Jet Cannon

Pissed about the List?

Music / By

Per wpdh.com, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, whose judgement in admission selection some, like me, have questioned over the years, has a new greatest all-time list of classic rock songs. Here are the top 10 songs:

  1. Joan Jett – I Love Rock ‘N Roll
  2. Queen -Bohemian Rhapsody
  3. Pink Floyd – Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)
  4. Led Zeppelin – Black Dog
  5. Bon Jovi – Livin’ on a Prayer
  6. Guns N’ Roses – Sweet Child O’ Mine
  7. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama
  8. AC/DC – You Shook Me All Night Long
  9. Boston – More Than a Feeling
  10. Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion

For the record, Stairway to Heaven was number 154.

Read More: There’s a New ‘Number One’ Classic Rock Song of All Time | https://wpdh.com/theres-a-new-number-one-classic-rock-song-of-all-time/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Great songs are in the ear of the beholder so we can make our own list.  Some of my picks would probably get me laughed off the school playground so I’m keeping my list private.

– Jet Cannon

Post Game Burger

Burgers, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

 

Seattle burger chain Dick’s is reminding us that there is hope to reclaim a basketball team, after the NBA champ Sonics left town years ago, with a special t-shirt.  NHL hockey is coming to Seattle in the remodeled Coliseum so there’s a modern venue in which to play.  And Dick’s has a restaurant right down the street!  Dick’s features one of the best burgers in America according to me and George Motz author of Hamburger America.  And the fries and shakes are excellent as well.

While we wait for hockey and basketball, we still have Dick’s.  

– Jet Cannon

cold Beer For Dad

Food and Drink, Travel / By

Forget beer cozies.  Step up to BottleKeeper.  They’re sharp-looking insulated holders to keep a can or a bottle cold when the weather gets hot.  They come in a variety of colors and sizes including larger sizes for pints.  There are an number of brands besides BottleKeeper.  I have an Asubu available via Amazon.  Mine will hold a 12 oz can or bottle and has a bottle opener on top!

It’s June and Fathers Day is coming right up.  Drop the hint.

– Jet Cannon

burger, hamburger, grill

Chill Burgers

1 Comment / Burgers, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Any respectable Baby Boomer has their own burger grilling techniques and recipes yet we’re always on the lookout for new tricks.  One thing most of us agree on is that this isn’t a time to go healthy.  That means 20% fat content ground beef.  Working in Worcestershire, onion salt, garlic, etc is up to the individual but we need the fat for flavor, drips on the charcoal, and to keep things together.

A number of chefs say searing in a cast iron skillet is a must.  Celebrity cookbook countess Ina Garten says we should freeze our smash burger patties for exactly two minutes before grilling.  Yeah, in the freezer.  For exactly two minutes.  She also likes Gruyere cheese, which is a great cheese, but we think it’s un-American to use anything other than American cheese.  But to each his-or-her own.

Buzzed Boomer At-Large Correspondent Hunter S. insists that burgers go on a fancy griddle like a Blackstone.  A cast iron skillet accomplishes the same thing but isn’t nearly as impressive. That’s from someone who doesn’t own a fancy griddle like a Blackstone.

Our Orinda, CA Correspondent Moge Starr talks up his super-sized Blackstone grill but he hasn’t written a thing for the blog so he’s been promoted to Chief Marketing Officer.

For your traditional burgers on the barbecue, another top chef recommends creating a slight crater in your patty and placing an ice cube on top to keep things moist as it cooks.  Haven’t tried it yet but it sounds promising and it’s sure to generate interest from your less-informed friends.

Keep those cards and letters coming as we continue our quest for crowd-pleasing burgers.

Cheers and Happy Chilling Grilling!

