, the sounds of the greenhouse falling away.

Then her power flared and she opened her eyes and gasped.

Six green stalks sprouted from the soil around her hand. She raised her hand slowly, coaxing the plants to grow. She wasn’t sure how but she could feel each step like a recipe she was remembering. She stems grew taller and leaves shot out and reached outward. When hey had grown about a foot, buds appeared at the crest of the plant.

Blackest violet petals unfurled, shining velvet in the bright light of the greenhouse. Six obsidian iris germanica in full bloom, like six black holes in contrast to the harmonious colors of the rest of the plants. The magic left her a little lightheaded and trembling but the residual curls of magic in her veins yearned for more.

Leila couldn’t help herself, she laughed. A bubbling giggle as she touched the soft flowers, her doing. This realization rooted her in her place.

The crown of white flowers, the tree at the Induction, now the flowers here.

Mine. From my magic.

She had power, real power. As natural as the sun and as inevitable as rain. This was all hers, her duty and her blessing. 

She sniffed.

“I--” She started before her voice caught and two tears escaped down her cheeks.

Camille’s own eyes were rimmed with tears.

“I cried, too,” she said before enveloping Leila in a crushing hug.

* * *

Leila scarfed down the pasta, fettucine alfredo, within seconds. Cami-- Leila’d been reminded that she could call her that-- ate her pasta with a little more care, using both her fork and her knife with a pause between each bite to take a sip of her white wine.

They talked about the Induction and laughed over Cami’s descriptions of the other Vessels. Leila felt relieved at the normalcy of the meal, after the greenhouse.

Cami swallowed the last of her second glass. “Yes, yes, the redhead’s my best, best friend. You two’re going to get along so well.”

Leila snickered into her own water glass. Cami was much more bubbly when tipsy-- if that was even possible. Her accent started to sound less refined.

“I hope so,” Leila said. She vaguely remembered seeing the red-haired beauty, and she didn’t look to happy to be at the Induction. Though, she did dress for a party.

“Hmm, who else?” Cami asked. “You’ll meet the rest of the Junior Council in a couple of days, so I’ll skip them...You already met Martin…”

She got up from the kitchen island where they sat and went to the fridge to get another bottle of wine. Leila played with the last pasta noodles on her plate, the only survivors of her massacre. 

She tried to remember the faces of the of crowd at the temple, the other Vessels, but it was hard. There was so much going on, and every Vessel paled in the presence of an actual god. Leila had focused on the soft murmurings of Persephone, the unseen hand that had given her gift and completed the ritual at her Induction.

She remembered the hypnotic floral scent, the charged air, heavy and metallic. She remembered the molten orange glow of the setting sun slicing through the columns and the dark silhouette of the figure retreating--

“Cami, do you know the Vessel, um,” Leila paused to try and remember more. “I think I saw a Vessel but I don’t think I saw his face.” She didn’t actually know for sure if the figure was a he but she remembered the broad shoulders filling out a blazer and the arms stuffed into suit pockets as they walked away. And the sun rays cast him in a weird light, Leila swore to herself she saw a black glow around his head.

Like a dark crown. She shook her head. Wow, I’m really tired.

“But he had a nice body?” Cami waggled her eyebrows as she poured herself another glass.

Leila burst into surprised laughter and raised her hands in defense. “I can’t say. I only noticed him when he left the temple in the middle of the Induction, so maybe? Do you know who that is?”

Cami froze, mid pour. Leila noticed her frown into her wine glass like she was debating what she was going to say.

Cami immediately brightened. “Who knows? You know, I don’t even know every Vessel, there’s so many of us. So! Should I call Alicia to schedule dinner later this week?”

The uncomfortable silence had dragged only for only a moment but Leila bristled.

Cami is lying, she realized. This settled heavily in her stomach.

She opened her mouth to ask Cami why she lied when a trilling bell sounded from somewhere else in the house. A doorbell.

Leila looked at Cami in surprise and found the same look mirrored back at her.

