Ryan Noonan
Ryan Noonan is an economist with a small federal agency. Fields in which he considers himself reasonably well-informed: literature, college athletics, video games, food and beverage, the Supreme Court. Fields in which he considers himself an expert: none. He can be found on the Twitter or reached by email.
We had a recent outage due to ongoing problems with the latest WordPress update. We were also forced into some theme changes. Some of these changes are temporary and some are probably not. We apologize for the inconvenience.
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Yea, on the one hand financialization and globalization have wreaked havoc on low skill manufacturin…
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25I take your point; Part 3 is where the votes are. But the reason why Cass (and others) are at least… on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Voters can get comfortable with evil, but incompetence? That's a real problem.
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Well, driving a rift between Musk and Trump seemed to be the main goal for a few months there. Start… on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Yea it's all good food for thought. Parts 1 and 2 seem like the kind of thing that could even have b… on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25I take it as people may be dumb but it's a bad idea to insult their intelligence. And a guy like Mus…
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25These stats are why I claim that Israel deliberately attacking civilians isn't supported by the numb… on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Yeah, looks like the Three Groups of Voters have different takes on him. 1. AUGH I HATE HIM! I HATE… on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25It's in NY. State will be fortunate to get life. I'd call it more a political assassination than a c…
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25Judge Crawford easily wins in Wisconsin despite or because of Musk’s 25 million spent on her opponen…
A Would-Be Buyer at an Automobile Show
April 2, 2025
April 1, 2025
The Greatest Strike in History
March 30, 2025
March 28, 2025
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25
on A Grudging Concession About Something Trump Did
on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25 on Open Mic for the week of 3/31/25
Me? I like ouzo. (though a dark rum, or a clean vodka are pretty nice too). Haven’t ever tried bourbon…Report
Bourbon rocks! Enough to make me forsake scotch, which used to be my hard liquor of choice.Report
We’ve been getting into both Bourbon and Scotch lately. There are even a few “micro-distilleries” making them around here now.Report
I love micros, whether brewery or distillery. Something romantic about creating booze out of the land around you.
The Grand Traverse Distillery in Traverse City, MI makes one of my favorite ryes of all time. They also don’t ship, so… I get it pretty rarely.Report
“Something romantic about creating booze out of the land around you.”
This!
I should try Rye sometime. My only memory of it was some cheap, nasty stuff someone gave me on my 22nd birthday called Rock ‘N’ Rye, that had large sugar chrysalis floating in it. It has left an impressions.
Remind me, Ryan – you’re in Philly? Or DC?Report
DC, although the soon-to-be wife is from Philly, so I visit there fairly often as well.Report
How soon to the Big Date? Also, I will be needing your email address.Report
04.14.12
Email is in my signature.Report
Sazerac Rye and Bulleit Rye and both very nice, inexpensive introductions to the current state of American rye whisky. Highly recommended.Report
Ouzo? That was what we had to take a shot of when we lost a bar bet.Report
Just be thankful it was ouzo instead of retsina, the other Greek liqueur. That stuff is seriously nasty.Report
Retsina would actually be my preference. But if you have grappa…Report
Grappa, ugh. *shudders*
Bad experience.Report
Kitty had Slivovitz several times in Slovenia. Unfortunately, the Slovenians don’t export the good stuff, they keep it all for themselves.
I had two glasses of the bottle she brought back. Stellar stuff.Report
Gin. That is all.
And yes, you can have barrel-aged gin if you insist.Report
Limey traitor.Report
Yay Tim!!! Maître de of one of the very few virtuous reality TV shows.Report
Pappy. The be all and end all. Well-played, sir. Well-played.Report
I was out for my birthday last month – at Bourbon in Adams Morgan, if any of you are DCers and looking to share a drink sometime – and I attempted to order a couple different Willetts that turned out to be empty. The bartender, either in frustration or (one hopes) recognizing a good eye, went away for a few minutes and came back with Pappy. It was only the 15 year, but it was still one of the best birthday presents a boy could ask for.Report
Booze, like music, is sometimes an antidote, sometimes an anodyne. There must be a measure of appropriateness to these things.
In Phoenix, an arid land, where the afternoon sunlight strikes a man’s forehead like a two by four, nothing was quite so fitting as good gin and quinine water. Oh we went through beer like water, Fat Tire and various red ales, weissbier figured large, but beer is fundamentally Bavarian style bread, a nutriment and therefore irrelevant to this discussion.
Of late, I have taken to Kraken Rum. But this is a frosty clime, where a man is subject to long stretches of filthy confinement behind frost-rimed windows, going out only to give the Husky Dog an excuse for all that fur, that, and to lay dog eggs in the snow. After such an excursion, the restorative effects of Kraken spiced rum are nonpareil.Report
The way you describe it surely makes me want to try some.Report
Love Kraken! My first taste was at a pirate fest; a great place for rum.Report
only german beer is bread. ale is mere cleansed water, and a spanish beer is entirely different as well.Report
I see you know nothing about beer, either.
