Tonight Show clip with Steve Allen, 1953

     Earlier tonight I was checking out this article about the future of television.  I found it interesting that people are more likely to watch the commercials if they can time-shift the program to whenever they want.  That’s fine and all, but what I really want is better shows to watch.

Cartoon Network is decreasing in quality by the month, and the poor Sci-Fi Channel should, at this point, be taken out ’round back of the barn with grandpappy’s #5 shooting iron, and, as they say, sent on.  I used to make time to watch the Sci-Fi Channel.  Nowadays, if it wasn’t for their atrocious original movie series, I wouldn’t watch at all, and I almost never watch THOSE, although I do tune in to see if the latest will be, if not halfway decent, then bad enough to laugh at.

American television is terrible.  There’s no point in owning all of the admittedly cool television gadgets like a TiVO if there’s NOTHING ON WORTH LOOKING AT.

Which leads me to these gem-like clips of the Tonight Show from 1953, with Steve Allen hosting a live halloween party with Jayne Meadows, Kim Novak, Edie Gorme’, Gene Rayburn, and a bunch of other people milling around on the stage.  There’s an impromptu musical number, a bit of song-and-dance, and a show-stopping game of Crazy Grapefruit which was just AWESOME to watch, and which would probably never happen on TV today.

Television sure was interesting to look at in 1953…

Wine: Leelanau Cellars Autumn Harvest

     Leelanau Cellars has a series of vins-de-table for each season; the recent dramatic change in the weather here in the Great Lakes prompted me to give the Autumn Harvest a try:

Sharp and brisk on the palate, with a smoky, apple-y undertone which definitely brought to mind memories of good Frankenmuth cider, and the smells and tastes of autumn in Michigan.  A lingering, spicy finish.

I feel like an idiot typing all of that ’sights and smells of Michigan autumn’ jive, but y’know, that’s what they were GOING for, and I have to say, as someone who doesn’t even LIKE autumn, that if their wine managed to invoke that sort of stuff in me without my hating it, it must be pretty good, n’est-ce pas?

This is not a serious, fou-fou-wine-snob wine; this is a casual, easy-drinking, friends-over-on-a-friday-night kind of wine which should suit most casual foods really well (I had pasta with mine), and of course, could not be better suited for its season.

Wine: Leelanau Ltd. Pear Wine

Yes, wine made from pears.  This is the Great Lakes, beetch, settled by French freaks, and you can bet that the fruit hasn’t been harvested up here that we haven’t made into a wine.

Anyway: pear wine.  Sweet, yes, but not syrupy; it doesn’t taste like the liquid in a tin of canned pears, it tastes like an actual beverage.  I had it with chicken that was grilled in a marinade of pears and rum, and it was astonishing how the wine brought out the flavours of the marinade, accentuating the chicken perfectly.  It must be said, though, that this wine is undoubtedly more suited to desserts, although obviously it’s pretty good in the fou-fou marinade department.  Your mileage may vary.  Give it a try; I bet it rules with dark chocolate.

Wine: Charles Shaw 2004 Sauvignon Blanc

Yes, this is a bottle of the infamous ‘Three-Buck Chuck‘ from Trader Joe’s.  Given my egregious wine snobbery, this is perhaps not the most auspicious bottle to start a category with.  However, I’m not *that* kind of a wine snob.  I’m the other kind.  So there.

Anyway:

It was a bit sharp on the palate at the first, but then you’re suffused with a barrage of fruit flavours.  It was very fruity (not to say sweet).  I found the finish to be quite pleasant, however.

The dish I had it with (braised shrimp in a red curry sauce) was all but overpowered by it (a Reisling would almost certainly have been much better suited), so I’m not sure I can reccommend it with seafood, but for the usual white-wine dishes it ought to make a fine vin-de-table, and it might even work for some of the more robust-flavoured fish.  Besides, the price-to-quality ratio here can’t be beat: it might be three bucks, but it ain’t swill.