Help yourselves

I'm stuck in a terrible mess, that's why you are not seeing any new posts for the past couple of days. I'm still shaking myself off from all the heap. Meanwhile, I want you to listen to this song by 'Sad Brad Smith' from the movie 'Up in the Air'. And in case you have yet not seen the movie, I highly recommend that you do. Fabulous film, splendid mix of humor and messages on life. Cheers!




Lyrics | Sad Brad Smith - Help Yourself lyrics

Helmets should be given for free!

How would you feel if you bought a wonderful necklace, and the jeweler didn't even care to give you a jewelery case. Or if he says "Sir, the shop down the street has a good selection of jewelry boxes. I really recommend you to buy one before you take the ornament home". You might have just paid for the gold, but isn't it obvious that the jeweler provide at least the basic case to protect your precious metal.

Thinking on this line, I don't see a reason why helmets should not be sold with the motorcycle!  After all it is an essential safety requirement and the law mandates that a helmet be worn at all times while riding a motorcycle, though seldom enforced. Similarly don't cars come with seat belts and head restraints as standard. You don't buy a car and then retrofit it with an essential safety equipment like a seat belt from a shop down the street, well at least not since the past ten years. Then why so in a motorcycle? I think the manufacturers must supply the very essential head gear while selling the vehicle.

Think of it in India, where half the people who own a motorcycle(forget wearing one) don't even own a helmet. Most of then just purchase some phony headgear when entering big cities (where the helmet rule is more or less enforced) or when they come across a police barricade, from a strategically placed street vendor. And most of these, it surprises me, don't even offer the protection of a construction site hard hat. Another instance that comes to my mind is when hand painted clay (yes!!) helmets were sold off the streets some years back in Delhi.

So when the authorities wake up one day and enforce the helmet rule (for the n-th time)do you think the average Indian will invest in one. I don't think so. You don't need to be an American to tell the difference between shelling out a 50 to a cop and some four grand on a decent ISI mark helmet. Which anyway after two or three days of heat the authorities would go back to snooze mode again (for the n-th time). So practically, what is the point of implementing a rule when half the owners don't even have a helmet and find it more profitable not to invest in one!

Now what if the bike you bought with came with its very own helmet. A helmet that is suited to the particular motorcycle, a nice open faced helmet for a scooter and an apt full faced one for your sports bike, possibly even carrying the same colour or graphics scheme from the vehicle.  So then everyone would have a helmet and if you are an Indian I'm sure you will see the difference between shelling out a dear 50 to a cop and wearing that nice new helmet resting in your broom cupboard.

I don't see a reason why this wouldn't work, after all we are the kind of people who wouldn't let go of anything with a 'free' badge, be it even a burger with a health club registration. I mean, how hard would it be for them to throw in a basic ISI mark head gear with every bike. The question is not 'why' but 'why not'?

When Parker stirred a martini - Vintage Advertising

In the early 70's when television advertising was unsophisticated and very much in its teenage years, the Parker Pen Company came out with one of the most discussed ads of its time. This simple ad showed a hand using a Parker Pen to write the above 'mathematical' formula on a piece of paper.

The ad generated a lot of talk among the scientific community as to what the formula would have meant. The result? Parker's letterbox was filled with queries from  chemists, mathematicians and physicists all asking for the meaning of the formula, as they could not figure it out. The creators of this ad, however had the last laugh. The formula was actually a humorous representation for the recipe of a Martini: 3.5 shots of gin and half a shot of vermouth over 4 parts H₂O³ (water cubed = ice), finished off with three stirs (the 3×360°)!!!

I have been hunting the original TV ad on the information superhighway, but that ended up in vain. 

Interesting trivia about the Parker Pen company:

• Contrary to popular belief, Parker is originally from the USA and not from UK. The company was founded in 1888 in Wisconsin by George S Parker.
• Did you know that the Hero pen that we are very familiar with is actually a Parker design. The design of the Hero pen resembles one of the American company's best selling model, the Parker 51.

Press Release - Unequal Halves and LG sign new sponsorship deal

Friends, It is my pleasure to announce this landmark sponsorship deal between LG and Unequal Halves. As you may have observed, the website now sports a header with the logo of its principal sponsor. The new colour scheme is also carried in rest of the blog's design.

The Coffee Connection

Gone are the times when you could walk into your neighborhood cafe and wave for a cup of coffee. Because in today's obscenely popular coffee culture, all you get is a cup of confusio-ccino. You will be bombarded by not less than 20 to 30 varieties and sub varieties of coffee, making you spend more time actually deciding on what you would drink. You came in for coffee right!?

