RKS CANADIAN WHISKY: Bearface Elementally Aged Triple Oak Canadian Whisky

A single grain Canadian Whisky matured in ex-bourbon oak barrels then aged in French red wine oak barrels and new Hungarian oak and with select barrels matured in repurposed shipping containers “exposed to the elements in the Canadian wild in our extreme northern climate…” “Bearface appeals to “adventure loving” whisky drinkers and bartenders”.

Aroma: Apricot, honey, marmalade and a smidge of vanilla.

Palate: Orri tangerine, caramel with lingering spicy finish.

Overall: Simplistic perhaps best suited to cocktails.

Price: $40 CDN.

Hand it to the marketing. As it’s Canadian play up “bears”, “wild” and “adventure”. Well sounds more appealing to some large whisky factory in Windsor, Ontario?

RKS CANADIAN WHISKY RATING 69/100.

Bearface Elementally Aged Triple Oak Canadian Whisky, Bearface Spirits, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 750 mL, 42.5%).  

RKS British Literature: What is So Revolting to Englanders (Thomas De Quincey)

“Nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings, than the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers or scars, and tearing away that ‘decent drapery’, which time, or indulgence to human frailty, may have drawn over them: accordingly; the greater part of our confessions (that is, spontaneous and extra-judicial confessions) proceed from demireps, adventurers, or swindlers: and for any such acts of gratuitous self-humiliation from those who can be supposed to be in sympathy with the decent and self respecting part of society, we must look to French literature, or to that part of the German, which is tainted with the spurious and defective sensibility of the French.”

Thomas De Quincey, “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”, 1822

RKS Literature: Bozo the British Beggar Comments on the Cremation He Saw in India (George Orwell)

“Have you ever seen a corpse burned? I have, in India. They put the old chap on the fire, and the next moment I almost jumped out of my skin, because he started kicking. It was only his muscles contracting in the heat-still it gave me a turn. Well, he wriggled around a bit like a kipper on hot coals, and then his belly blew up and went off with a bang you could have heard fifty yards away. It fair put me against cremation.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Literature: The Salvation Army and Stench of Charity in England (George Orwell)

“Since then I have slept in a number of Salvation Army shelters, and found that, though the different houses vary a little, this semi-military discipline is the same in all of them. They are certainly cheap, but they are too like workhouses for my taste. In some of them there is even a compulsory religious service once or twice a week, which the lodgers must attend or leave the house. The fact is that the Salvation Army are so in the habit of thinking themselves a charitable body that they cannot even run a lodging-house without making it stink of charity.”

George Orwell, “Down and Out in Paris and London”, 1933.

RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Pecker Nationalism Falls Flat! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“What the hell are you doing? You’re numbah one, aren’t you? Come on. Show the American. That huge thing is the pride of Japan. Knock him out with it! Scare the shit out of him!

It was a matter of pecker nationalism: his thing had to stand, or it would mean dishonour to the race. Toshio almost wanted to take the man’s place, his own thing was now taut and ready. Noticing this, he glanced at Higgins’ crotch, but nothing was happening there.

‘Yosi-chan, what’s wrong’ the agent cried out, unable to contain himself after nearly half an hour’s struggle.

