Food and Wine

They’re Coming for Your Steaks and Hamburgers

Featured image The Lancet used to be a respected medical journal. Now, while it still publishes technical articles on medical topics, it is more concerned with the left-wing hobby horses of the day. Pseudo-science can be influential, so the Lancet’s current editorial–We Need to Talk About Meat–should be taken seriously as an early warning. The emotionally charged debate over the ethical suitability of meat consumption may never reach a conclusion, but it »

“The Era Where Jokes Have Come to Die”

Featured image There’s a joke that’s been going around for a while that runs: “How do you know someone is a vegan? Because they f—— tell you!” Certainly veganism seems to be more than just a preference for a vegetarian diet; there is a moral unctuousness to it that seems to go hand in hand with a PETA membership card. Which brings me to Megan McArdle’s column in the Washington Post a »

Politically Incorrect Cheeseburgers

Featured image All politically-correct people know you are supposed to shun Chick-fil-A because its founder supports traditional marriage. Well someone forgot to post the memo at Denver International Airport, where a brand new Chick-fil-A recently opened (picture below) to hugely long lines at all times of the day—I’ve been by it four times now since it opened a couple months ago—lines at least three times as long as any of the other »

Saving the Planet Through Virtue-Signaling

Featured image One reason I have long term optimism that we’re going to beat the left is that they flunk the humor test—over and over again. Here are the folks at College Humor making fun of the “locavores” who make farmer’s market shopping into a sacrament. Meanwhile, I’m heading off to a wine festival this afternoon. And planning to avoid every winery that boasts that it is either “organic” or “sustainable” (unless »

Crisis of the chicken undivided

Featured image It’s a story that seems redolent of a dreary bygone era in British history. The United Kingdom is in the throes of “an ongoing chicken shortage.” The shortage is attributed by someone who isn’t feeling the pain to “a hiccup in the supply chain.” The shortage is serious. It has closed the doors at half the KFC outlets in the country f/k/a Great Britain. They have a crisis on their »

A Very Power Line Thanksgiving

Featured image It was a balmy 72 degrees out here on the left coast today, so that meant I had to grill a turkey, and wash down the whole thing with a first course of McPrice-Myers 2014 Viognier, followed by a Sea Smoke 2013 Pinot Noir “TEN.” (And the “TEN” is not the bottle price. Believe me, as Trump might say.) People have been saying I should do more cooking/grilling/wine videos, so here’s »

The Nation Whine Club

Featured image I guess cruises with the ever delightful Katrina van den Heuvel and junkets to Cuba just aren’t enough for the cosmopolite readership of The Nation. They have a Nation Whine Club now! Oh wait, it’s a Wine Club, but you can understand how the confusion could creep in. I already belong to too many wine clubs, and in any case wouldn’t trust The Nation to select wines anyway. Because I am »

The Story Behind the Roto-Broil 400

Featured image Burnt Toast is a podcast about food. I normally wouldn’t hear it, but my wife urged me to listen to this episode. Burnt Toast had done a podcast on the Roto-Broil 400, one of the premier kitchen devices of the early 1960s. The Roto-Broil remains a cult item that is still in use in some homes. After that podcast, the producer received a message that led to a follow-up, which »

How to Fight Fake News and the Deep State

Featured image Some Power Line readers, especially the ones who follow my gratuitous and indulgent Facebook photos of grilling extravaganzas, think I should offer some cooking posts here. So why not. Living well is the best revenge. Especially if it involves: red meat, red wine, and a turbocharged carbon footprint. It’s the recommended way to combat fake news and the deep state. Besides, I’ve been working all weekend on a long overdue »

And in Other “Settled Science”

Featured image A recent book on Alcohol and Aging offers this very important chapter abstract: Epidemiological studies have observed that older adults who consume light to moderate amounts of alcohol have higher cognitive functioning and are less likely to develop different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, compared to older adults who do not consume alcohol. Similar findings have been reported by studies that have examined midlife alcohol consumption and cognitive functioning »

And Now for Something Completely Different: Stop Whining, Drink Wine!

Featured image We’ve long known that red wine reduces the risk of heart attacks and several other ailments, which is why daily consumption of red wine is part of my health regimen. But did you know wine also makes you smarter? It’s settled science! At least according to a new book, Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine, by Gordon Shepherd. Mike Meisner of Napa Valley’s Last Bottle Bar summarizes »

Loose Ends (14)

Featured image Heavily overscheduled road trip this week, hence the scarcity of posts the last couple of days. Collecting lots of scraps of gossip in DC about the Trump transition, most of it wrong, I suspect. At least I was able to sneak in a fine bottle of Bordeaux at an undisclosed location last night. Some items from the spindle: • What’s the old line about stepping out of the way when »

Whiskey and Freedom!

Featured image Our friends at the Competitive Enterprise Institute have just this morning released a new seven-minute film, “I, Whiskey,” in which they remind us of the valuable principle that “the story of whiskey is the story of freedom. . . the classic American story.” Hear, hear. (The title is an obvious homage to the previous short film CEI produced of the classic Leonard Read essay, “I, Pencil.” Also worth a watch »

Today’s Silly Regulatory Diktat from Obama

Featured image News out today is that the Obama FDA is issuing new guidelines on salt in food, hoping to pressure the food industry. Okay, maybe we eat too much salt (says me, who is currently about to braise porks ribs for dinner after letting them set all night in my fridge in a yummy salt-based rub), but does the Obama Administration have to make everything so ripe for parody? FDA commissioner »

Meat-Eater’s Manifesto

Featured image I enjoy reminding people that I’m actually a vegan. I just allow the cow to do the work first. This is a nice piece of work piercing the pretensions of Veganism. I especially like “I could never eat plants that are raised on crowded farms and inhumane living conditions with less than one square inch of space per stalk, stuck in the soil against their will.” (About 3 minutes long.) »

The Height of Low Kitsch

Featured image I’ve been wanting to get this story planted somewhere for a long time. Tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal A-hed story: Fans Rally Around ‘That Painting,’ A Symbol of Las Vegas Kitsch By Alexandra Berzon LAS VEGAS—People here can no longer marvel at the public display of one million dollars, be dazzled by “the world’s largest rhinestone” or even watch showgirls prance in ostrich-feather headdresses. All have vanished. But when a reality-television »

A Neglected Issue

Featured image I somehow missed the Washington Post Wonkblog story two years ago about the mal-distribution of alcohol consumption in this country, but here’s the gist of it: The top 10 percent of drinkers account for well over half of the alcohol consumed in any given year. On the other hand, people in the bottom three deciles don’t drink at all, and even the median consumption among those who do drink is just three »