Waiter: Bring Me the ’66 Thunderschewitz!

Here at the Spume HQ, we’re passing some rather cold San Francisco nights revisiting, chronologically of course, Matt Groening’s awesome animated series, Futurama. While I was once a strong Simpsons fan — and those first few seasons of the Simpsons are brilliant — Futurama it seems has held up much better over time, both in terms of comic delivery and timeless subject matter.

It’s also an amazing food & wine show it turns out. There’s the spice-weasel bamming chef Elzar (a spin on Emeril Lagasse), and tons of references to cooking, eating and drinking — in a sci-fi futurey animated comedy kind of way. We recently watched the first season episode, A Giant Ball of Garbage, which included this wonderful line from the alcohol loving robot Bender as he orders wine during a banquet:

I’ve been perusing your fortified wine list, and I’ve selected the ’71 Hobo’s Delight, the ’57 Chateau Partay, and the ’66 Thunderschewitz.

Check out the audio clip: Bender ordering wine

LOLCats Invade Barbaresco

Guns, Knives and Tequila at WSWA: Cougar Beat’s New Favorite Booze

Feeling charged after Sarah Palin’s speech this morning, Cougar Beat hit the floor at WSWA, where there can be exciting intersections of violence and alcohol.

The Beat reports: “Yes, the bottle is shaped like an AK-47. And that’s machete of tequila next to it.”

Be careful: Mention direct shipping here and someone will whack you with their tequila machete!

Sommelier Starts a Winery: Who Will Do My Nails? Does Mario Batali Have Any Restaurants There?

This has been making the rounds but I thought I’d join the meme chorus. Greg Harrington, a former sommelier who started Gramercy Cellars in Walla Walla (the wines are pretty rad, and don’t taste that much like dirt), made this hilarious video:

Recent Search Strings, or, “Are Wine Writers Parasites?”

Like many bloggers or other new media junkies, I’m just a little obsessed with checking at my stats counter. Looking at the terms and phrases people use to navigate the internet can be enlightening, entertaining and, well, rather creepy. Below, a snapshot of yesterday’s and today’s (thus far) searches that brought people here.

Oh, internet. You’re so special.

>>

These are terms people used to find your blog.

Today

Search
fixed gear
night sky
pizza on wheels
sky
“the national” “concerts à emporter”
stickers per wine bar
mercato centrale firenze ore
al pastor
golden ratio egg
in seven wonders of the world roman colosseum

Yesterday

Search
night sky
fixed gear
sky
night sky stars
alta california mission trail
are wine writers parasites?
spume
sky night
taco truck
“wolfgang weber”

Nigerian Wine Spam?

A friend forwarded me this email, which might just be the work of Nigerian email scammers. Evidently the turmoil in the financial world — and perhaps an increased awareness of both personal finances and email scams — has forced the scammers into a new game. Either that, or this whole wine fraud thing is really getting out of hand.

Wow, who knew the international wine trade could be so much fun?

And remember, kids: Be careful when playing with the internet. Watch those credit card numbers. And POS machines (for routing purposes?).

God bless him…

> From: Tim Mccarron
> Date: October 2, 2009 5:36:05 PM PDT
> Subject: Wine Booking.
> Reply-To:
>
> Hello,
>
> I want to make the reservation for 10 guests who are coming to your country for a meeting of private meeting.The group would need your wine services in your place,from 27th to 30th October of 2009.The Guests are 10 in number and we want to make a deposit of $3,000 USD in advance before their arrival. All the checks and balances will be made with you the 30th of October 2009.
>
> 1) you have a POS machine to charge credit cards?
>
> Contact me please back with your answer. God bless him.
>
> Regards,
>
> Mr. Tim McCarron.
>
> Mobile: xxxxxxx*

*Note: Phone number removed just to keep y’all from getting in trouble.

St. Patrick’s Day: Who Cares?

Especially when there’s Cougar Barbie! Someone shared this with me on Facebook and it’s just too funny not to pass around.

Also: The clip ends randomly with John McCain, which is more than a little gross in this context.

Ninja Saturday

A little Dr. McNinja ass-whoopin’ for Saturday…

The Doc’s on a CIA plane bound for a forbidden island to save the world. The plane’s been attacked, his CIA contact hurled from the gaping hole and the mysterious assailant — dubbed a robot by the CIA agent — has boarded the plane…

Go here to start from the beginning.

Tomfoolery

It’s Repeal Day folks, the anniversary of the 21st Amendment that ended Prohibition here in the United States. It’s also sort of become a Valentine’s Day/Hallmark holiday of sorts for the booze industry. Like Valentine’s Day, Repeal Day seems to inspire an raft of stories, theme parties and the like in the various media that care about such things. And just like any good faux holiday, it’s also inspired a few contrarian responses.

Anyway, as you can see from the picture below, we thought we’d, erm, join in the fun over at Wine & Spirits. If you’d like to see our choices for Repeal Day libations, take a look at the list. Notably absent is Peter Liem, although at web-press time he was ensconced in a Burgundian bordello drinking Domaine Dujac until the wee hours. Which, come to think of it, makes me insanely jealous…

Wino Photos are Fun

I’ve finally got a decent camera in my phone. Not that I’m abandoning my Nikon or anything, but this does mean more spontaneous pics to share. To wit:

Check out those tartrates!

Is it me, or is that a fingernail floating in the neck of this wine? The label *did* say that this wine was bottled unfiltered. Maybe that means the grapes were trod by foot, in which case, well, I’ll let you speculate about that…

Ever wonder what’s in a wino’s recycling bin?

A weekend’s consumption: canellini beans (tossed with tuna and sauteed dandelion greens), Ridge 2001 Buchignani Ranch Zinfandel (with 15% carignan, from 80 year old vines), Movia 2006 Pinot Grigio (natural wine from Slovenia), several cans of Modelo Especiale (class).