Sunday 31 December 2017
German brewer accused of making ‘Nazi beer’ critical of refugee policy
Rhrl Brewery in Straubing, Bavaria, apologies over withdrawn border fence beer but says it has no far-right sympathies
A Bavarian brewer has caused outrage in Germany by producing a batch of border fence beer that appears to use Nazi symbols to criticise the large number of refugees arriving in the country.
Rhrl Brewery removed the variety from sale this week and apologised for hurt feelings, but denied having any sympathy with the far right.
Frank Sillner, the chief executive of the brewery in Straubing, said he had intended the special issue of 2,000 crates to be a commentary on the migration crisis and a reminder of Bavarian values.
The brown label on the 500ml bottles uses Gothic letters for the name grenzzaun halbe or border fence half, which appears to echo demands from local conservative politicians to seal Germanys frontiers.
It also says the homeland needs beer, while the back of the label features the words protect, defend and preserve alongside virtues such as diligence, loyalty and discipline.
University groups urged people to boycott the brewery, while social media users described the variety as a Nazi beer.
They pointed to the retail price per bottle of 0.88 a number used in neo-Nazi circles for the illegal Heil Hitler greeting, because the letter H is the eighth in the alphabet.
The company has insisted that this and the batchs use-by date of 9 November, the day that marks the 1938 anti-Jewish attack known as Kristallnacht, are a coincidence.
Sillner told national news agency DPA that the idea for the beer came during talks about Germanys refugee policy a few months ago.
Bavaria was the main gateway for the more than 1 million refugees who came to the country last year.
We have nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with rightwing extremism, Sillner was quoted as telling DPA.
He said the beers price changes once sales tax is added and that the expiry date is calculated by a computer.
When the refugee influx surged, we wanted to point to all of Bavarias good and positive traditions, to urge that we please do not forget, despite all willingness to help, what makes our Bavaria beautiful and good, he told public broadcaster BR.
source http://allofbeer.com/german-brewer-accused-of-making-nazi-beer-critical-of-refugee-policy/
Saturday 30 December 2017
Friday 29 December 2017
Man charged in Temple University student’s death used Lyft to move body, reports say
A Pennsylvania man accused of murdering a Temple University student used Lyft to transport her body to his grandmother’s home, local media reported.
Joshua Hupperterz, 29, transported 22-year-old Jenna Burleigh’s body more than 100 miles in a storage bin using the ride-share service Lyft after he allegedly beat and strangled her to death, NBC10 reported.
Hupperterz, a former Temple student with a criminal background, was arrested in Pennsylvania Sunday on murder charges after Burleigh was reported missing by her family Thursday night. The Wayne’s County Coroner’s Office determined over the weekend Burleigh’s death was a homicide, caused by a combination of blunt trauma and strangulation.
SUSPECT IN TEMPLE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT’S MURDER HAS CRIMINAL PAST
Burleigh was last spotted in surveillance footage leaving a bar near Temple’s campus with Hupperterz at about 2 a.m. Thursday, according to police. Officials said she was killed in Hupperterz’s apartment and stuffed into a storage bin, which Huppertz used to transport her body first to his mother’s house in Jenkintown and then – via Lyft – to his grandmother’s home in Paupack Township, NBC10 reported. Police found Burleigh’s body in the storage bin at his grandmother’s house Saturday.
Hupperterz was questioned by Temple University police Friday by telephone, officials said. He said he was so drunk leaving the bar he couldn’t remember who he was with, police said in a statement. Philadelphia detectives then obtained a search warrant for his apartment, and state police went to his grandmother’s house where they took him into custody.
2 EX-TEMPLE UNIVERSITY OFFICERS ACCUSED OF KILLING WOMEN
In a statement to Fox News, Lyft called the allegations “devastating” and said, “We stand ready to work with the authorities in their investigation.”
Hupperterz was charged Sunday with murder, possession of an instrument of crime, evidence-tampering and abuse of a corpse, in addition to separate drug-related charges. In 2013, Hupperterz was charged with burglary and other offenses after breaking into a home near Scranton, Pa., and stealing electronics, laundry detergent and a keg of beer, according to police.
Court records show Hupperterz’s preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 20.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
source http://allofbeer.com/man-charged-in-temple-university-students-death-used-lyft-to-move-body-reports-say/
Thursday 28 December 2017
Tyson Fury’s demons keep prodding him into the theatre of the absurd | Kevin Mitchell
The world champion boxer, whose latest hate-filled tirade sparked outrage, is in a dilemma of his own making and does not appreciate that everyone is entitled to be offended by what he thinks and says
On just about any given day over the past year or so, it has been easy to scream at the idiocy of Tyson Furys indiscretions and say: Right, mush, youve gone too far this time. But his latest contribution to the cause of world peace and understanding has alienated him to the point where even his most loyal defenders must be wondering how much lower he can go.
This, a lowlight clip from a set-piece, one-hour interview, conducted, by the sound of it, by his uncle and trainer, Peter Fury, on a boxing site called Sportsview London is as disturbing as any of his previous outrages. The world has gone mad, Fury says. There is no morals, there is no loyalty, there is no nothing. Everyone just do what you can, listen to the government, follow everybody like sheep, be brainwashed by all the Zionist Jewish people who own all the banks, all the papers, all the TV stations … Be brainwashed by them all.
With the scatter-gun discretion of Donald Trump, the world heavyweight champion has offended anyone and everyone come in Jews, join the missus, homosexuals and the heathens over there without care for the consequences, or perhaps in full knowledge of what the consequences might be.
Yet even the frequency of these nihilist, hate-filled interviews do not dilute their impact. The suspicion that they are publicity stunts fades when you listen to the content, repeated in the name of the Lord, delivered from on high. They are anachronistic snapshots of old prejudices, reheated for … what? Shock value?
Fury wonders why people are on his case and he has the answer: Its because Im a believer in the Lord. People hate that, so they all club together and talk bullshit. You can almost hear the Messiah saying that as he wandered about Judea … hang on, the Lord was Jewish?
Fury is happy to live in some mythical past, because its values are at odds with everything he despises in the present. Draconian? Yeah, we live in ancient times where we dont like women to be whores, opening their legs for every Tom, Dick and Harry. We dont shag men. We dont shag kids. If thats draconian then, yeah, I suppose I like being a draconian.
A draconian. Fury, not an unintelligent man, but wilfully counter-intuitive and calculatingly offensive, thinks there is a Dracula connection. They should call me Tyson Dracula Fury, shouldnt they, he says, smiling. Im still living in those times. But Draco, an Athenian legislator who advocated hanging for the most minor crime, was a cruel man well ahead of his time seventh century BC, in fact.
Fury speaks from somewhere else, somewhere in a vague past, beyond society almost, in a bubble of his own making. He is defensive (and offensive) because it gives him strength. As a proud member of the Travelling community, he feels marginalised anyway, and this is his response: win the world heavyweight title that matters so much to everyone, use it, trash it and throw it back at them.
The title belt is Furys hammer of justice. He beats his perceived enemies with it, and there are, he thinks, many of them. He has the Lord, though. Or he thinks he has.
Fury is a holy anarchist. He mixes old-time righteousness with freewheeling prejudice. He is in a perennial state of anger, like some fire-and-brimstone preacher. The fear is he will turn what looks like stage-managed, stream-of-consciousness rage into something more dangerous, that he might lose control of this theatrical resentment, this railing against enemies at every turn.
