tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-734332947021204032024-03-12T23:02:28.031-04:00Copious CollectionsCollecting my thoughts about comics, geek culture and bits of my life...dull as it may be.Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-73387901010361615542014-02-22T16:27:00.002-05:002014-02-22T16:27:38.138-05:00Of Monks and Ale.<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last week I was happy to find my local beer purveyor had in stock the new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph%27s_Abbey_(Spencer,_Massachusetts)">Spencer Trappist Ale</a>. This is the first Trappist Ale brewed in the USA and even more amazing, it's brewed right here in Massachusetts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Spencer Trappist Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Only since December 10th, 2013 has the Abbey been making ale, it is certified as the first Trappist brewery in the United States. This is the same Abbey that makes the delicious Trappist Preserves line of jams and jellies. Those monks keep themselves busy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Spencer Trappist Ale is a blonde and comes in at 6.5%. It's not cheap, a 4 pack was nearly $20, so I settled for one 12oz bottle for $4.95 (I believe, it was about $5).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would say that it's good, but it's not $20 good. I'm glad I got to try some, but also glad I didn't shell out for the 4 pack. I found the ale to be nicely crisp, fruity and maybe a hint of citrus, although that last bit was disagreed upon by the folks I shared it with. It's a good introduction to Trappist ales, if that's something you are not familiar with. I do hope that after the novelty dies down that maybe the price will too, because otherwise, I won't be drinking this very often. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's worth trying, certainly, and I do want to support a local industry...but, it's not cheap.</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-31082994756184403152014-02-02T11:37:00.000-05:002014-02-02T11:37:46.960-05:00Brew Blast: Moa Brewing<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I ran into this beer at the store I pop into on my way home from work, when I need to refresh my beer reserves. It caught my eye because it was called Moa, since I've been to the land of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moa">Moa</a>, beautiful New Zealand, I was intrigued (it's also got an eye catching black label and Moa embossed on the glass).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moa Brewing: St. Josephs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">St. Josephs is a Belgian style tripel, it's 9.5% alcohol and ran me $5.95 for a 12.7 oz corked bottle. It's got a beautiful golden hazyness and creamy head. It's a solid Belgian tripel style, tangy and sweet and a bit bitter. It's very easy to drink, but this is also not a "I'm at a bbq!" kind of easy to drink. I wish I could describe it better but my taste buds are not up to the task of such refinery. It's a very affordable fancy beer, it's very tasty. Now just trust your Uncle Good and go out and buy some!</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-77596371108748268962014-01-03T14:22:00.002-05:002014-01-03T14:23:12.161-05:00Brew Blast: Old Fezziwig<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been saving the two precious bottles of Old Fezziwig for a couple of weeks, I meant to have one on Christmas, but was too full after finishing a bottle of <a href="http://copiouscollections.blogspot.com/2013/12/brew-blast-christmas-ale.html">St. Bernardus</a>. Then I meant to have one at New Years, but never got around to it then either.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, today was a snow day so I decided not to wait any longer because if I blink again, it'll be Spring.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Adams: Old Fezziwig Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last of the Sam Adams Winter Mix pack, this is one of my favorites. I think it's just about become a tradition for me, a tasty festively spiced ale that tastes of Christmas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Orange peel, cinnamon and ginger, oh my. The alcohol percentage is 5.9%. It's crisp and refreshing and somehow warming. It's something I can easily imagine the titular character serving up at his Christmas party. I think part of the appeal of Old Fezziwig is that it's limited, you only get 2 so you have to be sure to enjoy them. I guess you can buy as many mix packs as you want, but that seems to cheapen the idea. I like that I can only have a little bit a year, it makes it special and it makes me appreciate the ale that much more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, yeah, tradition. Delicious tradition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Happy New Year! </span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-40711740100068437012014-01-01T08:32:00.000-05:002014-01-01T08:32:57.751-05:00Brew Blast: Cherry Chocolate Bock<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm back again with more beer! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Adams Cherry Chocolate Bock</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is another special seasonal from Sam Adams that you can find in this years Winter Mix pack. It seems that this year the brewers at Sam Adams decided to add cherries to their usual chocolate bock and the result is as tasty as you'd imagine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It smells like maraschino cherries and tastes a bit like a cherry cordial. It's not as sweet as you might expect from that description, I'm guessing since they used cocoa nibs instead of full on chocolate. It's very smooth and goes down easily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The whole mix pack usually runs around $13-$15, but there's generally one 2 of each beer. Luckily this year is, so far, filled with lots of tasty treats, unluckily, you only get 2 per box and no way to get it otherwise, unless you find a pub with it on tap. The bock also is an average 5%, nothing wrong with that.</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-7415450460279404282013-12-26T16:54:00.001-05:002013-12-29T11:59:11.863-05:00Brew Blast: Christmas Ale<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I picked this up a few weeks ago and put it under the tree for myself to save for Christmas night (I figured I'd need a stiff brew after the day with family ;)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">St. Bernardus Christmas Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a Belgian Abbey Ale, the St. Bernardus brewery started in 1946 and according to the label is made using artesian water pumped from a depth of 500 feet (fancy!). The bottles can be aged up to 15 years, so if I had a cellar, I'd give it a shot, although I doubt I could wait that long to drink it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This ale is very dark with a sweet fruityness. The head is very thick and creamy as you can surmise from the picture. I quite enjoyed it, but it took me a good while to polish off the bottle alone. It's a hearty drink and considering the bottle is 1 pint, 9.4oz, there's a lot to enjoy, not to mention it's a whopping 10% alcohol. I think $15 was a fair price for that much yum. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-3442660306485164502013-12-26T16:41:00.000-05:002013-12-26T16:41:33.610-05:00Brew Blast: Gingerbread Stout<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The holidays provide ample time to try all sorts of seasonal brews and this year I got to try a whole bunch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Adams: Merry Maker</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wow! What a difference from last years recipe! I believe this was first available last year as a special seasonal. I was disappointed to find it way too sweet and not enough gingerbread taste. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I decided to give it another shot this year and found that they have tweaked the recipe to perfection! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Merry Maker smells and tastes like gingerbread and molasses, it's sweet but well balanced with some clove and cinnamon. I was absolutely satisfied and this beer lives up to it's name. Delicious!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bottle was $6.99 and 9%. I hope they don't tweak anything for next year, I think this is a keeper.</span></div>