If we aren’t expected anyone, who’s at the door?

[healthnotion]

Can Special Glasses Improve the Whiskey Drinking Experience?

Drinking whiskey from a glass tumbler — perhaps while sitting in a leather chair, reading a leather-bound book — has been a classic male pastime for hundreds of years.

In the modern age, companies have introduced what they claim are advancements in this age-old activity: glasses that supposedly enhance the drinking experience.

As a semi-regular whiskey drinker, these innovations in glassware have intrigued me. I wondered if they would noticeably change the flavor/experience, not only for a whiskey connoisseur, but for a more Average Joe drinker like myself. Sure, I can differentiate between high end and low end whiskies, but I’m never going to analyze flavor profiles or drop huge coin on a bottle. My usual commentary is more along the lines of “Oh man, that’s smooth and tasty” rather than “I detect faint notes of persimmon at the start and a real punch of toasted American oak in the finish.” Would a special glass make a real difference for a guy who can enjoy even the cheaper brands?

To find out, I tested 4 specialty whiskey glasses against my own classic rocks glass. Below I break them down. Did any of them really work? Could I notice a difference in flavor? Was all that “engineering” worth the associated price tag for the average guy? And ultimately, what ended up being my favorite drinking vessel?   

Aged & Ore Duo Glass

All photos of glasses are taken with 2oz of whiskey contained within.

Cost: $48 for a pair (includes ice ball molds)

Features & Verdict:

Double-walled insulation. Claims to keep your drink cool “for literally hours on end.” That’s fine, and appreciated, but why on earth do I need my drink to stay cool for that long? My own dram will be gone long before this feature takes effect!

Integrated measuring lines. This was a unique feature that I didn’t see on any other tested vessel. There are eight indented lines in the glass which each represent 1 oz of liquid. Indeed handy, but really only if you’re drinking your whiskey neat. If you prefer ice, the lines don’t do much good, since you aren’t going to pour the drink and then add ice.

Bell shape. The claim is that it’s designed for “better aromatics and ethanol aeration.” It’s supposed to make your drink taste smoother, but I didn’t notice any difference when compared to a normal glass. That bell shape does perfectly hold an ice ball, which they provide molds for when you buy this set. Kinda neat I guess, but doesn’t have much real benefit.

With ice.

Made with lightweight borosilicate glass. I did some homework here, and that borosilicate is indeed a nice feature. It’s just a special type of glass that’s “thermal shock resistant.” In layman’s terms: it won’t crack/break with extreme temperature changes. It’s the type of glass that nice restaurants and laboratories use. What I don’t like is the “lightweight” part. Feels like a feather when you’re holding it. Anecdotally, most whiskey drinkers I know much prefer a hefty glass. Something you can actually feel in your hand. With this one, I felt like I’d just drop it because I forgot it was there.

Overall: The measuring lines are nice, and it certainly looks unique, but there’s no noticeable difference in flavor and it’s too lightweight for folks who like some heft in their vessel.

Norlan Whiskey Glass

Cost: $48 for a pair

Features/Verdict:

Double-walled insulation. See my notes above about the Aged & Ore glass.

Indentations for better aeration. There are a few wave-like indentations at the bottom of the glass that are supposed to improve aeration and therefore reduce the ethanol burn that comes with drinking whiskey. I perhaps noticed a small difference when comparing to a normal glass, but not as much as with the NEAT glass (see below).

Made with lightweight borosilicate glass. See my notes above about the Aged & Ore glass.

Concave outer rim. With the double wall, the lip of the glass ends up sort of thick. It can make for drinking that’s a little less than optimal. The Norlan combats that by curving the lip out just a little bit so that it better conforms to your mouth as you drink. It’s somewhat noticeable, but honestly doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Overall: This is very similar to the Aged & Ore glass, and is even the exact same price. This glass doesn’t have the measurement markings, but it does have the aerating indents. I basically had the same feelings about this glass as the other one. It looks unique, but there’s not much difference in actual flavor, and it’s still a bit lightweight for my preferences.