The paradox is he seems to have a good heart. But it is a wounded one. And, whatever demons he is housing there keep pecking at him, prodding him into ever more absurd statements of faith, urging him to use his new platform to hit back at all the injustice he and his people have felt for the course of his life and for centuries way beyond Dracula, back to Draco maybe.
What towering irony that he should turn on other minorities that have similarly been persecuted. His religious fervour clouds his judgment. There is no turn the other cheek for Fury. There is no do unto others as you would have them do unto you. There is, though, any eye for an eye revenge, furious, hurtful counterpunching revenge.
Yet his boxing life goes on. He is, after all, getting ready for his rematch with Wladimir Klitschko. He needs to shift a few stone of beer-gotten flab and hone the skills that won him the title on a wonderful and unexpected night in Germany last November.
Fury has released a short training update: Whey, Saturday morning. Just finished another brutal session. Hard work in the gym, as usual. Nothing changes, day in day out … Weights going good, everybody. Stabilising. Maintaining. Building muscle. Enjoying the training. Enjoying the weather. Enjoying life. Its great when youre at the top. Its great when youre heavyweight champion of the world. Its great when youre the No1 fighter on the planet. This is the type of thing I have to live with every day. This is the weight I carry on my shoulders. But these shoulders are broad enough to carry that weight. Dont worry about that. Tyson Fury, Gypsy king. Peace out.
The counterpoint is scary. At the start of his earlier interview, Fury says: Everyones entitled to think what they want or say what they want. Hes right. He says what he thinks on an almost daily basis now, having been denied that right all his life. What he doesnt get is that everyone is entitled to be offended by what he thinks and says.
Like a tired and cornered fighter, he is in a dilemma of his own making. It will be tough for him to find a way out. Klitschko is the least of his worries.
source http://allofbeer.com/tyson-furys-demons-keep-prodding-him-into-the-theatre-of-the-absurd-kevin-mitchell/
Skinhead Executed His Best Friend After FBI Probe
Brent Luyster allegedly executed three friends and nearly blew the face off a fourth on Friday night after becoming enraged that the feds were getting involved in another case against him.”>
A neo-Nazi angry over an FBI probe executed one of his best friends and two other people at a rural Washington home Friday, cops say. On Monday, the creepy suspect sneered for TV cameras covering his court appearance.
The Vancouver-area bloodbath led cops on a manhunt for Brent Ward Luyster, a tattoo artist and swastika-inked skinhead, who has been charged in the triple homicide and held without bail, the Columbian reported.
One alleged victim, a 31-year-old mother, survived his wrath.
Breanne Leigh was discovered at a Woodland minimart around 10:30 p.m. Friday, a few miles from the crime scene. Her face was nearly blown off. Unable to speak, Leigh answered a deputys questions by writing on scraps of paper and on a tissue box, according to court papers reviewed by The Daily Beast.
When asked who shot her, Leigh scribbled, pretty sure Brent Luyster. Hes in big trouble. Fed, a probable cause affidavit says.
Leigh pointed Clark County deputies to a rural Woodland residence, where the father of her children, Zachary David Thompson, was killed.
The deputy asked Leigh how she escaped. She wrote passed out and indicated she army crawled away to flag down a vehicle for help. She was able to hitch a ride to the convenience store two miles away, the affidavit says.
Then she wrote her own question to the deputy: Had her boyfriend been shot too?
A SWAT team descended on the home just before 11 p.m. and found Thompson, 36, and Joseph Mark Lamar, 38, lying dead in the driveway. The victims had gunshot wounds to their heads at close range, the affidavit states.
The body of a third victim, 43-year-old Janell Renee Knight, was discovered inside the residence, where she lived with Lamar, prosecutors say.
Now Luyster, 35, is charged with three counts of murder in the first degree, attempted murder, and unlawful possession of a firearm, court records show.
On Monday, he was escorted into Clark County court under heightened security, handcuffed and wearing a suicide smock, the Columbian reported. As he walked to the courtroom, he flashed a smile for KOIN 6 TV cameras.
It was the day Luyster was supposed to face trial for a different violent crime: allegedly pistol-whipping his ex-girlfriend at a Longview home. In that case, he faces charges of assault, harassment, and illegal firearm possession.
Court papers in Luysters murder case reveal more about his violent past.
His ex-girlfriend told cops he had beaten her and had shot at her in May 2016, and that she has a no contact order against him, the affidavit states.
The woman said she has a 5-year-old son with Luyster, who was reportedly trying to find her and snatch the boy, the affidavit states. Luyster allegedly directed his brother, Michael, and mother, Susan Dvorak, to track her down.
Michael Luysterwho has his own criminal record and white pride affiliationand his friends appeared at homes of the womans relatives, asking for the location of her and her son, the affidavit says.
[The woman] believed that Brent was facing his third strike and that he would not go back to prison, the affidavit states. She believed that Brent was going to find her and hurt or kill her, and take [their son].
Meanwhile, an FBI agent told Clark County authorities that Luyster is facing federal chargesfor unlawful possession of a firearmstemming from the May 2016 incident, the affidavit shows.
The ex-girlfriend has four children, two of which are in hiding from Brent Luyster, the G-man added. The agent said Dvorak allegedly contacted the womans mother and warned something would happen to her daughter if [she] did not give Brent his son, according to court papers.
Detectives also interviewed the alleged killers brother, Michael Luyster, who lives with their mother. He told police Brent Luyster and his girlfriend, Andrea Sibley, moved in with them weeks before the shooting, the affidavit says.
Michael Luyster claims Dvorak called him Friday night and demanded he come home immediately. When he arrived, Brent Luyster and his gal pal were acting tense. Dvorak ordered Michael Luyster to take Brent Luysters 12-year-old son away from the house, court papers state.
The brother told cops Brent Luyster was driving Sibleys gold Ford Explorer. (Luyster was in the vehicle Saturday afternoon when Cowlitz County deputies and state troopers arrested him without incident on Ocean Beach Highway, KGW reported.)
Dvorak provided police with more details on her sons mental state. She said Luyster was upset that the Feds were getting involved in the case from Longview and at not having seen his son in two months.
The day of the slayings, Luyster and Sibley had been home most of the day. Sibley left at one point to buy Luyster a six-pack of beer at Walmart, she said.
Dvorak admitted she told Michael Luyster to come home, telling cops Brent Luyster wanted to speak to him. After the brothers talked, Brent Luyster and Sibley left the house and didnt return, the affidavit says.
She ordered Michael Luyster to take his nephew away because she wanted things to be peaceful in the house, she told cops, according to the affidavit. Still, she denied threatening Brent Luysters ex-girlfriend or her mother.
Before Luyster was caught, the Clark County Sheriffs Office released full-body photographs of their 6-foot-tall, 200-pound suspect.
His tattooed torso includes at least four swastikas and the label skinhead across his abdomen. Scrawled across his back is a bloodthirsty call for RaHoWa, or the abbreviation for racial holy war used by white supremacists.
Indeed, the hate appears to run in Luysters family.
Luyster and his brother Robert Arlen Luyster were on the Anti-Defamation Leagues radar in 2013, when they allegedly attacked a black man at a Vancouver bar.
The attack was allegedly sparked when Brent Luyster spotted an interracial couple cuddling. Look at this white girl over here with a stupid [racial slur]; thats gross, Luyster allegedly said, according to the Columbian.