So does a Cappuccino differ from an Americano? Is a Latte Macchiato any different from a Cafe Macchiato? Let's place our orders

Espresso [ehs-PREHS-oh]
This is the mother of all confusio-ccinos. Often misspelled and mispronounced as expresso, this strong coffee is brewed by forcing steam under pressure through darkly roasted, powdered coffee beans. As a result of the pressurized brewing process, all of the flavors and chemicals in a typical cup of espresso (usually a small 30ml cup, also called a shot of espresso) are very concentrated. For this reason, espresso is the base for other drinks, such as lattes, cappuccino, macchiato and mochas.
Trivia: Espresso has more caffeine per unit volume of most beverages. A shot of espresso, i.e 30ml has three times more caffeine than a standard cup (180ml) of coffee.

Caffè Americano [ka-FAY ah-mer-ih-KAH-noh]
This is essentially a diluted Espresso, made by diluting a shot of espresso with with three parts hot water. The dilution gives it a distinctive flavor.
Trivia: The name came about after American soldiers started adding water to the Italian Espresso coffee, that satisfies the American preference for more sips in every cup.

Caffè Latte [ka-FAY LAH-tay]
A caffè latte is simply a shot or two of bold, tasty espresso with fresh, sweet steamed milk over it. If you are skeptic about the coffee to order, Caffè Latte is a safe bet.

 Trivia: Latte is Italian for milk. And so Caffè Latte is coffee and milk.

Latte Macchiato [LAH-tay mah-kee-YAH-toh]
Consists of hot frothed milk into which a shot of espresso is dribbled over. The coffee colors, or stains the milk in faint, graduated layers, darker at the top shading to light at the bottom, all contrasting with the layer of pure white foam at the top

Caffè Macchiato [ka-FAY mah-kee-YAH-toh]
Essentially an Espresso topped with just about  half an inch of milk foam.
Trivia: The word Macchiato means stained. Here it implies espresso stained with a little milk. In Latte Macchiato(above), it implies milk or latte stained with espresso.

Caffè Mocha [ka-fay MOH-kah]
A blend of two of the worlds most romantic flavors of coffee and chocolate. A cup of Caffè Mocha consists of  espresso (1/3rd) combined with chocolate syrup and a liberal amount (2/3rd) of foamy steamed milk. The chocolate used is either milk chocolate or dark chocolate depending on preparations. It is often served with fresh whipped cream as topping.
Trivia: A few centuries ago, Mocha was actually a port in Yemen that was a major center for the coffee trade and its name became associated with the chocolatey-tasting coffee bean that was its hottest export.

Cappuccino [kap-poo-CHEE-noh]
Possibly the only variety of coffee the average Indian has frequently come across. Cappuccino is essentially a Caffe Latte, with comparatively lesser steamed milk and topped with milk foam. Arguably the most important part of a Cappuccino is the velvety foam atop the cup that gives you the milky moustache that clings to your upper lip. The foam's surface may be dusted with sweetened cocoa powder or cinnamon
Trivia: The name Cappuccino comes from Cappuchin priests who have the center of their heads shaved (white milk foam), surrounded by a ring of brown hair (the ring of coffee).

These are the basic varieties of hot coffee. Every other item on the menu are more or less derivatives of these.

Cafè Frappè or Frappe
These basically refer to varieties of cold coffee, usually made from instant coffee that may be topped with whipped cream. The types of cold coffee vary from coffee shop to coffee shop. 

You may not find the following trio in your neighborhood store, but I felt it is essential to write about these two. You will find them interesting

Irish Coffee [Coffee + Whiskey]
Beware - This is essentially coffee 'spiked' with whiskey! Irish Coffee is a cocktail of hot coffee and Irish Whiskey topped with thick cream.
Trivia: Sugar is added to Irish coffee to enable the thick cream to float atop the cocktail.

Kopi Luwak [The world's most expensive coffee]
Kopi Luwak is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling as high as Rs. 27,500(600 US$) for as little as 450grams!  
Kopi is the Indonesian word for coffee and Luwak is a local name of the Asian palm Civet (a small cat like mammal). If you were wondering why there is a cat connection in this coffee, here's why. These fussy foragers feed on the best and ripest coffee berries. Enzymes in their digestive system break down the flesh of the fruit, read on, before the animals expel the bean along with their stools.Workers now collect the faeces and the beans are washed away from the dung, and roasted to produce a unique drink that devotees might say is good to the last dropping. Very very interesting!!!

Kahlua [The coffee liqueur]
Kahlua is a liqueur made from coffee and is originally from Mexico. The alcohol content of Kahlúa varies between 20.0% and 35% depending on individual markets. Kahlua is used to prepare well known cocktails like Baby Guinness, Mudslide, Black Russian etc.