Jasmin

P

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
Wonderful sampling from a favored producer...

Patrick Jasmin Cote-Rotie '94 -- Dark red no edge fade, totally crumbly cork, lots of sediment, pleasing typical cote rotie bouquet, quite viable, good balance of integrated components, tannins resolved, structured, nice smooth finish, excellent now so should drink up. [E]

Ideal pairing with sauteed lamb chops and tortelloni/ricotta/toasted cremini.

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. . . . . Pete
 
I remember a Jasmin from the late seventies that I had back in the late 80s at a restaurant called Jean-Louis at the Watergate. This place would normally have been way beyond our then household income, but Gail and I went there with my then officemate and friend to celebrate my having been tenured and both of us going on sabbatical the next year. Parker was down on the Jasmin for some reason in those days and it was surprisingly reasonably priced and delicious with a violet nose to die for--as they didn't quite say about Elizabeth Taylor in those days when she was married to Sen. John Warner. Ah, those innocent Reagan days of my lost youth.
 
When Reagan was elected, it felt like the beginning of the end of western civilization, at least to me and to stunned circle of left-leaning friends. Even though some might argue that the US is today reaping what he sowed, the right of those days does appear ideologically tame, innocent even, compared to what's on display today.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
When Reagan was elected, it felt like the beginning of end of western civilization, at least to me and to stunned circle of left-leaning friends. Even though some might argue that the US is today reaping what he sowed, the right of those days does appear ideologically tame, innocent even, compared to what's on display today.
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I fear the pattern will continue. Some of the potential successors to Orange Man are even worse than him.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
When Reagan was elected, it felt like the beginning of end of western civilization, at least to me and to stunned circle of left-leaning friends. Even though some might argue that the US is today reaping what he sowed, the right of those days does appear ideologically tame, innocent even, compared to what's on display today.
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Having endured 8 years of him as governor, I had few illusions about what to expect out of him as President. That genial front he put on for the public was at odds with the mean-spirited and vindictive man he’d shown himself to be in Sacramento. Still, it was eye-opening for me to read in the last few years some of the incredibly racist things he said behind closed doors. Same thing for Nixon, too.

Mark Lipton
 
I was being nostalgic for my youth, and a bit, for the odd forms of DC culture that went on in those more innocent days. I hated Reagan from as soon as he got into politics and never saw a reason to change my mind. I am mildly surprised that he privately said racist things, but that is far too low a bar. His policies were all implicitly racist. We've got to get over caring what people say and attend to how our systems work, which was, of course, what Critical Race Theory was really about. I do accept the contemporary judgment of him that he was a consequential President. But not all consequences were desirable one.

But Jasmin was a nice wine and Jean-Louis at the Watergate was a nice restaurant and I don't have any evidence that Elizabeth Taylor didn't have violet eyes to die for, as a character in Doonesbury said.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:
I do accept the contemporary judgment of him that he was a consequential President. But not all consequences were desirable one.
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One should note that an alternate definition of consequential is "self-important; pompous" but that isn't surprising for someone who is or has been successful in the politics business. If for no other reason, it was Reagan's success in getting elected that begat the success of consultant Lee Atwater and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, both of whom realized that the politics of division would become the politics of the future; the former died a premature, unpleasant death due to brain cancer after spending the last year of his life begging forgiveness (not the question) of the people he'd wronged in his climb to the top of the RNC. The latter still walks among us, pontificating on all aspects of his party's use of the Southern Strategy under the guise of "conservatism."

-Eden (back in a career lull I found employment as a messenger driver. On day I had a delivery to an address in Beverly Hill. There was a (then) new Lagonda sedan parked in the driveway and I rang the bell at the front door and it was answered by Elizabeth Taylor. This was not "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" or "Cleopatra" Liz Taylor, but more like the John Belushi version. She was very friendly and charismatic)
 
"One should note that an alternate definition of consequential is "self-important; pompous""

Not in any dictionary definition I know of. What I meant by consequential was having enduring consequences. Reagan drove the national discourse rightward in a way that lasted until the Biden administration. That is a consequence, though not one I liked. His policies aligned with large economic issues to widen the income disparity between rich and poor, a problem we are still living with. He certainly didn't do this all by himself and Piketty, in Capitalism, certainly argued that then end of an historically unusual demand for labor ended in the 70s, restoring a "normal" capitalist situation that favors money earning money over labor earning money. Still, Piketty's analysis really didn't deal with excessive salaries paid to upper level management, which happens in Europe but is more pronounced in the US and was aided by Reagan's tax policies and war on regulation. These are real consequences, even if I don't like them. They are not the background noise of campaigns and speeches.
 