The NEAT Whiskey Glass

Cost: $25 for a pair

Features/Verdict:

Especially unique shape. This is the primary selling point of this glass. The extra wide bottom, the tapered middle, and the extra wide mouth are supposedly highly engineered based on the science of how alcohol vapors hit the nose. 

Wine and beer glasses are almost always tapered toward the top, to better concentrate the aromas, which add a lot to the taste and overall enjoyment of those drinks. With distilled beverages though, those aromas can get too strong, to the point where you’re only getting the potent alcohol vapors rather than the scent of the whiskey itself. This is less of an issue with high-quality whiskies, as they’re purer products.

NEAT claims to give the drinker the best of both worlds, in that its wide bottom provides better aeration and concentrates aromas in the center, while the wide mouth — very unusual in tasting glasses — diffuses the harsh alcohol vapors that you often get when smelling (“nosing”) your whiskey. That combination of aeration and diffusion does actually work to create a smoother drinking experience. Huzzah! I was actually pretty surprised that there was a noticeable difference between the same whiskey served in this glass versus the standard rocks glass that I usually prefer.

This shape, however, was also somewhat of a detractor for me. Imagine serving a couple ounces of whiskey to your friends with this glass; it just comes off a bit douchey doesn’t it? Or if you’re by yourself on a weekend evening and taking in a nice big biography, is this the glass you’re going to reach for? (I tried it, and it felt weird.) Unless you’re having a tasting party or something, I can’t imagine these coming out much.

Comparatively thin glass. This is a feature that adds to the visual aspects of assessing a whiskey. With a double-walled glass or a heavy, thick-walled crystal, the view is muddled, so you can’t get a good look at the beverage’s true color and clarity. These visual features aren’t necessarily important for casual drinkers, but they are indeed nice for amateur connoisseurs who enjoy getting a clean look at what they’re drinking. On the flip side, this does make it lightweight, which as I’ve mentioned, I don’t particularly enjoy.

Overall: The NEAT indeed stands up to its claims, which is nice, and at a price point that’s half of what a couple of these other sets are. However, the fancy shape combined with its lightweight feel make for a glass that I just don’t realistically see using all that much unless I have a very nice whiskey that I want to drink neat. The NEAT also has a low capacity of just 2-3 oz; it’s truly only designed to drink whiskey sans ice, and I for one almost always prefer ice — even with nice whiskies. 

Glencairn Whiskey Glass

Cost: $17 for a pair

Features/Verdict:

This glass deserves some backstory, since it’s probably the most well-known on this list. First introduced in 2001, it’s been the standard go-to for whiskey tasting for the last couple decades. Designed in Scotland, it’s modeled after the tasting glasses that Scotch labs across the region use. The reason this particular glass became semi-famous in the whiskey world is that it was the first to be endorsed by the Scotch Whisky Association and is now in use all over the world.

On to the features:

Semi-wide bowl. The rounded, semi-wide bowl is designed for better aeration, which is supposed to make it smoother on the taste buds. I didn’t notice a difference, though.  

Comparatively thin glass. See note above on the NEAT.

Narrow, tapered mouth. As mentioned above, the problem of getting an excess dose of harsh alcohol vapors is minimized when you’re drinking a premium whiskey; you want to get a nice nose-full when you’re drinking the good stuff. It’s with that fact in mind (if you’re going to be using this glass, you’re probably going to be using it for nice whiskey) that the Glencairn glass tapers to a more narrow mouth, to really maximize the nosing experience. However, the small mouth of this glass concentrates the fumes a little too much, in my opinion. And it also makes for sort of awkward drinking; you have to almost pucker your lips to take any sips.

Overall: I have about the same feelings towards the Glencairn as the NEAT, except this one didn’t even enhance the flavor at all. It’s small, too lightweight, and honestly just feels kind of dainty. And I’m not alone in my poor opinion of the famed glass.

