Russian Sledges

From Drinks

[Photo: J. Kenji Lopez Alt / Chris Lehault]

Convention tells us to take it easy with the drink choices on Thanksgiving and concentrate on food and family. But you're a Thanksgiving pro by now (you've watched Kenji's video about how to spatchcock a turkey, right?) so we think you can put as much thought into what goes in the glass as you do about what's going on the plate.

And the secret is: getting it right is easy. You just need 3 bottles of cider. The key, like all things Thanksgiving related, is pacing.

Start Off Easy

There is nothing more festive than greeting your guests with a glass of bubbly. But instead of Champagne or Prosecco this year, break out a bottle of dry sparkling cider. These subtle ciders won't weigh down your palate but will complement briny olives and pickled vegetables while cutting through rich cheese plates and deviled eggs. The tannins in dry ciders can accentuate spicy foods, though, so put down the pepperoni and choose prosciutto or other delicate charcuterie.

Any dry cider can kick start the day but—in this situation—we prefer those high on minerality and low on complex yeast character. Thanksgiving is not the time to bring the funk.

Try these:

There are quite a few single-varietal Newtown Pippin ciders out there but this holiday we're most excited about the Pippin Cider from Washington's Dragon's Head Cider. Dry and bright, with lemony flavors and light tannins, Pippin Cider is an easy-going way to start the meal.

For a more rustic approach, reach for the the Homestead Cider from Aaron Burr Cider. Fermented to dryness from wild, New York state apples, cider maker Andy Brennen creates an earthy cider with an impressive amount of tannin from foraged fruit.

Uncle John's Fruit House Winery's Baldwin Cider is an easy choice from the Great Lakes region. Using heirloom fruit, this cider has a subtle balance of wet stone and crisp apples for definitively fall feeling.

Go Bright for the Main Course

When serving traditional Thanksgiving fare, you'll want a cider with brightness and acidity. Holidays dishes tend to go big on the fats and bright ciders cut through the richness and prepare your mouth for the next bite. To complement the caramelization and sweetness of roasted side dishes, pick a cider that is off-dry or medium dry. The subtle sweetness with hold up to—but not weigh down—the meal.

Generally, ciders pressed from American heirloom fruit—sharp-sweet apples grown from seed or discovered in the New World —are ideal in this situation. They are also historically relevant. These fruits—many of which were discovered by chance during the colonial era—are American cider's foundation and bring a range of palate-cleansing flavors from a lemony brininess to apple and red currant.

Due to a lack of tannins, American cider fruit produces ciders that are easy-going and festive. If you are looking for something more structured and austere, pick a cider that adds bittersweet English and French apples in the mix.

Try these:

New England cider makers are leading the way in heirloom cider production and some of the best are come from New York's Finger Lakes region. Bellwether Cider's King Baldwin blends two old apple varieties—the Tompkins King and the Baldwin—for a tart, refreshing cider with an earthy finish. This one-two punch of acid and earthiness plays well with everything from rich gravies to roasted root vegetables.

Further east, Slyboro Ciderhouse's Hidden Star uses locally grown Northern Spy and Liberty apples for a cider that is more aromatic. Crisp, fresh apple flavors still dominate the Hidden Star but there also a floral character that does wonders around butter and comforting fall flavors.

Tilted Shed Ciderworks' Graviva! Semidry Cider is a more English-inspired take on an heirloom cider. Graviva! starts with California's quintessential apple, the Gravenstein. These are blended with Hubbardston Nonesuch heirlooms and English bittersweet fruit for a lively cider with apple and citrus flavors. The tannins provide a long, lingering finish.

Succumb to the Sweetness

As dinner winds down, it's best to tone down the tannins and pair sweet with sweet; dessert is not the time for a daring pairing. But when choosing a cider as decadent as dessert, think high acid and high sugar. This double intensity will both complement and cut through the richness of pies, crumbles, and cakes.

Try these:

Harvest Moon Four Screw Hard Cider smells like autumn's fresh apples and brings hints of spice. This cider is finished with a touch of maple syrup, which helps it work well with fall desserts. Cider makers can be a bit heavy-handed with their maple syrup additions but, here, the syrup is balanced by a brightness that helps it complement, but not overwhelm dessert.

