A FEW INTERESTING THINGS

Maybe you missed this, but Italy swore in its first female prime minister last week.  She is 45-year old Giogia Meloni, a white supremacist and first Far-Right leader since Mussolini.  Her party will partner with 85-year old former PM, Silvio Berlusconi's.  She caught the public's attention three years ago when a video of her I am Giorgia speech went viral because two DJs from Milan turned the performance into an electronic dance music track.  Worth a watch.  Meloni has been accused of being fascistic, ala Mussolini, who ran the country from 1922 to 1943, and defended Viktory Orban, Hungary's authoritarian leader, who quashed democracy in this country.  She is, however, pro-NATO, for democracy and supportive of Ukraine.

Europe is more and more leaning to the right (they would be called Republicans in the U.S.), with the recent election of Swedish conservative Ulf Kristersson to Prime Minister.  Maybe they're beginning to lean away from socialism.  One of their scientists, Svante Paabo, recently won the Nobel Prize for medicine for his work in human evolution.

Too much of Europe?  Well, back to America and our most prominent alcoholic drink, bourbon, which developed around the time of our Civil War in the South, and more specifically Kentucky.  A few things about bourbon:

• BOURBON can only be produced in the USA.
• Been around since the 1700s.

• 
  George Washingon was the nations largest distiller of rye whiskey, a cousin of bourbon.
• In 2005 there were 50 distilleries.  Today, 2300 and growing.  I think this is extraordinary.  Except I checked, and the more accurate number today is 740, WHICH IS STILL EXTRAORDINARY.

• 
  Frank Sinatra and Winston Churchill drank Jack Daniels and the late Anthony Bourdain said Pappy Van Winkle 20-year was the most glorious bourbon on the face of the planet.

• 
  The top two sellers are Jim Beam (which Mila Kunis likes) and Jack Daniels. 
• Evan Williams built Kentucky's first commercial distillery in 1783, where 95% of bourbons are produced.

• 
  The oldest registered bourbon distillery, however, is Jack Daniel's, made in Tennessee from 1866, and is supposedly the best-selling individual whiskey brand in the world.  
• This is controversial, as scotch whisky outsells bourbons by a factor of 4.
• There is no mention of bourbon on JD bottles.  Why?  Read this.

• 
  However  Jack Daniel's Black moved past Johnnie Walker Red as the best-selling single expression of a whiskey product.
• The confusion is that all of Jack Daniel's sold 13.4 million cases in 2019, while Johnnie Walker sold 18.4 million.
• I visited this JD site once, and had to be bussed to another location for bourbon-tasting, as Lynchburg is a dry county.  They squeezed a wedge of lemon into JD on rocks, which is today how I drink this brand.
• 
  Incidentally, this article insists that there are six Johnnie Walker colors:  Red, Black, Double Black, Green, Gold and Blue.  However, I personally own seven, and last month drank the last drop of Double Black, and, shucks, threw the bottle away.  Thus there are 8 colors of Johnnie Walker scotches.

• 
  For the picky, why whiskey and whisky?
• In the U.S.it is whiskey.
• In Japan it is whisky.
• In Scotland it is whisky.
• But in Ireland it is whiskey.
• No wonder we're confused.

My big bourbon day is during coverage of the Kentucky Derby in May.  I annually post about what I'm drinking while watching the Derby on TV.  Regarding the classic Mint Julep:

Old Forrester was once the bourbon used, but since 1999 Woodward Reserve, a new bourbon at that time, paid money to become the official sponsor.  However, the Derby outlets still use Old Forrester.

Ever wonder how many ants are on Planet Earth?  Well, the latest estimate is 20 quadrillion, or 2.5 millions ants/person.  There is a 1974 science-horror movie, Phase IV.  It was a box office flop, but gained cult status after being shown on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Click on that for the entire 1 hr 36 min film.  However, Rotten Tomatoes?  53/54.

-