Mead

[lorien]

How is N.A. wine? For some reason I thought it might taste like grape juice and a very expensive grape juice. A glass of good N.A. wine and a piece of dark chocolate might be a nice treat (for the health benefits, of course).

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oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:
There certainly is a wealth of information concerning "Mead" in those articles...
[ Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Mead, But Were Afraid To Ask? ]
I might have to go back and spend more time with those articles if I wish to get all caught up on "The Mead Story"...
That Old English "Riddle" - the one whose Answer is "Mead"- that really describes the potential hazards of alcohol consumption well... [ It really brings it home to me, where I well remember these hazards, from my drinking days ]...

For me, I think I could just put a little honey in some apple cider, maybe, and call it
"Mead" and be content...

For all the years I have not been drinking alcohol, I still have been enjoying
Non-Alcoholic Beer [ and, occaisionally, N.A. Wine, as well ] although not quite so much lately ...
...I believe when the weather really starts warming up, I'd like to return to some of that N.A. Beer consumption [ perhaps hobbit-style, along with a steaming plate of mushrooms! ]

For, after all, "Better Be Beer, If Drink We Lack,
And Water Hot, Poured Down The Back!"

Thirstily Yours, Ardo Whortleberry...

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[lorien]

Oh, this does look healthy! Only 6 calories a three oz. glass!

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c212w.html

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lorien wrote:
How is N.A. wine? For some reason I thought it might taste like grape juice and a very expensive grape juice. A glass of good N.A. wine and a piece of dark chocolate might be a nice treat (for the health benefits, of course).

---

oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:
There certainly is a wealth of information concerning "Mead" in those articles...
[ Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Mead, But Were Afraid To Ask? ]
I might have to go back and spend more time with those articles if I wish to get all caught up on "The Mead Story"...
That Old English "Riddle" - the one whose Answer is "Mead"- that really describes the potential hazards of alcohol consumption well... [ It really brings it home to me, where I well remember these hazards, from my drinking days ]...

For me, I think I could just put a little honey in some apple cider, maybe, and call it
"Mead" and be content...

For all the years I have not been drinking alcohol, I still have been enjoying
Non-Alcoholic Beer [ and, occaisionally, N.A. Wine, as well ] although not quite so much lately ...
...I believe when the weather really starts warming up, I'd like to return to some of that N.A. Beer consumption [ perhaps hobbit-style, along with a steaming plate of mushrooms! ]

For, after all, "Better Be Beer, If Drink We Lack,
And Water Hot, Poured Down The Back!"

Thirstily Yours, Ardo Whortleberry...

---

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[oldBPLstackden…]

The quality of the N.A. Wine depends on the brand...Some brands are so-so...The best we have tried is "Ariel" brand, which is a California N.A. Wine [ Sonoma County, I believe ] ...especially their "Cabaret Sauvingnon"- which tastes very much like its namesake...[ and it is also one of their more expensive N.A. Wines.... it runs about ten dollars a bottle... they have cheaper ones, like "Rouge" -which, although still quite good, is not quite as tasty ]...I guess, in most cases, one could just drink grape juice and be done with it...

At Your Service, Ardo Whortleberry

[lorien]

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oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:
The quality of the N.A. Wine depends on the brand...Some brands are so-so...The best we have tried is "Ariel" brand, which is a California N.A. Wine [ Sonoma County, I believe ] ...especially their "Cabaret Sauvingnon"- which tastes very much like its namesake...[ and it is also one of their more expensive N.A. Wines.... it runs about ten dollars a bottle... they have cheaper ones, like "Rouge" -which, although still quite good, is not quite as tasty ]...I guess, in most cases, one could just drink grape juice and be done with it...

At Your Service, Ardo Whortleberry

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Thanks Ardo. I was able to pick up the Ariel Cabernet Sauvignon, Fre Merlot, and Beck's NA beer at my local market. The Ariel Cabernet was on sale for $6! I will try that one tonight. If it is good I might go back and buy a lot of them at that price. Now if I could only find a mead. They did have a NA Sparkling Cider but I don't think that would be close unless I let it stand until all the bubbles ran out.

We are certainly learning a lot about beverages here in the Prancing Pony but I guess that is appropriate.

[oldBPLstackden…]

I'm glad you were able to find that "Ariel" N.A. wine at your market...
I am certain that you will find their "Cabaret Sauvignon" is quite excellent!
Just last night, my wife and I were in a "Farmer Joe's Market" ( in Alameda, CA )...and I noticed they had pretty much the whole line of "Ariel" N.A. Wines there ( including the "Chardonnay", which is on a par with that "Cabaret"- and their "Blanc"- which is on a par with their "Rouge" )- and they all went for seven bucks each... ( except their N.A. "Champagne"- "Cuvee Brut" was even cheaper- at four bucks a pop! )...

