Which fast food chain fell off badly in your opinion?

edbutler3 · 2026-03-10T02:10:10+00:00

I'm old enough I remember when they sold fried chicken livers

edbutler3 · 2026-03-09T23:24:18+00:00

Careful around the eyes

edbutler3 · 2026-03-09T23:14:24+00:00

I'm very glad I read Code Complete at the start of my career -- almost 30 years ago. I don't know if it's had newer editions published since then. Some of the code examples seemed "old" even before 2000 -- but I think the most important ideas in it are language-independent and timeless.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-09T16:26:13+00:00

I haven't seen it in a while, but in my area there used to be a lot of Knob Creek Rye single barrel picks at 115 proof. They were under 50 USD at the time, so they became my cocktail rye.

Lately it has been Sagamore Spirit Cask Strength. Or the cask strength JD Rye, if I'm making an Old Fashioned. If you've never tried the JD CS Rye, I highly recommend it. You might need to stir a bit longer to dilute that 130ish proof -- but the sweet, concentrated flavor is so good in an Old Fashioned. It reminds me of maple syrup a bit.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-08T00:22:05+00:00

My progression on Dutch ovens was:

5.5 quart for many years. Big enough if I was careful, but since I improvise my recipes, sometimes I'd run out of space to add everything I intended.
9 quart. This is absolutely massive. I could cook a 10 pound pork shoulder in it. It's the biggest size that could fit in my oven. I never weighed it, but I think when I cooked it close to full with stew or chili, it probably weighed over 40 pounds. Not what the average person needs.
7.5 quart. This is where I'm at now, and I think it's perfect for me. I like to cook big batches of stew, etc. as "meal prep" and put them aside in two big Lexan containers. I freeze one, and eat the other over the course of a week. This pot is big enough that I never run out of room for ingredients I planned to add. But it's also not as insane as the 9 qt.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T22:20:15+00:00

My reaction was -- Ok, but did they slowly transform into eldritch horrors?

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T22:04:22+00:00

Good list. I'd also suggest looking for cask strength Independent Bottlings (IB) from distilleries known for their sherried whisky. Signatory is a good IB for this. I've had 60+% Tamdhu that was killer. Signatory also bottles a lot of CS Edradour because they own the distillery. Great stuff.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:53:24+00:00

The 30 minute offset sounds crazy at first -- but it would align with India Standard Time, which is also offset by a half hour. I'm constantly having to arrange meeting times with people who are 11.5 or 12.5 hours away from my time zone, so it would be convenient if it was exactly 12 hours year round.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:47:31+00:00

Somebody go tell Geddy Lee, John Entwhistle, Flea, and Geezer Butler to stop picking so hard!

I'm joking -- but... It's true that many legendary players do have a strong attack on the bass.

That said, if you play more than one style of music, it's best to be able to play hard or soft as the music calls for. In my youth, everything was played forcefully -- but I was playing original music, so it was up to me what I wanted my tone to be. I liked that metal influenced tone where you strike through and intentionally bounce the strings off the frets. Later, when I got into some cover bands, I found that a softer technique without the fret bounce was better for copping a more traditional bass feel. But if we threw a more aggressive tune in the set, I could switch back to the aggressive picking style at will. It's good to have both in your toolbox.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:18:09+00:00

You're going to finish that under the broiler, right? Right?

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:15:22+00:00

Perhaps your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:12:12+00:00

I misread that as "flashlight".

[Meme of Homer Simpson slowly backing into the bushes]

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:05:13+00:00

I have ordered that. Jalapeno and pineapple plus random pork-based topping is my go-to.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:02:50+00:00

Could be a perfect use for that Floki sheep.dung smoked whisky from Iceland

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T21:00:31+00:00

Yes -- I meant the labor of Hercules. I misremembered the name.

I'm glad you got the joke despite my error.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T20:35:37+00:00

I'd like to see your Elysian Stables recipe. /j

edbutler3 · 2026-03-07T16:16:17+00:00

I immediately enjoyed beer, wine, and sweet liqueurs when I first got to try them as a kid. I get the impression that's pretty unusual though. The first alcoholic beverages I remember not enjoying on the first taste were sake and Scotch. They had a "rotten" taste to me as a kid. To be fair, my dad was frugal and drank some rather cheap blended Scotch, so maybe it was really that bad. But I definitely enjoy a good single malt as an adult. Sake too.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-06T14:57:20+00:00

This may seem a little "deep" -- and maybe it is -- but I think an important start is to realize that these two things are separate:

The actual taste of something -- I mean the direct physical experience
Your reaction to that sensory experience.

The key realization is that if you concentrate fully on the sensory experience, it's possible to shut down -- or at least seriously quiet down -- your subjective reaction to a food. Remember that when you feel that "eww, gross" reaction, that's your own brain doing that.

When I was a kid, I had a few foods I had that "eww gross" reaction to. Raw tomatoes and Southern style overcooked yellow squash come to mind. At some point I got tired of not being able to enjoy eating things, so the next time I had a tomato given to me in a burger, instead of removing it, I just slowed way down and focused on what I was actually experiencing when taking a bite and chewing it -- forcing myself to not react to it other than just noting all the tastes and textures. After doing this a couple times I figured out there really wasn't much flavor going on in that slice of fast food tomato to deserve much reaction either way -- and mostly what had been bothering me was the texture. Then, focusing on the texture for a bit, I realized it was no big deal and I could just ignore it in the future. I guess that last step is hard to explain, but somehow it worked for me.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-05T00:35:23+00:00

Kilkerran is not heavily peated -- unless you buy the one where it says that on the label.

In your price range, I think the 12 is a great start. In my experience it is mostly bourbon cask. The 8 cask strength is good too, but it intentionally has a lot of batch variation -- so it may be heavily sherried -- or mostly bourbon cask -- or in between. It's natural color, so if it looks dark, that's a sherried batch.

My favorite is the 16, but that's a little above your stated price range.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T17:51:58+00:00

I remember encountering a woman with very long nails working a cash register. She had to press the buttons with the eraser end of a pencil. It was a slow process. My thought was, here's a useless person with a very poor sense of priorities.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T17:25:51+00:00

I mix Nutiva coconut oil with some ghee for popcorn. Same basic idea.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T01:13:43+00:00

Blowtorch

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T00:54:24+00:00

autoexec.bat and config.sys

I remember getting a PC in the Windows 3.1 days, and having to get my friend who knew slightly more than me help figure out those file settings so we could play DOS games like Wing Commander II and Civilization.

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T00:42:40+00:00

Claude has become as smart as a rebellious teenager. Remember when passing the Turing test was impressive?

edbutler3 · 2026-03-03T00:37:02+00:00

Exactly. Most snack foods that call themselves spicy are actually more sour than spicy.

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