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Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-6163172792175691752013-12-23T19:06:00.000-05:002013-12-23T19:06:23.062-05:00Brew Blast: Juniper IPA<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Realizing that it was nearly Christmas and I had not had any Old Fezziwig, I grabbed a Samuel Adams Winter Mix pack on my way home from work and remedied the situation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the new beers this year is:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Adams Juniper IPA</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was excited for this one. I do enjoy juniper and I'm pretty satisfied with this. It's a pleasant IPA, not too hoppy but definitely an IPA and the juniper adds a bit of Christmas to the mix. It's lightly sweet, which according to the label is due to the berries themselves. TinyDoom took a sip and declared it "too poisiony", she's against hoppy beers, I can't entirely disagree, I'm very particular about IPAs. This one I find very easy to drink and is not so bitter that I feel like I need a glass of water after my drink. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Juniper IPA is a welcome addition to one of my favorite seasonal mix packs, I'm sorry to see the Holiday Porter absent this year, but the addition of Cherry Chocolate Stout might make up for it. I'll let you know!</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-90829807193817263122013-12-21T17:14:00.000-05:002013-12-21T17:14:11.809-05:00Brew Blast: Fireside Chat<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Continuing the beers I bought myself for my birthday, I present to you a nice winter spiced ale:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://21st-amendment.com/">21st Amendment Brewery</a>: Fireside Chat</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This San Francisco based brewery always has cans and the art is always fantastic. I've had a few of their beers and some have been better than others. Bitter American, their IPA was very drinkable, but I found their Summer Seasonal, "Hell or High Watermelon" a bit too sweet, but I digress, we're not talking about those today. Today is about Fireside Chat, a pleasant hearty ale, perfect for a cold winter night. It's a rich drink, nicely spiced (including chocolate nibs), with a malty caramel sweetness. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would say this is my favorite from 21st Amendment, at least so far. It definitely makes me want to try more from them. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't remember exactly how much the six pack was, under $10 at least and the ale clocks in at a respectable 7.9%. </span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-33177358254309692772013-12-15T14:25:00.000-05:002013-12-15T14:25:02.015-05:00Brew Blast: Winter Welcome Ale<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We're well into my second favorite beer season, Winter! Today I have a delicious ale from one of England's oldest breweries:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Smith: Winter Welcome Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sam Smith doesn't make a bad beer, they've been around since 1758 so they know what they're doing. I picked this up locally for about $4 for a pint, it clocks in at 6%. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Malty, a bit creamy and smooth, lightly spiced and a bit of a toffee aftertaste. This is a lovely ale to sip by a fire and a great winter beer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I should come up with a rating system for these posts, if I do, this would score highly. It's probably not too difficult to find, so seek it out and enjoy!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-63430967958234061462013-12-12T17:45:00.000-05:002013-12-12T17:45:27.853-05:00Brew Blast: Field Mouse's Farewell<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After a brief break (i.e.-I haven't had any new beers), Brew Blast returns. I literally just got home from the store where I spent some of the birthday gift card that has been burning a hole in my pocket, on beer. I picked up a few things for the blog (yeah, that's the ticket) and now I present the first:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pretty Things: Field Mouse's Farewell</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://prettybeer.com/wp/">Pretty Things</a> is a local brewery that makes some pretty interesting beers. Their bottle artwork is pretty eye catching and generally quite beautiful. Their beers tend to be artful also, sometimes a bit too artsy for me, but they rarely disappoint. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Field Mouse's Farewell is their Amber Saison seasonal. I'm not big on saison's, for some reason they tend to give me instant and harsh heartburn, so I try to stay away from them. I didn't realize this was a saison when I bought it, I was kind of swayed by the charming art and name. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That said, I have been drinking this for the past few minutes and so far so good. It's citrusy and has a lot of orange spicy-ness, it's a hearty tasting brew, but I find saisons often are. A pint bottle runs about $7 and is 7% alcohol. It's pleasant and a bit sweet, but not overly so, with a hint of hops. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm finding it hard to say anymore, since I'm not big on this style, but I am enjoying it, so I give it a thumbs up. </span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-9386661024565826822013-11-14T13:35:00.000-05:002013-11-14T13:35:23.797-05:00Marvel's Animated Abundance<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">After seeing Thor: The Dark World this weekend, I thought I'd finally type up a post I've been tossing about in my brains. Reviewing Marvel's current crop of cartoons. (Thor 2 was a lot of fun by the way, go see it!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First up, I'll talk about the first of the new cartoons, Ultimate Spider-Man:</span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The past Spider-Man cartoons have been...classic...in their own ways. I remember enjoying them at their respective times, but they are all pretty difficult to watch now. So that was part of why I didn't bother getting into Ultimate until well into the second season, unfortunately for me. This is actually a really fun show. Paul Dini is a large part of the show, Mr. Dini is notable for creating Batman: The Animated Series, which is the high water mark for all cartoons, at least in this humble blogger's opinion. It's a positive indicator that Marvel is really trying to step up and make shows worthy of their characters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">USM mainly follows teenage Spider-Man (Peter Parker and his social life is a very very minor part of the series), who works for S.H.I.E.L.D. as he trains his team of fellow young heroes:</span></div>