“Ale” denotes a very large subtype of yeasts and all of the many, many, many beers that are brewed with them. Ales include everything from India pale ales to Belgian abbey ales to Scotch ales to — technically — stouts.
Most ale styles are stronger, more strongly flavored, and higher in calories than most lager styles. There are certainly exceptions, including triple bocks and imperial Pilsners, but if any category of beer counts as “mere cleansed water,” it’s certainly not the ales.
Report
I haven’t had the Pappy’s, but I do like Buffalo Trace. Blanton’s is good, too. For the budget-conscious connoisseur, Eagle Rare is very nice as well. (And of course my old standby, Knob Creek.)Report
Eagle Rare is an absolute steal at its price point. My everyday or go-to bourbons are Maker’s, Bulleit, and Four Roses.Report
I used to drink Makers (and still happily would, if offered some), but haven’t bought it in a long time. I haven’t tried Bulleit or Four Roses, but I’m making a list and will be exploring.
And I hope this isn’t a faux pax, but I also like Wild Turkey (86 proof, in the 101 the alcohol overpowers the taste, imo).Report
Bulleit’s rye is a particular favorite, although the bourbon is also very good.
I have two good friends who refer to the Wild Turkey American Honey as “Nightmare Fuel”. My experience with it has been less a nightmare and more the following:
“Oh, wow, this tastes kind of like candy. I would like some more.”
*10 hours later*
“Where am I, and how many people have I killed?”Report
I thought the American Honey concept sounded fantastic, so I eagerly bought it only to find that on my tongue it tastes utterly revolting. Not candylike, but bitter and oily. Perhaps I’m lucky and my tastebuds were doing me a favor.
“Where am I, and how many people have I killed?”
That’s my experience with Jagermeister. That’s the one thing in this world that tempts me to believe in demons. No human could ever have concocted such an evil potion.Report
No good ever comes from a night involving Jäger.Report
Jäger is for college kids. It’s like Goldschläger.
No self-respecting *adult* would drink anything so cloying.Report
I diminished my self-respect by drinking it, and yet I stopped drinking it, which indicates increased self-respect. Paradoxical, eh?
(P.S., I was a college kid, although one in my mid-20s.)Report
I will not comment on the quantity of “yak-master” that I and my cronies drank in college.Report
Woodford Reserve is the preferred bourbon of the Saunders-Better Half household.
We got a bottle of American Honey for Christmas. It reminds me mightily of Drambuie. It is suitable for use in a modified Sazerac, obviating the need for sugar or simple syrup. The absinth makes it less cloying.Report
I’ve an abundance of good Scotch after the holidays so I haven’t had moment to step back into the Bourbon. Maker’s is my go-to choice when I do, it has such a nice apple-pie flavor to it.Report
I.W. Harper.Report
I’ve an abundance of good Scotch after the holidays
Sounds like a complaint. If you need some help, just let me know. I’m always willing to do someone a good turn.Report
Then meet me at the Las Vegas Hilton, May 25-28, 2012.Report
Dammit! You’re cruel.Report
I never could drink scotch myself; however, kissing a man who just consumed scotch is sublime.Report
@Meaghan – That is the only reason for me caring at all about scotch.Report
To think I have been wasting so much precious time brushing my teeth all these years, when I could have been drinking scotch. Who knew?Report
What are you thinking? I thought I could trust your word.Report
Oddly enough, the Wife loves Maker’s Mark because she’s convinced it has a nice banana flavor to it (I don’t see this, either). We figured out that the reason for this has to do with the way her mother made Bananas Foster when she was a kid.
As a card-carrying Communist, I like neither apple pie nor Bananas Foster. Thankfully, Maker’s Mark tastes like neither to me, but instead tastes of caramel and cherries.Report
Is it possible that your wife is confusing “Makers Mark” with “Pina Colada?”Report
Definitely not. Her mother used to make bananas foster with bourbon instead of rum.Report
Maker’s Mark’s got some sweet notes to it. It is based on wheat, which produces sugary aromas.Report
I definitely get caramel and cherries. Here’s a fun thing a friend did last summer for a roof party (in DC, in August, which is roughly equivalent to drowning in air): he put some cherry syrup in Maker’s, then blended it with ice. It was the most delicious Slurpee in history, although I did quite literally sweat red for a day or two after (YMMV, I hope).Report
My ancestry goes back to coastal Virginia in the late 1600s. One of my ancestors was convicted of jury tampering. It seems he took the jurors out fishing and filled them with something called Cherry Bounce. They came back to court the next day, hung over and useless.Report
TOD I thought we had a understanding!Report