RKS Wines: The Flow of Inexpensive Bordeaux Keeps on Coming: One Good and One a Clunker!

The flow of $20 and under Bordeaux keeps on coming into the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. And you can score some winners. Given supply chain problems and the rising cost of just about everything in these inflationary times one wonders what 2022 will bring? One would think supply chain issues for wine will not affect Ontario wineries as they might affect ex-Canada wines.

We try a Cap Royal which is a Bordeaux Supérieur. It received a 96 in the 2020 International Wine & Spirit Competition if that makes you feel any better. Is it worth a 96? It would have to be exceptional to deserve that score.

It has aromas of rich black cherry, cassis, red plum and vanilla. It suggests a certain creaminess or softness should follow on the palate. The tannins are soft and the wine is smooth but still has some assertiveness to it with that rich back cherry also present on the palate along with some blackberry, milk chocolate and cactus pear.  Given its nose I would have expected more concentrated flavours on the palate but many Red Bordeaux’s play peek a boo with their fruit and I think this is one of them. The finish is moderate in length. My hope is that the peekaboo game will end in a couple of years and the fruit will present itself. I might suggest why not hold onto this until the summer of 2022.

(Cap Royal Rouge 2018, AC Bordeaux Supérieur, Bottled by LCDR À 3350 for CMGC, Blanquefort, France, $18.95, LCBO # 486761, 13.5%, 750 mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 90/100)

We try a 2018 Château Lanbersac Puisseguin Saint-Émilion. Extreme black cherry in colour. On the nose soft and creamy with black cherry, cassis and a slightly floral tinge. There is a bit of a coffee streak as well which causes me some concern as it may indicate the grapes were picked overly ripe. The tannins are mild. Unfortunately I am correct about coffee as a warning sign. I don’t think I have ever used the word “weird” but that’s what this wine is on the palate. I could also use the term “Over-Extracted” or raw. Whatever the word this wine is badly made and this is simply a one-off bad bottle or he knows not what he speaks! I am returning this bottle and I will therefore not rate it. It’s $17.95 which is an attractive price but this is one ugly wine. Zut Alors!

(2018 Château Lanbersac Puisseguin Saint-Émilion AC, Lannoye, France, LCBO # 2117, $17.95, 750 mL, 14%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating UNRATED)

Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog is Back: Our Second Disney Promotional Tour and Reggie Goes to Australia to Film with Nicole Kidman

Yes, finally the sequel to “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” has been released by Disney and its breaking all records. I sense Bob and Dylan the Westie are tiring of so many promotional tours. I heard Bob talking to Fay and saying Dylan the Westie is getting older and is having difficulty keeping up with our schedule and that this time he should stay with Fay. I hear Bob saying that he is also having difficulty as these tours are far from glamorous and rather gruelling and he is not doing this for the money as he has already made millions and donated millions to rescue dog societies through Reggie’s Dog Foundation. He is doing it for the children that adore me Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog.

Disney wants Bob to write the next sequel to the film but he has said he will wait until after the promotional tour to make a decision.

So off we go and thank goodness we will be flying again in the Disney corporate jet. I am not going to tell you the cities we went to on the tour but thank goodness we are going to Paris and Bob has insisted upon a three-day break there. I saw Versailles last visit and we are seeing Fontainebleau and eating in a couple of Bob’s favourite restaurants. I love L’Ami Jean with its nouvelle bistro cuisine and I’ll get a few pieces of beautifully cooked meat. The whole restaurant smells of deliciously cooked meat! As I said previously, “WE DOGS LOVE MEAT!”. We have also been invited to dinner with the big guy Ayatollah in Tehran. Iranian children love me as I am a Muslim. A dog to look up to. A dog with accomplishments. In fact before that important dinner the Ayatollah and I are cutting (me biting) a red ribbon on a soon to be built “Reggie’s Tehran Dog Rescue Centre”. Bob has told me he is upset with Tehran’s human rights violations and is going to tell this to the big guy Ayatollah. And he did and the Ayatollah unexpectedly smiled and said as the country had settled a nuclear deal with the United States so political tensions should be relaxed and the government was in the process of planning to release hundreds of political dissidents including Nasrim a famous human rights lawyer/activist. I also prayed with the Ayatollah which was cool as all my prayer have been private and I haave never prayed with a Muslim human before! Bob also told the Israeli Prime Minister Israel really should work on solving the Palestinian problem as its unacceptable actions against these people would forever seal a streak of desperation and hatred amongst the Palestinian people. In the politest terms he was told to mind his own business.