Classic, Hefty “Rocks” Glass

Cost: Varies, but nice sets can be had for $8-$10 per glass (I have no particular brand in mind here, though Waterford makes high-quality affordable sets)

Features/Verdict:

Even after all the testing I did, my favorite glass to use remains a heavy glass with a thick bottom, nice thick walls, and a wide mouth. The ones I use don’t have any special features in particular other than their heft. I like a glass I can get my whole hand around — not some dainty, lightweight thing that feels like my paws will crush if I squeeze too hard.

I also like a versatile vessel — outside of the Aged & Ore glass, none of those tested are suitable for cocktails, or really even drinking your whiskey with ice. The ones above will surely work well for professional tasters and armchair connoisseurs, as well as busting out for a tasting party with friends. But none work well as everyday use glasses except for the guy who exclusively drinks premium whiskies served neat.

While specially designed whiskey glasses look sort of fun, in reality they just aren’t terribly practical or, dare I say, manly. The NEAT can improve the flavor if drinking a high-end whiskey, but really, a quality product is going to taste good in any glass. What matters most is your own preferences, and I for one am sticking with my classic rocks glass.

The post Can Special Glasses Improve the Whiskey Drinking Experience? appeared first on The Art of Manliness.

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[phynxrizng]

HEALTHY RECIPES, A HEALTHY WITCH, IS A HAPPY WITCH

RECIPES Multi-Color Mediterranean Pasta Salad

Stephanie Lang, MS, RDN, CDN

By Stephanie Lang, MS, RDN, CDN, at Savor Health - Reviewed by a board-certified physician.

Updated January 10, 2017

Total Time 30 min

Prep 15 min, Cook 15 min

Yield 6, 1.5 cup portions (361 cals)

Pasta salad is easy to make in bulk and pack for lunch, take on a picnic, or bring to a potluck. All you have to do is boil some pasta and chop up a few raw vegetables. The more colors you can add to the salad the better.

Red foods like red bell peppers and tomatoes contain a phytochemical called lycopene, which may have an anti-inflammatory affect on the cells lining the heart and blood vessels, and may reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer among other cancers such as breast, lung, bladder, ovarian, and colon.

Ribboned basil leaves perfume the entire salad, so only a touch of olive oil and white wine vinegar are needed to make everything come together. To give this pasta salad more staying power, add beans for protein and feta cheese for fat and flavor.

Ingredients 8 ounces cavatappi or other dry pasta such as fusilli or bowtie 1 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped 1 medium yellow or orange bell pepper, finely chopped 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved 1 small zucchini, finely chopped 1 small red onion, finely chopped 1 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into ribbons 4 ounces block feta cheese, cut into small cubes 1, 15-ounce can white kidney beans, drained and rinsed 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar salt and pepper, to taste Preparation Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain and rinse under cold water. In a large bowl, toss together all of the ingredients with the cooked and cooled pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ingredient Variations and Substitutions Cavatappi is a helix-shaped pasta that is great for pasta salad as it can catch the vegetables, herbs, and dressing with it's shape. Other great pasta salad shapes include fusilli or bowtie pasta. You can use whole wheat pasta for extra fiber, or even a mix of whole wheat and white pasta for color, flavor, and texture variation. For a gluten-free, high protein and fiber variation, try quinoa instead of pasta. This recipe works great with chickpeas instead of white beans. Play around with the vegetables—you could use fresh or frozen peas, fresh corn, chopped spinach, or finely chopped broccoli. For the cheese, you could use a cubed ricotta salata, fresh mozzarella, or goat cheese, or try shredded Parmesan instead of the feta. The possibilites are endless, but the main idea is to fill your pasta salad with loads of fresh colorful vegetables and herbs, a little plant-based protein, and some healthy fats. Cooking and Serving Tips To store a bunch of fresh basil, place into a mini jar or vase and fill with water like you would a bouquet of flowers. Place a large plastic or zipped bag over the basil leaves. This helps keep the basil leaves fresh so they do not brown immediately. Leftover basil can be used to make pesto or salad dressing, and the leaves offer a nice zing when added to sandwiches. To cut the basil into ribbons, a technique known as a chiffonade, stack two to three basil leaves on top of each other and roll them up tightly Thinly slice the leave perpendicular to the roll

RECIPE, Penne with Swiss Chard, Feta and Roasted Red Peppers Rec Penne with Swiss Chard and Red Peppers.