Beck's "N.A. Beer" is pretty good...I've found the "Haakbeck" brand of N.A. Beer is pretty much the best of the imported brands... ( "Clausthaler" is very good too, although I find it has kind of a "fruity" after-taste )...But I used to really enjoy some domestic brands of N.A. Beer ( that I don't see around anymore ) that were cheaper -mainly: "Near Beer" and "Schmidt Select" ...And, maybe it's just the caramel coloring, but I much prefer the taste of the "Dark" version of Budweiser's "O'Doul's" N.A. Beer to their regular "O'Doul's"...

At Your Service, Ardo Whortleberry ( I almost said: "Whotlebeery" )

[oldBPLstackden…]

Greetings, Everyone...

This is definitely an "Off-Topic Chat", although I think it all kind of ties in with reading "The Hobbit"...

Out here, where we are at, we seem to be having a "False Spring"...
( although, if this weather keeps up- it may just continue to morph into a Real Spring, before too long )...
The skies have been blue, the Sun has been warming things up, all the grass has been very green, the "Oxalis" has been blooming everywhere, as well as all the Acacia trees...

If it wasn't for all the traffic and noise, pollution, crime and violence ( and even shootings and killings ) and sadly, "Racial Tensions"- and all the other ills and deformities of this Urban Enviorment, one might think one was back at Bag-End's Front Door on that beautiful Spring day, back when "There was more green and quiet in the world"...

Ardo Whortleberry

[oldBPLstackden…]

This is to definitely going to be an "Off-Topic Chat"- although I believe it all kind of ties in with reading "The Hobbit", in a way...

It was a week ago yesterday, that my wife and I went out on must have been the coldest, rainiest day of the year ( over here, where we're at )- and were slogging about about in all that weather, getting very cold and very wet...We eventually came home on the bus
( we don't have a car ) - and it felt like we we're never going to get home , to get warm and dry, and comfortable...It made me feel like we were right in the middle of that "Roast Mutton" Chapter of {H}...

Which is something I really apreciate about Tolkien's stories, is how sometimes he weaves in descriptions of some very simple experiences that we can all relate to - in with the overall story- for instance: The Dwarves and Bilbo wandering around in the rain and the cold, and wondering when they were going to find warmth and comfort ( and food ) - I believe we have all experienced something along these same lines ( to one degree or another ) at various times in our own lives...

Since that stormy day, there has been a real turn-around in the weather situation out here, in fact, we seem to having a "False Spring" ( although, if this new weather keeps up- it maight just morph into a Real Spring, before too long )...
The skies have been blue, the Sun has been warming things up...All the grass has been very green, and the "Oxalis" has been blooming everywhere, and the Acacia trees hace been blossoming...

If it weren't for all the traffic and noise, pollution, crime and violence ( even shootings and killings ) and sadly, "Racial Tensions"- and all the other ills and deformities of this Urban Enviorment and these troubled times, one might get the idea that one was back at Bag-end, on a beautiful Spring Day, back at a time when "there was more green, in the quiet of the world"....

Well, Good Cheer To All, anyway...Ardo Whortleberry

[oldBPLstackden…]

If there seems to be some repetiton and duplication in my last two letters, it's because: the first time I tried to send the first letter, I was told that my letter hadn't gone through ( the B&N Book Club site's Anti-Spam Protection )...So, afterwards, I closed up shop, and when I tuned back in, I guess the first letter got sent out automatically- in the meanwhiles, I had decided to go ahead and tie two of "Trains Of Thought" together in the same letter- which is how the first letter got repeated in the second letter...Ardo.

[lmpmn]

Oh I'm so disappointed! I just saw this article online:

http://www.charter.net/news/news_reader.php?storyid=14393749&feedid=241

It says basically that Tolkien's estate is suing New Line over royalties. At a minimum, it could postpone production. It is POSSIBLE that the court could give "the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

I really hope they can settle this. I was really looking forward to seeing the movies!

[BarbaraN]

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lmpmn wrote:
Oh I'm so disappointed! I just saw this article online:

http://www.charter.net/news/news_reader.php?storyid=14393749&feedid=241

It says basically that Tolkien's estate is suing New Line over royalties. At a minimum, it could postpone production. It is POSSIBLE that the court could give "the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

I really hope they can settle this. I was really looking forward to seeing the movies!

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I find all this very curious. After all these years NOW they decided to sue for unpaid money? If someone hadn't paid me my due money, I would have noticed it at least within a year or so! Does this have anything to do with the fact that New Line recently announced they are going ahead with The Hobbit and someone is trying to blackmail the payment of some money because they can legally delay the filming while the issue is being decided?

