Frank Retires
After fifty years in the work force, Frank, one of the Friday afternoon Beer Boys, has retired…. and decided…. to take a gap-year before tackling all those honey-do’s.
So he has learned something along the way.
– Jet Cannon
April 2021
National Military Brats Day
Lots of Baby Boomers out there were military brats. Thanks for being the new kid in class.
- Jet Cannon
Just Say NO! Well, Maybe
An article from CNN last year warned that there are serious risks to the growing number of seniors over 65 using some form of cannabis. That is no doubt true. Life for seniors is full of risks including alcohol, driving, ladders, sex, and most concerning of all…. death.
Turns out many seniors are using cannabis for pain relief. They’re not catching a Buzz, they just want to not hurt so bad and maybe get a good night’s rest. Lots of CBD products out there with no psycho-active THC. No Buzz. Just, in theory, relief or relaxation.
What about those who are after the Buzz? The article warns that some of the commercial cannabis is not the weed we smoked back in the day. It can pack a punch. But there are mild variants available, too.
The article does not mention the benefit and also risk of appetite stimulation. Good possibly for cancer patients and not so good for us overweight Boomers. Hide the ice cream.
Interaction with prescription drugs could be a risk. Ask your doc. Also, we are warned to avoid cannabis after heart attacks. That’s not all I’ll be avoiding! No marathons either.
Moderation. Mellow. Don’t mix. Don’t fall. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there.”
– Jet Cannon
Call Me Old….. Fashioned
I’m always seeking a mellow Buzz without giving up the fun and escape from reality that a major Buzz provides. I tried my first lower alcohol-by-volume Old Fashioned by using zero proof “whiskey” and regular sweet vermouth plus a half jigger of Old Fashioned flavoring. Of course the vermouth is 16 proof so the cocktail does have alcohol. Just less. And it worked. There was a distinct whiskey flavor that fooled my taste buds. No, it’s not as good as the real thing but it’s not bad. And rather than have just a very small drink there’s enough for one or two cocktail glasses worth. It allows me to go through all the motions of making and shaking and garnishing and admiring my libation presentation.
Next I tossed in a half-shot of whiskey to get bring my drink a little closer to the real thing. There’s the very mellow Buzz.
I’ve also tried the faux gin and tequila. They’re a handy addition to the cocktail arsenal for good old Baby Boomers who maybe need a little lighter Buzz but still want the bang.
– Jet Cannon
Layla
Layla, you’ve got me on my knees
Layla, I’m begging, darling please
Layla, darling won’t you ease my worried mind
I’ll have a Hendrick’s dry Martini. Two olives, please.
– Maserati Mike reporting live from Layla’s in Lake Chelan, Washington
National Picnic Day – April 23rd
Break out the picnic basket and the cooler! And tomorrow is National Pool Opening Day. Tuck those Covid 19 extra pounds into your swim suit, get on the diving board and show us you still have that half-gainer!
-Jet Cannon
National Jelly Bean Day
Yes it is! Break out the beans!
Inspired by the very successful and satisfying Lucky Charm marshmallow vodka shots from St. Patrick’s Day, the Buzzed Boomer Research Department endeavored to try Jelly Belly vodka shots. Now keep in mind there are “Jelly Bean” shots on the Interweb but these are concoctions that don’t use the actual bean. Just liqueurs. The Buzzed Boomer team wanted authenticity and so we sorted through the beans to find five or six of the same flavor then carefully chopped them into little pieces. The pieces were dropped in little jars to blend and dissolve overnight. Unlike marshmallows, which dissolved instantly, the beans don’t. So the shots, if left unstrained, reminds us of a cloudy Goldschlager with little bits of “gold” almost floating. Actually the Jelly bits just sit in the bottom of the now quasi-appropriately colored vodka. But how’s the flavor??!! Did the vodka take on the remarkable flavors associated with Jelly Bellys? Close!!! Pretty darn good! Worth a shot!!
– Jet Cannon
No buzz in Those Greens!
Brussel Sprouts still suck, just not as bad as they used to. At the table growing up . . . big brothers (cool, snickery); a sister (holding her own); mom (ringleader, cook); dad (dropped off by carpool at 5:23 pm, a little later on his driving day, serving up); and me (punk, dragged in from kick the can or whatever) . . . there was almost always something tasty on offer. Seems incredible even to me, but we all showed up pretty much every night for many years.