I miss Fay and Dylan the Westie but I have his blanket with me in my Winnipeg Blue Bombers bed I received from the mayor of Winnipeg at the most recent Grey Cup game so I don’t feel homesick! Yes we dogs can become homesick.

Bob and I return home to Toronto to a welcoming Fay and Dylan the Westie who was so excited he accidentally peed on the floor. I heard Bob and Fay talking over a bottle of wine from Galil Mountain Winery in the Golan Heights that Bob and I had visited. They have created a Reggie brand for their export market. Bob tells Fay he is, pardon the expression, “dog tired” and that he has accepted Nicole Kidman’s offer for me to co-star in her upcoming movie “How a Dog Saved My Life”. While on our promotional tour in Sydney, Australia we had dinner with Nicole who asked me if I wanted to do a screen test for the movie the next day which I did “bloody brilliantly” according to the director of the film and Bob was given the contract to review.

Nicole had found a beautiful house in Darwin in the Northern Territories which all of us could live in for 4 months while they were shooting the movie there. Dylan has a cameo appearance where the fierce Scottish Westie defends Nicole’s character from a poisonous snake attack! Bob and Fay also have a cameo appearance as an arguing Canadian couple in a restaurant Nicole is eating at. A family project and we will all be movie stars. Mr. Gordon Lightfoot is involved in the film as he is writing the opening track for the film. Russel Crowe will be doing my voice in the film. Our friend from Beamsville, Ontario Martin Malivoire will be doing the special effects. We Canadians will be red hot in Australia.

After details of the movie are made public as we leave our Bridle Path home for our walk reporters are there asking all sorts of questions. We are in the spotlight again!

” My Life as a Golf Marshall”: Is It Really Possible to Improve Your Golf Game with Mindfulness?

This is a difficult question to answer. After much thought and personal experience with mindfulness on the golf course my answer is that it most likely will not improve the mechanics of the game but it most likely will increase the pleasure of your golfing experience.

It might strike you as a revelation as it did me playing my last game for the season pre COVID era. It was a miserable game. Everything was going wrong. Finally on the 13th hole I thought just forget the misery, anger and frustration growing inside me. You are on the golf course on a beautiful day. Every shot is a new shot and forget the previous holes. I figured I was going to hit over a hundred so what did I have to lose. Well I lost the bad game and started playing quite well including making an impossible shot on the 18th hole in a sand trap over the trees and three feet from the hole. In for a birdie.

As I was driving home from the course I thought of the many times I had driven home in an angry mood disappointed with my game. It usually faded after I returned home but that anger and frustration was a real and a negative force.

This year I have given mindfulness a serious trial on the golf course. I have accepted my golf game for what it is. I am stuck in a range for my score from a 77-99 for 18 holes and there is not much I can do about that. I still get frustrated and angry but not always and if I do it doesn’t last for that long. In fact I get more frustrated about my attitude now than I do at my game.

Does it go the identical way for the beautiful shots which occasionally amateur golfers do experience? But if you exhilarate with a bad shot you can lapse into mental deterioration. There is that possible little defect in golf mindfulness. So you can down your exhilaration or learn to completely be in the moment and realize that fantastic shot was a previous shot lost in the past. Heavy duty discipline.

We will discuss some mindfulness hacks so you can try them out next year. As a parting thought mindfulness most likely will not improve your score but it will improve how you feel mentally about your game and of course if you are feeling mentally good it is possible your score will improve but I would say at the end of the day it’s like “Groundhog Day” as you are stuck in a range game after game!

