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I'm a big fan of red ales. They tend to have more flavor than brown ales, while not being too bitter or too hoppy or too strong. They are, perhaps, some of the most balanced beers available.
So at the Bier Stein this evening, I was quite chuffed to get a pint of the Mia & Pia Red Ale (also Monday's beer of the day, at $3 a pint). Superb, rich color, and a slightly bitter, well-malted taste. I'm amazed I managed to have just one.
But perhaps you can make up for that.
One of the oddities of Oregon is that anytime a pedestrian is at a street corner, that corner mysteriously and invisibly transforms into a crosswalk. But how is a driver or cyclist to know that a person at a corner is about to cross the street, or biding their time, or just looking up the street to see if they're where they want to be getting? In steps the legislature, with a possible solution:
"The Oregon Legislature is considering giving every pedestrian in the state the power to stop a stream of traffic by stepping to a street corner and raising an arm to signal "Halt!""
Have Windows, want to save documents as a PDF, but don't want to shell out for Adobe Acrobat? The Free PDF Converter - doPDF (as heard about on CopCast) is your answer. It's free for personal and commercial use. Check out the doPDF website for full details and quick download.
And before the [other] snarky Mac owners chime in, yes, another way to save as PDF on your computer is to get a Macintosh. Point made. Moving swiftly along now.
Lovely — a tax increase on beer. Potentially damaging to one of Oregon's healthiest, most innovative industries. This tax feels punitive — what else could it be, asking for funds from the beer industry to alcohol rehab?
From what I've seen so far, I'm opposed to this tax, especially in its current form. With the vagaries and nuances of the beer distrubition industry, this sounds like it will wind up an across-the-board tax that's bad for the beer industry, and for all us beer drinkers.
Then again, there could be some potential here. Fast food could be
taxed, with the revenues going to weight-loss clinics. Guns and ammo
could be taxed, with the revenues going to fund prisons. And patchouli
could be taxed, to provide soap to stank hippies. This might be worth considering after all...
Link: Beer tax raise tastes bitter to opponents -The Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA.
To hear the two sides talk about the six proposals was like listening to entirely different debates. Advocates focused almost entirely on the need to restore shrinking Oregon State Police patrols and to build back the system of treating alcoholics' addiction and preventing others from becoming problem drinkers. To them, Oregon's lowest-in-the-nation beer tax (80 cents per gallon) is prime for an increase of a nickel or a dime. But Oregon brewers saw the proposals as an unprovoked assault on the heart of "Beervana," as Oregon is sometimes called because of its reputation for the state's numerous producers and consumers of regionally brewed craft ales and beers. By their calculations, the six bills discussed before the House Revenue Committee would drive up their taxes by up to 1,235 percent - from $2.60 to $32 per barrel.
There are some great – and tasty – happenings at Iraila Mediterranean Rustica Restaurant over the next few weeks:
"Hype or not, the thoughts and ideas behind Web 2.0 contain the meat of the message. The Web is no longer static and one-way. Instead, visitors play a role. Users participate and connect to each other through services as opposed to Web sites."
"Have you heard the one about humor in marketing communications? It's funnier—or at least more effective—than you might think."
"Most companies are uninformed about email-marketing best practices and suffer from a lack of in-house, expert resources. Very few companies recognize this, however, because even poorly done email still tends to perform fairly well. No harm, no foul, right? Wrong."
Chopping wood? Then you, like me, need to know how to sharpen an ax:
When You've Got an Ax to Grind
An Ax to Grind: A Practical Ax Manual, 9923-2823-MTDC, Getting the Hang of It (continued)
Spring means Northwest produce starts kicking into high gear. In our latest Good Food Easy produce delivery, we drooled over a bag of the season's first (for us) sugar snap peas. We eat these raw — because, well, why would you eat them any other way? But we also love having something to dip them in, so I whipped up a wee horseradish and yogurt dipping sauce:
In a small bowl combine...
Dip away. Want to kick things up a little more? You can also add your choice of...
When Jodie and I got the house, one of the first things we did was replace every standard incandescent bulb with full-spectrum compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs. Full-spectrum bulbs are similar to sunlight, quite helpful during our notorious gray rainy winters. And also quite helpful to the electric bill.
Whatever qualms you may have about compact fluorescents, put them to rest. The light quality is every bit as good — if not better — than standard bulbs. The higher cost is recouped a hundred times over in utility bill savings. Then again, if you like spending more money than you need...
Whatever the case, swing down to Home Depot and snag a free CFL this weekend. Don't be surprised if you convert your entire house:
Link: Home Depot to Give Away Compact Fluorescent Bulbs this Sunday ∞ Get Rich Slowly.
It's symphony night in Eugene! Thur., Apr. 19, 8 p.m. at downtown Eugene's Hult Center. Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero leads the Eugene Symphony and guest musician Alisa Weilerstein, Cello:
Also, be sure to check out the Eugene Symphony's simplified website — prettier to the eyes, faster to load, and easier to use.
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