Happy Birthday Jack.

It is a good month for birthdays.

Wishing you a year of health and happiness.
Michael

A further lesson that applies:

I have had the good fortune to purchase some absolute gems at specialist auctions.
How can such a gem get to auction ?

The only scenario is that makes sense to me is.

1
Someone who 'knows' his stuff bought an excellent item.

2
He sits it proudly on his bookcase, and muses 'one special day I will drink that'.

3
That special day never arises.
His widow or heirs have no idea of what they have, so flog it off, often via an auction house.

4
Being a very narrow market, nobody notices except one sharp eyed, lucky person.

So the lesson is:
Drink it and enjoy it.
If you are not prepared to open a bottle of that value, consider selling it.


A friend once said;
"My greatest fear is that my widow will sell my whisky collection for the price I told her I paid for it".

OK, Jack.

Here's one of my favourites.

Most whiskies are blends ( think Johnnie Walker etc )
Rarer whiskies are Single Malt whiskies ( all constituents are from the one distillery ).

Even rarer are Single Cask, Single Malt whiskies.
Literally just the contents of one gem of a cask, selected by the wise folk at the distillery ( or bottler ).
Sometimes the vagaries of the maturation process throw up a gem, for unknown reasons.

Single Cask Whiskies are usually only obtainable from specialist retailers, or from Whisky Clubs.

I had the good fortune some years ago to acquire 2 each of 2 fine Single Cask bottles.
Details are available on request.

Yes, I shared one of each, with like minded friends.

Persuing international auction sites, showed that prices of these 2 rarities were rising sharply.
So I sent them off ( with a wee twinge ).
The auction result was pleasing with a capital P.

My wife and I flew to Europe, spent a few weeks travelling, enjoyed a 10 day cruise, travelled a further fortnight, and came home again.
All courtesy of just 2 bottles, that originally cost about $100 each.

No skill involved, simply pure dumb luck.

Aha.

Yes, there are 3 very broad categories of Scotch whiskies.

1
Middle of the road, typical Highland whiskies.

2
Sherry casked, sweeter whiskies.

3
Island / Islay whiskies renowned for their peat and smoke.
( Some folks say you can still taste the peat of a good Islay malt whisky, in the morning, even after you have brushed your teeth ).

If you husband likes the Laphroaig ( I assume, the 10yo ), but would like to try a slightly tamer version, then perhaps you can consider:
Laphroaig 15 ( the extra age tames it nicley ).
Laphroaig PX ( partly aged in sweet sherry, Pedro Ximinez, casks ).

Good Luck.
Michael

I've always seen these logic gate names written in all capitals, as you've done, whisky and ridethetalk. That would rule them out as Chi words.

Also, isn't exclusive or normally written as XOR? At three letters, this is too short for us.

Of course.
How silly do I feel.

Are you seriously asking, Michael?

Allan, thanks for including it.
I guess common or rare, in part, depends on the company one keeps.

If I may digress, it was interesting to observe that decadic dialling was introduced ( probably ) in the late 19th century.
It was still supported by almost all telepone networks well in to the 21st century.
So having a telephony background, I cringe when vendors tell me that they no longer support their old products, manufactured maybe 5 years ago.

If I may digress even further.
Alexander Graham Bell was a Scot, but lived much of his life in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Just outside of a small town named Sydney NS, there's a fascinating museum including his original telephones.

Hi

I have observed that in this past week, the big word has popped up, as the first word I see, in several instances.

This is quite unusual for me.

Has anybody else noticed this?
Is it the puzzle ?
Is it the weather ?
It it just me ?
Is it an aberration ?

Michael