What big reason to celebrate is coming up? Is your best friend having a promotion at work and you want to congratulate them? Perhaps your wedding anniversary is coming up and you want to surprise your sweetheart with a lovely gift to make the evening romantic. It may be your friend's birthday and you want to get them some unique gifts for their special day. Whatever the reason is, as long as adults will be part of the celebrating, a wine...more
Getting to know Italy means not only getting to know the well-known and common cities, towns, popular places, and attractions, but also some of the lesser known ones. One of these places is Umbria. It is a somewhat isolated area that lies directly in the middle of Italy. This makes it the only area in Italy that is not a seacoast and does not have a foreign neighbor. The gentle countryside is composed of hills, valleys, and small mountains. There...more
Infectious hepatitis is an infectious disease caused by a virus. Formerly the condition was simply called jaundice; now we know that catarrhal jaundice is produced by an inflammation of the liver resulting from an attack by the virus which is specific for that disease. Epidemiologists believe that the virus gets into the human being by two possible routes: 1) by inhaling a droplet from the throat coughed into the air by people who are infected, and 2) by consuming contaminated food or water.A similar condition called homologous serum jaundice follows the injection of blood or serum from certain donors who harbor a virus that attacks the liver. This type of jaundice has a longer incubation period than infectious hepatitis-namely, from 50 to 140 days after the transfusion, compared to 25 or 46 days after receiving the virus by the routes previously mentioned.Protein is necessary to maintain the integrity and function of the liver. The diet in infectious hepatitis should be rich in protein and carbohydrate but poor in fat. The fats must not, however, be so severely restricted that the food will become unpalatable and the patient will lose his appetite and quit eating. The diets...more
Parents who are anticipating undergoing a high-risk, complicated pregnancy in order to have children understand that if they chose to become pregnant, they also may be at risk for delivering an infant who is extremely premature. Parents wonder whether an infant born at the edge of viability should receive all the heroics that neonatal technology...more
How do professional wine tasters determine the quality of wine? The image is usually of a lab coated individual who pours wine from a bottle into a beaker, sips it, swirls it around in his mouth and then spits it out into another glass. That process might prove a bit awkward if you are having dinner at a fine restaurant and are asked to approve the...more
Plastic Champagne flutes are ideal for important occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and any other event where a congratulatory or celebratory feeling is needed. Graduations are another time that's ideal for a champagne toast. While it's pleasant to have glass champagne flutes, normal throwaway inexpensive plastic champagne flutes are way more reasonable and is mostly enough for one time events.You are probably correct in thinking, when people think of champagne, they New Years Eve parties is what comes to mind. This special day of the year is certainly the one day when folks everywhere are drinking out of disposable champagne flutes. Nobody thinks meticulously that they are cheap or made from plastic. They're having a good time and that's what matters in the final research.It's right that champagne tastes better in glass flutes, but to a normal everyday person that doesn't drink champagne every day you shouldn't be in a position to sample the difference. Your money is utilized more realistically on a pleasanter bottle of fizz than on expensive champagne flutes that you may use only once.People chasing these convenient flutes for champagne frequently try to find them in...more
The wine collectors need a place in order to save their hard to find, expensive, and occasionally extraordinary wines. Built- in Wine Racks A wall mounted wine rack can be ideal should you have a specific area intended for wine, maybe an open area...more
There are several ways that you can store wine but without doubt the best and easiest for most people is in a wine rack. It's the best way to ensure that your wine is safe when stored - even for a short period of time. Of course you must always...more
As a follow up to my last article, "Essential Wine Accessories" I thought it would be interesting to touch on a few accessories that may not be quite so essential but are fun or handy to have regardless.Wine pourers are traditionally made from clear...more
I turned 21 in 1999, decades after the Roaring Twenties. Because of this, I can honestly say that I don't know what Prohibition feels like. I can only compare it to an empty keg at a raging party or that feeling I got one night of high school when I...more
Get ready for higher priced higher quality boutique type wines from the California wine producing regions.No region of the world has impacted the world of wine in the past half century than California. While legendary European wines and winemakers...more
All of us, no matter how skeptical we claim to be, have been impacted by Folklore at some point in our lives. From those of us who refuse to utter the words "Bloody Mary" in front of a bathroom mirror because we believe an Urban Legend, to those of...more