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Spidey, Iron Fist, White Tiger, Power Man and Nova</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Agent Coulson is stationed as the groups high school principal and SHIELD contact and Stan Lee often pops up as the school janitor, who is more than he appears. The show can be goofy at times, as a Spider-Man show should be, (usually Spider-Man shows get bogged down in the Parker drama so this is kind of refreshing) but it also tries to teach kids about working together and overcoming differences. Peter spends as much time trying to help his villains turn over a new leaf as he does stopping them from doing the villain stuff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The one down side is that this takes place in the Ultimates universe, mostly, it's a kid friendly version, so the Hulk is the Hulk, not some rapey cannibal like in the Ultimates comics (ugh), which means that the Green Goblin is not the Goblin that I love but some big green hulk like thing and Venom was created in a lab instead of being an alien. I guess it all simplifies things, but I prefer my Goblins in pink wizard hats, thank you very much.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, it's a great show and one TinyDoom and I always look forward to watching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next up, Avengers Assemble:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to say, TinyDoom and I were really enjoying Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes before it was cancelled (To be fair, it did take a good 20+ episodes to really start to get good). Fortunately, Avengers: EMH is in continuity to Assemble, so the new show is a bit of a reboot without completely starting over. This is another show that TD and I look forward to watching and I often have to calm The Tiny One down as she frets that we may be missing episodes, since it's not on regularly (WTF Disney XD?). Avengers Assemble pretty much follows movie continuity and brings in Falcon, so kids can get to know him before he appears in the new Captain America movie. It's a fun show and they showcase some fun villains, I just wish it was on more than once a freaking month, otherwise I might have more to say about it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next up, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.:</span></div>
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L to R: She Hulk, Skaar, Hulk, A-Bomb and Red Hulk</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Agents of S.M.A.S.H. is a bit of an odd ball. It's definitely more slapstick humor and they can go pretty heavy on the "Knowing is half the battle" kind of lessons, but the writers dig deep for some unusual villains for the Hulks to smash, we've seen Annhilius, Blastaar, Mole Man, Wendigo and Sauron plus the obvious guys like the Leader and Loki. One last note in the unusual column, they picked up a pet while in the Savage Land fighting Sauron: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_Dinosaur">Devil Dinosaur!</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The voice cast is notable here too, the always amazing Clancy Brown is Red Hulk, Seth Green is Rick Jones/A-Bomb and Eliza Dushku voices She Hulk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The show follows the Hulks as kind of a reality/web show. Rick has a couple of robot cameras that follow the group around on their adventures in an attempt to show the public that the Hulks are not monsters but are on the side of good. It follows a similar template as Ultimate Spider-Man, as the Hulk is trying to get his team to work together, so there are lessons, so many lessons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The ham-fisted lessons are the drawback of the show, it can be going along all entertaining and everything then blam, they hit you in the face with a lesson of some kind over and over. Often it's the same damn lesson in each episode, the Hulks need to work as a team. I GET IT. Do you have anything else to share with us S.M.A.S.H.? No, okay, back to the funny and the punching.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So it's not a perfect show, often times it's a very uneven feeling show, but when it's working it's pretty funny. Also, Devil Dinosaur.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So in conclusion, I think Marvel is working really hard to make some fun shows. Agents of SMASH seems to show that they are taking some chances in order to do something different. They are getting people excited about the characters they have to offer and they aren't afraid to showcase all corners of the Marvel U. All I have to say is, "Finally!".</span></div>
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Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-66522506121068431632013-11-07T10:27:00.000-05:002013-11-07T10:27:31.827-05:00Cinematic Titans<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This past weekend, Sunday to be exact, TinyDoom and I went to see Cinematic Titanic, who are on their final tour. </span><br />
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For those of you not in the know, CT is comprised mostly of the cast of Mystery Science Theater 3000, basically everyone who is not part of the RiffTrax group. For those of you not in the know of MST3K...go crawl back under the rock you've been living beneath for the past 25 years. GEEZE!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yeah. Let me let that sink in a bit. It's been 25 years since MST3K first aired. How crazy is that?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think most people know that MST3K had the silhouette of Joel and his two robot friends, Tom Servo and Crow, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">at the bottom of the screen </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">as they were forced by mad scientists to watch terrible movies. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> In Cinematic Titanic, the group of riffers are forced to record bad movies to be preserved in the Time Tube. I haven't seen all the dvd's in order, so I'm missing some of the background story, but it's all just cake icing for the main reason we're watching, which is the jokes. Although they do get creative with silhouettes, which is fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Anyway, we have seen CT before, but the last few times they have been in the area it's usually out in western MA, which is a bit of a hike. When I heard they were going to be in Boston AND it was going to be the last time, I immediately got tickets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Joel Hodgson, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the Titans each come out at the beginning of the show and do some stand up or some skits. The opening act/stage help/unsung cast member is usually Dave "Gruber" Allen, who I also remember fondly from the early days of the Comedy Channel. I still think of some of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Higgins_Boys_and_Gruber">Higgins Boys and