Thursday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Thursday, December 12, 2024
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40 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Re the unknown drones over NJ.
If these are intended for surreptitious surveillance why would they display standard navigation lights (red & green and white)?
Hypothesis: you should turn off the drip coffee maker the minute it’s done brewing.
Yes, the coffee will then begin to get cold without the hot plate keeping it hot. The thing is coffee degrades the longer it is hot. I have noticed the first cup taken right after brewing tastes better than the second one, poured anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes later (depending on workloads).
But then, if I kept it fresh by not adding more heat, by the time I get a second cup it would be lukewarm or cold, and wouldn’t taste good anyway.
Ah, third option: reheat the second cup.
alas, this gets me into Chidi territory, as there are several ways to reheat coffee, and they all produce different results. It’s too early in the day to go into that simple rabbit hole. And the second cup may not taste as good, but it doesn’t taste bad.
So, all the above is completely useless information 😀
@Bobert: realized I should have said clearance lights, not navigation.
Also, are these drones detected by radar?
@Kathy: I’ve never noticed the degradation phenomenon you allude to. Then again, I’ve never looked for it nor am I part of the “perfect cup of coffee” culture. It’s just a beverage–like water only different.
Then again, I can’t tell the difference between Mexican Coke and American Coke either, though I do like drinking from a glass bottle over a plastic one. ( Just not enough to pay extra for a smaller quantity.)
@Kathy:
I find the best system is to pull the coffee pot while it is still brewing, pour a cup, and put it back. I think most drip pots allow this. Usually by the time the full pot is finished brewing I have finished that first cup and can get the second at peak freshness.
My wife says I may have a problem….
@Kathy:
I find the best system is to pull the coffee pot while it is still brewing, pour a cup, and put it back. I think most drip pots allow this. Usually by the time the full pot is finished brewing I have finished that first cup and can get the second at peak freshness.
My wife says I may have a problem….
@just nutha:
The glass bottle thing has to do with the thermal properties of glass. It retains cold more than plastic or something. The advice I heard is to pour soda, or juice or water, from the plastic bottle to a glass, with or without ice, and it should taste more like drinking it from a glass bottle.
Coffee kind of keeps brewing while hot. Partly due to solids too small to see. Try leaving a drip coffee maker on 4-6 hours after it’s done brewing, and you can tell the difference. Modern coffee makers turn off on their own after a couple of hours.
A few minutes make little difference. An hour or two a small difference, that I do think I can perceive. Several hours turn it to something more like battery acid.
BTW, for best overall results, the thing to do is wash the basket well after use, so it won’t accumulate gunk. That has more of an effect than keeping the coffee warm.
@Kathy: You might try overnight cold brewing. Put grounds in a quart glass container (about 1 cup ground), soak overnight, strain, pour cup, and heat the coffee in the microwave.
Me? My wife and I use two 1.5L double walled french presses, one caf, one decaf.
We drink a lot of coffee.
@Pete S:
I do that when I’m impatient or too sleepy.
Your coffee maker may be too slow.
Well, Kari Lake will NOT be ambassador to Mexico. She WILL be Director of Voice of America.
@CSK: What new horror awaits for Mexico?
@CSK:
VOA is barely even a consolation job. She must be pissed.
@Kathy: Yes, I read long ago that it’s better to turn the “keep warm” feature off and just microwave that cold cup. For one, the cup may never materialize, so keeping the coffee warm is just wasting energy, but it also continues to “cook” the coffee while keeping it warm, affecting the flavor.
Personally, I always pour a cup for now and then fill a thermos with more for later.
On Tuesday I mentioned how I met my HS Spanish teacher, Maria Brunet, for the first time in 45 years. My wife Leonita has known her for quite some time because of her job at the church we’re all parishioners of.
Mrs. Brunet has lived in Hypoluxo* since 1973. I learned that after a google search this morning that found this article. Her home is across the street from where there used to be a mansion. The mansion, which burned down in 19909, was used as a location for the movie Body Heat.
I remember Mrs. Brunet as I do my other teachers in the 7th, 8th, 10th-12th grades. My memory is a total blank as to my 9th grade teachers for some reason. 9th grade was my last school year in New York before my family moved to Florida. I can remember other things* about that school year but not one of my teacher’s names.
*- About 3.5-5 miles from any of the places I’ve lived in since 1989
*- Like Dawn Merkel, the girl sitting behind me in English class, who she and I wore the same top to class on at least two occasions. That I have no trouble remembering.
@Michael Reynolds: Looks like she’ll get a salary of $200k+. She seems like your basic griftered so I’d imagine she’s cool with that.
@Bill Jempty:..19909…
Stardate?
Great headline from New York magazine:
Don Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle Break Up, Greece Hardest Hit
@Mister Bluster:
Don’t you I’m a Time traveler? That or a bad typist…..
@Kathy: I can’t even remember the last time I drank soda from a glass. Who creates the need to wash a glass for something that can be consumed without one?