Agreed, Jonathan. Reagan's ascension marks the end of the New Deal consensus that had held since the '30s and the beginning of the supply side economic model which is now apparently coming to an end. Biden might some day too be regarded as a consequential President in the same vein, a harbinger of a major shift in macroeconomic policy and corporate governance in the US.

Mark Lipton
 
originally posted by MLipton:
Agreed, Jonathan. Reagan's ascension marks the end of the New Deal consensus that had held since the '30s and the beginning of the supply side economic model which is now apparently coming to an end. Biden might some day too be regarded as a consequential President in the same vein, a harbinger of a major shift in macroeconomic policy and corporate governance in the US.

Mark Lipton
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A consensus with the notable exception of a very dark blip along the road, the McCarthy era.
 
If we take Mark to be talking about economic issues, as I indeed was, the 50s, despite Eisenhower, was not a reversal of the New Deal consensus about tax and social spending. McCarthy (or, at any rate, those who gave him the space to operate) was about an attempt to discredit New Deal democrats as a shift to putting people with different foreign policies, primarily, and secondarily economic policies, into power. And, in that, he was, to an extent, successful as both Democrats and Republicans became devoted Cold Warriors. Oddly, it was Nixon who created an interregnum in the fierceness of Cold War policy, which Reagan ended (the interregnum, to the devotion to Cold War policy) of coursse.
 
I'm a little stuck on the Lagonda. You're talking about the amazingly awesome angular Aston Martin, right, Eden?
 
originally posted by BJ:
I'm a little stuck on the Lagonda. You're talking about the amazingly awesome angular Aston Martin, right, Eden?
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It is indeed the amazingly awesome angular Aston! It's best known for its love-it-or-hate-it body design by William Towns, crafted seemingly in tribute to the angular, Bertone-influenced wedge style so popular in that interregnum between long and swoopy racecar bodies and stubby and swoopy (and mid-engine) racecar bodies. Through the Lagonda's production run, the body design was updated with some of the harsh edges being rounded off enough to move it past people claiming that it was just another example of brutalist design intended to make the wealthy owners pay for having the wherewithal to ride around in such luxury (adjusted for modern value, in 1980 the Lagonda was priced somewhere in the neighborhood of $300K).

Unfortunately, it is secondly-best known for its futuristic smorgasbord of LED dashboard lights that failed on a regular basis. Like, always-regular, and when they stopped working, the entire electrical system would short out, leaving lots of well-heeled folks stranded. Workarounds were eventually conceived, but even after three design updates, the cars were impractical to use as daily drivers so they became fixtures in auto museums. Their biggest market wound up becoming sheikdoms across the Middle East, where they'd buy so many cars that it didn't matter if one (or 40) weren't working. They looked cool and were rare and expensive and that was good enough. About 15 years ago you could pick one up (literally, because you'd need a trailer or a tow truck) for about $35K but once mechanics figured out how to replace and upgrade the electrical system (and pay for their kids' college educations and a villa in Italy and a wife and a girlfriend), the Lagondas are thought to be somewhat reliable and the price of admission has reached $100k, give or take 20%. That 20% will go into your gas tank anyway -- mileage is somewhere around 9 mpg, city and highway combined. If you have to ask, you probably can't afford one, right? I still think they're pretty bitchin' though.

-Eden (Towns was hired by Aston Martin to design seats but wound up creating the beautiful, seemingly Ghia-inspired DBS before getting all angular with the Lagonda)
 
Patrick Jasmin Cote-Rotie '97 -- Solid dark red, beautiful bouquet, red fruits, well-founded, classic characteristics from yesteryear, excellent staying power, elegant delicacy, true to its fruit, just a really fine wine. [E[

Nice pairing with duck confit, black-eyed peas/radish-top greens, and French fries.

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. . . . . Pete
 
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