[lorien]

I noticed this in B&N announcements and I know a lot of you read the posts and post at night.

----------------
Tonight at 10:30pm (Eastern Standard Time), the Book Clubs will be offline for a very short amount of time, due to planned maintenance of the site.

A generic maintenance page will appear on the site during these moments, but don't worry -- the Book Clubs will be back online within a few short minutes!

Thanks!

Message Edited by Jessica on 02-12-2008 02:38 PM

----------------------

If you are composing a masterpiece online at that time, you might want to make sure it is saved somehow.

[Fanuidhol]

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BarbaraN wrote:

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lmpmn wrote:
Oh I'm so disappointed! I just saw this article online:

http://www.charter.net/news/news_reader.php?storyid=14393749&feedid=241

It says basically that Tolkien's estate is suing New Line over royalties. At a minimum, it could postpone production. It is POSSIBLE that the court could give "the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including "The Hobbit."

I really hope they can settle this. I was really looking forward to seeing the movies!

---

I find all this very curious. After all these years NOW they decided to sue for unpaid money? If someone hadn't paid me my due money, I would have noticed it at least within a year or so! Does this have anything to do with the fact that New Line recently announced they are going ahead with The Hobbit and someone is trying to blackmail the payment of some money because they can legally delay the filming while the issue is being decided?

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Whoa! The Tolkien Estate has been trying to get their due royalties for a long time. Peter Jackson had to sue New Line and so did Saul Zaentz (the owner of the film rights). If New Line would have dealt fairly with all of those involved in the first place, The Hobbit might have been made already with PJ as director!
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080211/120278562000.html

Fan

[oldBPLstackden…]

I, personally, wish to reserve judgement on this situation- as the news article does mention, the plaintiffs claim they: "...tried unsuccessfully to resolve their claims out of court..." and that they: "...have spent years since the movies hit the theatres trying to negotiate a settlement with New Line Cinema..."
The Tolkien Trust, is [ I believe ] a non-profit foundation [ listed in the U.K. officially as a "Charity" ] for which "pure greed" would seem to be an unlikely motivation...
This certainly can't be Peter Jackson's fault- it sounds more to me like some Big-Wigs high-up at the Movie Corporation might be falling down on their jobs... It would seem- with all those billions of dollars of profits resulting from the films- a less than 10% share of the profits [ to go to this foundation ] would be equitable...
But either way- it would be nice if they can resolve this mess, soon- I was especially looking forward to seeing Ian Mc Kellan as "Gandalf" again, among other things...Ardo

[TiggerBear]

The suit I heard about was Peter Jackson. Which was settled, apparently to Mr. Jackson's satisfaction. Because 2 weeks ago announcements went out that he has officially signed on for 2 Hobbit moves, and that they were in preproduction.

[lorien]

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lorien wrote: I noticed this in B&N announcements and I know a lot of you read the posts and post at night. ---------------- Tonight at 10:30pm (Eastern Standard Time), the Book Clubs will be offline for a very short amount of time, due to planned maintenance of the site. A generic maintenance page will appear on the site during these moments, but don't worry -- the Book Clubs will be back online within a few short minutes! Thanks! Message Edited by Jessica on 02-12-2008 02:38 PM ---------------------- If you are composing a masterpiece online at that time, you might want to make sure it is saved somehow.

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Well, I no longer can compose masterpieces! No Pargraph breaks! From now on all my posts will be one long paragragraph! I am using Mozella

Ah! I can solve the problem by inserting html breaks in my text. How convienent!

But now my Quote Post is all messed up! And if I preview my message my breaks go away before I post and I have to reinsert them.

[BarbaraN]

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lorien wrote:

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lorien wrote: I noticed this in B&N announcements and I know a lot of you read the posts and post at night. ---------------- Tonight at 10:30pm (Eastern Standard Time), the Book Clubs will be offline for a very short amount of time, due to planned maintenance of the site. A generic maintenance page will appear on the site during these moments, but don't worry -- the Book Clubs will be back online within a few short minutes! Thanks! Message Edited by Jessica on 02-12-2008 02:38 PM ---------------------- If you are composing a masterpiece online at that time, you might want to make sure it is saved somehow.

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Well, I no longer can compose masterpieces! No Pargraph breaks! From now on all my posts will be one long paragragraph! I am using Mozella

Ah! I can solve the problem by inserting html breaks in my text. How convienent!

But now my Quote Post is all messed up! And if I preview my message my breaks go away before I post and I have to reinsert them.

