So my lager that I have doing its thing in the basement should come out absolutely sublime. A thermometer sitting next to it reads exactly 50 degrees. No rice syrup or anything like that in it, though. It should be closer to the sort of beer you'd get in Germany.

We have one of those in Rome, NY. This one has a circular showroom area that looks really late-50s cool. They sold Oldsmobiles there before GM closed Olds down, then they sold Chevys before the recession. Now it sits empty and forlorn with a real-estate sign in the window.

Put the dry ingredients in a Rubbermaid canister, tape the directions to the side where you'd expect the directions to be if you were using mix from a box. Basta!

Or Grumpy Cat.

I dare them to make the Wrangler look like that.  People buy those for style more than anything.

Or you watched one while not realizing what it was, or else the title was similar to some Bollywood hit. Whatever, the computer misinterpreted your viewing history.

It looks like it's smelling a really bad-smelling fart.

That's a shame. It's not like Swedish (or German in our case) film and TV companies are making lots of money providing programming to small pockets of expats scattered around the world. You'd think those rights would be available for pretty much pocket change.

If you're talking about air quality, you really can't beat the Northeast in winter. The air this time of year is about as pure as it gets. It's just cold.

Try upstate NY. Biting cold. Snow. Ice. Rain followed by snow. Wind. I won't get outside for exercise, other than clearing the snow from my driveway, until probably April. Meanwhile, thank God for iPods because that's the only way I stay on the elliptical machine long enough for it to do any good.

If Netflix were to go international (I bet there is a big market for streaming video in the EU, hint hint), I might be tempted to cancel the Dish. Right now, they offer the best German language package in the biz and that makes my better half happy.

You do realize Netflix keeps track of what you watch, and makes its recommendations accordingly. So if you watched and told them you liked the two or three Bollywood movies that were worth watching (to you), you'll get more of the same in your recommendations. It's like Amazon, only with movies and TV shows.

But they were just terrible cars.  Dad had one, and he had to pop the hood on a fairly regular basis and pop the stuck butterfly valve on the carb.  A real PITA when you're already late for work.

What? Super Bowl Sunday didn't make the list?

Actually, it's dark blue.

I have snow tires on my Civic. I'm pretty much good to go.

How dare you blame the UAW for the state of Detroit? Are there any GM executives in the UAW? Engineers? All the UAW ever wanted is for its members to not get fucked over by management. No UAW member designed the Ford Pinto, approved it for production (I believe the blame for both of those would fall on one Lee…

Just like the nitwits who still believe the President was born in Kenya.

There are also twelve signs in the Chinese zodiac, as anyone who has ever been to a Chinese restaurant would know. Your sign therefore comes around ever 12 (excuse me, 10) years. So someone who was born the year of the Rabbit four cycles ago will be turning 50 (base 10) this year, or 42 (base 12).

The first one was generic. No soul. The new one is much better, more befitting our first cool President.