random PDX bits

Interesting facts about Portland (c/o Stuff White People Like):

* Named the "Greenest City in America" by Popular Science magazine

* Highest rate of microbreweries per capita

* Citizens are not allowed to pump their own gas

* Rasheed Wallace once lived here

one SLiCk life...

While this perhaps should have been one of the initial blogs, I thought I'd attempt some sort of explanation as to how I arrived at the title of this little venture.  

I love Salt Lake City.  A lot.  But somehow, I still can't see myself staying here forever, so it seemed appropriate to chronicle this current chapter of life, seeing as though I think it's pretty neat.  Before I moved down the big canyon to live amongst the valley people, SLC was pronounced "slick," and the latter has some pretty cool meanings, such as:

 slick1

-adjective

1. ingenious; cleverly devised

2. Slang. wonderful; remarkable; first-rate. 

And, since I have always been better at loving beautiful things than at creating them, I will continue to post wonderful words written, spoken, and lived by others, along side my own.  Enjoy!!

America's Best Beers

Each year, Men's Journal puts out this list and doesn't post it online.  Women's publications don't publish this sort of important information, but luckily I stole the pages from my (step)dad's magazine to share with whomever passes by this page.  

Prost!/Cheers!

"American beer has finally hit its golden age.  Take a break from imports and raise a pint to these homegrown classics."

If you drink... Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, 

you'll love... Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale

New Hampshire's Smuttynose is a gentler pale ale that has plenty in common with its English cousins.  A milder dose of hops makes it less aggressively bitter than other American varieties you're used to, but it's still full and flavorful.  

You should also try... 

Full Sail Pale Ale: Portland's windsurfing-mad neighbor Hood River is the birthplace for this Northwest classic, with its biscuity malt backbone and delicate grapefruit finish.

Stone IPA: Moving up the intensity ladder, we come to Stone IPA, a perfect specimen of the aggro So Cal India pale ale - but instead of having a too-bitter bite, this one is actually pleasant to drink. 

If you drink... Guinness, 

you'll love... Deschutes Black Butte Porter

Today, stout and porter styles range from mild purist English versions to American riffs that spin off in wild directions.  Take Black Butte, in which tangy Northwest hops balance cocoa, coffee, and toffee notes from a blend of roasted malts.  

You should also try...

Alesmith Speedway Stout: This San Diego-brewed, coffee-infused elixir is near perfect: a smoky, roasty, caffeinated - literally, with real joe - revelation that seems to linger forever. 

Dieu du Ciel Peche Mortel: While not American, Montreal's Peche Mortel is so good (and nearby), we had to include it.  It's one of the smoothest, richest stouts we've ever tasted.  

If you drink... Blue Moon,

you'll love... Ommegang Witte 

Ommegang Witte is brewed in Cooperstown, New York, under the supervision of Duvel Moortgat brewery in Belgium, which produces the noble golden ale Duvel - except almost everything Ommegang makes is better than Duvel, including this venerated classic.

You should also try...

Ramstein Blonde: Head brewer Greg Zaccardi imports everything from Bavaria, the ancestral home of hefeweizen, giving it an appealingly tart spiceness found in the real McCoys.

Penn Weizen: A perfect emulation of authentic German styles, Penn Weizen has all the spicy aromas of banana and clove that you would expect from a traditional Bavarian weiss.

If you drink... Samuel Adams Boston Lager,

you'll love... Southampton Altbier

Southampton is renowned for its array of beer styles.  Its Altbier (a German style with a flavor that falls somewhere between an ale and a lager) is a delicious analogue to Boston Lager, with a caramel color and creamy malt character.

You should also try...

Lakefront Organic ESB: One of the few beers in the world made with 100 percent certified organic ingredients, this ESB (extra special bitter, a British style) is perfectly balanced.

Elysian The Wise ESB: Often ESBs suffer from a fruitlike sweetness.  Not so with the Wise.  It's drier, and its layering of mellow spiciness makes it perfect for fall's cool nights.

If you drink... Pilsner Urquell,

you'll love... Stoudt's Pils

This clean, golden Pennsylvania beer achieves exactly what a pilsner is meant to: It packs enough taste to keep you interested for the long haul, with a mild, thirst-quenching flavor that encourages you to drink it all night long - ideal between bites of fiery Thai food.  

You should also try...

Trumer Pils: Trumer has all the integrity of a European pilsner with the added benefit that you won't get screwed by the brutal euro-dollar exchange rate.

Two Brothers Dog Days Dortmunder-Style Lager: This meaty Dortmunder-style lager is a deep, brassy-colored brew with a little more malty heft and alcoholic kick.

What to order when you're on the road:

Southeast

Abita Restoration

Abita, the quintessential Dixie craft brewery, launched this pale ale to raise money for New Orleans's post-Katrina reconstruction.  And it's perfect for the swampy environment - a full-bodied brew that goes light on the malt and hops for hot-weather refreshment.

Northwest

Bridgeport IPA

The PNW is hophead heaven.  Portland earned the nickname "Beervana" for its 30 breweries, and Bridgeport was the first and is often regarded as the best.  Thanks to its citrusy IPA that goes great with the brewpub's deservedly famous spicy pizza, that's not likely to change anytime soon.