If you are looking for something a bit stronger to end your meal, try a pommeau. Produced from a blend of aged apple spirits and fresh or lightly fermented cider, pommeau usually clocks in around 20% ABV, making it a good choice for post-dinner sipping. Seek out your local cidery's version, or look for the 2011 Pommeau from Traditions Ciderworks in Corvallis, Oregon. Produced with traditional bittersweet cider fruit and blended with Clear Creek Eau de Vie de Pomme, this pommeau layers flavors of apples, oak, vanilla, and caramelized sugars.

Ice cider is also a wonderful way to close out a meal. Each year, more and more producers in cold climates are turning out inspiring bottles. Newhall Farm's version is a Thanksgiving favorite for its high acidity, and wonderful spice and caramelized sugar flavors. Of course, there are no spices in this bottle, just 100% estate grown Vermont apples.

Serving cider this Thanksgiving? Which bottles will you open?

About the author: Christopher Lehault is a New Jersey-based cider journalist, craft beer documentarian, and home brewer. Follow his cider adventures on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter.

Want to read more cider articles? Right this way »

Valentino, Couture, SS08.

The Cutting Class recently received a query about how the skirt folds had been constructed on two dresses from Valentino’s final Couture show in Spring-Summer 2008. This seemed like a good opportunity to talk through some strategies for working out these sorts of details yourself.

In this post we will talk through a possible process for working out a detail like this so that you might be able to apply the same process to other details that you are unsure of.

Please note that as always this is not to encourage exact plagiarism, however sometimes you may visualise design details and need strategies to be able to realise them as pattern pieces, or you may want to build on details you see in the collections of other designers.

The best way to start is on a small scale with just some scraps of paper or fabric. You don’t need to know anything about the pattern shape before you start but some good reference photographs will help to guide you. You may also find it helpful to take some quick photographs as you go along so that you remember how it all goes together.

First look for clues and ask yourself questions like:

• What does the detail look similar to?
• Where are the seams?
• Where is the grain line?

What Does the Detail Look Similar to?

For example, does the detail look sort of like a dart? Does the fabric look like it’s been gathered? If you unfolded or released the fabric in a certain section of the garment would you get a better idea of the shape of the fabric? In this case, the detail looks kind of like a pleat, but with the edge folded back, so we’ll keep this in mind when we start testing.

Where Are the Seams?

Locating the seams can be key to understanding where one pattern piece ends and another one begins. In this case we can see that a contrast fabric has been layered in, so even though we can’t see the seams clearly, we can develop our pattern based on the assumption that there are seams used to panel in the contrast fabric.

Where Is the Grain Line?

This point isn’t really very vital for this detail, and the pictures are too small for us to see this clearly. You may come across other details though where this is really important and the pattern or weave of the fabric may give you some clues. For example if the fabric has a stripe or check pattern then you can probably use these to show you where the grain line is flowing on the pattern pieces.

Patterned fabric may also show you where any small darts or seams have been made, giving you extra clues about how the garment has been constructed. For example if you are looking at a garment with a check that is uneven in one area then this might help to point out where a dart has been used to pull the fabric in closer to the body.

You may also want to consider where the grain line will help to make the shape of the detail. This is especially true in draped details where you may need the bias of the fabric to help to create smooth curves and folds in the fabric.

Use Fabric or Paper to Make Test Swatches

The next step is to take paper or fabric and start folding it to help to visualise what the pattern is doing. Start with a single flat piece first, and try to fold it or manipulate it to create the effect using only a single piece of fabric or paper and maybe some pins or tape to help to approximate the stitching lines.

You may find sections of the paper or fabric that you need to take away or add to in order to create the shapes of the detail, and knowing where you need more or less fabric will help you to work out the shapes of the pattern.

Use Coloured Pens to Mark the Separate Pieces

Once you have the basic shape you can use coloured pens to help you to work out the different pattern pieces and to mark the location of seam lines. The use of colour coding is important because it will help you to know which piece is which once you flatten the piece back out again.

Flatten the Paper or Fabric Out to Show You the Pattern Shapes

Once you have all this in place you can then unpin and flatten out the paper or fabric to reveal the shape of the pattern pieces.

