Althouse: Mead tasting.

October 4, 2019

Mead tasting.

On Pearl Street, in Boulder, Colorado, last Saturday. (We're home now.)

53 comments:

Sebastian said...: Kinky.

And pretty cheap.; 10/4/19, 3:00 PM
Rick said...: There's not enough meat to get a good taste.; 10/4/19, 3:02 PM
rehajm said...: Part of Boulder's Fall Cannabis and Cannibals Festival was it?; 10/4/19, 3:02 PM
Temujin said...: Hmmm....everybody want some.; 10/4/19, 3:02 PM
Ken B said...: Mead has a reputation as a he-man Conan the Barbarian Viking drink. It's like thin sweet white wine.; 10/4/19, 3:04 PM
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...: Bono sure isn't getting any younger.; 10/4/19, 3:07 PM
Rockeye said...: I thought he was wearing a velour t-shirt for a moment. Heavens forfend.; 10/4/19, 3:08 PM
mccullough said...: I love the .88 cents. A sawbuck seems enough.

Does the legal pot in Colorado drive the price of Meas up or down?; 10/4/19, 3:08 PM
Left Bank of the Charles said...: Pay the man.; 10/4/19, 3:17 PM
rehajm said...: You know, that's a Game of Thrones font, Ann...; 10/4/19, 3:21 PM
n.n said...: Pure, unadulterated liquid mead.; 10/4/19, 3:23 PM
Browndog said...: I like those pants. Less the ankle monitor on the right leg-

Those would make great shorts. I kid. I do like the pants. Stout, but comfortable.

Yea, nay?; 10/4/19, 3:24 PM
Dave Begley said...: Double meaning. Risqué comment.; 10/4/19, 3:25 PM
mockturtle said...: My great grandparents had a large house on Pearl St. in Boulder many years ago. I have pictures of it but it's long gone--I think it's all a commercial district now. When my great-grandfather died my great-grandmother took in boarders to keep the small staff on payroll and pay the bills.; 10/4/19, 3:25 PM
rcocean said...: Nice sign But those sunglasses make Meade look like a big praying mantis with a hat.; 10/4/19, 3:27 PM
Meade said...: By the way, if any of you have a video recording of the game at Coors Field last Friday night, in the 5th inning (can't remember if it was top or bottom) there was a towering high fly foul ball that came down right into the hands of some guy wearing a Brewers cap. That guy was me! I wasn't really trying to catch the ball, just trying to protect the little blonde lady sitting to my right who ducked.

Eventually, the ball went home with a cute 5 year-old girl 2 rows down, wearing a Rockies hat.; 10/4/19, 3:28 PM
Todd said...: OK, that was just "ewwwwww"...; 10/4/19, 3:29 PM
Meade said...: "Yea, nay?"

Yea.
REI; 10/4/19, 3:31 PM
Anthony said...: I've got a bottle of homemade Mead in the pantry that's been mellowing for the last 7-8 years. Should be mighty fine to drink in about 2030-ish.; 10/4/19, 3:40 PM
Roughcoat said...: When I arrived in Boulder in the summer of 1970 Pearl Street was open (no mall) and had angle parking. There were feed and gain stores and agricultural supply stores on Pearl and elsewhere downtown. On weekends a goodly number of pickup trucks with gun racks holding rifles occupied the angle parking spaces. They were driven by men from the country, farmers and ranchers, wearing Levis and cowboy hats and boots not because they had become fashionable but as a practical matter and because that was what their daddies and daddy's daddies before them wore. The only downtown watering hole that served hard liquor was the Catacombs bar in the Boulderado Hotel and the nearby Broken Drum Tavern was the only three-two beer establishment. You could go horseback riding for $2.50 per hour at Hidden Valley Ranch on the outskirts of town and gas cost 22 cents per gallon and even dropped to 16 cents during a local gas price war. You could buy a lid (1 oz in a plastic baggie) of decent marijuana for $10, ditto for quality LSD and nature-grown magic mushrooms. There were plenty of long-hairs, refugees from the Haight in San Francisco and whatnot, but they were not yet ubiquitous nor had they yet taken over the town council. Within a couple of days of my arrival I got a job as bartender at Tulagi On the Hill and was soon promoted to assistant manager. I was also attending the University of Colorado and tried never to miss a single class because the campus was positively swarming with stunningly beautiful co-eds. Good times indeed.; 10/4/19, 3:44 PM
Mark Larson said...: "That's what she said".; 10/4/19, 3:49 PM
tim maguire said...: $10.88? Does that mean it's $12.00 with tax?; 10/4/19, 3:50 PM
LA_Bob said...: The $10.88 price is not bad, but I'm wondering if I can get a volume discount, like two tastes for $19.95 or three tastes for $29.88.