Moments later, Robert Luyster ran to the third suspects car, grabbed a pistol and loaded it with a round of ammo, prosecutors said. Then he handed the gun to Brent Luyster, who singled out a black man and threatened to shoot him, the Columbian reported.
The skinhead brothers were involved in another racially-motivated attack in 2001, when they allegedly punched, kicked, and beat a 45-year-old black man with boards. They also smashed the windows of the victims truck, according to the Columbian.
Four years later, Brent Luyster was involved in another attack on a black man. An accomplice, Jeremiah Prueitt, allegedly shot the victim in the leg, the Columbian reported.
Its unclear whether Luyster was convicted for the earlier hate crimes. Online records show he has a rap sheet as detailed as his Hitler tattoos, with felony convictions in 2005 and 2010, including for possession of stolen property.
Friends and fellow white supremacists took to Facebook to discuss their grief over Luysters latest criminal case.
But they were tight-lipped when messaged by reporters. He is a great father and the best tattoo artist there is, one friend told The Daily Beast.
Of Luyster and his victim, Zachary Thompson, another friend said, No offense, but before this they were both amazing friends and great fathers. Thats it.
Some friends posted a photo of Thompson, who has a shaved head, and Leigh with the words In Loving Memory.
In Facebook comments, one longtime friend wrote, I know he [Luyster] had to be under a lot of stress facing trumped up charges. My heart beats with sadness this day will never change the way I feel for Brent.
Another friend called the slayings unspeakable.
I cant think of any reason that would cause him [Luyster] to turn on one of his best friends, he wrote on Facebook. Losing two of my closest brothers in one day, to such a fucked up way. I have to know.
The friend later added, Theyve been my brothers for about 14 years now, since before Zach skinned up, and this will haunt me forever. I cant imagine what went through their mind.
source http://allofbeer.com/skinhead-executed-his-best-friend-after-fbi-probe/
The Words You Use To Describe A Relationship Matter More Than You Think
You know that feeling you get when you’re at dinner with friends — or maybe it’s someone you’re just getting to know — and excited talk of great books or new movies carries on long past the scrounging up of your meal’s last crumbs?
In Spanish, it’s called sobremesa, but in English there’s no direct translation. It’s a little like eagerness, a little like a comforting exhale, but Americans are likely to equate it to something broader: happiness.
A recent study in The Journal of Positive Psychology revealed that, relative to other languages, English is starved for emotionally positive words, relying instead on one big descriptor to articulate everything from simple pleasures to the glee experienced when the workday ends.
The problem with letting happiness do all of our verbal dealings is that, according to some psychologists, the experience of a feeling is often understood through the words we use to describe it. So, if our language lacks a specific word, we’re less likely to experience the specific feeling attached to it.
This is a pretty good case for expanding our vocabularies beyond a single catchall adjective. Not only could we derive more pleasure from activities like the Norwegian utepils (“drinking beer outside on a hot day”), but we might be less likely to appraise the ups and downs of most long-term relationships on such a restrictive scheme: happy versus unhappy.
English is starved for emotionally positive words, relying instead on one big descriptor to articulate everything from simple pleasures to the glee experienced when the workday ends.
The first time I fell in love, I wasn’t happy. Not exactly.
I was sitting on the floor of a friend’s dorm room talking with unjustified assertiveness about the likely outcome of the 2008 Republican primaries when I was interrupted by a brazen neighbor. Overhearing me, he butted in to praise Mike Huckabee. A Hillary supporter, I was appalled.
I did notice, however, that he wore his blonde hair in these greasy, unwashed tufts that contradicted his fashion choices, which were literally straight-laced and buttoned-up. I was intrigued.
When everyone else on our floor spent Mondays guzzling cans of Lone Star while watching “Flavor of Love,” he stayed holed up behind his desk studying differential equations. I asked him to explain his homework to me; he laughed and told me that it’d probably be lost on a “word person,” but he could try. I was intimidated.
Slowly I learned through these wild formulas that arriving at a specific conclusion isn’t always the point; a problem can be both messy and complete. That a question could have multiple answers, or no answer at all, pushed against my comfortable ideas about the world. But I was determined, because I was smitten.
When he agreed to a lunch date, a skipped class, a camping trip, I was flattered. When we spent stretches of long, lazy Saturdays swimming in a shadowy, private spot on Town Lake, I felt giddy. When we moved my books and his messy stacks of hoarded papers into an apartment off campus, I felt hopeful, much to the chagrin of my “word person” friends. When those friends asserted that he was pompous and awkward, I was defensive, but when I stopped seeing them as much, I was regretful. What was all of this for? Was I even happy?
Influenced by the binary proliferated by concerned mothers and self-help shelves everywhere, I set out to place my first, messy relationship into one of two neat columns: happy or unhappy.
This supposed act of self-betterment only muddied things further. Was the feeling I got after resolving an unnecessary quarrel happiness? What about the delightful air of mystery that hung around the kitchen table at 2 a.m. when we sat together, silently scribbling away at separate problems? That was something; independence without loneliness.
But without a word for the feeling, it was less valuable to me than those I was able to describe pithily.
So why do so many people — Americans in particular, it seems — keep returning to the incomprehensible pursuit of happiness, rather than redefining their emotions in lovelier, or at least more appropriate, terms?
I was, of course, very young. But the conundrum exists in the language we use to describe adult relationships, too. Psychologists don’t agree on whether the words we use determine our feelings or vice versa, but when certain negative adjectives are prominent (fulfilled, trapped, noncommittal), while others are nonexistent, it’s easy to see how a person would shepherd her emotions into a preexisting descriptor, like happy.
The problem arises when the same nebulous word is used to describe both rare moments of euphoria and the kind of sustained feeling of satiation we’re told to strive for. Happiness can come from physical fitness, goal fulfillment, spontaneity, and myriad other things, but ideally all of them concurrently. That’s a heavy load for a single word, or a single relationship, to bear.
In addition to being maddeningly vague, happy is somehow also too specific. It serves to appraise, to judge, to determine whether a state of mind and the circumstances contributing to it are good or bad. This won’t do to summarize the complexities of an individual, let alone the meeting and bonding of two, over any amount of time other than a lovely, powerful instant — like a first kiss.
So why do so many people — Americans in particular, it seems — keep returning to the incomprehensible pursuit of happiness, rather than redefining their emotions in lovelier, or at least more appropriate, terms?
According to The Journal of Positive Psychology study, it might be because we simply don’t have the right words at our disposal. Aiming to “enrich our emotional landscape,” the authors compiled 216 words with no direct English translation. All positive, they describe relationships, feelings and character in specific ways that English just can’t.
A survey of the happiness-related words reveals that while the feeling is framed in English as a goal to strive for, most other languages relate happiness to luck, and uncontrollable good fortune. Moreover, greater nuance is applied to the experience of happiness in many other languages; linguistically, its a colorful, multi-faceted spectrum. In German and Spanish, the pleasure derived from food is distinct from emotional satisfaction. In Thai, sabsung “signifies being revitalized through something that livens up one’s life”; In Balinese, ramé describes “something at once chaotic and joyful.”