“Mutantism on the March ” :Chapter 119 The Mutants Protest at Hellsinkit

Not having success at the United Nations headquarters in New York the mutants flocked to Hellsinkit in Finland to protest their exclusion from being able to address delegates at the United Nations Human Rights Conference. Some 30,000 of them poured into an already overcrowded Hellsinkit. The problem of accommodations was apparent as all accommodations had long been booked in the city however the mayor of Hellsinkit, Javik Sandor, had sympathy for the plight of the mutants partially because his grandmother, afflicted by crippling arthritis, had been a member of the mutant movement for years. The Hellsinkit City Council had previously constructed a mutant centre in Hellsinkit. By vote of the city a campground at the fringe of the city was temporarily “expropriated” and an International Mutations Camp was constructed with help of the Finnish army. City fireman and policemen donated their time to install portable latrines and canteens. Volunteers managed kitchens so the mutants had good food to fortify their strength. Kegs of local pine needle beer were also delivered. As far as the citizens they felt that Hellsinkit was nothing but a soapbox for politicians to deliver platitudes. It was a conference for the politicians and the media. The politicians and their delegations would go to the finest restaurants and stuff caviar down their gullet washing it down with Champagne then return to their 5-star hotels while thousands in many of their countries were starving and slept in the streets. The mutant camp was for the people. Politicians were too busy cultivating their image delivering insincere speeches about oppression and suffering which only a few cared about. They had no time for people but at the mutant camp there was a true spirit of international co-operation.

While the mutants gave protests their heart and soul only the Finnish delegation insisted the mutants be given the right to address the conference. In a sense the commingling of international mutants gave a festive air to Hellsinkit.

Valuable tips and strategies were shared amongst the mutants and many a lasting friendship was established. In essence this was the first true international mutant conference however informal it was.

The mutants had come to Hellsinkit expecting very little so they were not downcast being ignored by the official delegations who ignored their pleas and catcalls lest their hot breakfast in the hall be too cold to enjoy. They massed outside the conference hall demonstrating and explaining to the fringe media who had been denied accreditation their goals and aspirations as a true international committee. At least the delegates and the media saw and reported on their frustrations and anger. It made for exciting press coverage of a boring and sham event.

After one last party the Canadian mutants boarded their Lard Air flight stopping in Malton Airport in Toronto and Dorval Airport in Montreal. Up and onwards!

RKS Poetry: Are We Looking At The End Of The World?

Are We Looking At The End Of The World?

Thinking that Omicron is the end of it?
Personally I say this is only the beginning of the shit
More will be coming from the poor countries the Western world has colonized and raped
and on your funeral casket their revenge will be draped
you pillaged and plundered
and soon will be felled by their viral thunder

Robert K. Stephen

“Mutantism on The March” : Chapter 118: The United Mutations Protest Prior to the Hellsinkit United Nation’s Human Rights Conference

The mutants of the world were dismayed they had not been given a voice at the United Nations Hellsinkit Human Rights Conference. Frustration seeped through United Mutations offices throughout the globe. Given the role the mutants played in saving thousands of lives in Montreal from the attack of the giant killer ants they felt especially dejected and “sold down the river”. Many members shuffled through the office or in a park nearby with heads hung low murmuring to themselves. Many were seen hitting their heads with stale bagels.

The United Mutations office in Montreal had been far more generous than the Quebec government in equipping mutants needing a wheelchair with the best in class motorized wheelchair. Several hardcore mutants laughed at the idea of wheelchairs as they managed without them for years. This was a hearty breed of rebels who openly flaunted their “handicap” doing their best to embarrass the “straights” and their little kiddies. They had managed to achieve a great deal of mobility they had learnt from the most impoverished Indian mutants of Bombay who sat on planks of plywood with wheels and they dragged themselves forward by lassoing objects and pulling themselves forward. However this method had its drawback especially during rush hour in Montreal as pedestrians would occasionally be entangled in rope and bellow insults. This method of propulsion was especially dangerous in the winter if the wheels were not winterized and a patch of ice was encountered which would cause the plywood plank to spin out of control and slide onto the road where they would be run over by vehicles. Some 6 mutants had died this way the year before.

