Sleek and silent The 52 “Birds” knife up through muggy dense tropical air and when over their target spawn the eggs of doom the captain of one of the planes proclaimed these bastards are getting a load of hot jelly and since this unofficial no bullshit about it on the telly but somehow a leak to the Fifth Estate
“Napalm Burns and Maims 700” in a private conference the generals are most perturbed and shout about those god damned press bastards millions with a passing interest gobble down the evening meal peering at the evening news and agree with the generals blaming the commies and Cong with their anti-American propaganda machine Smith and Jones thought it deserved less attention after all war is war they pop open another beer and watch re-runs of MASH were was and will war will always be fun and painless
salivated madness molar maliciousness lunges at your throat sharp claws seek your veins hot satanic fumes crush your screams your blood pumps steadily on the pavement licked up enthusiastically by man’s best friend at the moment rabid
A gasp thunderous deafening roar burning acrid gas hot molten lava slides down the precipice a sigh like the spring wind the disaster is sucked down to the bowels of the earth only the warm human smell remains
As the last vestige of COVID-19 faded off into viral heaven by the end of 2026 the weary world finally took a credible breath of fresh air. Gradually the world slid into what 2019 normalcy that it could.
The good part about having a short memory is that suffering and pain, including psychological pain in most cases begins to fade. Healing of the mind if you wish to refer to it as such. But there are many where this is not possible particularly if they had lost someone close to them and many of these survivors would be plagued by depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder forever living with that because of that chip in your shoulder which had the effect of having many not seeking psychological or psychiatric assistance lest any diagnosis be recorded on that chip.
The bad of short memory is that it brings about a lack of sharp focus of the past and if you can’t recall the past you won’t be able to improve what wasn’t so good in the past including how the victim count could be reduced the next time a virus struck and the common feeling was not if another virus hits but when.
For almost the entire world this was their first virus pandemic that they experienced. A poll conducted in Canada showed that 84% of the population had not heard of the 1918 influenza and 36% had not heard of SARS, 36% about H1N1 or even the generic bird flu. Perhaps if scientists, physicians and the general population had better knowledge about it somehow some of the historical knowledge might have saved lives. Firstly that a pandemic can kill you! Secondly what went wrong in the 1918 influenza and COVID waves that could have been avoided?
Sadly by the time Virus #26 raised its ugly head what worked from a socioeconomic and medical standpoint in the past was not going to work all that well for Virus #26. It was as if the new Virus #26 was so deadly it was if it was something above and a virus and not subject to the anti-viral protocol. The states throughout the world had very little money to fund what they had funded for the COVIDs so this was a nasty virus that was going to decimate.
British Columbia can produce some excellent sparkling wine. The Blue Mountain Gold Label Brut sparkling wine is made the same way Champagne is produced which is often referred to as the “traditional method”.
Its riot of tiny bubbles is a good sign. On the nose lime, apple, pear with some guava. Very clean and sharp as one would expect a Brut to be. On the palate baked apple crisp, pear with a hint of ginger and toasted oatmeal bread. This sparkler has some power to it with good depth and a long finish. Lower price than entry level champagnes but much better. I can’t say it will improve with age but it will happily hang around until 2024 if you have a proper place to store it. My choice would be to just delve into it now and toast yourself for putting up with all this COVID drama which no doubt has caused most of us some deprivation. Hopefully you are healthy and can celebrate that too. We’ve come this far so what is a mutation of a virus….yet another diversion and battle to fight. And yes this is more bounty from the Okanagan!
(Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars Brut Gold Label, Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars Ltd., Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, $34.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 206326, 12%,750mL, Robert K. Stephen a little birdie told me Rating 92/100).
As the waves of COVID took their toll in tandem with that was the development of certain “protective technologies”.
The first such technology was an immunity chip that was inserted into your shoulder and hooked up to a database. Anyone with access to the database could determine if you had been vaccinated against specific diseases, had been tested for specific diseases and what the results were. It also listed what specific health issues you had including psychiatric information such as diagnosis of anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression or post traumatic stress disorder. The stated purpose of the chip was the protection of fellow citizens but it had an extraordinarily strong corporate flavour to it.
The chip was developed with funding provided by the Mitzy and Bill Kruger Foundation headquartered in Tulsa a city in the United States that was ravaged by a COVID super spreader event that being a campaign rally held in 2020 by the late President Donald J. Trump. Bill Kruger was the former founder of KRUGER Technology and had sold the business and had become a billionaire philanthropist. The Foundation had a goal of eliminating disease through mass compulsory vaccinations and population reduction through free sterilization of both men and women in the developing world. The idea behind the chip was particularly appealing to employers who could use it to ensure non vaccinated individuals “would not expose innocent employees to disease”. It was also misused to weed out those who would not fit into “corporate culture”. Would an employer really wish to hire a potential employee suffering from recurring bouts of depression? In most countries this chip was for all practicality mandatory.