Had these words been at my disposal, I might’ve stopped trying to describe my first, messy relationship using dull, insufficient terms. Or, had I really listened during my (limited) math lessons, I would’ve recognized years ago that if happiness is “x,” “x” doesn’t always have an inherent value, a unique solution. Sometimes, the outside variables to consider are infinite.
source http://allofbeer.com/the-words-you-use-to-describe-a-relationship-matter-more-than-you-think/
Wednesday 27 December 2017
Tuesday 26 December 2017
15 Leggings To Wear On Your Next United Airlines Flight
I gonna come right out and say it, people: leggings are in. Less sloppy than sweats, less formal than slacks, leggingsare an increasingly popular pants option, with styles ranging from modest, top-rated pairs, to the truly bizarre.
So whether you’relooking for ultimate comfort on a cross-country flight, or just in search of some tight trousers that make a statement, you’re sure to find something to like in our little list of leggings.
We hope you enjoy our selection of leggings. Just an FYI: 22Words may get a small commission from any sales made from links in this article.
These Purrrfect Leggings That Let You Slap Cats All Over Yourself
Because the world needs to know: You. Love. Cats.
These Leggings That Make You A Glorious Half Golden Robot
Because sometimes being a cyborg is enough.
These Beer Leggings That Turn Your Lower Half Into a Refreshing Pilsner
Now you can be both refreshed, and refreshing.
These Electric Leggings That Are So Comfortable, It’s Shocking
Time to take a trip to Electric Leggingland.
source http://allofbeer.com/15-leggings-to-wear-on-your-next-united-airlines-flight/
Monday 25 December 2017
Inside the world’s most expensive cruise ship suite
(Mark Ashman/Regent Seven Seas Cruises)
Love to cruise but can’t stand the crowded buffets and over-booked shore excursions?
Onboard Regent Seven Seas Cruises new ship Seven Seas Explorerwhich begins sailing to the Caribbean from Florida this December guests in the luxurious Regent Suite will enjoy a private car with driver and guide in every port, business or first class airfare as well as private sedan transfers to and from the airport– and even unlimited laundry and pressing during your trip.
So what’s the catch? The suite is $10,000 a night per couple.
Love luxury? Check out the Regent Seven Seas’ Explorer
The expansive suite is 4,443 square feet and comes equipped with an in-room spa retreat–a first at sea–complete with a treatment area, full sauna, ceramic heated relaxation loungers and multi-jet shower.
Related Image
(Mark Ashman/Regent Seven Seas Cruises)
Heres what else you get for your money:
–A lavishly decorated two-bedroom suite at the ships bow on deck 14 with marble, exotic woods, handcrafted furnishings, a golden chandelier and plenty of floor to ceiling windows to enjoy the sea views.
–An oversized hot tub enclosed by glass and adjacent to the spa retreat.
–Stellar 270-degree ocean views from the massive wraparound veranda and glass-enclosed Vista Garden.
–A stocked marble bar with black lacquered stools for entertaining new found friends. The bar is fully stocked with top-shelf liquor that guests can enjoy at their leisure.
–A custom Steinway Arabesque piano.
–Free pre-cruise hotel stay.
–A media center with a collection of limited-edition art books, artifacts and Murano glass bowls. Of course, theres another huge HD TV in the master bedroom as well.
Carrying only 750 guests (while many large liners carry over 5,000), the Explorer boasts one of the highest space ratios in the cruise industry. The line is also spearheading the trend of luxury cruise lines toward all-inclusive pricing.
Related Image
(Mark Ashman/Regent Seven Seas Cruises)
This comes amid increased demand for luxury travel options, according to the Cruise Lines International Association. Major cruise lines, including Norwegian and Royal Caribbean, say their most expensive suites with extra amenities are the first to sell while specialty lines now tout everything from exclusive tours to butler services to alcohol.
Now, Crystal Cruises offers complimentary alcohol, You Care, We Care voluntourism excursions and specialty dining, among other perks. Windstars yachts in warm weather climes have a Water Platform with complimentary water sports–kayaking, sail-boarding, even water skiing.
Cruise Critic recently named Viking Ocean Cruises the Best Luxury Cruise Line for Value, noting that the line, which will add two ships in 2017, has adopted inclusions traditional in its river cruises and other river cruising brandscomplimentary wine and beer at meals, transfers, Wi-Fi and in this case, use of the Nordic Spa with its thalassotherapy pool, steam room, hot tub and first snow grotto at sea. Guests get an included shore excursion in every port, port taxes and fees and moreadding up to more than $200 per person per day. Cruises start at just under $2000 per person.
But few go as far as Regent Seven Seas, which offers exceptional exclusivity, says Colleen McDaniel, Senior Executive Editor at Cruise Critic.
7 over the top cruise shows setting sail this year
All guests receive airfarebusiness class for international flightsfree unlimited shore excursions, specialty dining, alcoholic beverages throughout the ship and in your minibar, ground transfers and gratuities. Those booking on the concierge level or above get even more including the free pre-cruise hotel stay.
On many cruises, drinks and specialty restaurants add up fast and can ultimately cost more than the cruise itself. Regent Seven Seas all-inclusive pricing starts around $5,000 for two.
For travelers who like transparency and prefer not to receive a final bill at the end, a luxury or river cruise can be a great option that delivers value, suggests McDaniel. However, travelers are advised to consider what theyll receive for their fare and assess how it meets their individual needs. For example, some lines offer unlimited alcoholic beverages, yet for those who dont drink this wont necessarily add value.
Eileen Ogintz is the creator of the syndicated column and website Taking the Kids. She is also the author of the ten-book Kids Guide series to major American cities and the Great Smoky Mountains. The third-edition of the Kids Guide to NYC has just been released.
source http://allofbeer.com/inside-the-worlds-most-expensive-cruise-ship-suite/
It Looks Like Selena Gomez Threw Major Shade At Taylor Swift This Weekend
If you haven’t noticed, Taylor Swift has a lot of friends. The 1989 singer showed off her gal pals this weekend while celebrating the Fourth of July.
Stars including Blake Lively, Gigi Hadid and more hung out at Taylor’s Rhode Island home to go to the beach and watch fireworks.
But one BFF was missing from the party. Selena Gomez was nowhere to be found.
Taylor and Selena are obviously very close, so there must have been a pretty good reason why the two weren’t partying together.
Well, according to Selena’s Instagram post, it looks like the “Kill Em With Kindness” singer was hosting her own banger.
Yup, Selena Gomezadded a video of herself walking through an awesome party and jumping into a pool at the end.
She posted the vid on Instagram and captioned it,
hostess vibes. Happy 4th everyone!
COOL, SELENA. WHERE WAS MY INVITE?
Selena added several Snapchats hanging out with friends and having an awesome time. Below you can hear her crew singing along to Katy Perry.
They even whipped out the sparklers.
BE CAREFUL, YOU GUYS.
It looks like Selena Gomez had a great night, even if she wasn’t with BFF Taylor Swift.
I hope everyone’s Fourth of July celebrations were as fun as this. I know mine was because I got to drink beer and eat hot dogs all day. What could be better than that?
Subscribe to Elite Daily’s official newsletter,The Edge, for more stories you don’t want to miss.
source http://allofbeer.com/it-looks-like-selena-gomez-threw-major-shade-at-taylor-swift-this-weekend/
Sunday 24 December 2017
Blind date: ‘He said I reminded him of Eddie Redmayne, but he was drinking very strong beer’
Did Ben and Joe hit it off over a curry?
Ben on Joe
What were you hoping for?