Gruber</a> bits to this day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When they are ready to begin they sit along the sides of the movie and proceed to riff live. We watched a flick called </span><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069986/?ref_=nv_sr_1" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Doll Squad</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and it sure was ...something. I imagine there was some kind of plot, but since the movie didn't seem to have hired a sound guy, you could barely hear anything the actors were saying, which provided a lot of material for the Titans. I laughed to the point of tears on a few occasions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm going to miss seeing the live shows, but not touring doesn't mean not producing material. There are a bunch of dvd's available on their <a href="http://www.cinematictitanic.com/">website</a> and on Amazon (some are free to watch on Prime!) and they have said they will get back to making more soon. Since most of the cast lives in different parts of the country, getting together to tour is difficult, but I imagine getting together to make a few dvd's is less taxing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One thing I have neglected is to check out RiffTrax, but I did add some episodes on Netflix recently, so I hope to remedy that soon.</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-36993395121651354632013-11-06T08:38:00.003-05:002013-11-06T08:43:58.260-05:00Blog Match Team Up!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Head on over to <a href="http://ladiesofcomicazi.com/2013/11/06/comic-review-the-adventures-of-the-galactic-wrestling-federation-a-tale-of-cosmic-fisticuffs/">The Ladies of Comicazi</a> today to check out TinyDoom and I reviewing "The Adventures of the Galactic Wrestling Federation"!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Available NOW at <a href="http://comicazi.com/site/">Comicazi</a>, Davis Sq. Somerville!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-60165731497903934832013-11-04T10:42:00.000-05:002013-11-04T10:42:22.185-05:00Brew Blast: Dry Hop Cider<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TinyDoom and I ran into this cider at our local market's Cider and Meade tasting recently, we tried a great many tasty ciders of all kinds but purchased only a few. This is the first I'm going to review! (ooh, I made a rhyme!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Woodchuck Hard Cider Cellar Series Dry Hop</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was not surprised to like this, I have not had a Woodchuck cider that I didn't like. Their Fall cider is maybe my absolute favorite, but that's another post. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Dry Hop ran $5.95 for a pint bottle, it's 6.9% so hearty for a cider. Their ciders are fairly sweet, but pleasantly so, they are very easy to drink and this is no exception. Hops are not something you usually taste in cider, honestly I'm not sure it's really a normal ingredient, but maybe it should be. The hops enhance the apple taste and bring in some citrus, I get mainly grapefruit (which on it's own I'm not a fan of but it works here). It's nicely balanced, one of my problems with hoppy beers is that I can only drink one before my mouth is dry and I'm looking for something else to drink, but this is a nice blast of hops without drying you out, this is something I could have a couple of in a row. ...which I would, but we only bought this one bottle :(</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-40993627292057702522013-10-31T09:00:00.000-04:002013-10-31T09:01:38.479-04:00Green Arrowed!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hidely-ho Halloweeno's! Hallowinos? Maybe I'll stick with the first one. Anyhow, it's HALLOWEEN! The best day of the year! A couple of weekend's ago was <a href="http://comicazi.com/site/">Comicazi's</a> (our local comic shop) Halloweeniversary, the party that TinyDoom and I plan all year for. This past year we decided to go with a DC theme, since <a href="http://copiouscollections.blogspot.com/2012/10/cosplay-and-crafting-and-insects-oh-my.html">last year</a> we went Marvel.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Green Arrow and Speedy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Compared to last year's Ant-Man helmet, these costumes were a breeze.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I made the hats using a <a href="http://craftystaci.com/2010/04/17/robin-hood-hats/">plan</a> I found online, I slightly modified the template to work with the tools I had, which was mainly thread and felt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The eye masks I made using craft foam, I shaped them to our faces using a heat gun and they are attached using invisible elastic string. They worked out really well, although by the end of the night mine was starting to bug on of my eyes, but otherwise they came out better than I had hoped.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We both have quivers that you can't see in this picture, but they were both small mailing tubes that we painted green or yellow and zip tied to the belts across our chests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The bows we bought off Amazon and I spray painted mine, TinyDoom got lucky and found one that was red and yellow. We had fun using them, poorly, over the summer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.ebay.com/sch/zootzu1/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2654">tunic</a> I got off ebay and the pants and under shirt were green scrubs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AH0ZQG/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1">boots</a> I got off Amazon, off season, so they were really cheap, then I just tucked and folded over a sheet of craft foam for the cuffs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Both of our <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F9MZ10S/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1">gloves</a> we got off Amazon again, they are an inexpensive super hero glove that seem to fit perfectly, I had picked up a blue pair last year at a pop-up Halloween store to save my Ant-Man costume and searched high and low for them this year, I had intended to buy one of each color but no such luck, they were tough to come by and I think I was lucky to get what I did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You can barely see them, but I did make a couple of boxing glove arrows, which I basically just zip tied and hot glued to the arrows. They weren't the prettiest but they looked good enough in the dark and people got a kick out of them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The final piece I worked hard on was my magnificent beard. I grew it out over the past year and a half just to be ready to simulate Ollie's facial stylings. Technically Silver Age Green Arrow doesn't have facial hair, but I felt it was important to add in that touch of modern GA (or at least animated GA), at least in an effort to not be confused with Robin Hood, although I was asked to clarify which I was twice :) But here's a pic of me after shaping the Van Dyke.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y-fAI8zM338/UmaRLmkANGI/AAAAAAAAAxk/kaitnntiXlU/s1600/1398262_10202281973201737_1615685393_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y-fAI8zM338/UmaRLmkANGI/AAAAAAAAAxk/kaitnntiXlU/s320/1398262_10202281973201737_1615685393_o.