Hey, Eugene!

February 16, 2026 steveboilard3 Comments

In the good old days, by which I mean the days before Covid and Chat GPT and the subsequent, rapid disintegration of society, I was living in the Los Angeles area, where Karen and I would occasionally catch a show at the Hollywood Bowl. For me, this hundred-year-old amphitheater reflects many of LA’s best aspects: warm evenings outdoors, a vibrant entertainment industry, people dressed to the nines, and free popcorn brought to your seat during intermission.

On one of these occasions we saw the band Pink Martini, which is a quirky but virtuosic orchestra/big band from Portland. And they played a catchy number titled “Hey Eugene.” That song has been running through my mind all day. Because this morning I flew to Eugene, Oregon. And boy are my arms tired…

Eugene (pop: 176,000) is described by Wikipedia as having “a significant population of people in pursuit of alternative ideas and a large original hippie population.” Which explains the endless stream of vintage VW minibuses rattling along in the slow lane.

Anyway, I came here to meet son Ian B., who recently took up graduate studies at Oregon State University in the nearby town of Corvallis. Attentive readers may recall that Ian and Katelyn are expecting my first grandchild this June. So clearly, between school and fatherhood, Ian has decided to give up sleep for the next four or five years.

Normally I would like to make the trip to Oregon by car, but various factors conspired to prevent that option. I therefore took a Delta flight that routes through Sea-Tac, near the ancestral Boilard home in Tacoma, and terminates in Eugene. As my plane was approaching the airport I was thinking, “Hey, the weather out here is actually nice! What’s all this about Seattle always being perpetually grey and cloudy?” Then we descended from our cruising altitude and were enveloped in dismal, soul-sapping, Vitamin-D-blocking, depression-inducing cloud cover, and my thoughts immediately turned to melancholy.

Ian met me at the airport, and we drove to Corvallis (pop: 61,000), which Wikipedia helpfully notes is “the westernmost city in the contiguous 48 states with a population larger than 50,000.”

What with the weather and the limited time, we focused mainly on drinking beer. But we did manage to go on a “Corvallis Ghost Tour.” The number of ghosts we encountered was precisely zero. At least we got to see this cool 1888 courthouse, whose heating radiators reportedly make weird sounds. Surely the only explanation for old radiators making noise must involve the paranormal.

But the Corvallis building that excited me the most was this:

Did you spot the cause of my excitement? Let’s zoom in:

Alert readers will recall that I’ve made a minor study of these Golden Bear signs, which were affixed to countless alignment shops in the postwar era. Additional examples are here and here. To this list we can now add D&B Bear Service on NW 2nd Street in Corvallis. It’s an old-school, family-run auto shop, and the inside appears to look very much as it did during the Truman administration. The online reviews are stellar, so I recommend it to loyal readers in the Willamette Valley.

* * *

And now, back by popular demand, we bring you the

Brew of the Day

The BOTD comes from Block 51, which is a local brewery in Corvallis. I ordered the Super Nebula, which is an imperial stout that’s been aged in bourbon barrels.

Sometimes these barrel-aged stouts can be cloying if they don’t properly balance the malty sweetness with a decent amount of hops. But you have to select the hops carefully, because the wrong kind of bitterness can destroy the bourbon notes. Meanwhile, a beer this dark and flavorful needs to have body, but not to the point of becoming syrupy. As you can see, creating a quality barrel-aged imperial stout requires lots of patience and nuance.

Fortunately, the good people at Block 51 were up to the task. The flavors come together wonderfully, benefiting from the addition of a judicious amount of cocoa nibs. The alcohol comes in at 13.8 percent, which is in the range of what you’d expect for an imperial stout without entering crazy territory like Bruery’s Chocolate Rain (18 percent) or even Firestone Walker’s Parabola (usually 14-point-something). In a word, I’d characterize Block 51’s effort as balanced.

