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16:04:10 Sunday July 01 2007

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I present to you what is most likely the last brier pipe smoked legally in a West Lafayette Bar. Sara and her sister Katie joined me last night to witness the smoking ban go into effect.

I should note that I am a non-smoker and I think that smoking is a profoundly unhealthy habit. However, passing laws to force people to be healthy strikes me as a fascist thing to do.

We only stopped at Harry's for about half an hour, but that was long enough to smoke a ceremonial cigarette and witness the long arm of the law snatch away smokers' rights. This isn't to say that I won't be enjoying the smoking ban next weekend, but the quality and fairness of a law has little to do with how much I would enjoy it. I would enjoy it very much if everyone else's tax dollars were direct deposited in my bank account.
15:57:16 Wednesday July 04 2007

So I have had this suspicion that people who claim to prefer the 1978 Chateau Lafite-Rothschildto the 1979 are making what amounts to a nearly paranormal claim. My taste buds and olfactory receptor neurons are certainly not that finely tuned. I have even won small proposition bets in the past by betting on the limits of human perception.

But what about a much more limited test? Can people pick out entirely different varietals? We thought it would be fun to host a party and find out. We stared by seeking out good exemplars of each of six varietals. We had some problems as some of the wines we had originally hoped for were not available in the store. None the less this was the list at tasting time.
  • Cabernet Sauvignon - Beaulieu Vineyard, Napa Valley CA USA, 2004
  • Merlot - Wild Horse Vineyard, Paso Robles CA USA, 2002
  • Nebbiolo - Enotria, Mandocino CA USA, 1999
  • Pinot Noir - Bogle Vineyards, Russian River CA USA, 2004 (N.B. This was deemed a bad example of a Pinot Noir after the test)
  • Shiraz - Penfolds, Coonawarra SA Australia, 2000, Bin 128
  • Zinfandel - Ravenswood Vineyards, Sonoma County CA USA, 2004
The test was not properly blinded, because who wants to miss the fun of tasting. I don't think there was any cheating otherwise one would expect the scores to be higher.

Here are the results. It appears that it is very difficult. The scores were quite low, but the party was a lot of fun so we are likely to host another and attempt to identify some white varietals.

  Score   A B C D E F
Oracle 6   Merlot Zin Neb Cab Pinot Shiraz
Dan 0   Zin Neb Pinot Merlot Shiraz Cab
Sara 2   Shiraz Zin Pinot Cab Neb Merlot
Chris N. 1   Zin Shiraz Cab Merlot Pinot Neb
Chrissy 0   Neb Cab Merlot Shiraz Zin Pinot
Brad 1   Merlot Cab Pinot Merlot Shiraz Cab
Liz 1   Merlot Pinot Zin Shiraz Cab Neb
Chris C. 1   Pinot Zin Merlot Shiraz Cab Neb
Ali 0   Pinot Merlot Cab Zin Shiraz Neb
Number of Times
Identified Correctly		 =   2 2 0 1 1 0
15:29:04 Friday July 20 2007

I don't usually traffic in silly web links, but I think this is informative.
20:23:13 Monday July 23 2007

Just some quick photo updates. Here are the photos from our first night out at the Neon Cactus after the smoking ban went into effect. It really is nice to not come home reeking of smoke.

And here are the photos of Borders in West Lafayette during their Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows midnight release party. I was somewhat disappointed with the costuming this time around. It seems like people had more fun with it at the release of Half Blood Prince. On the up-side Sara did put together a last minute costume, consisting of many pink things and a chopstick.
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