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here's a better look...or at least a view of said Van Dyke.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'll tell you, I don't have plans to have another heavy beard in <i>ANY</i> upcoming summer. Yeesh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's about it, for now, since I have a second costume ready to reveal for Halloween Night, weather permitting, but until then enjoy a DC group picture:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I SAID ENJOY!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Starman, Batman, GA, Speedy and an outrageous Aquaman)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">HAPPY HALLOWEEN!</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-78310848659378230122013-10-27T11:03:00.000-04:002013-10-27T11:07:11.470-04:00Brew Battle Wrap Up<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was hoping to find a few more of my favorite pumpkin beers to review, but alas, the season is passing and they are no longer available. I searched high and low for one more bottle of Southern Tier Pumking (which would be my favorite), but it's all gone. Oh well there's always next year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, I guess I have given my thoughts on the individual beers that I had a chance to taste and blog about already, so I'll just get to numbering them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">*insert drum roll here* ...and the big winner is:</span><br />
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<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Southern Tier Warlock</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Samuel Adams Fat Jack</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brooklyn Brewery Post Road Pumpkin Ale</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saranac Pumpkin Ale</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cambridge Brewing Company Great Pumpkin Ale</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shipyard Pumpkin Head</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">All good beers, some gooder than others. If you are new to pumpkin beers I recommend starting at the bottom of my list and slowly working your way up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me know what you've tried and what beers you've had that I didn't review, I'm always looking for new pumpkin beers to try.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If there's any interesting non-pumpkin beers you've had lately that you think I should try, let me know!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See you next time bloggouls!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(bloggouls? I actually went with that? wow)</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-39219342932969664902013-10-20T15:51:00.000-04:002013-10-22T10:42:49.889-04:00Brew Battle: Warlock<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't know if anyone is enjoying these posts as much as I am enjoying "researching" them, but either way, on to the next brew!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a beer from what has become one of my most favorite breweries, Southern Tier. I have sung the praises of their Pumking, though not reviewed it yet (I haven't been able to find it lately and worry that the season has passed), but luckily they have another pumpkin beer, this time it's a stout!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Southern Tier Warlock</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is the first time I've had this and Wow, it's absolutely delicious! It's an Imperial Stout, 8.6% alcohol and cost $8.95. The bottle says it uses 4 different malts and 2 kinds of hops. It's got a strong caramel profile and a nice roasty-ness overall. It's not strongly pumpkiny, the caramel overpowers it a bit, but it all balances out nicely. It's pretty sweet and a heavy drink, which is exactly what I love about these types of beers. This is a great cool October night drink. I may need to stock up a bit to be sure to have one available for Halloween night.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Warlock has jumped into my top pumpkin beers, I'm looking forward to doing a final summary and see just where it falls.</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-80494900709605698132013-10-20T08:00:00.000-04:002013-10-20T14:51:18.927-04:00Brew Battle: Great Pumpkin Ale!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">BREW BATTLE IS GO!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today, for you, I have a local brewery's pumpkin offering. I have two pictures this time around because I had the beer (again, I make these sacrifices for you, my friends) on tap recently at <a href="http://www.zarestaurant.com/">Za</a>. </span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qvDHgxzwp5I/UmLZWf9LKII/AAAAAAAAAwg/gAJMhrLUhEc/s1600/cbc_great+pumpkin+ale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qvDHgxzwp5I/UmLZWf9LKII/AAAAAAAAAwg/gAJMhrLUhEc/s400/cbc_great+pumpkin+ale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> That's a great looking label.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Cambridge Brewing Company: The Great Pumpkin Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.cambrew.com/">Cambridge Brewing</a> is located in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA, it's a bit of a pain to get to if you are local, but worth the effort. They have a brew pub with good food and great beer. I went there as part of my bachelor party, we had a few beer towers to kick the afternoon off right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But I digress, The Great Pumpkin is a good pumpkin ale, but again, maybe not in my top 10 overall. It's a tasty, but a bit light. I guess if you don't like a taste whallop, like I tend to, then it might be right up your alley. This pint ran me about $6, so pretty standard for a draft pint and it's 4.4%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It has a mild hoppy and citrus start and a smooth yammy body. The pumpkin taste lingers at the end, but overall it's a bit on the light side. I think I'd like this beer more if it was a bit deeper, but to each his own, not all pumpkin beers need be heavy brews. This is one of the better light pumpkin ales.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me know what kind of beers you guys like, I'd like to get a feel for what other folks prefer.</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-41077966452837348612013-10-19T14:55:00.000-04:002013-10-19T14:56:10.780-04:00Brew Battle: Saranac Pumpkin Ale<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before we get to the party, I'd like to take this opportunity to point out the new header for the blog, I decided to update it this morning. I think it's less clumsy looking than the previous one. Okay, enough patting myself on the back, here we go!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brew Battle returns, again, yes, I bought a lot of pumpkin beer, no I don't have a problem...unless you count not enough time to drink all the available pumpkin beers a problem, and<i> I</i> do. LET'S GET TO IT!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saranac: Our Pumpkin Ale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Saranac, from NY, is one of my go-to's. I have yet to find a bad beer out of this brewery. I have had this before, but I had not seen this jug style bottle before stumbling across it in my local shop. It's a quart of brew and only runs $4.99! What a deal (he said in a Zoidberg voice)! This beer clocks in at 5.4%, so slightly above average.