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Rich's Journal: Adventures with Life and Sharp things

Preliminary cooking for Thanksgiving began this morning with making starter stock and making room in the fridge (although I’ve been known to use the garage as a walk-in) Kroger looked like the aftermath of food riots when we went to pick up a couple of sundries and came up empty. What kind of cataclysm causes a full line store to run out of celery or milk?! But these enormous Pringles cans were in full supply.


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Thinking about how our soldiers ate in the field in 1775, particularly in the wake of our Thanksgiving feasts last week. George Washington instituted the first of the official thanksgivings in 1789 as the last Thursday of November but its unclear how widespread it got implemented. It became an official holiday under Abe Lincoln in 1863 and Thanksgiving as we now know it was established in 1941 after President Roosevelt disastrously tried to change it to the 2nd to last Thursday in 1939. It is now the 4th Thursday in November. Haarumph!

Revolutionary army rations in 1775 was pretty simple: 1 pound of meat (unspecified) or 3/4 pound salted pork and 1 pound of bread, navy bread, or flour per day. And 3 pints of dry beans, peas, barley per week. Vegetables as they were available, meant that deep in winter malnutrition despite plenty of bulk was possible. Root vegetables, and commonly available foods were low in vitamin c, raising issues of scurvy which occurred in the winter of 1777. (I actually found quite a bit on this on the interwebs)

Started a shave with a quite old Klas Tornblom frameback razor but had to bail as its edge was simply not ready for shaving. Finished with my Blackland Vector to a near BBS with CBL’s Dragons Blood. I really like Dragons Blood in the winter.

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It should be noted that Washington was quite the drinker....and while his average foot solider probably didn't get to enjoy too much of it at valley forge...I'm sure Washington's officers were well and truly pickled before dawn.
 
heysi said:
It should be noted that Washington was quite the drinker....and while his average foot solider probably didn't get to enjoy too much of it at valley forge...I'm sure Washington's officers were well and truly pickled before dawn.
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Yes! You can still get some of his stuff from a working distillery on the mount vernon property

 
On December 5th 1791 with no fanfare nor media storm, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart passed away after a period of ill health. Studying a bit about 18th century life I wondered if he was like a rock star of the era. I contend that while locally popular at the time, he really didn’t enter starhood til after his passing. His Opera “The Magic Flute” had opened in Vienna to public acclaim, and certainly had people humming tunes from it. And that’s how music popularity spread in those days. He just didn’t get much playtime on local radio. 😝
Today I used a razor that while great I don’t think gets much acclaim now after they are out of production. That would be my Occams Razor. Their very name a play on words, this admittedly homely razor is capable of great shaves, and teamed with Stirling Green provided an excellent shave.

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Majorrich said:
Today I used a razor that while great I don’t think gets much acclaim now after they are out of production. That would be my Occams Razor. Their very name a play on words, this admittedly homely razor is capable of great shaves, and teamed with Stirling Green provided an excellent shave.
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Is this a Bullwinkle, or another kind from Occam?
 
I received half a months web content in the mail today!
Sometimes, the challenge of finding content for my shave vlog can be daunting. Well, thanks to Phoenix Shaving for coming to the rescue with their annual Advent calander sampler! 12 surprise samples from their soap line past, present, and future! It will take some discipline to keep from peeking!
Now, admittedly, these aren’t likely to replace my top shelf soaps or frags, but sometimes an influx of new soaps is a welcome thing. And shaking things up in my routine (like daily shaving) can be a motivator! We shall see starting in a week or so. Watch for it!


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These are surprisingly still up on the web page! If you want to try it, I’d get on it quick! They appeared early on black Friday
 
Today was an excellent shave with proven components. Feather AC/SS and Barrister and Mann’s Vespers. Can’t go wrong (save for a sudden sneeze, but that didn’t happen)
Not a huge pile of history, but three separate highlights come to mind. Abraham Lincoln issued his amnesty decree to facilitate reconciliation after the Civil war. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signed a medium range nuclear arms agreement. And former Beatle John Lennon was assassinated outside his home.
AI seems to have forgotten what I look like, so I guess I am now the random white guy yucking it up with Abe and the gang.