Using the Steps for the Valentino Folds

The diagrams before outline how these basic steps were used to create the shapes of the Valentino folds. While the small tests don’t give the exact pattern shapes, they will help you to visualise how it all goes together so that you can then draft up your own full size patterns from measurements or using your own pattern blocks. For some details you may even want to drape fabric on a mannequin to further refine the shape before you create the pattern, but at least starting in small scale will give you a head start.

Catwalk images from Vogue.co.uk» Image of dresses on mannequins from Fashion Tribes» Diagrams by The Cutting Class»

Further Reading:

• Learn more about Valentino»
• Learn more about Pattern Making Techniques»
• Learn more about Sewing and Construction»

Historical Photo: Detroit Department of Street Railways (DSR) Coach and Car Stop Locator, c. 1955

An interesting twist on the old push-button interactive transit map. Instead of pressing a button to map out your route, here you press a button to find out where in Detroit’s downtown area to board your bus or streetcar. Although difficult to make out, the text along the bottom of the map seems to read: “To locate your loading zone, press button on your line.” I’m not entirely sure how successful this innovation was, as everyone in the photo seems to have an air of confusion about them.

(Source: WSU Virtual Motor City Collection)

SAN FRANCISCO/GOTHAM – Edward “E.” Nigma, aka, “The Riddler,” and Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, aka, “The Penguin” were formally arrested today and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and kidnapping for their all too familiar villainous ways in Gotham City, according to Melinda Haag, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson. The unique and somewhat unprecedented indictment not only outlines the charges against “The Riddler” and “The Penguin” but it also includes a special thanks to a certain caped crusader who was pivotal in making this day a reality.

[Photos: Kevin Mabry, Michael Florence, Sam Treadway, Emma Hollander, Tyler Wang]

Welcome to the fourth day of voting for the 2013 Eater Awards. The three finalists for yesterday's So Hot Right Now poll are Sarma, The Kirkland Tap & Trotter, and Ribelle; next, the Eater editorial team will choose a winner, which will be announced at the Eater Awards on Monday, our fourth annual celebration of all that's made America's restaurant world run—and run wild—in the past twelve months. Winners will be selected in five major categories at both the local and national levels. Each day this week, readers will have the opportunity to vote in one category to narrow the five nominees down to three finalists. Today: Bartender of the Year.

Here's how the voting works across the board: Eater editors have named nominees for each of five categories. Eater readers (that's you) will vote, narrowing the nominees to three finalists. From those three finalists, the Eater editorial team will select a winner. Ready to play your part? This poll will be open for 24 hours; voting irregularities will be strictly policed.

· All coverage of Eater Awards 2013 [~EBOS~]

The new docudrama about Doctor Who's early years boasts an amazing attention to detail, and these newly released promotional images almost look like behind-the-scenes images from the William Hartnell era. Check out some majorly iconic moments from the 1960s, reconstructed.

Read more...

Montreal Gazette

Transgender US student's tuxedo photo banned USA TODAY HOUSTON (AP) — Jeydon Loredo, a transgender U.S. teenager, wants to be remembered in his school yearbook wearing clothing that he says reflects his identity. But the 18-year-old, who grew up female but now identifies as male, and his mother say his ... Transgender Texas Student's Tuxedo Photo ApprovedABC News Transgender Teen Photo: Jeydon Loredo, Female-To-Male Transgender Texas ...International Business Times La Feria high school transgender student gets OK for photoSan Antonio Express KGBT-TV -FOX 29 all 55 news articles »

As GIF creators - OKKULT Motion Pictures is our brainchild - we know it's very easy to show/share an animated GIF on the web, but it's hard to find an offline GIF player to exhibit and sell a GIF as a single, unique artwork. //////////// We have conceived, designed and handcrafted the Giphoscope with the objective of proposing to artists/galleries/museums/collectors a minimalistic, unconventional, retrofuturistic analog GIF player, entirely tailor made and handmade in Italy. Thanks to Giphoscope, animated GIF becomes a tangible and exclusive artwork. //////////// The Giphoscope is inspired by the Mutoscope, an early motion picture device, patented by Herman Casler on November 21, 1894. The Mutoscope worked on the same principle as the "flip book". The individual image frames were conventional black-and-white, silver-based photographic prints on tough, flexible opaque cards. Rather than being bound into a booklet, the cards were attached to a circular core. A reel typically held about 850 cards, giving a viewing time of about a minute (from Wikipedia).