Just asking for a friend.; 10/4/19, 3:51 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Meade @ 3:28
Extra cools!; 10/4/19, 4:01 PM
Meade said...: Thx, BBandH.

Also, Mrs.Meade links to a video here but I sort of think of her more like the heroine in this movie.
Push back the clock a few years and I'm pretty sure she'd be shredding like a 9 yr-old girl who reads (and probably draws/writes) cool comic books.; 10/4/19, 4:16 PM
Phil 314 said...: As a follow up to Roughcoats comments and also based on my limited exposure to Boulder in the '80's I suggest that Boulder's heydays were in the '70s.

As evidence for that supposition I present Caribou Ranch; 10/4/19, 4:17 PM
Phil 314 said...: And more evidence for my proposition.; 10/4/19, 4:19 PM
Meade said...: Great story of which I concur entirely, Roughcoat. I first came to Boulder from DC in '73 after graduating from high school on my way to migrant farm working down in Paonia, CO. I maybe should've never left the North Fork Valley.; 10/4/19, 4:36 PM
Roughcoat said...: Phil:

Yes indeed, the 70s were indeed Boulder's heyday. Btw, I was an occasional visitor to Caribou Ranch because of my music business connections as a result of my employment at Tulagi and also working for concert promoters Chuck Morris and Barry Fey. Back then Boulder was still affordable for a low-earning bartender-slash-student such as yours truly. Until the mid-70s and maybe a little after it was still possible to live well on little money. But that changed toward the end of the decade. Eventually I moved to Denver because of the the rapidly skyrocketing cost of living and because the jobs were in Denver and anyway because it was well past time for me to grow up. Boulder became terminally expensive for all save the very wealthy after the passage of the Green Belt legislation and other related social engineering initiatives. I blame California and leftist Californians for what happened. Before they came Boulder a rather charming little country/university town voted reliably Republican even into the early 70s.; 10/4/19, 4:39 PM
Roughcoat said...: Meade:

Southwest Colorado is my favorite part of the state. I am well familiar with the Paonia area and have taken many trips and had many adventures thereabouts. My wife and I vacation in the area, staying at a wonderful place called Blue Lake Ranch, located just west of Durango -- check it out.

Anymore, I avoid Boulder. It changed too much over the years and in ways that I couldn't abide. I very much more prefer the southwest and the northwest.; 10/4/19, 4:55 PM
Meade said...: Blue Lake Ranch. Beautiful looking place, Roughcoat.; 10/4/19, 5:04 PM
Phil 314 said...: Speaking of southwest Colorado and mountain retreats for musicians. We loved Pagosa Springs

"Dan Fogelberg Ranch In Colorado in Contract
By Christina S.N. Lewis
Updated June 13, 2008 12:01 am ET
The longtime ski retreat of singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, after three years on and off the market, is in contract.

Mr. Fogelberg, who died in December at age 56 after a prolonged bout with prostate cancer, first listed the 610-acre ranch in 2005 for $17.5 million. Its most recent asking price was $15 million. The planned purchase price couldn't be learned. Mr. Fogelberg, who rose to fame during the 1970s, custom-built the estate, in Pagosa Springs, Colo., near the Wolf Creek Ski area.

Dubbed "Mountain Bird Ranch," it comprises a four-bedroom main house with a greenhouse, a gym, and a professional recording studio; a caretaker's house; and a studio apartment above a three-car garage. The property's terrain includes many hills, creeks, lakes and ponds. There's a 12-stall stable, riding arenas and other outbuildings.