For longer trips the Montreal mutants had rusty decommissioned public transit buses. But the Greek Gods were so impressed by the mutants defending Montreal’s Greek population in the Avenue de Parc Riots they sent the Montreal mutants some 8,000 ancient Greek gold coins that enabled them to buy some 25 new Mercedes passenger vans. They were painted Indigo Blue with the mutant’s logo on the sides which was a wheelchair with a brain on it crisscrossed by two crutches painted in silver. The vans were equipped with CB radios, telephones and a small kitchen with a WC. In fact the mutants developed their own public mutant bus route system in Montreal that welcomed all citizens for no charge. The City of Montreal had big exhibitions to pay for so no transportation was available for the “handicapped”.

A fleet of mutant vans packed with mutants headed off to the offices of the United Nations in New York to protest their exclusion from Hellsinkit. Outside the United Nation’s offices in Manhattan they joined a variety of groups protesting their exclusions from Hellsinkit including United Mutations from over the globe, the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Advancement of Homosexuals Association. They shared their experiences and strategies for coping and defeating the discrimination levelled against them. By the first evening some 20,000 had gathered outside the swank U.N headquarters and every time a delegation arrived they tried to present their case and they were not without success as two diplomats in the Yugoslavian and Fiji Island delegations promised to do “what they could”.  The two friendly but bewildered diplomats were taken to a local Greek taverna on 47th and 3rd for numerous shots of ouzo. It turned out to be a festive time for all except for Myra Ludiwosy and Mea Longo who were summoned to the United Nations and dismissed by the chief of their delegations.

Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog is Back: Canadian Grey Cup 108 Years! Reggie Pukes!

So we all headed to Hamilton, Ontario on Saturday night to stay at the Imperial Hotel in Hamilton the night before the big Grey Cup game on Sunday at Tim Horton’s Field. After being in so many European cities on promotional tours for the Disney film “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” I would say Hamilton is a bleak city. But the citizens are amazing. Warm. Affectionate and joyful Hamiltonians greet me like one of their own. And to be fair arriving in the twilight on a gloomy and cold night tells me Hamilton deserves a closer look. Perhaps if we visit Niagara-on-the Lake we can stop in there or even make a week-end of it in the summer and watch the Hamilton Tiger Cats play a game. I bet you they want another shot at the Grey Cup next year!

We arrive at the Imperial Hotel and there are cameras popping flash bulbs. What…am I Nicole Kidman? Actually Nicole has asked Bob if I could co-star with her in her next movie “How a Dog Saved My Life”.

So we check in and there is a huge assortment of gifts and fruit baskets in our suite. The mayor of Hamilton has sent a couple of Gamay wines from Malivoire Winery in Beamsville which is very close to Hamilton and a couple of cases of assorted micro-brew. And the mayor of Winnipeg has sent us some perogies and two beds with a big Winnipeg “W” on them! Dylan the Westie jokes and says W is for Westie. We settle in and chow down. Dylan the Westie and I have our chicken kibble and two perogies each. Bob and Fay watch some movie while we dogs snooze. At 11 p.m. Bob takes us out for a walk. While we are ready to sleep the city of Hamilton is on fire! Groups of fans from all over Canada are crowding the bars and streets and the air is chock full of beer fumes and happy vibes.

While Bob walks us he talks to us and says Canadian football is one of the few facts that separates us from our American neighbours. As I know really nothing about football I can’t understand what he is talking about. Bob says Canadian football is more fast paced as there are only 3 downs? As I have not watched a BBC documentary on Canadian football I am ignorant about this! We go for our pee and poop and head up to our room for a sleep.

We are up at 9 a.m. and the mayor of Hamilton has sent us a special breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, blueberry waffles and a keg of local Hamiltonian brew! And all of us get a Hamilton Tiger Cats jersey even us two dogs!