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's got a lovely red color, a bit of a caramel sweetness up front and a bit of a cinnamon pumpkin finish. It's sweet, but not cloyingly so, I would say it's very easy to drink. It could be more pumpkiny but it's a very nice cool weather beverage. It also comes in a pretty cool bottle, which is temping to keep and use as a seasonal decoration. I had previously had this in the Fall 12 pack mix, so it's nice to see it available on it's own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's is for now, stay tuned for my next pumpkin beer post...coming soon, since I drank the beer last night and just have to type the post up ;)</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-61730742338181920322013-10-17T17:24:00.000-04:002013-10-17T17:24:49.951-04:00Brew Battle: Pumpkinhead<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'm drinking a pumpkin beer, so that can mean only one thing: IT'S BREW BATTLE TIME!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Next up:</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mgBNVYfAU68/UmBPuiULpeI/AAAAAAAAAuc/1NbfSDHeZo4/s1600/photo+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mgBNVYfAU68/UmBPuiULpeI/AAAAAAAAAuc/1NbfSDHeZo4/s400/photo+(2).JPG" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shipyard Pumpkinhead</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a popular beer, I know a lot of people that are very passionate about Pumpkinhead. Personally, I enjoy Pumpkinhead but it's not one of my top favorites, not to say I don't like it, because I end up drinking it often enough. Although drinking it often is usually because it tends to be one of the few "craft" beers on tap (unless you find yourself in a very good bar). Bars often offer it with a cinnamon/sugar rim for your glass, while I have been known to partake of the sugar rim, I question whether a properly made beer needs any bells and whistles. But a bit on that later.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pumpkinhead is pretty light, it's a light color, light alcohol percentage at 4.5% and relatively inexpensive, I think I paid maybe $8 for a six pack. It's sweet and a bit tart, it's pleasantly crisp and finishes with cinnamon and pumpkin, lightly. This is a good beginner's beer for those dipping their toes outside of the Bud pool and into the neighbor's deep and mysterious pool. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So, getting back to the cinnamon/sugar rim, if it's offered, go for it. I think it definitely enhances the pumpkin pie in a glass thing. But. I kind of wish it wasn't necessary, the beer could be a bit more complex in it's profile, but to that effect, if I want a more complex beer then perhaps I should be drinking one.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well, I guess I'm done arguing with myself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In conclusion, it's a good easy to drink beer for a cool fall day. Despite it's short comings, I wouldn't kick it out of my bed...but I'd be thinking of another seasonal beer while we snuggle.</span>Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-56979959386270696632013-10-14T15:41:00.000-04:002013-10-14T15:41:08.444-04:00Brew Battle: Fat Jack<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Brew Battle returns with my seasonal theme of pumpkin beers. Today I'm reviewing Samuel Adams' Fat Jack Double Pumpkin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fat Jack is one of Sam's pint bottle special small batch brews. I bought it for $6.95 and it's 8.5% alcohol. This beer is apparently brewed with 28lbs of pumpkins per barrel, according to the bottle, so it's very flavorful. The label also says that it has cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The first taste is sweet and malty, then you get the pumpkin and the spices, it finishes very smooth and easy for a beer that is as sweet as it is. It doesn't leave a sticky sweetness on your tongue like some sweet drinks. It's a very hearty brew and one that I have started to look forward to, I believe last year was the first time it was available and when I saw it in the store I did not hesitate to grab it again. If you don't mind sweet, this is a bit like drinking a malty pumpkin pie. Me? I love malty and pumpkin pie, so it's a "Hell Yes" for me.</span>Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-78320711518128364812013-10-07T17:12:00.000-04:002013-10-07T17:12:13.102-04:00Brew Battle: Post Road Pumpkin AleWelcome back once again, to Brew Battle. The battle for my taste buds...and to keep off my beer belly (and yes, my appreciation for alliteration). This time around I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite seasonal brews. There have been so many amazing pumpkin ales produced over the recent past that there is no shortage of breweries offering their own unique take, there's always something new to try.<br />
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Post Road Pumpkin Ale by Brooklyn Brewery</div>
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As you may have guessed, pumpkin ales are one of my absolute favorite beers. Actually fall is my favorite time of the year, with winter a close second, partly because they bring some of my absolute favorite beer styles to the stores.</div>
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Post Road is the first pumpkin beer I ever had and it was love at first swig. It's crisp and perfect for a nice cool day, a good beer to relax with after a morning spent picking apples. The first sip has a bit of hops, then the sweetness (but not too sweet) from the pumpkin and a bit of cinnamon. It finishes with a faint vegetableness from the pumpkin. It's very pleasant and easy to drink and it remains one of the pumpkin ales I look forward to every year. </div>
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I think there are superior pumpkin ales available, (Southern Tier Pumking, I'm looking at you, my precious) but I always come back to Post Road. I was just saying last week that I had not seen it in stores and was disappointed (that was remedied, obviously), I think it's a bit of a tradition for me and sort of officially signals fall. </div>
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I hope you, my dear readers, also enjoy pumpkin beers, because the next batch of Brew Battle posts are all going to be pumpkin related. In the mean time, please share your favorite seasonal beers in the comments! </div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-38560399111714100432013-10-06T17:01:00.001-04:002013-10-25T18:59:53.188-04:00Brew Blast: Take The Black Stout<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Howdy fellow bloggees! I'm starting a new series of posts about one of my favorite things, beer! Hopefully this will help me get back into the habit of posting, since I'm always trying new beers, I should often have something to talk about. Hopefully I'll be able to describe the beers adequately, only one way to know for sure...let's get to it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today my wife, <a href="http://ladiesofcomicazi.com/">TinyDoom</a>, and I walked into our local market, Pemberton Farms, to find that it had recently transformed into a Beer Wonderland! They had a decent selection before, but they expanded and the selection is now pretty impressive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I discovered a bunch of new beers that got me quite excited and inspired this post today. At least I'm telling myself that the blog was a good enough excuse to buy more beer.