– Jet Cannon

abstract, barbecue, barbeque

Give NEFT a Heft

Food and Drink / By

Buzzed Boomer Assistant Chief Correspondent Old Man Wrong and I have often discussed, and he has written about, our confusion with vodka and its lack of taste; at least to our palates.  What’s all the marketing fuss?  It’s all the same, right?  We drink gin.  Because it has flavor.  So as a joke, OMW gave me a tiny plastic barrel of NEFT vodka.  I tried it on the rocks and compared it to my mostly-dry Bombay Sapphire Martini.  I admit I was impressed with it’s smooth texture.  Maybe that’s the “mouth-feel” that I’ve read about.  I can’t say it had flavor but it was nonetheless appealing. Anyway, I’m going to try the bigger 750ml barrel and compare it to other vodkas.  Plus it’s hard to resist the genius marketing of putting vodka in an unbreakable barrel so I don’t break my bottle by the pool as I’ve done so many times before.  Okay, that’s never happened, mainly because I don’t have a pool, but I still love the barrel idea.  If you get into the hype about filtering multiple times, well, NEFT’s water has been filtered for 50 years in the Austrian Alps! So it’s got that going for it.  A sucker is born.

My local liquor store hadn’t heard of NEFT.  But the big box liquor store probably does carry it.  More to come from Buzzed Boomer’s intrepid Research Department.

– Jet Cannon

Spinal Tap to Play Jazz/Folk Festival

Cannabis, Good Clean Fun, Music, Travel, Trending / By

That’s not true.  No word on a Spinal Tap tour.  But according to ultimateclassicrock.com, many bands are restless after Covid Cabin Fever.  Acts you may remember include the Stones, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Motley Crue/Poison/Joan Jett, Chicago/Rick Springfield, Rod Stewart, Journey, Foreigner, Metallica, Cheap Trick, Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, Green Day/Fall Out Boy/Weezer, Elton, Guns N. Roses (with Slash and Duff), Kiss, Ozzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ringo (with Steve Lukather and Gregg Rolie), Aerosmith, Black Crowes, Styx, Sammy Hagar/Whitesnake/Night Ranger, Grand Funk, ZZ Top and The Who to name a few.  Check the InterWeb for dates near you.  

– Jet Cannon

musician, person, guitar
vietnam memorial, soldiers, bronze

Remember

Uncategorized / By

Baby Boomers represent the 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964. The United States began to draft Baby Boomers into the Vietnam War in the late ’60s. The New York Times reports that 40% of males in the Baby Boomer generation served in the war. It’s estimated that 47,434 American fighters were killed during Vietnam.

Approximately twenty-one percent of male Baby Boomers alive today  are veterans.

We remember those today who made the ultimate sacrifice and thank the many Baby Boomer veterans for their service and sacrifice.

– Jet Cannon

Sandy Bottoms on Memorial Day

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Uncategorized / By

This drink looks fairly easy and it’s got watermelon!!  Besides…. What a great name!  A few lame jokes and you’ll be the hit of the backyard or picnic.

Per foodandwine.com

Sandy Bottoms 

Ingredients


  • 2 cups fresh watermelon juice

  • 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) chilled white rum

  • 3/4 cup chilled 1-to-1 Simple Syrup

  • 3/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 6 limes)

  • 1/2 cup Peychaud’s bitters

  • Lime wheels, mint sprigs, and small watermelon slices, for garnish
  • Directions
  • Step 1 Combine watermelon juice, chilled rum, chilled simple syrup, lime juice, and bitters in a 2-quart pitcher; stir to combine. If not serving immediately, seal well with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to 2 hours.
    Step 2 To serve, stir watermelon mixture well. Fill pitcher with ice, and stir gently until outside of pitcher is cool. Pour into rocks glasses filled with ice, and garnish each glass with a lime wheel, mint sprig, and small watermelon slice
  • Jet Cannon
bitcoins and u s dollar bills

Cause I’m the Taxman

Cannabis, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun / By

Boomers.  Remember when darn near everything fun was illegal.  Buying beer on Sundays.  Pot.  Gambling.  Speeding.  Wait, speeding is still illegal. 

Then someone realized there’s a bit of money in them there vices. Washington state tax revenues from direct cannabis retail sales were $468.81 million in 2020, while excise revenues from liquor and alcohol sales only totaled $415.28 million and cigarette, tobacco, vapor product excise revenues only totaled $383.55 million.  Lottery revenues for fiscal year 2020 totaled $820.0 million.  We’re still being taxed but it’s more fun than being taxed on property or, say, plumbing hardware.