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Today we open the first cell in the Phoenix Shaving Advent Calendar. Cell 1 contained Sweet Potato Pie shave soap. its pretty heavily scented so as to even penetrate the most congested of sinus'. it smells of... you guessed it, Sweet Potato Pie. Cinnamon and spices which I take to be something like pumpkin pie spice or similar and marshmallows. The soap lathers readily and provides pretty good cushion for shaving. I used a Feather AC/SS with a Protouch blade to good effect. It rinses a bit too cleanly for my tastes, as soon as water runs across it, all slickness disappears so pretty much no post-shave slickness. Its almost a bit grippy. It is a vegetable based soap so perhaps it has something to do with that.
For the first one out of the box, I'm pleased with the novelty and "interestingness" of this fragrance. I look forward to tomorrows surprise.

*whoops* i added this entry from my laptop which doesn't share pictures with the ipad nor the phone. Ill have to add those later.


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Today the soap was “Rum and Crumb” a bay rum and carrot cake mashup. Upon seeing it I was first thinking it would be quite similar to yesterdays “Sweet Potato Pie” but on lathering I was delighted to see it was way different despite the baking spices. Same characteristics as before. Same very quick rinse. I’m still not sure how I feel about that feature. I do notice the soap dissolves super quickly on initial wetting in the bowl ant it’s a good feature. I suspect these features are related. Two passes with a long handle super adjustable gave a very close shave, owing in no small part to switching to daily shaving. It’s also kind of fun seeking out other guys who are doing these same soaps. I’m observing some differences in video production which I am digesting.

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Truth be told I am instituting a little different production schedule for these shaves. Recording them a day ahead relieves a ton of stress and a certain pressure for content. I still post them as before, and I’m still allowing for the surprise on opening, and not posting spoiler material. I hope that doesn’t diminish your enjoyment of the videos.

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Today’s installation of the “twelve shaves of Christmas” is with a soap called “Frosted Planet” a fairly complex (comparatively) of Nutmeg, peppercorn, cream, cardamom, ginger, tonka, chestnut, and wood.
Well, I guess…
My nose isn’t very sophisticated. It runs constantly, and isn’t particularly sensitive. And this one didn’t particularly ring my chimes. Other guys doing these same soaps call it a “gourmand”, a new word that I wrote down and had to refer back to my notes to even include in my journal. But this, the sweet-tater pie, and to some degree the crumb and cake have all had this word attributed to them. I don’t know, just didn’t feel it. The soap itself performed as before. I think it’s baked in to the formula. But th3 Blackland Vector still came in and gave a great shave.

I know there are going to be fragrances in this set that I either don’t get, or even dislike. This is only the third one, so I’ll just keep being to myself.

These labels are terrific! I’m getting a kick out of them.

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Today’s soap was “Cucumber Fumbler” whi smelled like, uh, Cucumber. Performance was as before. The KIKUBOSHI severed whisker as it should be legendary for doing so, and the fragrance lingered for about 20 minutes. I reckon this might be a refreshing summer fragrance, but it’s just not one that I think I’d be reaching for. I did some research on how cucumber fragrances are made, and if they are natural or synthetic. It appears cucumbers don’t have much in the way of essential oils to make a fragrance oil. Given that, I presume it’s a good chance that most cucumber frags are probably synthetic. Good shave, not feeling this frag.
The label art is pretty good though.

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Majorrich said:
Today’s soap was “Cucumber Fumbler” whi smelled like, uh, Cucumber. Performance was as before. The KIKUBOSHI severed whisker as it should be legendary for doing so, and the fragrance lingered for about 20 minutes. I reckon this might be a refreshing summer fragrance, but it’s just not one that I think I’d be reaching for. I did some research on how cucumber fragrances are made, and if they are natural or synthetic. It appears cucumbers don’t have much in the way of essential oils to make a fragrance oil. Given that, I presume it’s a good chance that most cucumber frags are probably synthetic. Good shave, not feeling this frag.
The label art is pretty good though.

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I use Thayers Cucumber and enjoy the scent, but it dissipates quickly.
 
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