Southwest

Boont Amber Ale

Like its people, California's beer scene runs to extremes: from mild and sociable up north to aggressive and boozy in So Cal.  Nor Cal's Boont Amber is a smooth, unpasteurized ale with a lively kick in a glowing garnet color that's as attractive as the copper kettles it's brewed in.

Northeast

Victory Prima Pils

From Philly to Maine, excellent craft beer is flowing.  The clean-finishing, grainy goodness of this golden, rocky-headed beer from Pennsylvania makes it ideal on draft, preferably poured into extra-large pitchers and shared among friends.  As Sierra is to pales, Prima is to pilsners.  

Rockies

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale Ale

The rough-and-tumble saloon vibe of the Rockies is still there, but next to the lit-up plastic taps these days are genre-bending micros.  Oskar Blues made a splash as the first American craft brewery to can its own beer.  Dale's is still great on tap, with a classic pale ale's bite and tang.

Midwest

Bell's Two Hearted Ale

Thankfully, there's a craft brew renaissance going on throughout the Midwest.  Michigan's Bell's Brewery has long had a cult following, and its vast selection of world-class ales is now available in most beer-forward bars.  This is a potent but exceedingly drinkable IPA.

responsibility to heal a fractured world

[My favorite part about Judaism is] "tikkun olam, the idea that the world has been broken into pieces.  All this chaos, all this discord.  And our job - everyone's job - is to try to put the pieces back together.  To make things whole again."

To life!

"I danced the only way I knew how to dance: for life, crashing into the chairs, and spinning until I fell, so that I could get up and dance again, until dawn broke and found me prostrate on the floor, so close to death I could spit into it and whisper: L'chaim."

"... though actions speak louder than words, words in the right place speak louder than bombs ..."

This week, I "lived out a scene from a movie," or so the friend I told this story to said.

In Epidemiology, we were discussing an article by a well-known public health expert about the world AIDS pandemic.  While normally I keep my mouth shut in class for fear of offending not only my classmates but also my teacher with a showy display of my global health knowledge, this time I spit out the gag and let loose the words I'd been choking on.  After politely raising my hand several times for tame, brief comments but never gaining the floor, while several students were given the chance to repeatedly utter ignorant comments (such as, "Why worry about those dying of AIDS in Africa?  They would starve if they survived anyway," and, "I don't know why the world thinks we need to help cure AIDS.  Abstinence isn't that tough to figure out"), I lowered my hand in defeat and decided I would swallow my pride and die to myself once again.

But, as the professor was bringing the discussion to a close, we met eyes and she said, "Oh, did your points get covered or was there still something you wanted to add?"

I grinned slyly and shrugged my shoulders.

"Oh, don't want to share with us anymore, huh?" she asked, only half-jokingly.

I smiled again, my heart began to race, and as my lips parted, no one, myself included, had any idea about what was about to happen.

"It isn't that I don't want to share, but at this point, I don't know where to begin.  My previous degree is in international relations and business, and I wrote a thesis about sustainable advancement in the developing world, which came to center around the current health problems there.  Health care isn't one of the problems there, it is THE problem.  'What about, lack of education?  Political corruption?  Poor economies?  Food shortages?  Civil wars?' you ask.  I can tell you why these are all just symptoms.  You can continue to poor aid money down the drain in the form of programs claiming to fix these ailments, but it is about as helpful as putting a band-aid over rotting flesh."

I followed with a ten-minute briefing on how the tragic state of health in most of the vast and diverse continent of Africa leads to the aforementioned blights, before closing with a final grin.  "That was a greatly oversimplified summary of the situation, but yeah, that is what I was going to say, more or less..."

Silence.  Crickets chirping.

Then, applause.  Seriously.

"Well, I should probably have you teach today's lecture.  Um, wow."  She sincerely thanked me for sharing my "expertise" with the class and then struggled to regroup.

My friend turned to me, grinning from ear to ear, and said, "No better way than that to prove it's the brilliant ones who keep quiet.  We don't need to listen to ourselves talk in attempt to convince ourselves of our intelligence."

After class, I handed in my quiz and was leaving when my teacher grabbed me, asked if she could read my thesis, and encouraged me to submit it for publication.  

I headed to the med school library to do some work on my current research project.  As I settled into my spot, I heard someone approaching from behind.

"Maren?  I turned; it was a classmate I respect but don't know very well.  She is from California, married to a return-missionary who speaks Arabic, hopes to relocate and start a family in the Middle East when she finishes school.  "I just want to thank you for your talk in class today.  It was so nice to hear an educated view on the issue, and I hope it challenged some people to question their beliefs.  Really, I want you to know that we really appreciated it.  It was a breath of fresh air in classroom discussion."

"Thank you.  That means a lot."

What do the children in the above photo have in common?  

They're beautiful?  Absolutely.  

Full of hope and life?  Definitely.  

But they are also HIV-positive angels, orphaned by AIDS.

"This world demands the qualities of youth; not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease.  It is a revolutionary world we live in, ... and thus you, and your young compatriots everywhere, have had thrust upon you a greater burden of responsibility than any generation that has ever lived."