If you like slightly tarty cocktails you might like this.
This has tamarind paste, bitters, agave, cinnamon schnapps and lime juice. Make sure you rub some jalapeno in the rim before you get the salt applied. Tamarind goes well with salt, sugar and the heat of jalapeno. The smokiness of the mezcal just makes it yummy!
Finally, I hit upon a mezcal cocktail that I particularly like. This has mezcal, lime juice, maraschino liqueur and green chartreuse. Three fairly strong ingredients (from aroma and palate point of view) that actually co-exist well and let each other have enough space to play with. There is just about the right amount of smokiness for me. Also, I like my drinks a little less citrusy, so I went light on the lime juice. If you fancy a smokier version, use a reposado mezcal.
I am sure you have realized by now that the name is a play on Last Word (cocktail which has all the same ingredients except instead fo mezcal, it has gin) and The Last of the Mohicans. Of course the espadin for the mezcal comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
Sat down at the breakfast table this morning after my run and saw this packet on the table. No idea whether this is for Sharmila or Nikita (fairly sure it is not for Jay Jay or me) but that really does not matter.
This just makes no sense to me.
First, did you know that there are different kinds of makeups – like the stubborn ones, the compliant ones and the – I guess – schizophrenic ones? And how do they even decide whether the makeup is stubborn and not simply misunderstood?
Hilariously, there are degrees of stubbornness, it would appear. Neutrogena prides itself in dealing with the “most” stubborn ones.
99.3 ???? Not ninety, not ninety nine, not ninety nine decimal nine … But precisely ninety nine decimal three??? Did Neutrogena go around putting makeup – nothing but the most stubborn variety, mind you – on one thousand women in a mall and then go around scrubbing their faces only to find that the results were unsatisfactory on seven such women?
I had to chuckle at that #1 Choice of Makeup Artists bit. Those artists are made up for sure.
I am not done. Yet.
Why 114 towelettes? Whose great packaging idea was that? Not 100, not 120, not 125 but 114. Hundred and fourteen? Did some family of 19 people demand that they be able to divide the towelettes evenly amongst them, or what???
Ok. Now I am done. I need to scrub out some sun tan I got on my face from my run 🙂 🙂
Once I finished memorizing all the African countries, I asked myself if I could extend that to learn all the country names in the world. Naturally, I started by Googling “How many countries are there in the world?”
You would think it should be a straight forward answer. Far from it. The definition of a “country” is not as clear cut as I had thought it would be. There are countries that the UN recognizes. Then there are are completely autonomous areas with their own government and no control from outside – but they do not go for UN membership (e.g. Cook Islands). Kosovo is not a recognized country by UN, but it competes in the Olympics as a nation.
In fact, if I have this right, there are 195 sovereign states recognized by the UN, 201 partially recognized states, 204-207 de facto sovereign states, 206 Olympic nations, 211 FIFA countries and get this – 249 countries that have their own ISD (country code for telephone numbers) codes!
Anyways, finally memorized the names of all the nations recognized by the UN. Trying to understand the definition of continents was a trifle more tricky. Learnt some really interesting tidbits about continents. See how many of these you knew:
1. Which continent is Greenland in?
2. Which is the continent with the most number of countries?
3. Which is the continent with the least number of countries?
4. How many countries have contiguous area that straddles over two different continents?
5. This one is specially for my friends who live in the USA like me. How many countries in our continent?
Sunday morning puzzle
I was led to this problem by my great friend Karthik’s son – Aadi – who is a whizkid in logic and numbers problems. I need to spend more time with him just to learn about more puzzles.
This problem was published in New York Times as the Tax Man Problem. I have changed the description a little – but the problem is the same.
You and I sit across a table with twelve cards marked 1 thru 12 between us. Following are the rules of the card:
1. You pick a card.
2. I get to pick all the factors of that card that are remaining on the table.
(To explain, if you picked card marked “10” first, I pick up “1”, “2” and “5”. )
3. We continue with this.
(To explain, now if you pick “8”, I pick “4”. Remember “1” and “2” are already gone in the previous move)
4. You CANNOT pick a card if there are no factors of that card left for me to pick.
(To continue with the above example, you cannot pick “11” now, because its only factor “1” is already gone and I am left with nothing to pick)
5. Finally, when you have run out moves (there is no card left for you to pick without violating Rule 4 OR there are no cards left on the table), the game is over.
6. Now we add up our cards.
Whoever has higher total, wins.
To finish off that example:
You: 10
I: 1,2,5
You: 8
I: 4
You: 12
I: 3,6
You: run out of moves (you cannot pick any of the remaining cards – 7,9,11 – since they have no factors left)
I: 7,9,11
Your total: 10 + 8 + 12 = 30
My total: 48 . I WIN!!
Question: What is the highest total you can get and win?
Continuing with the learning of the Dark Continent, managed to nail all the African capitals in two different tests in first chance.
Forget my knowledge in Geography… trying to memorize names everyday for about 20 minutes might be a good way to stave off age-driven memory loss issues.
Also, who knew there are cities called Ougadougou, N’Djamane, Mbabane or Bujumbura? That was a lot of fun!
Ramesh Krishnan, your turn now. (For the rest of the readers, Ramesh beat me on the African country test by almost a whole minute!)