 So what’s left?  Sex, drugs, and rock & roll.  

Hey, Ho.  Legalize Rock & Roll.  Or just sex and drugs. Rock & Roll is probably too dangerous.

As Beer Boy Captain Tony is fond of saying, “Legalize it and tax it”.

– Jet Cannon

audience, band, celebration

You Never Know

Food and Drink, Recipes / By

A slow convert to the inclusion of any Dry Vermouth in my gin Martini, I was surprised to recently enjoy a gin cocktail with Sweet Vermouth.  Gorgeous just to look at, it was quite tasty.  Vivian at the 913 Bar pours an excellent “Martinez” with Uncle Val’s gin, the aforementioned Sweet Vermouth, Luxardo, and orange bitters.  Marvelous!

– Jet Cannon

cold hand dark alcohol

Endorphins The Hard Way, The Yummy Way, and the Rat Pack Way

Endorphins, Fitness, Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Music / By

Noted Buzzed Boomer contributor, Old Man Wrong, will drop into Seattle today from the Bay Area to share his expertise in catching a Buzz in multiple ways.  Faithful readers may remember OMW’s posts on the art of cooking steak, popcorn, and….. Brussel Sprouts. He also knows a bit about fitness.

An open water swimmer, OMW will first brave the brisk waters of Puget Sound to fire up those exercise endorphins.  Brrrr!  I’ll be doing some beer can curls from the safety of the beach.

Next, we will visit B & E Meats, established in 1958 by Bob and Earl Green, where OMW will select the proper steak for pan searing and grilling later in the evening.  Yum.  

Finally, a stop is planned at the Tin Room Bar for a classic, poured-at-the-table, dry gin Martini.  “Quite simply, no other drink even comes up to its knees.”  Further quoting Jay Jacobs in A Great And Sudden Glory, we shall “stoop to pay obeisance to this wonder.  The pursed lips draw off a modicum of the only liquid to which the adjective “brittle” can be applied.  The taste buds undergo extreme arousal, and a great and sudden glory is experienced in the general vicinity of the pharynx.  With startling clarity the drink seems to irradiate its own descent through darkness from gullet to gut.”  Queue Frank Sinatra.  

We will look forward to some of OMW’s takeaways from this quick trip to the Pacific Northwest in a future post. Meanwhile, cheers!

– Jet Cannon

person, human, joy

McSorley’s

Food and Drink, Good Clean Fun, Travel / By

McSorley’s Old Ale House, generally known as McSorley’s, is the oldest “Irish” saloon in New York City.     Your beer order comes two at a time and the waiters bring the mugs by the fistful.  A popular appetizer consists of saltine crackers, raw onions and cheese slices.  Classic.  

Per Wikpedia.org, opened in the mid-19th century at 15 East 7th Street, in today’s East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, it was one of the last of the “Men Only” pubs, admitting women only after legally being forced to do so in 1970.

The aged artwork, newspaper articles covering the walls, sawdust floors, and the Irish waiters and bartenders give McSorley’s an atmosphere reminiscent of “Olde New York”. No piece of memorabilia has been removed from the walls since 1910, and there are many items of “historical” paraphernalia in the bar, such as Houdini‘s handcuffs, which are connected to the bar rail. There are also wishbones hanging above the bar; supposedly they were hung there by boys going off to World War I, to be removed when they returned, so the wishbones that are left are from those who never returned.

Two of McSorley’s mottos are “Be Good or Be Gone”, and “We were here before you were born”. Prior to the 1970 ruling, the motto was “Good Ale, Raw Onions and No Ladies”; the raw onions can still be had as part of McSorley’s cheese platter.

McSorley’s is considered to be one of the longest continuously operating ale houses in the city due to the fact that during Prohibition it served a “near beer” with too little alcohol to be illegal.  In 2005, New York magazine considered McSorley’s to be one of New York City’s “Top 5 Historic Bars”.

Notable people who have visited McSorley’s include Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, and Boss Tweed. 

It’s usually jammed with people and a heck of a lot of fun.  Look it up when in the Big Apple.

– Jet Cannon