lummi island wine tasting oct 25-26 ’24
Hours, October 25-26, ’24
Friday 4-6 pm Saturday 3-5 pm
EARLY AND OFTEN!
Friday Bread This Week
Pain Normand – A bread that brings in the flavor of french Normandy region which is known for its apples. Made with some fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours as well as bread flour then mixed with apple cider as well as dried apples, for a delicious artisan bread! – $5/loaf
Le Pave d’Autrefois – Translates roughly as old paving stones. This is a ciabatta like bread which has a lot of hydration so it isn’t really shaped so much as simply divided into approximate squares – hence the paving stones name. Made with a mix of bread flour as well as fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flours for a lot of hearty whole grain goodness. A great artisan bread -$5/loaf
Pain aux Raisin – Made with the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries that have been soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. These are my favorites! As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in early! -$5/loaf
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday the Bakery emails the week’s bread offering to the mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday (and not already claimed) will be available for pickup at the wine shop Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Contact us at least two weeks before your visit to get on the bread list .
This week’s Wine Tasting:
Juggernaut Chardonnay ’21 Sonoma $17
Barrel fermented; aromas of apple, Asian pear and lemon meringue open to rich, lingering flavors of stone fruit, honeysuckle, and yellow plum, with finishing notes of vanilla, butter cream and hints of clove.
Can Blau Can Blau ’20 Spain $16
From the lovely Montsant wine region an hour SW of Barcelona, this long-time favorite calms the soul with aromas and flavors of cocoa bean, ripe dark fruits and berries, a seamless texture, and long, silky finish that improves with aeration.
Jacob Williams Red Mountain Cab Franc ’21
Marionberry nose, over spice and savory herbs with red berries, , silky tannins, and subtle earthy notes on the lengthy finish. 17 mos. in 10% new French oak.
Economics of the Heart: Lemming Myths and Political Realities
Flickr photo by Sander van der Wel
The ubiquitous–and false– lemming myth is that from time to time entire colonies of these darling little arctic rodents commit mass suicide by throwing themselves off cliffs into the raging sea. It originated in a Disney film in the late Fifties that used a lot of tricks to make a handful of lemmings look like a mob, and the myth was born. The truth is that lemming populations in any one place fluctuate substantially and food supplies vary from year to year as conditions vary. The survival instinct leads substantial subgroups to split away and establish separate colonies as necessary.
Nevertheless, the myth has persisted as a go-to metaphor for any group of creatures that would select mass suicide as a logical response to anything. Such has been increasingly the case in our dear USA since about 1987. That was the precise point in our history when the Reagan FCC eliminated the legal requirement for news outlets to present all sides of every news story and opened the floodgates to the 24/7 Right Wing disinformation campaign across newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, internet, print, and social media that has been churning out hateful BS for the last 35 years.
We have endured decades of angry Limbaugh clones bombarding us with mean-spirited lies, not just about Democratic policies, but also with relentless ad hominem attacks on Democratic office-holders, their families, and their personal lives. In the 90’s the constant anger-mongering from Newt’s House empowered our own County’s state legislator to complain, on the WA House Floor, about a bill that would allow teaching Latino public school students in Spanish, exclaiming “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” (we are not making this up!)
This kind of political aggression has long been typical in Red states, which have heavily gerrymandered their Congressional districts enough to guarantee them legislative majorities at both state and federal levels, as well as squeaking Dubya and the Tweetster into the White House on questionable Electoral College results, despite their massive losses in the popular vote.
Which brings us back to, you know, the lemming myth. We primates are wired a bit differently from lemmings, but have a lot in common with our fellow primates. Of particular relevance to today’s politics are the behavioral differences between Chimpanzees and Bonobos described in Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence.
A major takeaway from the book is that chimp males are continually stimulated by the pervasive odor of female estrus to “an innate propensity for dominance, gratuitous violence, war, rape, and murder.” This violence is unleashed frequently and unpredictably against both females and other males in their own group (like some drunken Dads), and periodically even more violently by the periodic stomping to death of male chimps in neighboring groups– not so different from Jan 6 and the agenda for Project 2025.
In contrast, in bonobo society, estrus has more subtle outward signs, does not evoke male competition, and may explain why bonobo society is essentially matriarchal. The implication is that a single variable (the scent of female estrus) has had a significant effect on the evolution of these two closely related primates. The polarities between chimps and bonobos are artifacts of their minor genetic differences.
Curiously, about ten years ago a study at Brown U determined that Republicans and Democrats actually have different body odor! The inescapable reality of our recent experiences is that Republicans, like male chimps, are constantly in some kind of Estrus Rage, irrational to the point of delusion. Their media appearances are regularly broadcast in RAISED VOICES, deliberately evoking Outrage and Anger and portraying themselves as entitled to power. This astonishing hubris has been the main driver behind Trumpism, the Jan 6 coup attempt, donations of $billions for the Tweetster’s army of defense lawyers, and the execution of Project 2025, the blueprint for the new Fascist America.
This is all very scary stuff, mostly because so many Americans have been willingly brainwashed by over three decades of misinformation, disinformation, secret liaisons with enemy governments, compromises of vital national security materials, and traitorous acts against our Constitution.
By all accounts, my friends, this election will either bring a welcome new hope, or cement a permanent despair for our American future. And that is pretty f-ing scary.
SO BE SURE TO…
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2072 Granger Way