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I walked out with 3 bottles and today I have the first to share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ommegang's Game of Thrones: Take The Black Stout</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found this in a pint sized bottle, it's 7% alcohol and cost $8.99. The bottle describes the stout as having "chocolate and caramel sweetness, balanced by hop bitterness, roasty, woodsy notes and an earthy finish". I think that sums it up pretty well, I definitely got the chocolate up front and the finish is certainly woodsy. If I had a fire place I'd want to drink this in front of it, with a nice bowl of some kind of hearty stew close by and some crusty bread. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I had heard Ommegang's other GoT beer was okay, a fairly standard ale, so I was a bit dubious about this one, but being a sucker for dark beers I figured it was worth a try and I'm glad I did. Now hopefully I can find it again later in the year when it's much cooler out, because as you may have heard, "Winter Is Coming."</span></div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-24937969087338144062013-04-24T06:00:00.000-04:002013-04-24T11:18:00.656-04:00Blog-A-Long with the Ladies!Howdy-ho neighborinos! I've been gone a while, but like a bad penny, I keep turning up!<br />
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Today I'm joining my lovely wife, Tiny Doom, and the other ladies of <a href="http://ladiesofcomicazi.com/">The Ladies of Comicazi</a> in their Bat-Month blog series. Bat-Month involves each lady choosing her favorite episode of Batman: The Animated Series (including The Adventures of Batman and Robin) and talking about why it was chosen. I was excited by the idea and decided to join in, unofficially, and do a review of my favorite episode. As you can imagine, this is no small feat because there are so many incredible episodes of the award wining and genre changing show. <br />
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I know this series holds a special place in my heart, I have always been an animation fan and the years just before Batman: TAS began I often complained about the poor animation quality and the poor story telling of the garbage that was on TV. I honestly thought that American animation was truly was in it's death throws (although looking at what was on in 1993, I can see that Batman was one of the shows that premiered on the precipice of change). Then along came Batman, with a retro design, fresh concepts that paid homage to story lines from the comics, writing that strove to tell a good story instead of trying to sell toys and voice acting that was actual acting by talented people. To this day, my wife and I still refer to Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil as "The One True Batman" and "The One True Joker". The series made folks take notice and once you watched an episode, you were sucked in. <br />
I remember when the show was on originally, my father would watch it with me when he got home from work, once they altered the time to slightly earlier he admitted that he was disappointed to be missing the show! I didn't even realize he had enjoyed watching it, I had just assumed that he was watching it because it was on when he sat down.<br />
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Such is the power of Batman: The Animated Series.<br />
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Beware all whom enter, for here there be spoilers:<br />
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So the episode I have chosen as my favorite is an unusual episode, it doesn't take place in Gotham, it barely features Batman and it takes place in 1883. The episode is "Showdown", first aired September 12, 1995. The fall after I had graduated high school, *gulp* 18 years ago. <br />
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<i>I'm in the mood for spaghetti just lookin' at those bat-wing doors.</i></div>
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I don't want to get TOO involved in describing the episode, but I'll give a good overview, skip this if you want to remain totally spoiler-free.<br />
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The episode starts with Batman and Robin chasing after Ra's al Ghul, who has shown up in Gotham and appears to be kidnapping someone from a retirement home. Ra's has left the Detective a cassette, which Batman and Robin listen to while they try to catch up to the fleeing al Ghul.<br />
The story told is the brunt of the episode, it's 1883, Ra's and Arkady Duvall are working on a plan to create a Jules Vernian air ship, The Phoenix, which he plans to use to destroy the railroads and then move onto Washington and take over America.<br />
In the mean time, Jonah Hex is on the train of Duvall, who has a bounty on his head for beating up some local women. He's assisted by a local "barmaid" who explains that some of "her girls" were beaten by Duvall and she wants to see him pay.<br />
Hex tracks down Duvall and al Ghul and puts an end to The Phoenix, has the titular showdown with Duvall, who he ultimately defeats and captures alive. Ra's gets away as the airship is crashing, leaving Duvall to his fate.<br />
We then join Batman and Robin just as the story is finishing and they catch up to Ra's with the old man that was kidnapped. Robin realizes that the old man is actually a 100+ year old Duvall. Ra's explains to a bewildered Robin that Duvall had been exposed to a Lazarus Pit in his youth, but that a long prison sentence had destroyed his mind, to the extent that another bath in a Lazarus Pit would do no good. Duvall is actually Ra's son, a son that al Ghul knew early on was too mean and unstable to take over for Ra's, but that Ra's had lost track of until recently. <br />
The episode ends with Ra's asking Batman to back off and let to Ra's take his boy home. Batman knows they will meet again eventually and he respectfully does as Ra's al Ghul asks.<br />
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This description does not do the episode justice, it's fun, it's exciting and you really can't blame Batman for letting Ra's leave at the end. He just wants to spend what time he can with his lost son, something that, with a deftly animated squint of the eyes shows that Batman understand that desire and is maybe a bit jealous.<br />
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I had never heard of Jonah Hex before this and immediately sought out more info on him. Luckily there had recently been a Vertigo miniseries, Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo, that had wrapped up so I had something to jump into! Hex is still one of my favorite DC characters, I just wish I loved his new adventures as much as I enjoyed his original adventures...but that's another post.<br />
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Watching it now and knowing quite a bit more of Jonah, I can say that I think they did a hell of a job. He's snarky and a bit rude, but you know he's got a code of honor that guides him. His appearance is a bit odd, but considering it's the late 19th century and he fought in the Civil War, it does make sense that he'd be an old man. But he's an old man that kicks major ass, even if he's "gettin' too old for this stuff".<br />
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I still think it was brave to make a Batman episode that Batman was barely in, but I'm also not surprised because The Animated Series was known for taking chances. That's why is won 4 Emmy's in it's few seasons.<br />
