Belly up

A potbelly is the new hot accessory, according to my very favorite NYT style writer, Guy Trebay. The editor of Details speculates that Brooklyn hipsters are reacting to our uberfit president by "proudly rocking a gut." But I blame it on all that PBR.

Trust the kids and trust the facts: lower the drinking age

Right now I am loving and supporting the Amethyst Initiative, which is enlisting the support of university presidents in a call to reexamine the legal drinking age in the U.S. (U.S. News & World Report) Especially after confirming more or less to my satisfaction that no beverage industry money is involved. It's a project of Choose Responsibility, a nonprofit founded by the former president of Middlebury College (you know those Middlebury kids...woo HOOOO! no wonder he's concerned).

I buy Choose Responsibility's arguments in favor of lowering the drinking age. For various reasons, some related to personal responsibility and some related to legal exposure, I spent an inordinate amount of time in college trying to keep people from killing themselves with alcohol. And I'm telling you,

1) A legal drinking environment is almost always safer than an illegal drinking environment, regardless of the age of the drinkers.

2) Our unusually high drinking age is unquestionably a factor in many college students' unhealthy relationship with alcohol, which includes binge drinking.

3) I'm much less worried about a college kid drinking a couple of beers and getting behind the wheel--not that it isn't cause for worry--than I am about a college kid drinking 20 shots of hard liquor and then falling asleep on his back and drowning in his own vomit. There is a good case to be made, as Choose Responsibility does, that the age 21 limit contributes to college-aged binge drinking in a big way, and that it's binge drinking that is the greatest threat to the health and well-being of teenagers and those around them.

Anyway, food--or drink--for thought.

How beer is going to save the world!

Foster's, Scientists Team Up To Generate Clean Energy from Beer-Making
May 02, 2007 — By Rod McGuirk, Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia -- Scientists and Australian beer maker Foster's are teaming up to generate clean energy from brewery waste water -- by using sugar-consuming bacteria.

The experimental technology was unveiled Wednesday by scientists at Australia's University of Queensland, which was given a $115,000 state government grant to install a microbial fuel cell at a Foster's Group brewery near Brisbane, the capital of Queensland state. (AP via Boston Herald)

If this technology takes off, I think our mission as consumers is clear.

"Millions use alternative medicine to get to sleep"

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- One in six Americans frequently have difficulty falling asleep, and 4.5 percent of them use some type of alternative medicine to treat their sleeping problems, a new study shows.

"Most respondents who used herbal therapies or relaxation techniques found these therapies helpful for managing their insomnia or trouble sleeping," Dr. Nancy J. Pearson and colleagues from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. (via CNN)

Yep. Bourbon.

Your summer drink has arrived

Check out the kick ass martini I just invented. Cool, refreshing, and chock-full of antioxidants, so really it's a wash.

Kick ass ginger martini (serves 4)

juice of 1 fresh lemon
2-3 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger (watch out, it has a kick)
6 oz. very awesome vodka (I recommend Belvedere)
2 oz vanilla vodka (Stoli Vanil or similar)
2-3 tablespoons simple syrup*
a crapload of ice

Pour the vodkas, lemon juice, and syrup over the ice in a cocktail shaker. Put the ginger in a garlic press and squeeze the gingery juices into the shaker too. Shake the hell out of it until the shaker frosts. Pour into four chilled martini glasses. You could probably also do fancy things with lemon peels and candied ginger...

*Plain sugar syrup. Either buy it somewhere, or make it by boiling 1 part sugar and 2 parts water together until it reaches a syrupy consistency. You can keep it in the fridge in a jar or tupperware--make a bunch because it also comes in handy for mint juleps and other summer drinks.