Dylan the Westie and I go out for a long walk after breakfast and many Hamiltonians stop us and say how much they love Reggie and his best friend Dylan the Westie!

There is a little stink from the steel mills in Hamilton but then again we dogs have a sensitive nose!

At 2 p.m. we join the Trudeau’s for High Tea. This Prime Minister is as smooth as silk, like an actor. We have some great jasmine tea and cucumber sandwiches with lots of little cakes. We dogs get a bite or two of these English sandwiches. I feel like I am back in London! And Dylan the Westie and I get a half a cup of jasmine tea.

At 4 p.m. we are picked up by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police escort to go to the game.

We are taken to our seats by the Trudeau’s and  their family. The crowd is wild and the smell of beer envelopes us. The fans are crazy with bizarre outfits. Quite frankly I have never seen such a good-hearted frenzy!

I know almost nothing about Canadian football but the game goes into overtime and dramatically is won by Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

As I told you after the national anthem Dylan the Westie and I do a round across the field with team flags in our mouth then jets from the Canadian Airforce zip over our heads.

The crowd chants “REGGGGGEEEEE” and then “DYLAN”. Almost a billion people have watched “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” but the chanting chills my bones and makes me shiver. Canadians have their problems and issues particularly with those nasty residential schools for its aboriginal children but tonight many Canadians are ready just to have some simple fun.

We are in a security bubble. We dogs don’t really understand football but feed off the vibes of you humans.

What is real is that after having chunks of burgers, fries, perogies and pizza with all the excitement from the field I am becoming a bit dizzy and my stomach wants to expel the human food I have ingested. I gotta puke and the limo driver pulls aside as I empty my stomach on the streets. Dylan the Westie comforts me and says “You pups can be so silly sometimes. You shouldn’t have eaten a whole piece of pizza one of the Trudeau children fed you when no one was looking.”

Back in our suite Dylan is in his fancy Blue Bomber bed and happily snoring as 14-year-old dogs do. Bob pours some ginger ale in my water bowl and asks me to drink some. It is sweet and tickles my throat and excuse me I let out a very loud belch but my stomach feels much better. I hit the sack and fall asleep in a flash. I remember Bob giving my jowls a rub and he says ,”We are so proud of you Reggie. You have come a long way!”

RKS Film: “The Big Hit” (Un Triomphe)

A struggling actor Etienne (Kad Merad) volunteers at a French prison to offer a theatre workshop to a small group of prisoners. He plans to mount a Samuel Beckett play “Waiting for Godot”. This is not a simple play but in six months he has them ready to go. Their first performance in Lyon takes place at a friend’s theatre. It is so well received off the prisoners go on a theatrical tour of France. Well you can guess the rest but the ending will surprise you.

Much of the film was shot in a French penitentiary giving the film some gritty reality. The prisoners know much about waiting as they wait for the days to pass when their sentence is served or they are paroled. Prisons are designed for retribution and rehabilitation. However the prisoners in the theatre troupe are not being rehabilitated in any meaningful way until they prepare for the play. They realize their potential as actors and human beings despite their insecurities and general lack of self respect. It’s a rocky road for the prisoners and Etienne.

Etienne and his troupe of actors

And their biggest and final performance is at the Odeon Theatre in Paris where even the Minister of Justice is in attendance. But if you are expecting a compelling performance you’ll be surprised who gives it!

Although their success transforms these prisoners returning to prison is a difficult and disheartening experience and you really feel it in your bones.

The film is based upon the experience of Jan Jönson a Swedish actor who trained a group of convicts in Sweden to perform “Waiting for Godot”. As for their last performance Beckett said it was the best thing that could happen to his play!

The film was directed by Emmanuel Courcol.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/466653375

The film is currently playing throughout Canada.

