Hiya Skeleton Crew,

Do ya remember that scene from This Is Spinal Tap where the documentary-maker is talkin’ to the rock guy ’bout his amp? They’re goin’ back ’n’ forth ’bout how the rock guy’s amp—Nigel Tufnel’s his name—they’re talkin’ ’bout how Nigel’s amp goes to eleven. He’s all proud of it, but the documentary-maker guy, he just kinda rains on Nigel’s parade by askin’ somethin’ like, “Why not just make ten louder?”

I always got the feelin’ that the point a’ that scene was to make fun a’ Nigel irrationally fixatin’ on the number eleven as havin’ some kinda magic properties. But in my opinion, it’s the documentary guy who was bein’ a meat-head! HE’S the guy we should be laughin’ at!! He doesn’t understand that puttin’ 11 on the amp has a symbolic resonance that a borin’ ol’ 10 just wouldn’t have! Like, I mean, there’s a REASON “goes to eleven” is a thing people say now—why it caught on as a meme. Y’know?

Look, all’s I’m sayin’ is Nigel’s got a sophisticated ’n’ intuitive understandin’ a’ semiotics that’s apparently completely lost on his interlocutor. An’ we should give him credit for that!!

Anyway, that’s just some stuff ’n’ nonsense I was thinkin’ of this mornin’, just some flapdoodle that was on my mind for some reason. Not really apropos a’ anythin’!

Answers to Last Time

• You were always able to grab a sauternes duck sausage topped with truffle aioli ’n’ foie gras at Hot Doug’s. An’ french fries fried in duck fat, too!
• It was Kal Penn who left the teevee show House to go work at the Obama White House.

Today’s Trivias

Trivia 1

Do any a’ youse guys know what sauternes even is? For a second I thought maybe it had somethin’ to do with that grumpy ol’ Roman god—i.e. Saturn—but nah: in point a’ fact it’s just a type a’ wine.

Specifically, sauternes’s made with a mix a’ grapes of the Sémillon, sauvignon blanc, ’n’ muscadelle varieties. But the thing that makes this particular wine so special is that those wine grapes ... have gotta be infected with a Botrytis cinerea! Which is a type a’ fungus!! I guess it causes the flavors in the grapes to become more concentrated or somethin’?!?

Anyway, GROSS.

Then I remembered I’d heard ’bout this sorta thing from my bro, who’s one a’ those wine snobs. Except when he told it to me, he didn’t use the science name Botrytis cinerea; instead, he called this fungal infection “noble WHAT”?

Trivia 2

I’ve still got food on the cranium, so for this question I’m just gonna list out a couple a’ my favorite international dishes. All I want YOUSE to do is to tell me what’s the featured ingredient common to all of ’em?

Got it? Here goes!

• Mexican menudo
• Cantonese ngau pak yip (牛柏葉)
• Korean gopchang-jeongol (곱창전골)
• Florentine lampredotto
• Kenyan matumbo

So: what’s the mystery ingredient?

OK then

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

If ya give me your email address, I’ll send some trivias to ya! No joke!!!