A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity

RKS Literature: Italians; Children of the Sun or of the Shadow? (D.H. Lawrence)

“The Italian people are called ‘Children of the Sun’. They might better be called ‘Children of the Shadow’. Their souls are dark and nocturnal. If they are to be easy, they must be able to hide, to be hidden in lairs and caves of darkness. Going through these tiny, chaotic back-ways of the village was like venturing through the labyrinth made by furtive creatures, who watched from out of another element. And I was pale, and clear and evanescent, like the light, and they were dark and close, and constant, like the shadow.”

D.H. Lawrence, “The Spinner and the Monks”,1916.

RKS Literature: Who is Captain Ahab? (Herman Melville)

“He’s a queer man, Captain Ahab-so some think-but a good one. Oh, thou’lt like him well enough; no fear, no fear. He’s a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn’t speak much; but when he does speak, then you may well listen. Mark ye, be forewarned; Ahab’s above the common; Ahab’s been in colleges, as well as ‘mong the cannibals, been used to deeper wonders that the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier stranger foes than whales.”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.

RKS Literature: Outraged by a Grin (Joseph Conrad)

“Every mental state, even madness, has its equilibrium based on self esteem. Its disturbance causes unhappiness; and Captain Hagberd lived amongst a scheme of settled notions which it pained him to feel disturbed by people’s grins. Yes, people’s grins were awful. They hinted at something wrong, but what? He could not tell; and this stranger was obviously grinning-had come on purpose to grin. It was bad enough on the streets, but he had never been outraged like this.”

Joseph Conrad, “Tomorrow”, 1902.

RKS Literature: Why One Must Defect from the USSR (Vladimir Rott)

“An ordinary person in the USSR has no prospects except for being trapped in misery and trudging directly toward the grave. All of the friends and even casual acquaintances we talked to were in a bleak mood: there was nothing ahead, just emptiness. No goals to set, nothing to look forward to. We knew the “ideological educators” were the only ones pretending to have an answer…there was only one possible solution: to get out. But our children need a future. They cannot be left on the dead-end street of Soviet reality, with its terrible soul killing hopelessness and the total indifference of others- a reality in which no one gives a damn. We must save the children! We must escape no matter the cost. Our children must have a better life, It’s our duty.”

Vladimir Rott, “In Defiance of Fate Book 1 Joy from Sadness”, 2009.

RKS Literature: Beware of Those Mean Soft Chaps (Joseph Conrad)

“High spirited husbands were the easiest to manage. These mean, soft chaps, that you would think butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths, were the ones to make woman thoroughly miserable.”

Joseph Conrad, “Tomorrow” , 1902.

Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom: TINKER BOLTS BUT NOT ME!

TINKER BOLTS BUT NOT ME!

Bob and I headed out for our last walk a couple of days ago at 23:15. An SUV pulls up to us and a women rolls down the window and unlike one of those crime shows no gun was shoved in Bob’s face but rather a mobile phone with a picture of a dog by the name of Tinker who had bolted in the hood. Bob said we did not see Tinker. The lady responded that if we found Tinker we were to call the phone numbers on his tag.

Bob and Fay have encountered four bolters in their years here in Toronto. All worked out well. A second of distraction is all it takes! We extended our walk for a couple of blocks Bob gently calling out “Tinker” but to no avail.

Yesterday afternoon I slipped out of the house undetected for about thirty seconds and Bob came after me immediately ordering me to sit in a stern voice, picked me up and brought me back home muttering how in earth did I escape. Why on earth would I bolt! Good food, lots of toys, belly rubs, treats and walks galore.

RKS Literature: Mrs. Hosea Hussey’s Nantucket Clam Chowder (Herman Melville)

“However, a warm savory steam from the kitchen served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us. But when that smoking chowder came in, the mystery was delightfully explained. Oh sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazelnuts, the whole enriched with butter, and salted pork cut up into little flakes and plentifully seasoned with pepper. Chowder for breakfast, and chowder for dinner, and chowder for supper, till you began to look for fish bones coming through your clothes.”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.

RKS Literature: Who are these People from Nantucket? (Herman Melville)

“The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships, to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. There is his home; there lies his business, which a Noah’s flood would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China. He lives on the sea as prairie cocks in the prairie; he hides among the waves, he climbs them as chamois hunters climb the Alps. For years he knows not the land; so that when he comes to it at last, it smells like another world, more strangely than a moon would be to an Earthsman.”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.

RKS Literature: Christians Both Wicked and Miserable (Herman Melville)

“But, alas! The practices of whaleman soon convinced him that even Christians could be both miserable and wicked; infinitely more so, than all his father’s heathens. Arrived at last in old Sag Harbor: and seeing what the sailors did there, and then going on to Nantucket, and seeing how they spent their wages in that place, poor Queequeg gave it up for lost. Thought he, it’s a wicked world in all meridians; I’ll die a pagan.”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.

RKS 2026 Wines of Portugal: Churchill’s Grafite 2021 From the Douro

40% Touriga Nacional, 30% Tinta Roriz and 30% Tinta Francesca which 30% was aged for 12 months in both new and used French oak the remainder kept in stainless steel vats.

Aroma: Superhero black fruit particularly blackberry with pomegranate, blueberry, dark chocolate and just a hint of stewed rhubarb and blackball candy. Hint of some juiciness to come?

Palate: Absolutely no annoyance or distraction. Pure and solid black fruit. Rather Port like without the 19.5% alcohol. Perfect harmony with acids and tannins to the extent they are inextricably part of the wine not identifiable components. A smidge of juiciness.

Personality: I am a terrific Douro ambassador but not politically correct as I am unabashedly superior to so many non-Douro red wines. Solid. True. Honest. Douro typical.

Food Match: Venison or wild boar.

Cellarbility: Not meant for cellaring but enjoy up to 2027-year end.

Price: $22 CDN.

RKS Wines of Portugal Rating: 90/100. Wine Align 88.

(Grafite Tinto Douro 2021, Douro DOC, Churchill Graham, V.N. Gaia, Portugal, 750 mL, 13.5%).