Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

I hope we all have a blessed Candlemas tomorrow. Now I can take down my Christmas decorations since this marks the end of the Christmas and Epiphany season.

As usual, it is always fun to try and re-arrange the ornaments to match the lovely "bronzing" that occurs.

Man Purse

You know I carry a breifcase around most of the time and as much as I'd like to think of Expat carrying a man purse isn't it really just a satchel?

Cava

Cava sales regain their fizz as Spanish bubbly boycott goes flat
By Victoria Burnett in Madrid

Published: Finacial Time January 3 2007 02:00

For two years the cava makers of Catalonia have been caught in the cross-fire of Spanish regional politics. Outraged by Catalonia's agitation for more autonomy, Spanish consumers have spurned the region's trademark sparkling wine, preferring to tipple French Champagne instead.

As a result cava sales dropped nearly 7 per cent in 2005, dampening spirits in Catalonia, north-eastern Spain.

But with nationalist fervour ebbing now that the region has greater powers of self-government and in José Montilla, a non-Catalan president, cava makers say the boycott has lost momentum and that the industry has regained its fizz.

"The question of the boycott is basically behind us, so things are looking up," said Josép Lluis Bonet, president of Freixenet, one of Spain's two principal cava producers. Cava, more than 90 per cent of which is made in Catalonia, is produced using the Champagne method, in which wine is fermented twice and sugar added to make it bubbly.

Sales of cava in Spain during the first nine months of 2006 rose about 6 per cent and are on track to hit 100m bottles for the year as a whole, according to Gustavo Garcia Guillamet, head of the cava regulatory council. International sales are set to be up about 4 per cent at 125m bottles, he added

While accurate figures for Christmas and New Year are not yet available, cava makers were confident that they would have returned to pre-boycott levels.

The revival comes as a truce between the industry's two bitterest rivals has removed a cloud of tension that has hung over the industry for two decades. Freixenet and Codorniu, who dominate the sector, decided last summer to drop legal claims that kept them at daggers-drawn for 20 years and work together to promote cava around the world.

"These battles are always bad. They sap a lot of energy and distract everyone," Mr Bonet told the Financial Times. "The cava industry is working to boost sales and to do that the two leaders need to get on, not fight."

The battle began in 1996 when Codorniu accused Freixenet of selling cava that had not been fermenting for the requisite nine months. Codorniu, which traces its roots back to the 16th century, views the less historic but more aggressive Freixenet, as an upstart.

A court ruled against Freixenet, which struck back, accusing its rival of using pinot noir grapes - not a traditional cava grape - to produce the drink and, later, of copying its trademark matt Carta Nevada bottle.

Both companies refusedto comment on the terms of the settlement, citing aconfidentiality agreement. A report by Efe, the Spanish news service, indicatingthat Codorniu would pay Freixenet €4m (£2.6m) in cash and give its rival 2m white-coloured bottles of cava "did not reflect the full agreement", they said.

With the boycott and the legal battle behind it, the sector has turned its full attention to expanding foreign markets and selling higher-quality cava. About a third of cava sold abroad goes to Germany but Japan and northern Europe are emerging markets.

Season's Greetings!

After repeated demands, threats and pleas, I have broken away from my daily drudgery to provide another beam of sunshine in the lives of those who follow this blog. After diggin' deep and tirelessly searching for some witty rapaté on par with my fellow bloggers I have found...



...Nothing! I discovered that I have nothing of interest to say or comment about. Furthermore this nothingness was completely devoid of substance and rang hollow when rapped upon. My normal gapping blank stare was rushed upon with feelings of utter nothingness! I tell you I was on the verge of not having a nervous breakdown over the shear magnitude of the void. Of course my novelistic ramblings are vaguely Nietzschesque and serve little but to fill me with ire, dread and melancholy.

Trout

I have returned from the deep, dark, dank woods and my flippant folly of fly-fishing has brought me gaiety, gravity and gout. My many steps up the massive, multiple mountains brought me to a higher, heavenly habitat and I now constantly, crave continuation of these purely prodigious pursuits.

Milhous

Today is the day the Nixon resigned from the office of President of the United States of America in a televisied public address in the evening of August 8th, 1974.

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. He is the only American President to have resigned from office. His resignation came in the face of imminent impeachment related to the Watergate scandal, which encompassed numerous crimes and misconduct beginning especially with the Watergate first break-in, the follow-up burglary, and the cover-up. He was also the 36th Vice President (1953–1961) serving under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon is the only American to have been elected twice to the Vice Presidency and twice to the Presidency, and is given credit for redefining the office of Vice President, making it for the first time a high visibility platform and base for a presidential candidacy.

Nixon is noted for his diplomatic accomplishments in foreign policy, especially détente with the Soviet Union and China, and ending American involvement in the Vietnam War. He is also noted for his middle-of-the-road domestic policy that combined conservative rhetoric and, in many cases, liberal action, as in his civil rights, environmental and price control policies

As President, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program, and dramatically improved salaries for U.S. federal employees worldwide. As a party leader, Nixon helped build the Republican Party (GOP), but he ran his 1972 campaign separately from the party, which perhaps helped the GOP escape some of the damage from Watergate. The Nixon White House was the first to organize a daily press event and daily message for the media, a practice that all subsequent staffs have performed.

Nixon is also noted to be a firm supporter of the NRA, he hunted on occasion but preferred target shooting as a favorite hobby. He spoke very criticaly of the gun control laws supported by president Bill Clinton and vice-president Al Gore. He has stated in many private conversations (taped while president) and in many public speeches that "guns are inanimate objects, people make them lethal. You could have a fully automatic rifle in the middle of a room and it would do nothing deadly unless interfered with by an irresponsible person."

Potato

Ode to Potato

O practical potato,
the Irishman’s peach,
vegetable most like earth,
among elegant asparagus,
intellectual zucchini,
you are unpretentiously spud.
Tasting only like stone,
you have nothing to hide,
are merely functional,
a most puritanical root.
O wave your green flags,
democratic potato
you are the equal
of any other
potato.