The buyer could still back out depending on a survey of the property and other due diligence, says listing agent Joshua Saslove, of Joshua & Co., an affiliate of Christie's Great Estates. He declined to provide further details.

Known for his sensitive, soft-rock ballads, Mr. Fogelberg rose to fame with hits including "Leader of the Band" and "Same Old Lang Syne." His widow, Jean, also owns a home in Maine.; 10/4/19, 5:06 PM
mesquito said...: So you drove how far to hang out in another smug college town?; 10/4/19, 5:09 PM
Phil 314 said...: More regarding Caribou ranch

I'd say all in all Caribou Ranch produced some pretty schlocky music.; 10/4/19, 5:10 PM
Clyde said...: I had never had mead until last October, when I was up in Traverse City, Michigan, and we went to a brew pub that had cherry mead. It was good!; 10/4/19, 5:11 PM
mockturtle said...: Roughcoat reports: Anymore, I avoid Boulder. It changed too much over the years and in ways that I couldn't abide. I very much more prefer the southwest and the northwest.

Boulder has become a traffic nightmare. I was there last year visiting my parents' graves and was shocked at the bumper-to-bumper mess. Getting through Denver was far easier than getting through Boulder. And I remember Estes Park when it was a little village. Yikes! I wouldn't have recognized it was the same place where I spent many youthful weekends.; 10/4/19, 5:20 PM
Phil 314 said...: Some of the worst traffic in Colorado is in the Winter on Sunday afternoons coming down from the Mountains. I-70 is a mess from around Idaho Springs to the infamous Dead Man's Curve; 10/4/19, 5:39 PM
William said...: Colorado is okay, but it needs more oxygen.; 10/4/19, 5:46 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: that's Ann's Honey!!

“Honeymoon” also has origins that date back to the 5th century, when cultures represented calendar time with moon cycles. Back then, a newlywed couple drank mead> (the “honey”) during their first moon of marriage. Mead is a honey-based alcoholic drink believed to have aphrodisiac properties.; 10/4/19, 5:55 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Yes indeed, the 70s were indeed Boulder's heyday...."

Don't forget that Mork and Mindy were there then.; 10/4/19, 5:57 PM
Josephbleau said...: Now instead of mork and mindy, Boulder has a public restroom on pearl st. full of disabled veterans who smoke pot there all day, a difficult place to pee.; 10/4/19, 6:14 PM
Marcus Aurelius said...: Weird. Wifey and I were on Pearl Street midday this day and (unfortunately) didn't run into our hostess, but did see the mead house. We were also 'just visiting". Curious re: whether Ann and Meade also took in either the Flatirons (Chatuaqa Park) or Eldorado Canyon. The rock climbers were amazing.; 10/4/19, 6:17 PM
Marcus Aurelius said...: Wierd. Wifey & I were on Pearl Street that very late morning and early afternoon. Unfortunately we never ran into our hostess & Meade. We did visit the mead house. Just curious, did our hostess visit Chataqua Park or Eldorado Canyon? The rock climbers were amazing.; 10/4/19, 6:22 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Mead+Ann - nice ride there. CO is great for mountain biking. Glad you found a cool trail.

(I fell over on a mountain bike a few weeks back and smashed the palm of my hand. Good times.)

CO is over-populated now. *sigh*

The exterior of the Mork and Mindy house looks the same. Even the shutters in the windows.

Roughcoat - my father did work on Caribou ranch in the late 60's early 70's. Small job involving an elevator or a winch or some such.; 10/4/19, 6:23 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Tulagis. Some good memories there, esp before I turned 21. On The Hill, where, as Roughcoat pointed out, you could get most any drug you wanted within a block or two walking there. That, and interestingly Aspen, were the easiest places in the state to find larger quantities (or so I have been told). That was about the time that you moved to the PRB (People’s Republic of Boulder). At least by the end of the decade (1970s) property prices had already started to go through the roof.

In the 1980s, I would on occasion meet a group (including a woman I was interested in) upstairs at the Boulderado. Nice bar scene. Also fun was the Halloween Mall Crawl on the Pearl Street Mall. That was when all the Boulder crazies came out in costume. It was a mob scene, and I think that the police ultimately shut it down. We were there a couple years before the end.