Poetry Corner: Terror After Terror

Terror After Terror

COVID-19 causes an initial scream

Delta variant an abnormal bad dream
but a Big Pharma wet dream

Yet now another mutant Omicron
MORE VACCINES proclaims the BIG PHARMA big con
So brilliant it takes three vaccines to curb the harm
billons made with each jab in the arm
with each variant you’ll create a dream
the never-ending story on your balance sheet

With humanity you are nothing but a big profitable cheat
with a new vaccine for every variant
you profit seeking deviant

Robert K, Stephen

“Mutantism on the March” :Chapter 117: The Mutants Keep on Getting Shit Upon

The mutants thought it preferable being weak and sincere as opposed to strong and hypocritical. USSR mutant hate was secondary to USA hate. During the Vietnam “conflict” the Yankee mutants had ferociously diatribed the idiocy and brutality of their government which resulted to numerous braying’s of betrayal. Former United States President Affliction had made them one of his targets in his notorious Houston Plan implicating them in a Vietcong drug ring operating in the United States poisoning high school students with heroin laced candies. The naïve American public, at least those who ate Swanson frozen dinners in front of their televisions nightly, lapped Affliction’s barbs against the mutants, making it open season on the mutants. The mutants were exonerated later after an Affliction tape recording had been unearthed by the Washington Post where Affliction snickered, he was going to frame those “mutant bastards”. Southern United States had a special hatred of the mutants as over half the mutant cadres were non-Caucasian. They had always been actively fighting segregation in the Southern United States which riled the Fucked-Up Clan, a senile group of fascists service station owners that specialized in beating, hanging and maiming loud mouthed coloured’s and stupid Northern student communists that supported negro rights. More than a few mutants were gunned down by the Clan who retaliated by blowing up half the service stations in Georgia.

Many parents in the United States told their children that mutants were the monsters hiding under their beds and if they didn’t eat their broccoli the mutants under their beds would haunt them. Initially after the grisly Tate murders in Los Angeles the mutants were blamed. Farly Manson the mastermind and chief butcher in the Tate murders was labelled a mutant, A mind mutant he was but he had had no place in a mutant movement that rejected mutants who were murderers, perverts and the like. Americans began to fear a rash of mutant killings until Twiggy, one of Manson’s killers issued a statement that Manson detested mutants and called them “walking imperfections” who would be destroyed when his family seized power.

The mutants of the world assembled at the Hellsinkit United Nations Human Rights Convention in the hope of being able to address the delegates on the evils of mutant prosecution and violation of their human rights. However only “official delegations” appointed by their governments were permitted to speak and attend the Convention meaning of course the mutants were denied a voice. Squid wrote a statement in the International Mutant Herald:

“Mutants of the world we have been rejected from participation at the Hellsinkit Conference on Human Rights. This is a body that supposedly is concerned with violations of human rights in the world. Very odd considering that governments are the biggest violators of human rights in the world yet only governmental delegations are permitted to speak at this conference. Consequently, this is a sham Convention which is nothing more than a media circus and a public swindle of the grandest proportions. We mutants are aware that nothing of consequence will emerge from such a circus of hot air performers!

The main performers in this Convention are the USA and USSR which are the two biggest violators of human rights in the world. In public they criticize each other but, in the bars, afterwards, where the real business is done, they laugh with each other over shots of vodka. Overt human rights repression in the USSR was evident with the liquidation of the kulaks. Writers and poets are imprisoned for “thought crime”. In the USA repression is a bit more subtle where that regime concentrates its repression in Central and South America. It really doesn’t have to dirty its hands as it has local lackies doing that for them.

We mutants are a nation linked by our common suffering. We have no need for a homeland. We asked to be treated decently in our homelands. We challenge all repressive regimes and for these concerns many of us end up imprisoned. We don’t ask much at the moment. Let the world treat us mutants with respect. If you don’t give us the status of mutants then at least give us the status of “normal people”. Perhaps we mutants are dreamers but didn’t Dr. Martin Luther King have a dream? It seems our dreams bring ridicule while their dreams bring them Nobel Peace prizes. For many of us our dreams are all we have left. That is a poor reflection on this world.”