Once Id determined he wasnt the grumpy-looking fellow, I was happy.
First impressions?
Wonderfully manicured nails, good dress sense and sparky conversation.
What did you talk about?
The pros and cons of Tunbridge Wells, Donald Trump, Marianne Faithfull and Stevie Nicks.
Any awkward moments?
I brought up politics and religion in the first 10 minutes.
Good table manners?
We both used our fingers, and that was fine.
Best thing about Joe?
His easy conversation and open-mindedness.
Would you introduce him to your friends?
Shed be absolutely delighted to meet him.
Describe him in three words
Open, authentic, creative.
What do you think he made of you?
He said I reminded him of Eddie Redmayne, but he was drinking very strong beer.
Did you go on somewhere?
To a pub.
And… did you kiss?
I planted a smacker on his cheek.
If you could change one thing about the evening, what would it be?
My vegetarianism: the prawns he had as a main looked delicious.
Marks out of 10?
8.
Would you meet again?
Sure.
Joe on Ben
What were you hoping for?
A nice evening out meeting someone new.
First impressions?
Fun and really chatty.
What did you talk about?
Politics, art, 1990s culture.
Any awkward moments?
When we realised the waiter was dressed like a colonial man from the days of the Raj.
Good table manners?
Very good, and open to the sharing of food, which is a plus.
Best thing about Ben?
Very engaging and interested.
Would you introduce him to your friends?
Yes, hed get on with them.
Describe him in three words
Bright, energetic, witty.
What do you think he made of you?
That Im the classic creative student muddling through.
Did you go on somewhere?
For another drink in a pub round the corner.
And… did you kiss?
Just a farewell hug.
If you could change one thing about the evening, what would it be?
More prawns.
Marks out of 10?
7.
Would you meet again?
Probably only as friends.
Ben and Joe ate at Calcutta Street, London W1.
Fancy a blind date? Email blind.date@theguardian.com
For a free three-day trial, go to soulmates.theguardian.com/subscribe/blinddate
source http://allofbeer.com/blind-date-he-said-i-reminded-him-of-eddie-redmayne-but-he-was-drinking-very-strong-beer/
Dazzle your ‘Game of Thrones’ viewing party guests with the ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ cocktail
After last weeks Battle of the Bastards episode, the season finale for season 6 of Game of Thrones is sure to be a wild ride. But, how to celebrate such a thrilling season? With a thrilling cocktail, of course!
YouTube channel Cocktail Chemistry has a great (if a little labor-intensive) cocktail for you to dazzle your house guests with, inspired by the bookA Song of Ice and Fire. Host Nick demonstrates a couple of advanced techniques that include making a hollow ice ball, filling it with a chilled cocktail, and then allowing some flaming rum to melt the ball before the drink itself douses the flames.
Its certainly not a cocktail technique for beginners, and readers may not have the time and skills necessary to make the cocktail before tonights finale. The good news is you have a whole nother year to perfect your cocktail skills to make this bad boy for the season 7 premiere.
And, if you want something a little simpler to drink, theres always Ommegangs Game of Thrones beers.
source http://allofbeer.com/dazzle-your-game-of-thrones-viewing-party-guests-with-the-a-song-of-ice-and-fire-cocktail/
President Obama had beer and noodles with Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam
President Barack Obama on Monday made major foreign-policy news by announcing the end of a decades-long arms embargo on Vietnam. But it was the next thing Obama did on his trip that has Americans talking.
The commander-in-chief ate some noodles with another famous person.
Obama met Anthony Bourdain, host of CNN‘s culinary travel showParts Unknown, for some local grub and beer at the Bn ch Hng Lin restaurant in Hanoi.
On Twitter, Bourdain said that the meal, which consisted of a pork-and-noodle dish called bn ch,cost just $6, which he paid.
He also revealed the the two tall AmericansObama is 6 foot 1 inch, while Bourdain towers at 6 foot 4 inchesenjoyed the food while sitting on some relatively short plastic stools. (The average height of a Vietnamese man is about 5 foot 5 inches tall, according to one study.)
The casualness of the other diners in the photo hasstruck some people as particularly odd. But to find out whether their arrival caused a stir, we’ll have to wait until theParts Unknownepisode about Obama’s trip airs sometime later this year.
Obama’s appearance on Parts Unknownmarks the White House’s latest effort to reach new audiences through popular culture. Following his final State of the Union address in January, Obama sat down for interviewswith several YouTube stars, and he also appeared on an episode of Running Wild with Bear Grylls last year during the first trip by a sitting president above the arctic circle in Alaska. Last summer, the president appeared on Marc Maron’s popular WTFpodcast for a candid interview.
Obama’s trip to Vietnam, his first as president, began on Sunday. Later this week, he will travel to Hiroshima, Japan, where in 1945 the U.S. military dropped a nuclear bomb in an effort to force Japan to surrender in World War II. Obama, who will be the first sitting president to visit the site, will not apologize on behalf of the U.S. for dropping the bomb.
source http://allofbeer.com/president-obama-had-beer-and-noodles-with-anthony-bourdain-in-vietnam/
Saturday 23 December 2017
Teens Don’t Think Weed Is Cool Now That It’s Legal, According To A Study
The sale of marijuana was made legal for adults in Colorado in December of 2012. And, according to a new survey, recreation use of the drug has actually fallen slightly among high schoolers since the legalization of the drug.
Critics of legalization feared that rates of marijuana use would go up in the years after it was made legal, butnow the rate of Colorado teen smoking is, in fact, below the national average.
In 2015, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment found that 21.2 percent of Colorado high school students had smoked weed in the last month. In 2011, that number was 22 percent.
And the national average clocks in at 21.7 percent.
With calls for the legalization of recreational marijuana use being made in states all over the country, findings like this will surely play a large part in future legislation.
Mason Tvert, a pro-legalization spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, claimed that,
These statistics clearly debunk the theory that making marijuana legal for adults will result in more teen use.
Now, we can only speculate why the numbers of marijuana use went down among Colorado teens, so that is exactly what I’m going to do. Let my flagrant, dataless speculating begin!
1. In a lot of places, it can actually be easier for teenagers to get weed than alcohol because alcohol is regulated and there are (surprise) far fewer illegal beer dealers than illegal weed dealers.
2. Teenagers have zero idea how to smoke weed. Their main strategy for the recreational use of marijuana involves taking a single, titanic hit at a party, and then sitting in terrified, isolated silence until someone asks them if they want another hit. Without the added benefit of open law breaking, that paranoia coma becomes a little less appetizing to teens. After all, teens are already socially awkward and insecure as is.
3. If you’re going to be comparing being a teenager and getting high at a party with other high teenagers to being a teenager and getting drunk at a party with other drunk teenagers, the winner, by a mile, is drinking. It’s taken me a decade to figure out how to be happily stoned at a party. But it took me approximately 10 seconds when I was 16 to figure out how to be happily drunk at one.
source http://allofbeer.com/teens-dont-think-weed-is-cool-now-that-its-legal-according-to-a-study/
Friday 22 December 2017
Thursday 21 December 2017
Wednesday 20 December 2017
Dozens injured after decks collapse at Connecticut house party | Fox News
About 30 people were injured late Saturday after two decks collapsed on top of a third during a house party near Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.
No serious injuries were reported in the collapse, which happened at around 11 p.m. local time.
