The Barnes and Noble Nook Audiobooks app has been widely seen as one of, if not the best e-book listening in the market. Even with the large clout that Amazon has, it was not able to really beat this competitor when it comes to its audiobooks and e-readers.
As anyone who has ever embarked on a serious relationship can testify, courtship can be as challenging as it is invigorating. As you try to strike the ideal balance between creating a desirable first impression and presenting a true reflection of your own persona, it can be difficult to select suitable dating experiences that offer you the best possible chance of success.
With this challenge in mind, here are ten first date ideas that will blow your mind.
1. Take a Romantic Walk
Let’s start with the basics. Idyllic romantic walks are ideal components of a first date, as they are intimate and enable two partners to develop a deeper understanding of one another. So take your date for a relaxing evening walk through a local park or along a scenic nature trail, ensuring that you converse openly as you do so.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions released Terminator Genesys, the most recent installment of the Terminator franchise, on July 1, 2015. This latest installment revisits the adventures and Sarah and John Connor. The movie stars Jason Clarke as John Connor, Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, and Arnold Schwarzenegger reprises his role as the Terminator turned Guardian, and has some major departures from the original story.
To understand how the timelines differ, let’s take a brief look at the previous installments. You can also find more information from DirecTV’s Terminator alternate timeline.
It’s named for a terrapin turtle, not a rattlesnake, but this is a drink with a bite. Make no mistake about that.
Showing up in print first in Ted Saucier’s 1951 cocktail guide, Bottom’s Up, the Diamondback comes from the post-war boom in cocktail culture. That’s the one that inspired people to buy those cocktail sets that were handed down to some of us by our parents, grandparents,or great-grandparents. Nevertheless, as any true cocktail snob will tell you, that was a far cry from the highpoint of pre-prohibition cocktail creativity, despite the era’s booze-loving trappings. By the 1950s, cocktails were a pretty basic matter for the most part. In a funny way, the ingredients in a Diamondback feel almost like a throwback to a much earlier time in tippling history since both rye and apple brandies became increasingly rare in U.S. stores in the second half of the 20th century. Indeed, it was apparently the house drink at a venerable East coast bar, and it’s possible it’s history actually goes back a bit further than I know.
So, yes, the makings here are bit old school for the cast of “Mad Men” but not hard to find these days,though also not exactly inexpensive; the Diamondback contains chartreuse, an herbaceous and powerful product that a bunch of monks have a monopoly on; I hope they’re doing good works with the $50.00 or so you typically have to spend on one of their bottlings. Also, being comprised of three very potent brews, one a bit outre, this is a drink that Roger Sterling, at least, might have appreciated.
The Diamondback
1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
3/4 ounce applejack (i.e., American apple brandy)
3/4 green chartreuse
1 cocktail cherry (garnish)
Combine your ingredients in a cocktail shaker or mixing glass with plenty of ice. You can stir this one if you like, but it will come out very, very strong. I shake it. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass, add your cocktail cherry. You may toast our amphibian friend, the diamondback terrapin. More than one of these drinks and you won’t be moving much faster than one.
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According to cocktail blogger Doug Ford, the Diamondback was originally the Diamondback Lounge Cocktail and was the house beverage of the Lord Baltimore Hotel bar in guess-what-southeastern city? Originally, it was made with yellow chartreuse, which is milder, but most modern recipes call for the green variant. And let’s be clear, by “milder” we mean 80 proof. Green chartreuse clocks in at a stunning 110.
It gets worse, or perhaps better, because most of the people making this drink at various Internet locales are using 100 proof ryes like Rittenhouse and Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy, which is also bottled in bond, i.e., 100 proof. My gut reaction is to think that this might be a little too much of a good thing. In any case, the reality is that most of the boozes I actually had on hand this week were very slightly milder, which I thought might compensate to some degree for using the oh-so strong, but admittedly flavorful, green chartreuse.
The first time I made a Diamondback, I frankly found it a too strong. I used the last of the only 100 proof rye I had, 1776, but compensated for its strength via that fact that I’m too cheap to own a bottle of Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy at present; I went with Laird’s somewhat maligned 80 proof Applejack. (It’s blended with neutral spirits for a lighter taste which I think is very pleasant.) Then, I realized that, contrary to the cocktail snob’s dictum that drinks without juices should be always be stirred, the Diamondback was originally shaken. Especially as I don’t buy that particular dogma one little bit, I thought that made for a major improvement.
I also tried the Diamondback with 90 proof Bulleit Rye and Alberta Dark Rye. Both were just fine, but I give the slight edge to the one named after a Canadian province. It wasn’t the fact that it’s makers finally decided to send me a replacement bottle after the incident of the torn off plastic thingy, at least I don’t think it was. It’s just the gentler, sweeter flavor seemed to mellow out this fire-breathing turtle of a concoction.
“Here lies the found footage genre. It had a good run.” That might as well be the tagline for the new horror movie, “The Gallows,” because if the countless other found footage films suffocating the market didn’t already kill the genre, then surely this is the final nail in the coffin. Though the movie was bankrolled by Blumhouse Productions, which has made millions from micro-budgeted horror flicks like the “Insidious” and “Paranormal Activity” series, “The Gallows” is just the latest in a long line of amateurish junk that the studio has been cranking out for years. The benefit of making films on a small budget is that you only need a few hits to offset the losses on your many flops, and sadly, “The Gallows” is destined to fall into the latter category – yet another footnote in Blumhouse’s cinematic game of Russian roulette.
In 1993, Beatrice High School student Charlie Grimille was horrifically killed due to a prop malfunction during the theater department’s production of “The Gallows.” Twenty years later, the school’s students have mounted a revival of the failed stage play (and the fact that the school board didn’t have a problem with this highlights the level of stupidity on display in the film), with football jock Reese (Reese Mishler) landing the coveted lead role despite his complete lack of experience or talent. Reese is noticeably nervous about making his acting debut, so when his friend Ryan (Ryan Shoos) suggests that they break into the school at night and destroy the set so that the play gets cancelled, he reluctantly agrees to tag along. (And of course they record the whole thing, because why wouldn’t they want evidence tying them to the crime?) But after the two guys – along with gal pal Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford) and drama queen Pfiefer (Pfiefer Brown) – mysteriously get locked inside and begin to experience creepy occurrences, they learn that the vengeful spirit of Charlie still haunts the school.
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