By Wendy Bumgardner

Updated November 12, 2016

Total Time 20 min

Prep 5 min, Cook 15 min

Yield 6 servings

This is a quick and easy pasta dish that looks beautiful on the plate and combines the flavors of two colorful vegetables and feta cheese. It can be served hot or cold. I prefer the shape and mouth-feel of penne pasta, but you could use other shapes of pasta, such as spirals or farfalle bowtie pasta.

Penne pasta with greens and red pepper makes a great side dish for grilled chicken. If you have fresh red peppers, you can roast them at the same time you are grilling the chicken. You could substitute other greens for swiss chard, such as spinach, kale or beet greens.

This recipe has about 200 calories per serving. It is high in Vitamin A and Vitamin C. Pasta is the carbo-loading friend of the long distance walker. If you aren't planning on walking a marathon, simply practice portion control and enjoy it.

This dish can be made gluten-free by using gluten-free pasta. Vegans can leave out the feta cheese or use a vegan soy cheese.

Makes 6 servings - 1 cup each, approximately 200 calories per serving.

Ingredients 1 pound fresh swiss chard or spinach 2 cups cooked penne pasta (about 6 oz. uncooked) 1/2 cup roasted red peppers cut in strips. 1/2 cup feta cheese (low fat feta cheese or dairy-free soy cheese are options) 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon butter (optional) 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar 1/2 teaspoon salt in the water for boiling the pasta

Preparation

1. Boil the pasta in salted water as directed on the package, about 11 minutes. 2. When the pasta is done, drain and place in the serving bowl. I like to toss it with a tablespoon of butter, but you may wish instead to just add a little olive oil. The butter or oil will keep it from sticking together. 3. While the pasta is cooking, wash the swiss chard or spinach (or combination of the two), removing any long stems.

Spin them in a salad spinner to remove the excess water or pat them dry. 4. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. 5. Toss the swiss chard or spinach into the frying pan and swiftly stir it in the oil just until the greens are wilted, about 30 to 60 seconds. Add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and stir, then remove from heat. 6. Add the spinach or swiss chard to the pasta. 7. I use canned roasted red peppers, and simply take them out of the jar and cut them into strips about 1 to 2 inches long and add them to the pasta. You may prefer to roast your own red peppers, especially if you are serving the pasta with grilled chicken. 8. Add the crumbled feta cheese. 9. Toss gently together and serve. Options:

Make it a one-dish meal, adding chopped chicken rather than serving the chicken separately. I often enjoy this dish without the cheese, especially when I serve it with chicken or fish. You could use frozen spinach in a pinch, but you need to drain it well after defrosting or heating it, and you wouldn't saute it. Simply add a little balsamic vinegar to the spinach and then toss with the pasta.

Serving Suggestions and Notes for Penne Pasta with Swiss Chard and Red Peppers:

Serve as a colorful side dish with grilled chicken or fish. You can serve it hot or cold. I take it along to work for lunch the next day and eat it cold or reheat in the microwave. This makes a good potluck dish or picnic dish, served cold or hot.

Mediterranean Summer Vegetable

By Laura Dolson

Updated November 09, 2016

Total Time 35 min

Prep 5 min, Cook 30 min

Yield 8 bowls

It's like sun has been captured on your plate! This is similar to ratatouille, but has a slightly different texture and flavors. It is great cold as a salad the next day, or reheat for an omelet filling.

