Was a helluva shock the day I discovered real sherry didn't taste like that.

Did someone say "Bristol Cream"?

Seconded. Most of the Evil Twin heavy stouts are similarly excellent, and there's quite a few. Their Yin is great, as is the excellently-monikered Even More Jesus.

Great call on Laura Marling being missing here. Wikipedia has Semper Femina as complete and ready for release in March. And the lead single is great (if with a really odd video).

That Sam Beam collaboration was one of the best things out of 2016 for me, but the solo stuff left me a bit cold. But more from JH would greatly help me form a more rounded opinion for sure!

Other great, inventive Scottish breweries worth chasing down: Williams Bros. (out of Alloa; try the Fraoch heather ale and the Caesar Augustus Lager/IPA hybrid) and Brewdog (probably already familiar to US drinkers through Stone collaborations). Recently tried the delightfully-named Live Dead Pony Club draught real…

…which actually does hail from Scotland

I also went through American Gods. For some reason, I'm finding Gaiman books in general to be slow reads, but really great. I also went through the whole of the Sandman series, and the affiliated stuff. Cracking. NG seems better the fewer words he has!

Come back when we're talking Porterhouse Blues.

…The Greater Good…

Second counterpoint: The melody and arrangement of The Freshmen is also quite lovely. We didn't get a ton of this kind of fratty US college rock in the 90s on UK radio, so finding this later getting played as a "golden oldie" in the 2010s has been kind of nice. It's objectively a nicely put together song… if you…

……… [strange overdubbed animal noises]………

I only have one answer for this: Tom Cruise dancing around in his fat suit to Ludacris' Get Back in the end credits to Tropic Thunder. The shock from the first time (to Flo Rida's Low) has worn off, so it's nothing but 100% pure hilarity.

Listen, strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government! Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony! You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you!

Buzzed has a delightful article right now filled with pictures of Bill Clinton enjoying the shit out of those balloons. It's like he's some kind of puppy.

I miss the panel shows so much. How do American celebrities stay famous? Where can they go to get their egos massaged by live studio audiences??

And that was, what, 20-25 years ago?

Despite being British, I will never understand the inherent appeal of drag in UK comedy. IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S A MAN!!!!!!!? I suspect changing social mores around gay people may be drawing a lot of the transgressive appeal out of this kind of stuff for younger people?

There are also other reasons why you really NEVER want to find that out. The horror.

YARP