Yup. That’s a 3 story beer bong. pic.twitter.com/Bg7qXeZQqE
— D/C Foley (@LtFoley) September 11, 2016
Hartford Police Department Deputy Chief Brian Foley posted on his Twitter feed that a third-floor deck of a house about two-tenths of a mile from the Trinity campus collapsed onto a second-floor deck, which subsequently fell onto a first-floor deck.
The injured were sent to five area hospitals, Foley said, with the most serious reported injuries being a broken arm and a head injury. He described those hurt as “walking wounded” and said most were students.
“That’s some pretty weighty decks that fell down,” Foley said. “We’re very lucky there weren’t worse injuries.”
Foley said the third-floor deck that fell showed signs of deterioration. He added that the building was owned, but not managed, by the college.
“At this point, the third floor, you look and see the wood was very rotted and very old and structurally not very sound,” he said. “Then you get 50 or 60 kids partying out there and it’s obviously a dangerous situation.”
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin said in a statement that “we are very lucky that there were no fatalities … from what could have been a truly tragic incident.”
The mayor said police and firefighters were on the scene within minutes of the accident and that first responders worked quickly to get the injured transported to hospitals.
Trinity College is a liberal arts school in Hartford with about 2,200 students. Founded in 1823, it’s the second-oldest college in Connecticut after Yale.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/20/dozens-injured-after-decks-collapse-at-connecticut-house-party-fox-news/
Beertopia: Exploring Asia’s thriving craft brewery scene
(CNN)Think of Beertopia as Asia’s younger, smaller-scale answer to the Great American Beer Festival.
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/20/beertopia-exploring-asias-thriving-craft-brewery-scene/
The Blissful Highs And Sh*tty Lows Of Dating Someone Older
I’m 29 years old, and I’ve dated all across the age spectrum in my decade-and-a-half-long bout in the dating world. I’ve dated younger men, younger women, older men and older women.
By the time I reached my early 20s, I kicked the boys to the curb (no disrespect gents, but I’m just a big ol’ lezzie creature). But let me tell you, sweet kittens: Gender aside, I’ve found in my vast searches that I much prefer to date up. And I’m not talking about “up” on the societal food chain. I’m not talking about “up” as in “social status” (F*CK social status). I’m talking about up as in grand ol’ AGE.
Basically, if you aren’t currently collecting social security checks, I’m not interested.
JUST KIDDING. I’m most definitely NOT into dating the super old. I’m just interested in (and currently am dating) someone notably older than little 29-year-old me. Seven to 10 years is ideal.
I’m a Millennial who doesn’t really enjoy doing Millennial things. In fact, I’m sort of like an old Upper East Side lady trapped in the body of a downtown Millennial.
I would rather sip cold white wine at a posh hotel bar with a stunning view of the city than take drugs and feverishly dance at the club. I’m allergic to public transportation. I abhor the taste of beer. I don’t like house parties in sh*t apartments that smell like a sea of dead rats are festering in the fridge.
My nightmare scenario is smoking cigarettes outside of a dingy bar on the Lower East Side (or, worse, Bushwick) with self-important 23-year-old hipsters, freezing my ass off listening to them talk bullsh*t.
No. I would rather hang out in cigar bars with a salt and pepper crowd whilst drinking dry gin and engaging in heated debates about the Israel/Palestine conflict.
I like to wear pretty dresses without being gawked at by 20-somethings in ripped denim who smugly ask me “Why are you so dressed up?” (Because I’m f*cking fabulous, you hipster douchebag). I like to go out to dinner for Christs sake.
So yes, there are a lot of kickass aspects to dating someone older than you: maturity. Civilized behavior. Mentoring. A sense of being “taken care of” (bully me as you will, I like to be “princessed” from time to time, and I don’t give a f*ck if you think that’s lame. My girlfriend doesn’t have any complaints).
That’s not to say there aren’t some, er, “challenging” aspects to amature relationship, like having to go home at midnight when you’re still ready to go wild. Or feeling acutely insecure about the lack of money in your bank account or being deemed nothing more than “arm candy” by their friends.
Dating someone older than you is a fierce, frustrating yet wonderfully eye-opening learning experience with a plethora of highs and lows.
Highs and lows: dating
High: They know how to take you on a “proper” date.
Most Millennials idea of a proper date is the good ol’ Netflix and Chill, which basically means you get all pretty and dressed up only to find yourself at some dude’s sh*tty apartment, scrolling through Netflix for 25 minutes before you have disappointing sex.
Not on my clock, kittens.
There is still romance left in this cruel, cold world. And based on my personal experience, you’ve got a better stab at finding it when you date a real adult.
To adults,a date is a proper dinner. With wine. With reservations. So when you get all lovely and douse yourself with a stealth splash of your very expensive limited editionChanel No.5 fragrance, it’s not being wasted sitting on a crummy couch somewhere deep in Brooklyn.
Low: You feel generally poor most of the time.
I don’t know about you, but I’m broke as a joke. I live in Manhattan. I pay an arm and a leg to live in a six-story walkup and literally live paycheck to paycheck.
Every time I swipe my credit card at Walgreens, I hold my breath, gaze up into the bleak fluorescent drug store lights and say a little prayer, Please go through. Please go through. Please go through.
Normally, I really don’t give a flying f*ck at the pathetic number in my bank account. If I can just keep my account out of the red, I’m pretty proud of myself. I’m young, I live in New York City, I survive, and I love my life. So who cares about money? Not me.
Well, until I start dating someone older.
All of a sudden, you accidentally peak into the number in their bank account when they’re checking their balance in the back of a Taxi, and you see double digits. In both savings and checking.
You suddenly realize they have 401Ks. They own things, like cars. They have multiple credits cards for which they’ve been approved.
And all I have is $250 in my checking account, and the only card I have is a Sephora beauty insider card.
Highs and lows: friends
High: They have interesting friends.
One of my favorite parts of dating up is the interesting, dynamic group of friends they’ve garnered in their years. They’re fascinating, chic, sophisticated creatures who prefer to ruminate over a nice glass of Vino rather than toss back tequila shots all night long.
And you can actually have intellectual conversations about life, love and art!
Low: Sometimes those friends can be condescending as F*CK.
Oh, the looks you get from jealous, bitchy eyes when you’re the youngest girl in the room. Ignorant entities cut you with their glances, squeeze one another’s arms and nod to each other knowingly: “Oh it’s clear why theyre together.”
As if you’re some sort of uncultured bimbo. As if you’re merely arm candy. As if you’re the pretty little decoration to the person you’re dating.
Nothing fills me more with rage! I’m far too opinionated to be anyone’s puppy.
However, I do quite enjoy the look on an old girl’s face when I’m able to quickly outsmart her, outwit her and out-sophisticate her within minutes of her bestowing a condescending comment upon me.
Highs and lows: sex
High: The sex is better.
It takes time to get comfortable in your body. It takes time to learn what the hell you’re doing in between the sheets. It takes heaps of trial and error to get really, really, really, really good at sex.
Which means dating someone older than you also means dating someone more sexually experienced than you.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not interested in being anyone’s “teacher” in sex. I want someone who can surprise me with her intense sexual prowess. Show me something I don’t know. Make me come like I never came before.
Low: They suck at sexting.
From my experience, sexting is most definitely a Millennial phenomenon. The generation before me can crush it with phone sex, but they’re at aloss when it comes tothe fine ART OF THE SEXT.
