Jet Cannon

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Natural Wine in a nutshell

Food and Drink / By

Have you been wondering if “natural” wine might be the thing for you?  We haven’t either.  Nonetheless, in the pursuit of greater knowledge, we did a little reading.  The short-story version is that natural wine is not made using additives that regular wine makers use.  (The exception is sometimes the use of sulfites to help preserve the wine.)  In regular wine, additives are used to keep what goes into the bottle the same as what we end up drinking.The upshot is that natural wine won’t likely age well because wild yeasts and microbes may come alive in the bottle and give the wine a kombucha-like tang or even a barnyard-y flavor.  

Traditional wine lovers generally prefer to let a good wine age and mellow which the additives allow them to do without changing the other characteristics.  And traditional wine can also be organic meaning the grapes weren’t subjected to pesticides.

So add natural wine to your grape-based options.  More choices is better. 

  • Jet Cannon
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Fire Up those Guns

Fitness / By

Gyms are opening. Spring is here. Time to tone up those arms and especially those biceps.

Well + Good says there are alternative exercises to bicep curls that aren’t as isolating and may reduce the risk of injury. Those exercises include chin-ups, single-arm dumbbell rows, reverse-grip bent-over row, reverse-grip cable pull down, and seated cable rows. You’ll need a decently equipped gym but these alternatives should show good results. Read the article here.

  • Jet Cannon
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Healthy Kickstart

Caffeine, Fitness, Food and Drink / By

Coffee and breakfast are a good way to start the day. So combine the two with a coffee smoothie. Here’s some ingredients to consider:

  • Coffee
  • Almond Milk
  • Banana
  • Walnuts or almond butter
  • Vanilla Protein Powder
  • Ice
  • If no one is looking, add chocolate

 

Fire up the blender and away we go!

 

  • Jet Cannon
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Countdown to Cocktails

Food and Drink / By

March 24th is National Cocktail Day. Here’s what nationaldaycalendar.com has to say about that.

“Celebrate all your favorite cocktails on March 24th. National Cocktail Day ushers in all the best ways to savor a beverage at the end of a long workday. Whether you like a fruity drink, blended or on the rocks, this day is for you. Mocktail, virgin, or the real thing, celebrate the lemon, lime, bitters, liquors, and liqueurs that make your favorite beverages the best in your bartender book.”

“It’s probably no surprise that nearly every month on the calendar celebrates a cocktail. The only exception is April, and since it’s National Alcohol Awareness Month, it makes sense to take that month off.”

  • Jet Cannon
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University of Rock

Music / By

We like the Beatles.  Great band.  Very influential and all that.  And for those who would like to dig a little deeper, there is now a Masters degree program at the University of Liverpool.  

“The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage.  This programme aims to reframe and extend contemporary discourse about the Beatles beyond the historical and musicological into a broader and more robust 21st-century context.”

So there you go.  International students in this one year course will need to pony up over 20,000 pounds for tuition. “You Never Give Me Your Money.” – Abbey Road

Crack those books.  Study hall.  All-nighters.  Midterms.  Finals.

– Jet Cannon

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Exercise Versus Martini. Hmmmm

Fitness / By

As Margaret Talbot writes in The New Yorker, what we think about exercise today as being a good thing wasn’t always so.  Here is an excerpt.

“For much of the twentieth century, as the journalist Danielle Friedman writes in her canny and informative new book, “Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise an Reshaped the World” exercise has not always been recognized as an unassailable good.  

Friedman describes a 1956 radio interview in which Mike Wallace, later of “60 Minutes” fame, expresses incredulity at the vision set forth by the pioneering fitness advocate Bonnie Prudden. “You think there should be a formal exercise, a kind of ‘joy through strength’ period for husband, wife, and family when the father gets home from work at six-thirty at night, before the Martinis?” he marvels. “You think we should have a routine, all of us?””

  • Jet Cannon
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Mean Green St. Patrick’s Day Smoothie

Food and Drink / By

Don’t feel like green beer?  Not a fan of Black and Tans?  Mohito not your thing? Want to get a shot of your vegetables while celebrating the day?  Here’s some ideas for a free-for-all, DIY hard mogreen smoothie.  Select ingredients to suit your taste and your pantry.  You will need some baby spinach to keep it healthy and green.  But consider adding some of these to your blender.  Vanilla protein powder, lemon and lime juice, almond milk, ginger, kiwi, pineapple, mint, plus vodka, rum or gin.  And ice.  Yes, make it your own!

– Jet Cannon 

Black and Tan prep

Food and Drink / By

 

Get your ingredients and start practicing to impress your friends with a proper Black and Tan pour on St. Patrick’s Day.  Here’s a helpful how-to video…. and it’s especially good if you don’t want to bend a spoon or if you don’t have the little tool used to keep the two beers separated.

BTW, be careful ordering a Black and Tan in a pub in Ireland.  They may toss you out!

 

Cheers!

– Jet Cannon

Photo:  Reddit.com

 

Smoke on the Water

Music / By

We’ve never been too adept at decifering symbolic rock lyrics, other than that they often refer to sex.  So it was nice when Deep Purple recorded Smoke on the Water and, as Parade magazine reports, the monster hit could not have been more literal. “Some stupid with a flare gun” burned the casino in Montreux, Switzerland near where Deep Purple was finishing up their Machine Head album, “to the ground”.  Guitarist Richie Blackmore said he based his iconic riff on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Classic.

– Jet Cannon

Hemingway Daiquiri

Food and Drink / By

Good news! We sampled a Hemingway Daiquiri at The Reef in Palm Springs. “Ernest’s beverage of choice for a good reason – maraschino liquor, Admiral Nelson Rum and a splash of grapefruit. It’s refreshing and will make you a better writer. (Okay, maybe not.)”

Wish we hadn’t seen that last part.

  • Jet Cannon

Image: liquor.com

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If the Shoe Fits…

Fitness / By

Whether you’re getting your walking steps in or still jogging/slogging, it’s important to have the right shoe for your specific feet.  There’s lots of good information on the Interweb.  Our takeaway…. It makes sense to spend a bit (or quite a bit) more for shoes fitted at a running store.  That can make your treks more comfortable and reduce your risk of injury.

Here’s some articles to help sort through the many aspects of what will help determine the right shoe for you.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/gym-wear/a28656307/best-running-shoes/
https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/g19556347/best-running-shoes-for-men/
https://www.healthline.com/health/best-running-shoes

– Jet Cannon

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Scorpion Stretch

Fitness / By

Knowledge is good. And stretching is good. We’re often a bit short on both. Yet MEN’S HEALTH suggests we add a Scorpion Stretch to our routine. That assumes we have a routine.

Check out this article and video for more information about the importance of stretching for men over 40.. And be careful. It sure sounds dangerous but likely the benefits are significant.

  • Jet Cannon

Photo: spotmebro.com