Not Intent on Arriving

The alcoholic beverage has been in the news quite a bit in recent days. Some of my favorite stories….

1) Alcohol Slows Digestion: That’s right. The results of a new study, appearing in the next issue of BMJ, reveal that the body takes around 6 hours to digest a fondue meal when paired with water and tea. When the beverages are swapped, in favor of wine and schnapps, the body takes around 9 hours to digest the same food.

2) Really Expensive Beers Are In: In-style, that is. The website Eater, which tracks food news and trends, reports a slew of pricey craft beers. Of particular note, the Antarctic Nail Ale that sold for $800/ bottle at auction. Why so much? Well, the beer is made (partially) from melted Antarctic ice water.  If you want more booze for your buck, consider a 12-liter bottle of beer that retails for over $1,000. A London restaurant has sold three the huge bottles of La Vieille Bon Secourts. Or check out the PR stunt of one company below:

3) Four Loko Tasting Menu: The alcohol-packed, energy drink will not go away quietly. Chef Matt Levin of the Philadelphia restaurant Adsum will offer a $35 tasting menu that will be paired with Four Loko. Levin said he tweeted the idea as a joke, but consumers quickly lined up for the chance to sample the bizarre menu.

Though it’s closed now, this 6.5 acre city in Hong Kong used to house 33,000 people during the late 1980s. The Kowloon Walled City began as a military fortress before the Chinese ceded the land to the British. Then, after World War II, squatters began to reoccupy the site.  Poor sanitary conditions and overcrowding led authorities to begin demolition of the city in 1993. Today, a park occupies the old site.

For the first part of a German documentary about the city, see below.

Collector’s Weekly (via) has an intriguing theory. These masks were worn by firefighters in late 18th-century Europe when entering burning buildings. Do they remind you of anything? Some people are reminded of Darth Vadar and 3-CPO of Star Wars fame. Could George Lucas have found inspiration from them?

It was 6 feet tall and decorated with seasonal merriment. Oh, and it was a marijuana plant, growing inside his house.

Turns out the police found more than 150 pounds of pot in the man’s house BEFORE they spotted the tree.  Police officers described the man as “an old hippie.”

Tis the season to be jolly.

Bob wore his Rolex watch for 40 years straight. Then, he put it away and forgot about it for a decade, before pulling it this year and deciding to sell it for some Christmas spending money.

He decided to sell it on eBay, listing it for the reasonable sum of $9.95. Then, the bids started coming in. And coming. And coming. By the time the auction closed, the final price was $66,100.

That’s 6,610 times more than the asking price. Not bad.