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Some interesting bits of trivia:<br />
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<li>This was the first appearance of Jonah Hex in any kind of film.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000532/?ref_=sr_1">Malcolm McDowell</a> voiced Arkady Duvall and would go on to voice Metallo in Superman: TAS</li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000548/?ref_=sr_1">Elizabeth Montgomery</a> voiced the barmaid and this was her last performance before dying of cancer.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001831/?ref_=sr_1">David Warner</a> once again voiced Ra's al Ghul, and it was the first time he and McDowell had worked together since the fun (if a bit over long) movie "Time After Time".</li>
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<br />Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73433294702120403.post-20156512792837912342012-10-21T18:42:00.000-04:002012-10-21T18:42:48.915-04:00Cosplay and Crafting and Insects, oh my!Great gadzooks! It's been just over a year since my last post! I guess I haven't had too much to say. Well, luckily I have been hard at work lately and finally DO have something to say. <br />
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HALLOWEEN! My great motivator. This year my wife, Tiny Doom of <a href="http://comicaziladies.wordpress.com/">The Ladies of Comicazi</a> blog, decided she wanted to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(comics)">The Wasp</a>, from The Avengers, specifically she wanted to be the Wasp from the cartoon, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, so I naturally decided I would be<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant-Man"> Ant-Man</a>. I decided against the cartoon version and chose to go classic silver age comic version. <br />
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So, armed with an excuse to buy more silver age comics, I picked up the Essential Ant-Man book and I started scouring the internet for costume ideas. I was shocked to come up with very little. Only two other people have made Ant-Man costumes, one <a href="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2011/06/blonde067-1309141912.jpg">very very good</a> and one <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/calvinberky/3680774850/">pretty good</a>. Unfortunately I could not find any blogs by either men explaining how they made their costume. I then scoured web pages like <a href="http://www.therpf.com/">The Replica Prop Forum</a> which is filled with amazingly talented creators and the <a href="http://www.cosplay.com/forum.php">Cosplay.com</a> forum, which seemed to be closed, but still contained quite a bit of useful info.<br />
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Right away I knew the most important part of my costume was going to be Ant-Man's helmet with the second being his belt canisters which contain the gas that allows Hank Pym to shrink and grow. I looked for quite some time to come up with a base helmet to modify but wasn't able to find anything that was affordable and allowed me to wear it with my glasses comfortably, so I knew I was stuck making the helmet from scratch. <br />
I followed <a href="http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=97106">this</a> post and it was amazingly helpful, I doubt I would have had any success if not for Featherweight. This was the initial result of much cardboard and hotglue:<br />
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This is the end result of the first stage. I used dowells for the antenna and the belt canisters. The rest is completely cardboard.<br />
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Side View</div>
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From this stage I painted the helmet with fiberglass resin, which made the cardboard waterproof and sturdy enough to take the next step, bondo, and lots of it. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the fiberglass and bondo, but basically the fiberglass just looked like the pics above but green and the bondo you can basically see in the next pics, once it's been sanded and reapplied and sanded and reapplied and...well, you get the idea.</div>
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Bondo-ed and primed.</div>
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First blast of silver spray paint.</div>
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The last few applications of bondo and fiberglass were mostly attempting to fill in the little holes in the bondo from it drying. This was a big bitch, those damn divots would never seem to go away! You keep sanding and then suddenly you are sanding cardboard and then you've gone too far. So I'd cover it all up again with fiberglass, but then it'd get sanded away and this went on seemingly forever. I finally had to just accept that I wasn't going to have a perfectly smooth helmet, especially since there were a few spots that were cracking and I was not able to completely fix them. You can barely tell from most of the pictures, luckily, and you can only really see the bad spots upon close inspection.</div>
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The belt canisters I just sprayed silver, that never needed anything more complex, thankfully. As for the rest of my suit, which I hope fell somewhere between the two I posed above:</div>
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Click to Embiggen.</div>
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The gloves were superhero gloves I found in one of those pop-up Halloween stores, the boots were pvc boots from Amazon that I spray painted blue, the red suit was actually one of those red onesie longjohns, the shorts were a pain to find, but they were running shorts I found on Amazon and the black details were just black felt that I used a mix of stitch witchery and iron-on velcro to attach (so I could get in and out of the suit).</div>
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There were different gloves that were also spray painted blue but like the boots, they never dried properly. I had read a lot of mixed results online, after reading that pvc takes plastic fusion spray paint, that it doesn't always. Mine sure didn't. On dry days they seemed ok, rainy days you'd get blue on your hands. The boots eventually dried enough that I could wear them, but still got blue on myself getting in and out and the parts of my suit that rub along the tops of the boots were ringed with blue when I got out of my suit. So don't believe everything the internet tells you about chemical bonding.</div>
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Overall I am very very happy with how things turned out. My wife and I won Best Overall in the <a href="http://comicazi.com/">Comicazi's</a> Halloweeniversary party that they throw every year, so it seemed other's agreed that it went well.</div>
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Aside from quite a bit of stress, I actually had a lot of fun creating the helmet. So much that I have already set up my next project. This one is just for me, for fun:</div>
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Wish me luck.</div>
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Until next time! ...which will hopefully not be next year. Happy Halloween!</div>
Dan Clerihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09096501376856163778noreply@blogger.com3