But it’s okay. The great thing about dating people who areolder is they don’t have massive egos that get in the way of them listening to you. Age has made them wise. They’re inherently faster learners than us youngins.
It’s also nice to teach your older lover a thing a two, you know?
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/20/the-blissful-highs-and-shtty-lows-of-dating-someone-older/
My First Ever Tinder Date Ended In Murder
I first downloaded Tinder ona lonesome panic about two years ago. I was stuffing my face with anything I could find and lounging in my pajamas, spread out on the sofa and watching “Gone with the Wind.”
I was fighting back tears at the thought of never finding my own version of Rhett Butler when I finally caved and began searching on the App Store.
Please save your pity; desperate times call for desperate measures.The holidays do weird things to us strong minded folk, and Iswore to never spend another Christmas period alone. Tinder was the answer to all my prayers. Or so I hoped.
Within minutes of constant swiping, my finger had cramped and I had an interesting message pop up from, oh, let’s call him Teddy.
Teddy and Icontinued chatting over the Christmas period. We exchangednumbers,then we seemed to be talking everyday. He seemed nice. He was funny, sarcastic and according to his pictures, well, pretty damn cute.
Snapchat proved he was who he claimed to be. We got to know each other, talked aboutexes, what we were looking for in life — the usual. I wouldn’t exactly say I fell for Teddy, but he had my attention and I definitely wanted to meet him in person.
We finally set a time and place. I was a nervous wreck upon entering the coffee shop. What if I didn’t like him? What if he didn’t like me? What if he had four legs? What if I forgot how to speak?
It was a little awkward at first, but once we got settled and had a few sips of coffee, the conversation was flowing, the jokes were endless and two hours later, we found ourselves wondering what else to do.
Now, maybe I should have known better — he was technically a stranger after all — but I felt like I knew Teddy pretty well. So when he suggested going back to his place so he could cook me dinner, I happily obliged.
Back at his flat, he was showing off his skills in the kitchen. We had gotten some wine and beer at the shop, and the conversation was still flowing.
By now, this had been the longest first date I’d never been on in my life. To me, it seemed to be going well. Too well, in fact. We ate, we drank some more and we settled on the sofa to watch a movie to round up the evening.
Upon the opening credits, there came a startling snap noise from the kitchen area. We looked at each other in panic.
“That must be the mouse trap,” he said. He looked embarrassed.
Now, I’m not one to judge. Even the cleanest of houses have mice, so I jumped up off of the chair to go and investigate.
To my horror, there wasn’t a mouse in the mouse trap, but the most enormous rat I had ever seen. In my life. It was bigger than my foot, and bigger than his foot. It was too big to be held down by the tiny mouse trap, so it managed to escape and in its panic, shoot out into the living area.
I was screaming. Teddy was screaming. The rat was probably screaming, and the next thing I knew, Iwaslocking myself in the bathroom for safety, and Teddy was bashing the rat with a hammer in the living room.
Yep. He hammered it to death. On our first date, the possible man of my dreams obliterated a rat right in front of me.
That was my cueto leave. Teddyswiftly scooped up the bloody remains of poor Barry the rat (I felt the need to name him out of respect) and placed the body into a plastic bag. He awkwardly walked me to the front door and instead of looking lovingly into each others eyes as we kissed goodbye, he reached over me to dump the dead rat’s body into his neighbor’s bin. Yep, not even his own bin.
He later texted me to apologize. Nothing romantic ever came out of my first date with Teddy. We clicked and I found him attractive, but nothing more ever came from it.
We’ve remained friends after all this time, and now we look back and laugh at our terrible, eventful first date. And well, ironically enough, he was my supportive wingman on the phone as I nervously walked to meet my second ever Tinder date. “Don’t worry, hopefully there will be no murder on this one,” he assured me.
So, RIP Barry the rat. What a horrific experience it was for all of us. But at least I havean interesting tale and a pretty good friend from the experience.
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/20/my-first-ever-tinder-date-ended-in-murder/
Tuesday 19 December 2017
The 3 Golden Rules Of One-Night Stand Etiquette
In high school, I vowed to never have a one-night stand. “I don’t do things like that!” I would prudishly show off to all the skater boys I sat with at lunch.
Even though I was a closet lesbian, I still wanted all of them to want me. I was at that age whenI needed incessant boy validation to feel pretty (I still enjoy it, even though straight men are entirely irrelevant creatures in my life).
I have a lot of older, very pretty sisters and a gorgeous, blonde-haired, ex-supermodel mother. I grew up in a collective of man slayers. They were the kind of girls whocould bring men to their knees with one bitchy smirk and bat of the lash. They broke fragile boy hearts all the time, recklessly played with boy feelings and always made sure they were just out of reach of boy.
“The trick to getting a MAN is to be entirely unavailable,” my older sister, Audra, would tell me. I would sit on her pretty pink bedspread mesmerized as I watched her get ready for dates in complete fascination. She would pile on loads of mascara, spray her entire body down with Jean Paul Gaultier fragrance (the coolest fragrance in the late ’90s) and pout at her reflection.
“No matter what happens tonight, I’m not going to have sex with him. I MIGHT give him a blowjob, but I’m not going to f*ck him,” she would say to herself, repeating it like some sort of yoga mantra.
“Z, you can never have sex with boys until you’ve got them LOCKED in. Drive them nuts, and then, when they’re about to explode, you can have sex with them,” she would dutifully lecture me as she sipped on her pre-date “personality drink” of vodka and crystal light (“less calories” she would say, as she mixed coral-colored powder into her cocktail).
“Us Barrie girls don’t do one-night stands,” my mother would instruct me when I asked her what the rules were about sex, her posh English accent loudly emphasizing “BarrieGirls” for dramatic effect. It’s a lot of pressure being a BarrieGirl.
I was taught that a woman’s sexuality is the most powerful thing in the world, and you should use it to get what you want. I know, sweet kittens, a twisted and a dated mentality, but I didn’t grow up with sex-positive feminism likesome girls did.
So naturally, I followed mypretty sisters’ and mother’s lead. I dressed provocatively my whole life. I kissed boys for hours upon hours upon hours, but I never slept with them. Ever.
I mean in hindsight it was sort of a sneaky lesbian move, I guess. The thought of sex with men repulsed me (Sorry boys, I love you; I just don’t want to f*ck you.) — but it was deeper than that. I wanted to be a girl who was wanted and desired like my sisters. And those bitches held out.
Of course the rules get harder to follow when you leave home and alcohol, and clubs, and bars are suddenly thrown into your life mix. No one ever told me how different life is when you leave your parents house and enter a new world where the good ol’ bad decision-making-power of booze plays such a HUGE factor.
And eventually, I had a one-night stand.
It was one of the last men I ever slept with. No, he wasn’t creepy, or old, or awful. He was a cute blond boy who had pretty girl eyes, the kind of eyes with endless lashes that tickled his dewy brow bone. (I will spread my legs for anyone with a good set of eyelashes.)
We met at a faceless bar on Santa Monica Boulevardand somehow ended up in a heated discussion about our mutual love of the smashing pumpkins — I believe I recited all of the lyrics to “Zero,” (Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness, and cleanliness is godliness, and GOD IS EMPTY JUST LIKE ME!) which hugely impressed him.
I drank cosmopolitans because I was too young to know it wasn’t cool to drink cosmopolitans.