Lying on his back, too exhausted even to sit up, the man answered hoarsely, ‘I’m sorry, this has never happened before. I don’t know what to say.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS Japanese Literature: American Soldiers Nothing Like the Spindly British General Percival Who Surrendered Singapore (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“Maybe General Percival was an exception, because the soldiers I was looking at had arms like roof beams and hips like millstones, and underneath trousers that glowed with a sheen our civilian uniforms never had, you could see their powerful buttocks. I had been granted beginner’ s status in the Martial Arts Society and I knew how to trip up the biggest lugs in school, but I could never do a thing to these American soldiers. What a magnificent build they had. No wonder Japan lost the war. Why were we fighting these giants to begin with?”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS Japanese Literature: Japanese Flocking Like Pigeons for Sticks of Gum Thrown by American Soldiers (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“A couple of hundred yards east down the wall of people, a cry arose that could have been a cheer or a scream. I looked over to see two American soldiers who stood a head-no, a head and shoulders-above the crowd that surrounded them. As I was about to step into to the road to see what was happening, three big men came up before I knew it and standing six feet from me, their mouths working constantly, started opening packs of gum and throwing the sticks in our direction, They were so offhand about it, we were all too startled to move. The soldiers started gesturing us to pick up the gum, and I suspect the first one to take a stick did so less out of a willingness to accept charity than a fear of being punished if he refused. This was a man in a crepe undershirt and knee-length drawers, brown shoes and garters to hold up his socks, who timidly stretched out his hand and showed not the least pleasure of having received a stick of chewing gum. The rest were like pigeons flocking for beans.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”

RKS CANADIAN SWISS FILM: “NESTING”: Beyond Psychological Terms

We all have heard the terms Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Post Partum Depression (PPD) and understand the physiological and psychological repercussions of these mental disorders. But view “Nesting” and you go beyond the nasty headlines reflecting the effects of these mental disorders and you may start to feel what these disorders are like by witnessing the pain and suffering of Pénélope (Rose-Marie Perrault) recently experiencing the drowning of her sister Charlotte and giving birth to her preemie boy Lou.

The downward spiral starts the film and swirls quickly southbound to near murderous conclusions. What is Pénélope’s reality and her hallucinatory existence is increasingly apparent as the movie progresses and it is both disturbing and frightening. How could it evolve to such dire and threatening levels. It is possibly equally disturbing is that Pénélope, her weed smoking/skateboarder/struggling musician boyfriend Gaspard (Simon Landry-Desy), her parents and physician fail to understand Pénélope’s suffering until the last moment.

It might be some viewers interpret the film as “classic horror” with ominous music and apparitions, but the horror is not intended to be theatrical horror but rather actual horror and it certainly accomplishes delivering that.

If you have raised an infant you must understand the physical and mental strain in doing so punctuated by joy and pride but imagine that task without the intermittent breaks of joy and pride?

Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLS6NqYLA_E

Directed by Chloé Cinq-Mars.

Limited USA theatrical release on 26May2026 followed by 29May2026 VOD release.

RKS CANADIAN SWISS FILM Rating 71/100.

RKS Poetry Anthology (All We Get Are The Coffee Grinds):A WORLD LEADER DONE REAL GOOD IN SCHOOL BUT AS TO MATHEMATICS AIN’T SO GOOD INDEED!

A WORLD LEADER DONE REAL GOOD IN SCHOOL BUT AS TO MATHEMATICS AIN’T SO GOOD INDEED!

Wizard in the business world

(despite a bankruptcy or two)

Exquisite diplomat

(friends galore)

World class golfer

(a few discrete kicks of the ball)

Kentucky Fried Chicken Gold Card Member

(wolfed down behind the shrubs on The Lawn)

This my children is why you must do so well in school

And your photo will be on our passports!

Grand pouba of the PARDONS

Big Game Hunter of his enemies

But I have noticed that despite “How good I done in school”

Mathematics “Ain’t so good.”

Numerical sequencing an issue

Canada the 51st state

Greenland the 51st state

Venezuela the 51st state?

Mathematics ain’t so good indeed

Robert K. Stephen

RKS Japanese Literature: Americans Not White Devils! (Akiyuki Nosaka)

“All at once, without an order or a shout of any kind the column came to a halt and the soldiers, who until then had looked like a part of the machinery with their uniforms the same colour as the trucks, spang out-almost as if they had been shot out-holding rifles. Once on the ground, they leaned casually against the vehicles, looking at us, their cheeks as red as devils’. ‘Who says they’re white? They’re red devils!’ said one frightened boy of my age as if my thoughts had been my own.”

Akiyuki Nosaka, “American Hijiki”