---

Check off "Automatically convert carriage returns to HTML line breaks" at the bottom of the message composition box.

[oldBPLstackden…]

I certainly have no "Masterpieces" to contribute tonight- but I wanted to digress back to a subject I already brought up before [ if I may,  for just a moment ] - namely- those "misconceptions" I developed  [ when I was young ] when I read "The Hobbit" for the first time- of some details in the story...

I'm thinking this time about those "Seed-Cakes" from Bilbo's Pantry...

At the time of my first reading, all I could imagine were fairly large ( probably round ) brown cakes ( but not with frosting on them, like you might  find on a Birthday Cake )  ...  

I think that Tolkien's mentioning that hobbits had such healthy appetites reinforced in my mind that  there was nothing so odd about a hobbit saving a couple of these  somewhat large cakes for

 "...an after-dinner morsel..."

Good Night To All,    Ardo Whortleberry Of Hobottle

Tolkien Reader

[BarbaraN]

Your blogs certainly seem to have a large following in this group. You posted this only a few hours ago and it has been the middle of the night and already you have had 20 viewers! Maybe we should give you your own thread!

I was wondering about seed cakes myself. I had no idea what they were but then there are a lot of foods from Great Britain that I am not familiar with. So I did a bit of looking around and came up with this article:

http://bakingforbritain.blogspot.com/2006/09/seed-cake.html

I had originally envisioned them as cup-cake size. This looks like a fairly large "morsal" but I suppose they could come in various sizes and without the frosting. The important ingredient seems to be the caraway seeds.

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oldBPLstackdenizen wrote:

I certainly have no "Masterpieces" to contribute tonight- but I wanted to digress back to a subject I already brought up before [ if I may, for just a moment ] - namely- those "misconceptions" I developed [ when I was young ] when I read "The Hobbit" for the first time- of some details in the story...

I'm thinking this time about those "Seed-Cakes" from Bilbo's Pantry...

At the time of my first reading, all I could imagine were fairly large ( probably round ) brown cakes ( but not with frosting on them, like you might find on a Birthday Cake ) ...

I think that Tolkien's mentioning that hobbits had such healthy appetites reinforced in my mind that there was nothing so odd about a hobbit saving a couple of these somewhat large cakes for

"...an after-dinner morsel..."

Good Night To All, Ardo Whortleberry Of Hobottle

Tolkien Reader

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[oldBPLstackden…]

Greetings, Bramblerose ( and Company )...

This makes it look like I was not so far off ( as I later assumed I had to have been ) the first time I envisioned "Seed-Cakes"...            They must come in various sizes- but this one does look more like the size of a loaf of Zucchini  ( or Pumpkin or Banana )  Bread...     And the recipe does indeed call for a "Loaf Pan"...

Fairly recently, I felt I had come to the realization  that a "Seed-Cake" just had to be more like some kind of a smallish bun --- or maybe even some kind of biscuit ... ( and that I had been way off, when I first pictured them as being largish )...

I guess I didn't think to do a little research on "Seed-Cakes"       ...which is what you did do, to enlighten us on the subject...            

  I'm suprised by the "Seeds" In "Seed-Cakes" being Carraway Seeds, though-  I  pictured almost any other kind of seed but that one- maybe something more along the lines of some Sesame Seeds sprinked on top, or some other kind of seeds inside the cake, but not Carraway Seeds...

If you say my posts are so popular, I'm truly quite amazed...

I had come to the conclusion that I must be "turning everyone off"  ...by busily tripping over my own tongue, and boring everone by becoming a little too self-absorbed... ( at least, in some of my recent posts to  the more "serious" Threads, especially the one concerning Tolkien's influence on Contemporary Fantasy Literature )...

I sent the last of my more "serious" thoughts to that 

"General Comments About 'The Hobbit' Thread"...

...If anything, I am mainly just curious to see what other members of the group think of my thoughts, and their own reflections on some of these matters...

Good Evening ( Or Morning, If You Wish ) To Everyone,

Ardo Whortleberry of Hobottle

Tolkien Reader

[lorien]

Mozella Firefox Users

I might remind Mozella users that B&N has made some significant changes to the text editor you use for posting. These are quite evident to the Explorer users but is the same as it was before to Mozella Firefox users -- almost! And that "almost" is important. Now when you post you will loose all your paragraphs (carriage returns - for those of you who remember the ancient typewriters). Your messages will end up in a big clump!

You now have to click on "Automatically convert carriage returns to HTML line breaks" at the bottom of the page before posting -- or even previewing or even quoting. Once you have a big clump, you will have to go through and put in all the carriage returns again and be sure to click the box first.

It is wise to preview first to make sure everything is going to be posted in the format you desire.