The critics of this chip technology lamented the free flow of personal information to employers and public health officials. It created in effect a new class system of the “Protected” and the “Unprotected” and was used to deny employment to thousands in countries with the technology to operate it. It was so abused that employers sold the data on the chips to marketing companies having clients that could use it to sell their goods and services. It was introduced so quickly there were no specific regulations governing its use and sadly most people supported the idea on public health grounds until they were terminated from their job or refused employment because of the data on them. So there were malcontents abounding upset about the abuse of their rights. Employers were delighted with this new “screening tool” as it also was useful in looking for medical conditions that would enable them to reduce the number of short- and long-term disability claims made by employees. Governments largely agreed with this technology based on the “public health interest” and excluded it from human rights and privacy legislation.
Then thanks to a brilliant Chinese idea of installing apps on phones to notify you if you had been in contact with a COVID infected person the idea was accepted in the West with great assurances this would be anonymous and no personal information would be available. Also unlike China, the great surveillance society, the apps were voluntary. The groundwork was laid for a highly intrusive technology.
We’ll jump right into the fray with a Mission Hill Family Estate Reserve 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon.
On the nose there is a degree of creaminess and lots of vanilla indicative of a judicious use of oak. There is a load of black cherry, coconut, blueberry pie and cranberry sauce. On the palate there are moderate and broad-based tannins. A deep cut of blueberry with noticeable minerality and a pleasantly long finish. Despite the 13.9% alcohol content it is well built into the fruit and oak. It is a wine you really can’t go wrong with and at its price I’ll take it, and most British Columbia reds over their Californian counterparts. I would think it might improve over the next three years. If there are still Prime Rib roast beef and Yorkshire pudding eaters out there for their Sunday family meal this wine is for you!
(Mission Hill Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 Reserve BC VQA Okanagan Valley, Mission Hill Family Estate, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, $29.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 553321, 750 mL, 13.9%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Tol Me Rating 92/100)
Here is the “second wine” from the iconic Osoyoos Larose. It is a Bordeaux style red with a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. The nose is full of red fruit like plum, cherry and blackberry. There are moderate tannins and controlled acidity. On the palate I would say this is classic Bordeaux with tightly structured fruit shy and discrete and it needs two or three years in the bottle to open up. Notes of raspberry and red cherry and other fruits lurking and waiting for some time to emerge. The wine is young a term I rarely use in today’s world of immediately approachable wine. You may like a wine to be completely ready to drink and if that is the case this wine is not for you but if you have a cool and dark place to store it I will repeat myself give it three more years in the bottle. While is would suit roast beef or lamb I would like to try with spicy tomato soup made with coconut milk. This is more French than French if you know what I mean.
(Osoyoos Larose Pétales 2016, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, Osoyoos Larose, Osoyoos, British Columbia, $29.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 276741, 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me Rating 90/100).
Background: Thousands of studies have been published based on animal and human studies evaluating garlic’s effects and safety.
Objective: We reviewed the available literature investigating the effects of garlic supplements on hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, C-reactive protein (CRP), pulse wave velocity (PWV), and coronary artery calcium (CAC), as well as available data on side effects.
Methods: We searched PubMed for all human studies using medical subject heading words through 30 May 2013 and assessed relevant review articles and original studies. Only double-blind, randomized, controlled trials and meta-analyses of double-blind, randomized, controlled trials were included. The review of articles and data extraction were performed by 2 independent authors, with any disagreements resolved by consensus.
Results: Garlic supplementation reduced blood pressure by 7-16 mm Hg (systolic) and 5-9 mm Hg (diastolic) (4 meta-analyses and 2 original studies). It reduced total cholesterol by 7.4-29.8 mg/dL (8 meta-analyses). The most consistent benefits were shown in studies that used aged garlic extract (AGE). A few small studies that used AGE also showed favorable effects on CAC, CRP, and PWV. Although garlic is generally safe, rare adverse reactions have been documented with limited causality established.
Conclusion: We conclude that garlic supplementation has the potential for cardiovascular protection based on risk factor reduction (hypertension and total cholesterol) and surrogate markers (CRP, PWV, and CAC) of atherosclerosis. Larger studies are warranted to evaluate these effects further.
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