My kid went to CU twice, once for an NSF physics REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) (which I highly recommend for any kids wanting to got to STEM Grad school). That was maybe 2011. And then for their PhD, graduating a year ago. I got a call late one night near the end of their REU telling me that they had been arrested for being drunk under age. The cops set up right outside campus and pull over a lot of the students leaving school late Friday and Saturday nights. Luckily the driver was over 21, and hadn’t been drinking. In any case, they plead out to a little community service and some alcohol counseling - except no one in either side of the family drinks very much, so was excused after their first session.

I remember vividly the day I dropped off my kid for the REU. We stopped to eat at a restaurant in town, and pretty much no one else in there, the entire time we were there, had any fat on them. Whole families, where the average BMI was probably below 10%. Intimidating. We found out later that it was the day of the yearly Bolder Boulder race. My kid ended up running in it starting half way through grad school, and did so this last summer too.

As noted, the traffic is a zoo in Boulder much of the time. Making things worse, it is a serious biking town. Not motorcycles, but bicycles. One guy we worked with in the 1980s would run into Greg Lemond (first American Tour de France winner) at lights there, clipped in and balanced on his bike, Bikers are everywhere, and know that they have the right of way, even when they don’t. In the house that my kid lived in, everyone had two bikes (road and mountain), except one girl who had five (and everyone had at least two pair of skis. At my kid’s dissertation defense, their advisor’s wife inadvertently mentioned a bike wreck my kid had had the previous winter that left them black and blue for a couple weeks. They apparently had been riding in the snow, which was a common occurrence, given the parking situation on campus. Not surprising, of the 20 or so grad students who showed up for the defense were just as lean as the families at the Bolder Boulder that we had seen the first day in town.; 10/4/19, 6:27 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Boulder has become a traffic nightmare.

Indeed. tho since I live here, I know how to bob and weave and avoid certain areas at certain times. When 40,000+ students arrive each fall, the traffic pain intensifies. The worst traffic days are the 1-2 weeks prior to freshman arrival and the move-in +fawning parents.; 10/4/19, 6:29 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: “I-70 is a mess from around Idaho Springs to the infamous Dead Man's Curve”

I tend to hear it called Dead Horse Curve, for the horse trailer that went off there several decades ago. It is one of the worst curves on the Interstates in the country, because it is at the bottom of the third major hill that has to be descended in a little over an hour (Vail Pass, Eisenhower Tunnel to Georgetown, and Mt Vernon canyon down to Morrison - cumulative 8-9k’). Loaded trucks that try to use their brakes, instead of gears, on occasion find their brakes burned out by the time they hit that corner. Two brothers and my parents lived at the top of the hill, and I did for maybe five years. And I have seen trucks piled up there that didn’t avail themselves of the runaway truck lanes. It is dangerous enough on Sunday afternoons in ski season that my brothers tend to use US 40, that parallels I-70, instead.; 10/4/19, 6:48 PM
Virgil Hilts said...: How can you guys walk down the street together and not be recognized. Does Ann have to wear a wig and big sunglasses.; 10/4/19, 7:01 PM
Pugsley the Pug said...: As I recall visiting my Aunt & Uncle in Boulder 27 years ago, Pearl St in Boulder was like State Street in Madison, except for having the Rocky Mountains as a back drop...; 10/4/19, 11:51 PM
Pugsley the Pug said...: As I recall visiting my Aunt & Uncle in Boulder 27 years ago, Pearl St in Boulder was like State Street in Madison, except for having the Rocky Mountains as a back drop...; 10/5/19, 12:01 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "So you drove how far to hang out in another smug college town?"

We drove to see the last 3 Brewers games as they had a chance to win the division (or move into the 1st wild card position) and to go hiking and mountain biking in the Rockies. I also got a chance to go swimming every day, and I almost never get to go swimming here in Madison.; 10/5/19, 6:55 AM
Ann Althouse said...: But the truth is, I love college towns, and the idea that college towns are "smug" is, ironically, smug.; 10/5/19, 6:56 AM
Ralph L said...: Are the indoor pools in Madison too smuggy?; 10/5/19, 7:58 AM