Which was fine, a little stiff at times but more than a few laughs along the way and like I say, decent-plus edibles (thanks mom!!). And eating together forms bonds (I didn’t know that then). Except Brussel Sprouts. We weren’t poor so they weren’t canned. But we weren’t rich so we had no notion of “fresh” (dirty? European?) A&P didn’t have fresh anyway. My mom boiled the living Ess out of those frozen, piss-green balls. Stunk up the place. Mouth-feel like the inside of a waterlogged baseball, taste like paste and not the minty kind; rotten spinach, fish? Bad. I cut a deal with the dog – you eat my Sprouts, I shoot you a couple extra Milk Bones.
All that’s changed of course. Now you get BS on the stalk or at least fresh in a zip-lock bag with sell-by date. Try this: Baking pan. A little bacon fat (ok more than a little), salt ‘n peppa, olive oil and lemon. Preheat to 6750 deg. Shove it in and 10 min later, Boom!!. Crispy on the outside — leaves shatter and bacony. Tender on the inside – smooth, the sour gone, almost sweet. Earthy not dirty.
But that pure high never lasts. Along comes oven-roasted BS No. 18, a bigger one that didn’t quite caramelize or tenderize . . . maybe a rough time growing up on Better Than You Organic Farm. Bite into that Eff’er and well, where is the dog??
Old Man Wrong
Happy 420
Okay Baby Boomers. If you only indulge in cannabis once a year, this is your day!! Allegedly started by some highs school-age Boomers in San Rafael around 1971, 420 was code for smoking at their usual 4:20 PM time. Or something like that. Nowdays there’s a celebration on “Hippie Hill” in Golden Gate Park.
If cannabis is not your thing, then raise a toast to you fellow Boomers to show that you’re really hip.
-Jet Cannon
And Yet, Here We Are!
I miss the Cold War. As wars go, it was a good one because hardly anyone died. And yet it generated really cool stuff like nuclear submarines that could launch nuclear-tipped missiles from underwater, long-range bombers, ICBM silos in South Dakota farm land, Nike rockets perched on local hilltops designed to shoot down Soviet bombers, powerful radars searching for enemy bombers or missiles coming over the North Pole, and underwater listening devices to seek out Soviet subs. My lunch box featured nuclear ballistic missile sub USS George Washington. That sucker could launch 16 Polaris missiles at the Soviets in a matter of minutes! Good thing, too, because during the Cuban Missile Crisis a few Soviet sub commanders were minutes away from firing nuclear-tipped torpedoes at our ships blockading Cuba. And had they fired, well, we would have had to retaliate.
Just to make sure our bombs worked, there was extensive testing of those devices. More than one thousand tests. Seems like a lot. But how much fun would that be!! Code-names Trinity (first), Able, Baker, X-ray, Yoke, Zebra, Fox, Dog, George (first thermonuclear), Item, Sugar, Uncle, King, Nancy, Ruth, Dixie, Ray, Badger, Climax, Romeo, Hornet, Project 56, Kickapoo, Mohawk, Franklin, John (air-to-air missile), Saturn, Newton, Rainier, Argus I (300 miles altitude), Swordfish (anti-submarine rocket), Raccoon, Packrat…… you get the idea. Lots and lots of tests. Many air drops. In other words, not buried to contain the radioactivity. I had a thermos of milk in my USS George Washington lunch box. No doubt my milk was laced with Strontium 90 from all that fallout circling the globe, landing on the grass that our patriotic cows dutifully ate.
Remember fall out shelters? We had one at my elementary school. Maybe Dad dug one in the back yard. How about those sirens that went off every week at the same time on the same day.(some powered by hemi V8 engines….. very loud). Duck and cover kids! Don’t look at the flash.
And yet, we’re still here!!
Jet Cannon
Does this count as a serving of fruit?
Fruit and beer. Orange IPA. Yummy. I think I’ll have another.
- Maserati Mike – Reporting live from Redlands, California
Cure for the dry creek blues…… raspados
Want to work up a powerful, cotton-mouth thirst? Read the latest from our favorite RV warriors. Luckily, they also offer a cure. Read more.
- Jet Cannon
Mix and Match Summer Vacation
There are so many creative cocktails on the Interweb and I rarely have the ingredients I need. I don’t want to invest in an expensive bottle of some obscure liqueur that I will rarely use. Modern Gourmet Foods has created a step in the right direction to help me out. Airplane bottle-sized flavorings to create, in this example, summer vacations mixers. Tropical Painkiller, Brazilian Caipirinha, Pina Colada, Blue Hawaiian, Ruby Red Sangria, Peru Sour, Singapore Sling, Peach Bellini, Margarita, and more. How cool is that? Just add alcohol. I’m hoping they have similar box for Fall and Winter! Stay tuned for taste test results.
– Jet Cannon
