Nothing works better at inspiring a missive to the Internets than a nice, stiff drink. At least for me. I've got enough abv in my party cabinet to start an E85 station (living across the street from a corn field helps).

Tonight's discussion is twofold. First, a throwback to an old January post about Dogfish Head's Midas Touch Golden Elixir beer. You may recall (and if you don't recall, just take some time to go back and read the post) that I mentioned another obscure DFH brew therein, called Immort Ale. I mention it again now because, like with the Midas Touch, I stumbled upon Immort Ale months after initial discovery, and took a flyer on it.

You know how you put salt on your hand and lick it off before drinking a shot of tequila and biting into a lime wedge? Imagine putting some dark brown sugar on your hand, licking it off, taking a shot of bourbon, then gnawing on an old leather couch. That would be the Immort Ale experience.

Which is, surprisingly, not to say that Immort Ale is bad; it's not. But if Midas Touch is sneaky in its intoxicating ability, Immort Ale is the guy at the bar who tells you what he does for a living in agonizing detail. It's sweet, it's a little bitter, and it is in no way an easy drink. You should expect to have to write a report after one bottle. And at $12 for four, you better get crackin'.

And now, from a beer you can only get for a short time, to a liqueur you can only get after a long flight. Thanks to some intrepid cruise-takers in our family, we've acquired a bottle of Sheridan's Coffee Layered Liqueur. Only available across the pond, Sheridan's is sort of the binary explosive of liqueurs. The bottle is split in two, with a little more than half of the overall volume dedicated to the coffee chocolate liqueur, and the rest filled with vanilla cream liqueur. Two spouts allow the liquids to pour in separately, creating a layered cocktail similar to an unstirred White Russian.

My initial sip reminded me of licorice, but only a little. The rest of the glass (and the subsequent glass filled higher than the first) shed that impression. The resultant taste is something akin to Starbucks liqueur and cream, but with a little more brightness to the profile (thanks, I'm sure, to the vanilla). It's really quite good, so if you know someone who's going on a Carnival cruise, have them pick up a bottle. It's at least $5 cheaper than an Internet order, and a bigger bottle. Have your mule snag one on the first night, though; word is, this stuff sells out quick.

And with that, I bid you good night, and I shall again return to my lovely beverage.

If you're a fan of the Discovery Channel show Dirty Jobs, you know that they've used the Faith No More song "We Care A Lot" as the theme song since the beginning. It's perfect. The connection is made through the oft-repeated line, "It's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it."

Of course, if you're a fan of the show, you already know that someone at the Discovery Channel fucked up, and good. They have apparently lost the rights to use "We Care A Lot" as their theme song, and have replaced it in new and old episodes with some boring-ass generic guitar crap. There is officially ZERO personality to the new stuff. It's terrible.

This is, quite frankly, an outrage. And what do you do in cases of outrage? Why, you write a sternly worded letter.

You know that [Dirty Jobs] has achieved pretty iconic status in the cable television universe. People know it. People are drawn to it. For crying out loud, get your act together, make your apologies to Faith No More, eat some crow, and pay them what they want for the rights to "We Care A Lot." It's what's best for the show, and for their band. Both entities benefit from the proper execution of that arrangement.

So, we'll see what happens. I encourage those of you who like Dirty Jobs to write the Discover Channel by going here. If we're gonna watch TV, we certainly should expect the people who make it to do it right. Jeez.

I really have no idea, actually. But it has to. It's the only explanation for why it continues to stifle my ability to keep my podcast subscriptions updated, my playlists fully stocked and my music collection safely stored. I'm being toyed with by a small piece of technology, and I just won't have it! This digital aggression will not stand, man!

I don't even use my iPod that much, compared to other users. It's actually more like crack for some people (and the term "user" becomes increasingly apropos), but I haven't gone that far under yet. I just want to listen to the Tony Kornheiser Show at work after Stephanie Miller. Is that so wrong?

And the goddamn thing just locked up on me as I was typing this entry!! FUCK!!

...I gotta go.

Shit.