“The pilot is sick,” the Hungarian in front of me said. I’ve always kind of assumed that major airlines had contingencies for what is presumably a common occurrence among jet-flying folk (at least as common as among the rest of us). It turns out they do have a contingency: they cancel the flight. So I got a bonus day in Budapest. Normally, I would consider this a particularly sweet deal, but I had absolutely ruined myself in a forced march around the city the day before. I had only one free day after a work conference and I figured that I’d better see every square foot – err… meter – of Budapest. So I did. No goulash peddler went unseen by my eye. But my carefully laid plans called for a just-short-of-death exhaustion to set in only seconds after finding my seat on the plane. Delta deviously foiled those plans.
After sleeping past my alarm and awaking in the airport hotel, I had two choices: take the long bus and metro ride back to Budapest to take advantage of my few remaining hours in Hungary or join the rest of my canceled plane compadres and enjoy the BBC and complimentary dinner until morning arrived. As you have likely deduced by the fact that I am writing about it, I chose the latter option and ended up at A38. I won.
Click the link to read about the one and only The Pannonia All Stars Ska Orchestra.
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A cold wind has been blowing across LGA Manor recently. The shadows fall a bit longer across the floor. Noises heard that cannot be explained. Is it the last throes of winter? Perhaps my tinnitus acting up again? Or is it something more sinister? Something… supernatural? It’s time to put these unexplained occurrences, these spectral suppositions to rest my friends. It’s time to announce the LGA’s next adventure. It’s time… for our Return to Ghost Mountain!
A great new article in the New York Times talks about how moonshine (aka White Dog, White Lightning, or (don’t sue me Pepsi) Mountain Dew) is surging in popularity among the cocktail cognoscenti. What they’re talking about is raw, un-aged liquor straight out of the still – just like grandpappy made it way back in the hills.
I highly recommend the above article, and I also highly recommend that any gentleman (or gentlelady) adventurer with a predilection to tippling give moonshine a try. Ideally, this should be clear spirits of questionable provenance, served out of a mason jar or other recycled container. My first moonshine experience was lao lao – homemade Laotian rice whiskey served from a 7-Up bottle while riding on the roof of a bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane.
If the homemade stuff that can cause blindness is not available locally where you are, however, you could do worse than trying some of the new brands mentioned in the NYT.
Oh, and while you’re searching, please enjoy this ode to clear spirits by the great George Jones:
Tags: george jones, lao lao, moonshine, mountain dew, whiskey, white dog, white lightning