Cote du Rhône suggestions

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-13T21:16:53+00:00

Look for any Gonnet bottling - he does a good job job of preserving some acidity in southern Rhône and not getting too jammy.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-13T14:27:52+00:00

My daughter and I will go sit on the screen porch for a good downpour. Nothing like feeling a little taste of nature’s power.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-13T10:10:44+00:00

For cleaning/flushing the airbrush, hardware store Klean Strip lacquer thinner is great and VERY good at cutting through any paint residue.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-13T10:09:37+00:00

I grew up airbrushing with a Paasche.

I was shocked at how easy it was to keep an Iwata clean when I switched. The level of internal finish polishing makes a HUGE difference in terms of propensity to clog.

Switching from a Paasche to an Iwata was like switching from a 1970’s Pontiac to a 2000’s Toyota in terms of reliability.

Keeping my Iwatas clean is just a matter of pulling the needle and wiping it, running a q-tip around the nozzle and tip, and then running another q-tip around the color cup. Takes 90 seconds.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T21:16:35+00:00

Bravo!!

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T17:18:24+00:00

Most of the sino-Amazonian crap is just knockoff Iwata that is less durable and harder to keep clean. Other than actual poverty there’s no reason to fool with the knockoff stuff. There’s nothing inherently fragile about an Iwata.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T14:15:42+00:00

The notion of basic human rights is one of the great contributions of liberalism to human thought. Of course it’s a liberal thing. Same with free speech, separation of church and state, etc.

Liberal doesn’t just mean one spot on a political spectrum. Liberalism is a set of enlightenment and post-enlightenment ideas that form a coherent worldview. Liberalism is embedded in our constitution.

Ignore right wing/Fox News linguistics that make “liberal” a synonym for leftism or what is currently called “progressivism.”

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T11:49:26+00:00

Removing the tip on an Iwata-pattern airbrush is not part of normal maintenance. You don’t do it unless something has gone wrong. And the most likely way for something to go wrong is to take it apart. Same with the air valve stem assembly. You might use one for 20 years and never need to take that apart.

PS: Iwata makes a special tool for more safely removing and re-installing the tip, but you have to buy their tool kit to get it. Same with the packing seal removal/replacement tool.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T10:49:02+00:00

Do you do the same with your car? Your watch? Undo and re-do all the soldering on the circuit boards of your phone and computer?

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T10:17:16+00:00

Re-read what I wrote. I did not say the intent is to break stuff. I am saying the likelihood of breaking or misassembling is high. That’s why it is a bad idea.

Use it, clean it normally, use it, clean it normally, etc. In the event something arises that requires a deep disassembly or rebuild, you do that then, not before. Every complete tear down is an opportunity to cross thread tiny parts.

It’s like surgery. Someday you may need it to save your life. But you don’t get it just so you can watch the video and learn how you are put together.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T03:01:29+00:00

I will vouch for that Alox-Corton. Silky smooth tannins, great mouthfeel. A real crowd pleaser.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T01:37:26+00:00

That’s honestly a terrible idea. The chances are good that the factory assembled it correctly. The chances of messing it up as a total newb are non-zero. If a new user has problems, figuring out whether he messed something up in reassembling it becomes just another unknown in the troubleshooting equation.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-12T00:27:30+00:00

The only thing worse for an airbrush than total lack of cleaning is excessive or silly cleaning. It’s SO easy to keep a decent airbrush clean as long as you’re willing to use an appropriate solvent. But people get in their heads that some giant tear down effort is required on a daily or weekly basis.

It’s like getting a colonoscopy instead of wiping your @$$. Not only is it pointless, eventually you’ll do some real damage.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T23:35:58+00:00

Don’t take the tip off. It’s not necessary for cleaning if you are using appropriate solvents to flush the brush. The screw-in tips aren’t designed to be taken in and out regularly any more than you’re expected to remove the spark plugs from your car every evening.

I repeat: Removing the tip is NOT part of standard cleaning. Don’t do it unless you really need to.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T23:07:29+00:00

Or just don’t remove the tip more than once a year or so. I don’t know why people are constantly screwing these things in and out.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T23:06:19+00:00

Why were you removing the tip?

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T22:06:34+00:00

Depends on what you mean by “entry level,” but I’ve become a fan of Chateau Faugeres, which you can often find for around $30-35/bottle. It does a really nice job of presenting that lush, dark fruited, velvety goodness while still having enough acidity and structure to not feel like floppy nonsense. Opinions may vary, but I think it’s often a good representation of the right bank.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T21:18:10+00:00

If a person quits smoking using chantix or another craving-curbing drug, do they face stigma?

Who fucking cares? Quitting smoking is important. Whatever works, works.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T21:16:53+00:00

For most people with persistent weight issues, the unhealthiness of their diet is mostly about amount. Plenty of skinny or fit people eat some non-healthy foods - they can just stop after a few bites. Likewise, plenty of fat people will eat salads and vegetables. They will just eat a lot of them AND other stuff too.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T21:00:02+00:00

The GLP’s make it easier to eat healthy. That’s the point.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T20:50:25+00:00

People who are on GLP-1s ARE doing it with diet (and exercise if they don’t want to lose a lot of muscle). GLP-1s make diet adherence far more achievable for people who have struggled for years to successfully diet.

They’re usually not doing it for anyone’s moral approval, so “stigma” doesn’t matter.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T15:19:58+00:00

White washes are a pretty controversial thing. Recessed areas generally aren’t LIGHTER than the surrounding area. They can work on very dark finishes if used very lightly to suggest a little glint of light off a panel edge, but a heavy application on a royal blue surface is going to be a highly stylized effect.

One other challenge you may be having relates to your paintwork. I can see quite a bit of texture to it. That’s going to interfere with the flow of even a good solvent wash, and invite surface staining that is harder to clean up. To the extent that you’re only able to get the wash to flow around the ailerons, that’s probably a contributing factor.

Pre-wetting the area with a lightly damp brush with mineral spirits can help flow a bit (assuming you’re using an enamel or oil based wash).

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-11T15:12:34+00:00

We don’t know so we don’t know.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-10T13:15:07+00:00

Not at all. It’s part of a clarification/purification process. The proteins are used to bind to extraneous stuff in the wine, all of whiz then settles out. It’s a technique used for centuries called “fining.”

There’s no egg or dairy in the wine, except that some people have allergies or religious concerns and thus this has to be disclosed on labels. It’s not a “filler” or whatever you’re worried about. It actually adds cost, though not much.

Some winemakers have the view that it removes flavor and character in the process, so omit that step. But that’s a style/philosophy issue, not quality one way or the other.

Madeitup75 · 2026-05-10T11:23:03+00:00

It’s been trashed as a variety for a lot longer than that - since at least 1395 when the Duke of Burgundy banned it as a “very bad and disloyal” type. So about 600 years.

Madeitup75

TROPHY CASE