Actually, I do remember, it must have been in a Korean restaurant that served soda or beer in liter* bottles. *(maybe half liter, I can’t remember)
@CSK:
Yeah. Much better choice. 😐
@Kathy:
I do option 3 much of the time. To me it’s impossible to drink it straight up black, so I cut it with half/half or milk. It’s the only way I can drink it and convince myself that it’s still coffee.
Say it ain’t so Joe!
I’m sure that all the Chump worshipers that post in these threads are just crushed that their savior would betray them like this.
@Michael Reynolds:
“For what will it profit a man to gain not even a consolation prize and forfeit his soul?”
@just nutha:
I can’t remember when I last drank soda from a bottle.
See, the universe seeks balance.
@al Ameda:
I drink mine with a little skim milk, and let it cool down for a few minutes.
@Mister Bluster:
Hm. But I was told it’s tone deaf and condescending to tell voters economic truths like these. Or is being realistic only bad when liberals do it?
We are all Biden Democrats now.
@Michael Reynolds: She’s a grifter, through and through. I believe VOA head pays a little over $200k a year, hard to get exact amount off internet (only estimate I saw for head was $246k). She’ll do no work, stay for four years since she’s a nut job, and then collect a government pension. Pretty sweet deal.
@al Ameda: My mother uses a drip machine that drips directly into a vacuum flask, so it stays hot without a heat source. I skip the whole problem by using a Nespresso…
This is insane. They shouldn’t be able to take babies based on drugs given to the mother BY THE HOSPITAL during delivery!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hospitals-gave-patients-meds-during-110434896.html
As we already knew, the Hunter Biden investigation was based on lies.
FBI informant accused of lying about Joe and Hunter Biden pleads guilty
@Scott:
I’ve been eyeing cold brew for a while. I’m most interested in concentrated cold brew that’s added to plain hot water for drinking.
It just seems like too much work, and I’ll likely won’t be able to tell much of a difference.
If there were cheap, easy to use home freeze drying machines, I’d make my own instant coffee, with milk and sweetener already mixed in. alas, those things are rather expensive, and consume electricity like a generative AI server farm.
@Kathy:
Around the house somewhere, there is a kit for making making cold brew. It’s pretty easy let the coffee grounds steep in a quart of water for 24 hours, then filter the liquid into another container. IIRC the filter was a disk of a felt-like material.
It was pretty convenient for a single cup of coffee, pour a bit into a cup add hot water and stir.
@Pete S:
Omg. This drives me absolutely nuts when my partner does it. I silently scowl at her. I can taste the difference between letting the carafe fill all the way vs interrupting it. Interrupted tastes significantly worse. The only thing that tastes worse is when I haven’t scrubbed the carafe in a while.
I am totally a crank.
@Pete S:
Along those lines…here’s an experiment that will show that the great taste comes mostly from the initial heating. Within minutes the heat starts to degrade that taste.
Start a pot of coffee drip coffee, but have the first drippings drip into a cup or poured from the pot. Then put the pot under there and when full, pour a cup from the pot. You will now have two cups for a comparative taste-test.
That first cup will be French-press quality, the last cup? Not so much.
@Jax:
That is insane. Bigly.
@wr:
Nespresso? Same with my wife, it’s good.
I’m too lazy, so I cut it with milk.
@Beth:
But if it were bad, the manufacturers wouldn’t design the drip machine with a stopper for taking the carafe off the machine while it’s brewing 😉
Seriously, the two most important things are: 1) use coffee that you like, 2) keep all the parts clean.
As to 1), I’d say “use good quality coffee,” but I’ve become more tolerant as I approach a certain age I dare not define. The best coffee we usually get at the office comes from local roasters in Veracruz and Chiapas. The former makes for partisans of Cafe Colon, and Cafe Bola de Oro. And it’s been a while since we’ve had any…
@dazedandconfused:
Interesting experiment. I know what I will be doing at 500 am Sunday.
I do wish we didn’t get rid of my French press last time we moved. Maybe I will get a new one
@Kathy:
I am partial to Jamaica Blue mountain. We are headed there in a month and I will probably not sleep for a week afterwards until the caffeine washes out of my system
@Jax: Hispanic women, Texas. What should we be expecting?
@Pete S:
I’ve heard about it, but never have had the occasion to try it.
A local upscale(ish) supermarket claims to sell civet coffee, but the price quoted is so high, I’m not even tempted to try it.
It’s not the unsavory origin*. Though I wonder who had the bright idea to look for consumables in that.
*Really. It’s washed and processed. Besides, some common foods are of similar origins. Like honey. It’s sweet, it’s golden, and it’s regurgitated by bees. Alcohol is pretty much microbial waste. And have you any idea of the yeast waste and dead yeast in bread?
@Pete S:
I have always known the first quarter to half of the pot tastes great, and would pour myself a cup from it before the pot was full most mornings…until my significant other caught me.
She has the same opinion, but believes someone siphoning off the best part of the pot degrades the whole pot and is therefore cheating others, specifically her. I offered no defense and begged for mercy. Swore never to do it again*.
*Except when there’s a zero chance of getting caught, of course.