See, I grew up in pop country, and even when visiting extended family, most of them were in pop country. But I went to college in militant soda country, I tired of the battles, and so I’ve almost entirely purged both words from my vocabulary. I just try to order precisely the brand name I want should I be ordering a glass of carbonated sweetened flavored water.
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If you really waste your time eating at the Big Texan in Amarillo, I’d probably skip Cattlemen’s. Cheever’s is the best restaurant in the city, and is uniquely Oklahoman. Upscale comfort food in an old flourist shop with a hefty wine list and a world class chicken fry.
You can go to the Paseo afterwards or one of the bars in Uptown (the Pump, Bunker Club). Last time I was at The Pump I got roofied, but it’s everyone else’s favorite bar.
http://cheeverscafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Cheevers_Dinner_APRIL2021.pdf
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The fuck? Did you, uh, make it out of this somewhat OK? I hope? Was someone targeting you, or did you drink the wrong drink?
That Cheever’s menu looks fantastic.
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This was about 6 years ago. I lived nearby and walked to this bar to have a drink with a friend. Had one beer, left my second beer unattended and went to the bathroom. My friend left shortly after and I was chatting up a bartender I’d known for years. That’s the last thing I remember. Next thing I know, it’s 4AM and my partner has driven from her house 20 minutes away to pick me up off the sidewalk near my house. I was sick as a dog, and super out of it. I puked a lot that morning and felt like I had been in a car crash the next couple days. I had played poker earlier that night, so I had some cash on me that was gone (like $700). My face was a little fucked up. I think I fell on the sidewalk a lot when I was disoriented. Or maybe someone beat me up and took my money.
Anyway, sobriety is pretty boring.
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Shit dude. That’s fucked up. Seems weird to roofie someone for money (or nothing, or something else) instead of rape, but I guess that’s on me.
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Yea I’m not the only cis straight guy that’s been roofied there and their sister bar. Some crusty punk crew were always hanging around. I think they thought it was funny to roofie people? Idk but it’s awful. Worst hangover you could ever imagine.
Dunno if the legal troubles of ex French President Nicolas Sarkozy get much visibility in the Eng language news world. I know they do get reported a bit but it really is getting pretty crazy at this point, so I figured I’d treat you all to a (relatively) quick version.
So he’s already been convicted in one case, bribing a judge but that’s boring. As is another he’s on trial for currently, overspending on the 2012 campaign. It’s all about bills to consultants for events. Yawn.
The real fun is in something that’s been rumbling on for years now, and where he is currently charged and awaiting trial. The basic allegation is that in his first Presidential campaign in 2007 (that he won) he received millions of Euros in clandestine funding from none other than Colonel Gaddafi, erstwhile Libyan supremo. What makes that extra fun is that Sarkozy and France were enthusiastic cheerleaders for and then participants in the bombing campaign that lead to the Colonel’s fall from power and grizzly death in 2010/11. Not a great ROI for Muammar!
Lots of ‘proof’ has come out. Documents from the Libyan government found when their ministries were ransacked. Evidence that Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign paid for loads of stuff in cash. Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign manager having hired a massive strong box at an exclusive Paris bank, and when asked why telling investigators it was just to store Sarkozy’s speeches! Obvious fake financial transactions involving Sarkozy people selling houses to Libyan connected folk for several times their worth, who never visit them and then what happened to the funds is ‘forgotten’. Meetings between Sarkozy associates and Libyan intelligence folk that didn’t get put in the official diaries. It doesn’t look great.
The most visible thing though is a dude called Ziad Takieddine who claimed to have been the bagman, and to have personally delivered several suitcases of cash to the Sarkozy campaign offices. Pretty unlikely you may think, and it does sound it. However why would this guy even be saying this? Well, it’s because he was put on trial for being the bagman in another case of illegal campaign funding and wanted to deal. He, along with others, was eventually convicted. It was all about a dodgy arms deal with kickbacks for the 1995 presidential campaign of Edouard Balladur. Balladur was Prime Minister at the time, and you’ll never guess who was serving in his cabinet, Sarkozy!
It doesn’t even end, there, though. Takieddine had maintained his story for years, however late last year he suddenly popped up in Paris Match giving an interview saying that it was all made up. He also took the trouble to send a sworn statement to the investigating judges before taking himself off to Lebanon (he’s Lebanese) and keeping out of the limelight.
There wasn’t much response from the judges and the journalists who have broken much of this pointed out that Takieddine’s testimony was just one among many proofs. Sarkozy, however, immediately went on the biggest 8pm news show, aggressively proclaimed his innocence and denounced a conspiracy against him. An interesting wrinkle.
Months went by then several Sarkozy associates were arrested, interviewed and then charged with witness tampering and attempting to pervert justice. Lately as that investigation has gone on, more new shit has come to light about it. To be honest it seems like a bunch of clowns doing stuff that Sarkozy was probably only vaguely aware of and (because whatever else he is, he’s not a moron) likely not particularly in favour of.
Takieddine’s sworn statement was circulating in its final form among Sarkozy associates before the man himself could have possible seen it. Money obviously flowed to him. It all seemed to have been set up by two Sarkozy associates who the owner of the magazine then told various journalists involved to never mention to anyone.
And then, just for extra laughs, there seems to have been an attempt to bribe people in Libya to release Gadaffi’s son, Hannibal, who would then produce an ‘Official’ who could claim that the Libyan government documents seeming to mention the original bribes were fakes. (Even though there’s already been a court case that concluded that the documents are not fakes.)
In France no one ever suffers much consequences from Political cases like this, certainly not ex-Presidents, and it will drag on for years and years more in increasingly abstract legal shenanigans. But it really does seem like Gadaffi bribed Sarkozy to the tune of millions, and then Sarkozy was involved in destroying him and his country in part to try and cover his own arse. Which, despite the convoluted nature of the tale, is pretty simple, pretty wild and, given what happened in Libya post Gadaffi, pretty fucking awful.
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The cup is made from the biodegradable plastic I helped commercialize (monomer made by fermentation).
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Mitt Romney’s house with the famous car elevator was sold. Fifth most expensive home sale in San Diego County History.
He bought it for 12.5 million in 2008 and tore the original house down to build an 8000 sq ft mansion which was assessed a year ago at 15.3 million
You are way overestimating your tasting skills. Have you ever watched top chef. Professional chefs can often not differentiate radically different food types blind.
The difference between coke and Dr pepper is about as much as milk and apple juice. Do you think all carbonated drinks taste similar?
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If there was true blind tasting of multiple pops like coke, pepsi, root beer, Dr Pepper ect i think the misidentification rate would be high.
So he…somehow probably lost money on a house in San Diego?
Great job Mitt
Do you drink any of these even semi regularly?
Look upthread. I have done blind coke and Pepsi tastings and could distinguish them easily. I do fancy myself as better at that sort of thing than average though.
Another blind tasting I did once was Skittles, because a friend alleged that all Skittles are the same taste, just different colours. I said that was bullshit and wound up doing a blind tasting. I think the flavours have been different in different places, here they are lemon, apple, orange, strawberry and grape. Apple and grape are obvious on blind taste but orange is chimeric and can be misidentified with lemon or strawberry (and vice versa). That one is not as easy as you might imagine but I was still like 90% at it.
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I’d wonder how blind it was and if it was just two then random chance would kick in a lot.
I’d be convinced if you had to try 15 pops and differentiate the base flavour.
I think very few people have a base knowledge of 15 different types. That’s well more than your average fast food restaurant even offers.
Pretty sure Dr Pepper is the one with the peppery taste.
Dextrose?