The next thing I knew, I was in his smelly bedroom at his sh*thole apartment in Venice Beach. There werebongs everywhere, and his bedsheets werebedazzled with inexplicable holes.
“I’m not going to have sex with you — I came OVER TO CUDDLEEEE,” I slurred to him, attempting to be prim and proper. Note to self: When you’re wearing nothing but a leopard-print bra, reek of Marlboro Lights and cheap vodka — it’s a little too late to play the prim card.
“That’s totally fine. I’m down to cuddle, with you, Zara,” this boy creature slurred back at me, a bemused twinkle in his ice blue eyes. I guess this wasn’t his first rodeo.
But it was my first rodeo. I didn’t yet realize that cuddling with a stranger in a lace thong and leopard-print bra when you’re wasted will almost always lead to sex. What can I say? I was green.
Of course we had sex. We had detached sex. He just pounded himself inside me, and BAM, it was over in five minutes.
I woke up at 8 am the sunlight penetrating through his curtain-lesswindows, his naked back to me. I scanned the room with sore, hungover eyes.
It was full of filthy socks, and dirty weed, and half-drank beer bottles. Is this how boys live? I thought to myself, wishing to the higher power up above that I was in my pretty petal pink West Hollywood apartment.
I searched for my underwear feeling like a Hollywood streetwalker.
I felt cheap, and used, dehydrated and disgusting. I snuck off to the bathroom to call my older sister to pick me up. The bathroom looked how I imagine the bathrooms at Riker’s Island look: bare. dirty. piss-stained.
I’m never doing this again, I though to myself. I’m such A WHORE. Why am I SUCH A WHORE? Why do I want to cry?
Of course I did it again, with a man or two, but mainly with women. And the experiences with women weren’t nearly as traumatic as that first slut-walk of shame.
“Well that’s because you’re a lesbian!” you’re thinking to yourself, eyes rolling out of your head.
Well, yes, I am a giant, mega lez, but that’s NOT why I’ve been able to have one-night stands with women without feeling like the scum of the earth the morning after.
It’s because my sex partners had firmly followed proper one-night stand etiquette. Women are much better at one-night stand etiquette. (For the most part, anyway. There are definitely a few lesbian f*ckgirls who are sh*tty at it too.)
If you’re going to have a one-night stand and want to make it a pleasant experience, you need to follow these three simple rules.
1. This is obvious: CLEANYOURAPARTMENT.
There is nothing worse than going home with a person (guy, girl, whatever!) and waking up in TRASH. You’re already going to feel vulnerable after a one-night stand. That’s not what you want me to say, but I refuse to lie to you.
Sex is awesome. We love sex, but sex is definitely vulnerable. Someone is inside of you. There is nothing more intimate than that.
You will feel twice as vulnerable the next morning when you wake up in a room that smells like socks and BO. You can’t help but feel cheap when there aredirty dishes everywhere.
You want to know a secret? The whole reason my apartment is always looking so fierce and clean is because I want it to look good in case I meet a hot girl and decide to bring her home. I don’t want to bring someone home and have herwake up feeling horrible because she’sin a wildly disorganized mess. I have too much respect for womento do that.
When shewakes up from a one-night and opens her eyes to a beautiful apartment with fresh flowers that smells like Windex and incense, she’llfeel empowered. She’ll be like, “Yeah, I HAD A ONE-NIGHT STAND. GOOD FOR ME.”
You always want your one-night stand to leave your apartment feeling empowered.
2. You don’t have to have breakfast, butSHE/HE GETS TO STAY THE NIGHT.
“So, I f*cked this guy, and afterward, he was like ‘You should probably leave because we’re just f*cking,’” my friend Marissa* lamented during our mid-week wine/bitch session.
I nearly spit my $18 glass of white wine out of my mouth. (I’m basic. I know.)
LOOK. Just because it’s “casual sex” doesn’t mean it isn’t still SEX. You just participated in a deeply intimate act with another human being. Fluids were exchanged. You can sleep next to each other for Christ’s sake.
There is no feeling more demeaning than having raw, naked sex and being told to exit the premises right afterward. Don’t have sex with a personif you can’t handle him or herspending the night.
If heor she wants to leave — that’s totally fine. But you don’t kick people out! It’s rude.
However,you’re not obligated to have breakfast together. Just lie if they suggest breakfast and you’re not feeling it. I fully endorse lying to protect the feelings of a fragile-hearted one-night stand.
Say you have a meeting, you’re having lunch with you’re oldest friend, you signed up for one of those ClassPass workout things and you’re running late, you’re on a deadline for one of the 1,500-word articles you pump out every day or you’re off to a funeral.
No one questions a funeral.
3. Make sure to usea condom. Please. A CONDOM.
I know I don’t have sex with boys, but if I have to purchase “Plan B” for my panicked straight girlfriends ONE MORE TIME, I’M GOING TO JUMP OUT THE WINDOW CLOAKED IN VINTAGE CHANEL AND SPLATTER ACROSS WEST 24Th STREET.
I get it. Condoms SUCK. But look, it’s a one-night stand! You don’t know this person. No matter how textbook “pretty” she is or how clean cut his dweeby sweater is — it doesn’t mean he or she isn’t riddled with a laundry list of STDS.
And there is no morning-after pill for an STD, babes.
*Name has been changed
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/20/the-3-golden-rules-of-one-night-stand-etiquette/
Monday 18 December 2017
Is beer the new recovery drink? | Fox News
Whether you tuned in last week to watch the entire Super Bowl, or just to see Queen Bey slay her half-time performance (Yes, Chris Martin and Bruno Mars performed too, but, well, you know), chances are you caught a couple of the now infamous commercials. One that made us do a double take: Michelob Ultras Breathe.
Weighted back squats, battle ropes, boxing, a lot of heavy breathingat first you probably thought you were watching the latest campaign from some big athletic brand, right? Then came that shot of the twist-off cap at the end, followed by the words: Brewed For Those Who Go The Extra Mile.
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Smart move, Michelob, sneakily suggesting that a cold one is what your body needs after a kick-ass workout. After all, research does show that folks are more likely to imbibe on days they sweat. But how good is a post-exercise beer (or two) for your body, really?
It might be natural for folks to think that beer would be a good recovery drink since it contains electrolytes and carbs, said Michele Olson, PhD, an exercise physiologist at Auburn University at Montgomery in Alabama. However, after exercise we need to rehydrate, and alcohol can be dehydrating.
If you are about to cite that 2013 study from the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism in defense of your must-have draft, dont. That research is not necessarily condoning sipping on suds after a workout as a means of rehydrating, but rather saying that if you are going to booze it up, a low-alcohol beerone with 2.3 alcohol by volume content (ABV)with added sodium is a sufficient compromise. (FYI: Michelob Ultras ABV is 4.2)
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Plus consuming alcohol after getting it in in the gym can impair muscle growth and protein synthesis. In other words, all of your hard work may be for naught. Whats worse: Drinking could interfere with your future workouts, too.
Not feeling this whole choose-between-your-favorite-brew-and-your-workout scenario? Olson said that if you are going to imbibe, select a very light beer, but dont forget to chase it with water and proper nutrients. Your best bet though, Always rehydrate with water and consume easy-to-digest protein (such as low-fat yogurt) along with a carb source (such as a banana) to improve recovery after exercise, she says.
source http://allofbeer.com/2017/12/18/is-beer-the-new-recovery-drink-fox-news/