Ingredients ¼ cup olive oil 1 small onion, chopped (about ¼ lb) 1 lb eggplant, any variety, chopped into cubes 1 large green or red bell pepper, chopped ½ lb. zucchini, chopped or sliced 3 cloves garlic, pressed, grated, or minced 3/4 lb tomatoes, fresh or canned and drained 1/4 to 1/3 cup dry white wine, or can substitute vegetable or chicken broth Salt and pepper 1 or 2 drops hot sauce, if desired ½ cup fresh chopped basil, or 1 T dried (but please get fresh if you can, it's a lot better) Preparation In this vegetable sauté, depending on the heat of the pan and the juiciness of the vegetables, they may begin to stick. If this happens, add a splash of the wine or broth to loosen it up. 1. Heat oil in pan with onion. When onion is well-sizzling, add eggplant and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Sprinkle salt over all. Then add peppers, cook for 2 to 3 minutes, add zucchini, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

2.Push the vegetables out to the edges of the pan and cook the garlic in the center (you may need to add a bit more oil) for 30 to 60 seconds until fragrant. 3. Dump the tomatoes in and stir to release juice (again, this keeps everything from sticking). Add the rest of the wine or broth and dried basil if you're using it. Cook until tomatoes are fairly well broken-down. The eggplant should be pretty mushy.

4. Add black pepper and hot sauce, if you're using it. (Only a drop of hot sauce; you just want it to "perk up" the flavors, not be spicy.) 5. Taste and adjust seasonings. If tomato and wine are making it a bit acidic, or the flavors don't seem to be blending nicely, add a very small amount of sweetener -- no more than 1 teaspoon worth. You'll be amazed how this can change the whole dish. 6. Mix in the fresh basil, and take off heat. How long you cook it after this point are really up to you. Sometimes I cook it down to concentrate the flavors and make it a lot less chunky. If you stop at this point, though, you should have about 4 cups of vegetables,

making 8 servings

By Barbie Cervoni, RD, CDE - Reviewed by a board-certified physician.

Updated November 01, 2016

Meal planning can be tough. What will you eat today? What's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks? Lunch is often a meal that people struggle with because they are rushed, eating at their desk or just too confused by all the options. I am a huge advocate of preparing meals in advance and in bulk. Leftovers are a great lunch option. If you have diabetes, though, it's important to monitor your carbohydrate intake. Ask your dietitian or certified diabetes educator to determine how many carbohydrates you should eat for lunch. In general most people with diabetes should keep their carbohydrate intake to about 45g for lunch. (This is specific to individuals based on calorie needs, activity level, blood glucose control and medication regimen). Carbohydrate choices should be rich in fiber. Lunch meals should also contain protein and heart healthy fat to sustain energy, keep you full, and prevent your blood sugars from rising too rapidly. I encourage people to plan out meals for a few days in advance to avoid early morning stress.

Below are some of my favorites:

Grilled Chicken Vegetable Wrap

Fill a whole grain wrap (preferably one with at least 3g of fiber and about 20g of carbohydrates) with chopped or sliced grilled chicken breast and leftover roasted vegetables. I like to use roasted eggplant, zucchini, and onions. Spread 1/3 avocado for added fiber, flavor, and healthy fat. Pair with 1 1/4 cup of sliced strawberries.

*Quick tip: To find a whole grain wrap, look at the ingredient list. The first ingredient on the label should say whole or the product should contain the whole grain stamp. For more info on whole grains: http://wholegrainscouncil.org/

Quinoa Bowl

Quinoa is an ancient grain that is naturally gluten free, rich in fiber and protein. Per serving, it contains less carbohydrates than other starches. One cup of quinoa contains 170 calories, 2.5g fat, 30g carbohydrates, 3g fiber, 7g protein. Top 1 cup of cooked quinoa with chopped tomatoes, carrots, 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese, and diced leftover protein from last night's dinner.

Quick tip: You can substitute any other non-starchy vegetables for tomatoes and carrots.

