The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!

Upon our return to Naples we continued our holiday mode for a few weeks seeing the sites of Naples and eating for three. Ginevra was expanding rapidly. It would be two pizzas for dinner and many scoops of gelato afterwards. As my sweet Campanian plum was expanding rapidly and becoming more like a watermelon myContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 36: Let’s Plan the Future with My Sweet Campanian Plum That is Eating Three Pizzas at a Shot: John Lennon to the Rescue!”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!

It was time out for a bit of sightseeing outside Naples suggested Ginevra and I agreed. We would be tailed only by two men in a car. Ginevra explained to me a cardinal rule of the Neapolitan Camorra that in the case of hostilities between families woman and children would be spared violence and deathContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 35: A Break from the Killing and Violence: There are Now Two Daddies!”

RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition

Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico) a Sicilian deserter from the Italian Army assists a local fellow deserter, Attillo, to return to the latter’s mountainous home village Vermiglio. It is 1944 and the Second World War is drawing to a close. Vermiglio appears untouched by the war with an occasional plane flying overhead being the only tangibleContinue reading “RKS 2025 Film: “Vermiglio”: Idyllic Decomposition”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?

My romantic escapades have been brief and disastrous. Minah my 160-pound sweetheart ended up in psychiatric care and her brother Abdul murdered my mother. Reena was set ablaze by her evil mother-in-law and the Toad with her marriage obsession was enough to drive off any sensible young man. But heck better to have loved thatContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version): Chapter 26: Getting to Know My Sweet Italian Plum Ginerva: Am I Playing with Molten Lava?”

RKS 2025 Wine: Is this Chilean La Junta Carménère Stomping About in a Militaristic Fashion?

Junta is an unfortunate name for a Chilean winery considering the brutal dictatorship of General Pinochet and his junta buddies in 1973 Chile leading to the overthrow and murder of democratically elected Salvador Allende. Thousands of Chileans were tortured, murdered or simply “disappeared”. Putting aside the unsavory connotations of junta in this wine’s name let’sContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Is this Chilean La Junta Carménère Stomping About in a Militaristic Fashion?”

RKS 2025 Wine: Jaque Mate 2019 Malbec Reserva

A Pavlovian reaction to “Wine/Argentina” might be “Malbec”! And upon shouting out “Malbec” a response might be Mendoza and if so what can go wrong with a Mendoza Malbec except perhaps for a growing sense of Malbec fatigue. Jaque Mate is from a Luján de Cuyo vineyard at approximately 870 meters altitude. The 25-year-old vinesContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Jaque Mate 2019 Malbec Reserva”

RKS 2025 Wine: Armenian Wine: The Next Great Hope? Not Enough Volume in the Market to Make That Determination

Wine producing countries and their subregions, such as Armenia, have a scarce presence in Ontario with a state monopoly controlling all wines flowing into the province except for the miserable duty-free wine quotas a traveller can bring into Canada from abroad or “smuggle” in from other provinces. There is no free Canadian interprovincial wine trade.Continue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Armenian Wine: The Next Great Hope? Not Enough Volume in the Market to Make That Determination”

RKS 2025 Wine: Decent Cabernet Sauvignon Hiding Out in Washington State

In the 14December2024 Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Vintages Release catalogue in the California red wine section there are 8 wines listed and 5 are Cabernet Sauvignon. Ontario has been “taught” (is that the correct word?) to worship Cali Cabernet Sauvignon. Grabbing a bottle of reasonably priced California Sauvignon in the $25 CDN range canContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: Decent Cabernet Sauvignon Hiding Out in Washington State”

The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 19: Escaping Quebec Nationalist Fervor from Montreal to Hogtown!

I graduated with two law degrees from the University of Cote St. Luc Law School in Montreal. Despite the fact I spoke very good French having learnt this noble language at the King’s School for Young Men in Bombay my French was trés Parisien and nowhere near the joual of the Montreal working class. IContinue reading “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous (The Final Version):Chapter 19: Escaping Quebec Nationalist Fervor from Montreal to Hogtown!”

RKS 2025 Wine: “Back to the Volcano”: Italian Red from ETNA

“Under the Volcano” is a novel by Canadian Malcom Lowry not to be confused with my heading above “Back to the Volcano”. I have had the pleasure of a day of intense fine tasting on the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius outside of Naples 5 years ago and in May I am heading to Mount EtnaContinue reading “RKS 2025 Wine: “Back to the Volcano”: Italian Red from ETNA”