Could This One Woman In A Business Suit Change The Way All Women Everywhere Are Treated?

schwit1 writes "In 2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as 'Ming,' they killed it instantly. Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

William Gibson's 2005 novel Pattern Recognition is spectacular in many regards, but one of its most memorable moments is the description of the Buzz Rickson's bomber jacket worn by the novel's cool-hunting protagonist Cayce Pollard:

The Rickson's is a fanatical museum−grade replica of a U.S. MA−1 flying jacket, as purely functional and iconic a garment as the previous century produced. Dorotea's slow burn is being accelerated, Cayce suspects, by her perception that Cayce's MA−1 trumps any attempt at minimalism, the Rickson's having been created by Japanese obsessives driven by passions having nothing at all to do with anything remotely like fashion.

Cayce knows, for instance, that the characteristically wrinkled seams down either arm were originally the result of sewing with pre−war industrial machines that rebelled against the slippery new material, nylon. The makers of the Rickson's have exaggerated this, but only very slightly, and done a hundred other things, tiny things, as well, so that their product has become, in some very Japanese way, the result of an act of worship. It is an imitation more real somehow than that which it emulates. It is easily the most expensive garment Cayce owns, and would be virtually impossible to replace.

And because Gibson has the uncanny knack of conjuring objects into reality by writing fiction about them, the jacket is available for sale from Self Edge, for $695. Its zippers are faithful replicas, its lining is USAF spec, and it is, of course, Made in Japan.

This is going to be a sure-fire winner this season. A solid and slick looking jacket that is super warm and extremely comfortable with a sheep collar that's super soft against your skin. The jacket has two hidden hand-pockets so that you can use the front pockets for storage and also use the side entry for your hands in cold weather.

William Gibson x Buzz Rickson B-29 Grosgrain Coat

After apprehending the Penguin, Batkid will make a final stop at City Hall where the Mayor of San Francisco, Ed Lee, along with the Police Chief, will congratulate him on his daring feats of justice and present him with a key to the city. We hope to have a huge crowd of volunteers and donors there to cheer him on and thank our Batkid!

After sitting forgotten in storage for more than 45 years, the daughter of an amateur photographer has uncovered a set of remarkable images taken mere minutes before President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Read more...

Mariah Blake chronicles the collapse of the Unification Church:

[I]n recent years, [Rev. Sun Myung] Moon’s plans to remake America and salvage humanity had run into trouble. Followers had drifted away; his political influence had ebbed. With his ninetieth birthday approaching, he increasingly looked to his children to preserve his life’s work.

In Jin, Moon and his wife’s fourth child, seemed suited for the task. She had a modern American upbringing and a master’s degree from Harvard. In 2009, she took over the Unification Church of America and introduced a bold modernization program. Her aim, she said, was to transform the church into one that people – especially young people – were “dying to join.” She renamed the church Lovin’ Life Ministries, shelved the old hymn books, and launched a rock band, an offshoot of which played New York clubs under the moniker Sonic Cult. She also discarded the old Korean-inspired traditions: bows and chanting gave way to “Guitar Hero” parties, open mics, concerts, and ping-pong tournaments.

And then, early last year, she disappeared:

After several months passed with no sign of her, some parishioners began pressing for information on her whereabouts. They were blocked at every turn. Even the highest circles of church leadership couldn’t – or wouldn’t – say what had happened to In Jin Moon. Before long, it became clear that the House of Moon was crumbling and In Jin had become caught up in its downfall. But her disappearance was only one part of a much more complicated saga – one that involved illegitimate children, secret sex rituals, foreign spy agencies, and the family of Vice President Joseph Biden. Even by Moon’s famously eccentric standards, the collapse of his American project would turn out to be spectacular and deeply strange.

Previous Dish on the Moonies here and here.

(Video: From the Washington Times’ 15th anniversary dinner, in 1997)

Toronto City Council has voted to strip Mayor Rob Ford of his powers, many of which were only recently delegated to the mayor's office. Hizzoner Laughable Bumblefuck has vowed to use tax-dollars to sue council over this move, because that is how he rolls.