The only thing I’d ding it for is the finish. After a nice, satisfying sip-and-swallow, there’s something missing. Interestingly, Block 51 also makes something called Super Nebula Valhalla, which includes cardamom, star anise, and juniper. I tried a sip of that and it seemed like there was a bit too much going on, but if they could maybe just add a little of that star anise to the regular Super Nebula, I think the finish would be better.

But this is a minor point. I recommend Block 51 and their Super Nebula. Get yourself a pint while you’re having your car aligned at D&B.

Obelisks

Accentuating the Negative

January 20, 2026 steveboilard2 Comments

A couple of years ago I was walking around Rome, as one does, and happened upon an obelisk. It turned out to be the Lateran Obelisk, the largest standing Egyptian obelisk in the world. (For the uninitiated, I seem to have developed an obsession about obelisks. Please don’t judge.) The Lateran Obelisk was constructed around 1400 BC, and moved to Rome by the Roman emperor about 1800 years later. Apparently, collecting Egyptian obelisks was a thing for the Roman emperors, and today Rome has more Egyptian obelisks than anywhere else…include Egypt.

*Photo of the Lateran Obelisk, taken from “the Internet.”*

I mention this because I just received a message from loyal reader Brian W. By way of background, he explained that well over a half-century ago his father carried home a box from work that contained sundry photography equipment. Included in the box were a bunch of old black-and-white negatives. The family fooled around with the photography equipment a bit but the negatives were eventually forgotten. Recently, however, Brian’s sister located the negatives and gave them to him as a birthday present. Brian, who is an accomplished photographer in his own right, has been busy converting those negatives into digital prints. Most of them seem to have been taken in Europe during or shortly after World War II. And here is one of those photos:

It is, of course, another Egyptian obelisk. This one is the Luxor Obelisk, in Paris. Brian guesses that the photo was taken in the late 1940s.

The Luxor Obelisk has suffered various indignities over the years, not least of which was being moved from where it had stood for 3000 years. And then, in 1993, it was sheathed in a pink condom for World AIDS Day. I am not making this up.

Finally, I’ll share with you one final photograph from Brian. It’s part of that same collection of negatives that his dad brought home in the cardboard box, of unknown provenance. I know little about military uniforms, but this appears to me to be an infantry lieutenant(?).

Maybe he is a fellow soldier known to the photographer? It’s simultaneously heartwarming and eerie to see him smiling across something like 80 years of history. Perhaps there is a reader out there with the ability to do an image search and see if he shows up in any other photo collections?

Meanwhile, take this as a friendly reminder to label your photographs!

Road trips

A Headless New Year To You All!

January 2, 2026 steveboilardLeave a comment

My legion of loyal followers will of course recall the story of Mike the Headless Chicken. In case you need a refresher, here’s the original post. And, apropos of today’s entry, you’ll want to recall that Loyal Reader Brian W shared that his brother-in-law is the performer of a storied Mike the Headless Chicken song. Alas, I was initially unable to track down a recording of said song, and when Brian helpfully supplied an AIFF file, I discovered my antiquated laptop can’t cope with that format.

But now, after much effort and cursing, I’ve been able to convert the file and append it to this post. So, I give you Timothy P. and the Rural Route 3, performing “Mike the Headless Chicken!”

I must say this is a masterful performance. The musicianship is head (!) and shoulders above the other examples of the MTHC genre. And the lyrics are impressive: “There wasn’t any Colonel with his tasty twelve-piece bucket. They cut their dinner’s head off and pluck-it, pluck-it, pluck-it.” Plus, the wordplay comparing “colonel” and “kernel” is brilliant!

As you no doubt recall from my earlier post, the town of Fruita, Colorado holds an annual “Mike the Headless Chicken” festival on the Labor Day Weekend. This is where I plan to be in 2026. Join me if you dare! Until then, keep your head above water and out of the clouds.