Tuna Spinach Salad

Tuna is rich in protein and omega 3 fatty acids, which has been linked to reducing the risk of heart disease. Omit traditional mayonnaise and mix tuna with two tablespoons hummus. You will save on saturated fat and calories, and load up on flavor. Mix together spinach salad, cucumber, carrots, and any other non starchy vegetables you have in the refrigerator. Add 1/2 cup beans (if canned you should rinse in water first) for good quality carbohydrate, protein, and fiber. Use vinegar and one teaspoon of olive oil for dressing. I like to add fresh garlic and hot pepper to my dressing for added flavor.

Open-Faced Roasted Turkey Sandwich With Sweet Potato 'Fries'

Roasted turkey tenderloins are a great alternative to chicken. Turkey tenderloins are part of the turkey breast – they are low in calories and fat, and you can find them at the local grocery store. I like to make a big batch and use the leftovers for lunch sandwiches. You can place one turkey tenderloin on one slice of whole grain bread, top with sauteed spinach and a handful of leftover sweet potato fries for added fiber, vitamin C, and beta carotene.

*Quick tip: To save on fat and calories roast sweet potatoes in the oven with garlic and olive oil. Keep the skin on for added fiber.

Roasted Pepper and Onion Chicken Burger

Save on saturated fat and calories by swapping ground beef for lean ground chicken.

Add chopped veggies like peppers and onions for added texture, flavor, and fiber. You can grill the burgers or bake them in the oven. Place a burger between a whole grain bun or avoid the bun altogether to save on carbohydrates and place your burger on top of green salad with 1/2 cup black beans and 1/4 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese. Sources:

American Heart Association. Fish and Omega 3 Fatty Acids. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyEating/Fish-and-Omega-3-Fatty-Acids_UCM_303248_Article.jsp

Source, very well.com Reposted by, PHYNXRIZNG

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Into the Wine Not the Label Shirt

Many individuals have extremely demanding day-to-day lives. This is one of the factors so many people get involved with hobbies and interests. Interests are good ways to appreciate leisure time. Nonetheless, in order to get the most out of a hobby, a number of tips are present that you need to comply with. Here are a few guidelines to help you have a lot more entertaining with your hobbies and interests.

If you re transforming a pastime right into a funds-producing effort, make sure you properly cost your merchandise. Fee adequate to help make an ample amount of a profit whilst keeping on your own backed. Initial, tally up your costs which includes time as well as work, then include a large profit margin to make sure good results.

If anxiousness is part of your daily life, a pastime you prefer will help take away several of that feeling. Always remember that you do not have to decide on a pastime that you are presently familiar with, there is a great deal out there that you should take into account striving something new.

Hobbies and interests are able to keep you in good condition should they be actually engaged. Attempt trying to keep active through taking up interests like bike riding, operating, fishing, or visiting the fitness center. Most of these activities not simply present you with the opportunity to have a good time, nonetheless they can assist you remain healthy and look better.

Many people love to play game titles on-line as a interest. The existing games are extremely sensible, it is not challenging dropped inside the alternate truth. Video games is a great pastime if you are seeking a fantastic way to successfully pass a little while.

There are many different kinds of interests linked to tunes. You might take singing classes if you love singing. Or, you could learn to play a music device. Lastly, you might also discover ways to edit and mix tunes.Make an impression on your friends having an improvised evening of music and entertaining.

Should you be physically fit, or only want to be, an activity makes a wonderful activity. Give football, running, basketball, golf and other sporting activities a shot to see everything you like finest. Even though you didn t as if it like a youngster doesn t suggest you simply will not as if it now.

Seashell collecting is an excellent interest that can provide happy recollections of sea side getaways. Seashells can be academic for kids and in addition are excellent decorative highlights for the house.

Hobbies and interests can offer a encouraged shelter through the storms of life, supplying feelings of relax and delight if they are necessary one of the most. If you would like commence taking pleasure in your activity even more than before, some hard work may be needed. Make use of the over recommendations as a helpful guide, and you will definitely have what you ought to do that.

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