Related to our main image today, Christian Annyas has a great post showing spectacular typography from selected New York fire insurance maps from Sanborn Map & Publishing.

Super-macro shots of snowflakes.

Oh, look, another cheap, self-righteous bigot refusing to tip a gay waitress — this time, in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Dayna Morales, a waitress at Gallop Asian Bistro with an alternative haircut, says there were signs of trouble the moment she introduced herself to the mother with two kids.

Morales, who has been waiting tables on and off for 10 years, said she never told the family she was gay when she introduced herself.

“Normal introduction, ‘My name is Dayna. I’ll be taking care of you.’ Right away the mom looked at me and said, ‘I thought you were going to say your name was Dan,’” Morales said.

Ha, that's a boy's name! Amazing joke, Bigot Mom. 

As always seems to happen, Bigot Mom allowed Morales to continue serving her for the entirety of the $93.55 meal before offering her some unsolicited judgment in lieu of a tip. "I’m sorry but I cannot tip because I do not agree with your lifestyle and how you live your life," Bigot Mom wrote, redundantly. 

It worked: Missing out on that $13 (it's probably safe to assume Bigot Mom is a terrible tipper when she does decide to tip) convinced Morales to stop doing gay stuff from now on. 

Read more posts by Dan Amira

Filed Under: dayna morales ,religiots ,the gays ,world's worst trends

"Grimm" storylines to the contrary, downtown Portland's Raven & Rose restaurant does not prepare dishes designed to disagree with Blutbaden, its business and events manager assures us.

This is a video of Danish archer Lars Anderson demonstrating the ancient archery techniques he's been practicing. The key to a lot of them is holding spare arrows in your hand instead of a quiver. Doing so, Lhars can shoot 10 arrows in 4.9 seconds, shoot 11 arrows before the first hits the ground, shoot through chainmail, shoot three arrows in less than a second while falling, and shoot three disks while running backwards in 1.12 seconds. I wish I was better at archery. I think the bow might actually be my favorite weapon if you don't count laser blasters or psychological warfare. Keep going for the worthwhile video, but feel free to skip around. You can't turn off the robotic narration though. There's also a shorter one after of Lars hitting targets from the back of a motorcycle. Thanks to Boulder, who asked me to stand by a tree with an apple on my head but I politely declined.

Or, a rather large re-tweet. Cocktail historian David Wondrich, always willing to share a bit of history with the world at large, sent out a series of posts on Twitter last week entitled "The History of the Hawthorne Strainer: a 7-Part Twitter Investigation." With his kind permission I share his findings.

Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: The time-travel rom-com About Time and time-travel family movie Free Birds have us revisiting older, better time-travel movies.

Primer (2004)

Time travel generally gets depicted in the movies as a form of magic. Characters might toss around jargon like “wormhole” and “flux capacitor,” but the idea is basically “abracadabra!” Almost without exception, the journey itself is instantaneous. Shane Carruth’s mind-bending Primer is having none of that. The time machine that its start-up wonks, Aaron (Carruth) and Abe (David Sullivan), accidentally invent in Aaron’s garage obeys the laws of physics (apart from the minor detail of impossibility). In order to travel back in time for, say, eight hours, they have to actually spend eight full hours in the machine—which means they can’t go back any further than the instant ...

Read more

There have been 18+ house fires in Somerville between May & September. Four are considered arson, at least five others are suspicious. There is a $25,000 reward “for any information leading to the arrest and prosecution of any person involved with the setting of any of these fires”. http://www.somervillema.gov/news/residents-urged-heed-arson-safety-tips-and-report-any-information-will-assist-arson-investigati

submitted by throwawayaccount0333 [link] [2 comments]

Sex rituals, foreign spies, Biden offspring, and the Unification Church's war-torn first family.

Here's a little-known fact: You know the spacesuit Neil Armstrong wore on the first moonwalk? Turns out that suit was made by a bra manufacturer in Dover, Deleware. As Andrew Chaikin explains at Smithsonian, the seamstresses who hand-stitched NASA's spacesuits were used to devoting their needlework to an entirely different kind of rubber garment.

Read more...

Sarah Palin says she's disturbed that many of Pope Francis' pastoral pronouncements have "sounded kind of liberal."