2025 Advent cocktails

Advent Spirits Day 24: Four Roses Bourbon

December 24, 2025December 24, 2025 steveboilard1 Comment

Here we are on Christmas Eve, the final day of Advent. And thus all that remains between us and the glory of Christmas is the task of drinking one more Advent Spirit. Talk about comfort and joy!

The good people at The Mixologer (who put this Advent calendar together) have given us a special treat on this last day: Four Roses Small Batch Bourbon. Four Roses is a storied brand, dating back to the 1860s. They became famous for their high-quality, straight Kentucky Bourbon, and then survived the Prohibition period by manufacturing “medicinal” alcohol. Then in 1943 they were purchased by Seagram, which a decade later ceased production of Four Roses straight bourbon. (They instead focused on blended whisky.) Such was the state of affairs until the early 2000s, when Kirrin bought the Four Roses brand and re-launched it as a straight bourbon. And that’s what we got our hands on today.

This is a 90-proof bourbon that’s been aged for at least 6 years, which are both points in its favor. The website is pretty minimalist in describing this spirit. Here’s what they say: “For a spirits enthusiast who wants a go-to premium bourbon, Four Roses Small Batch is a perfectly balanced everyday bourbon that elevates every moment to a special occasion.” I’m now a little confused: Is this a “premium” bourbon (as suggested in the first half of the sentence, or an “everyday” bourbon (as stated in the second half)? I guess there’s only one way to find out.

Appearance: It’s the color of the star on top of the Christmas tree.

Aroma: Fresh-baked gingerbread, mulled wine, grandma’s Christmas cookies.

Taste: Figgy pudding, fruitcake, eggnog, rum balls, spiced pecans.

Finish: bright and cheery, deep and crisp and even.

Bottom Line: It seems the Christmas spirit has infiltrated my review. Let’s just summarize by saying this is a delicious bourbon, and that I hope you and yours enjoy a wonderful, Merry Christmas and a most joyous and prosperous New Year! Be watching this space for a road trip, coming soon.

2025 Advent cocktails

Advent Spirits Day 23: Suerte Tequila

December 23, 2025 steveboilard3 Comments

Lucky for us today’s spirit is tequila. And I say “lucky” because it’s from a company called Suerte, which, I’m told on good authority, means “luck” in Spanish.

Remember how a week ago or so I was discussing the trend of associating alcoholic spirits with a back story, whether or not it’s relevant (or even true)? Suerte Tequila is no exception. Here’s their spiel: “Centuries ago, legend has it, a farmers [sic] wife saw lots of rabbits (400 it is said). They were bouncing happily through her fields lapping up the juices from the fermented agave plants. She went out and collected some of the nectar in jars, brought it into the hacienda and, for the first time, everyone did tequila shots. Ultimately she was crowned Mayahuel, the Aztec Goddess of Tequila. And the rabbits, well, to us, they’re heroes.”

What we have here is an Añejo tequila, which, as we all learned in school, has been aged in oak barrels for one to three years. Thus we should expect this to be mellower and richer than the blanco and Reposado tequilas we tried earlier in this Advent project. (As I now think about it, it would have been helpful if the makers of this Advent calendar had assigned these three tequilas to three sequential days, thus allowing for more direct comparison of the different styles.) I do expect that this will be superior to the other two tequilas, as a result of longer aging. And consistent with that theory, this tequila is quite a bit more expensive; a 750 ml bottle will set you back almost $60 bucks.

Let’s see how “lucky” I am to have scored this sample!

Appearance: It’s a pale yellow, like gum turpentine.

Aroma: Notwithstanding the oak aging, this smells a lot like gum turpentine as well.

Taste: You can definitely taste the oak, accompanied by notes of pine resin, bitter grapefruit, and cumin seed. I’d say it tastes pretty good, for a tequila.

Finish: Quite smooth (again, for a tequila). The tastes resolves into wood sorrel (which my childhood friends and I called “sour grass”).

Bottom Line: I don’t know whether to recommend this or not. I’d say that you’ve gotta ask yourself a question: “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do ya, punk?