iainhp - I didn't mean to come down that hard in my post, but it really irks me when people make such ridiculous comments about the US. That man's statement reminds me of the whiners who are upset over the US's "treatment" of the detainees in Cuba. You know, the ones who are being held for no good reason. I wish people would think a little - like the US government has nothing better to do than hold those particular Muslims for no good reason.

Penny - See, I am a good American! We just don't happen to agree on CEO salaries. If we could stay away from that topic, I bet you and I would be best friends.

Derick

[ March 15, 2002: Message edited by: Derick ]

Go Derick! No need to sit on those hands, give 'em some of that digital communication. I would.

Well, we both share a love of chocolate and pianos! So there is an excellent beginning. And I even agree with you that there are some outrageous bonus packages for CEOs who deserve it, believe it or not. But I'm not sure government intervention is the way to go. Active shareholder participation seems like the "obvious" choice for me.

So which half of the best-friends charm do you want???

penny

Penny,

Yes, be both love chocolate and pianos and you agree with me that there are some outrageous bonus packages for CEOs who don't deserve it! We have to discuss different philosophies on how to make sure such inequities don't happen.

In the meantime, how 'bout we share a box of See's chocolates. Have you had them? They are from San Francisco (near you?). My mother-in-law sent us a box for Christmas. SWMBO hides them from me and doles me out 1 piece on Sunday. I could easily eat the whole box in 15 minutes. Anyway, I thought it was fantastic chocolate when I first had it, but had never heard of it. In the January edition of Consumer Reports they rated it "A Best Buy" and ranked it very near the $60/box chocolates. See's is only $12/box.

I get first dibs on the dark chocolates ones!

Derick

No way! Dark chocolate is the ONLY chocolate for me! See's is OK. I like their truffles. I'm really liking Scharfen-Berger these days. It's also from the Bay Area. I don't know why such great chocolate comes from San Francisco area (Guittard's, Giradheli). Here's a really interesting article from today's LA Times about chocolate:


article here

Enjoy!
penny

Penny,

Interesting article. But I see I'm going to have to fight you for those dark chocolates!
Anyway, do you have any suggestions as to who makes the best dark chocolates with liquor in them? Those are my favorites, particularly with Schnops in them. I'm not happy with any I've tried in the NY area.

Thanks,
Derick

Well the kids finally let me on the internet but my brain is on a "go slow" so won't pick up the discussion I left off on Friday.

Saturday's paper had a good Dilbert.

Ever wonder why the British call it chocolate and milk chocolate instead of chocolate and dark chocolate? I assume because they consider dark chocolate (which they call chocolate) to be normal and milk chocolate to be watered down? Cadbury's Bourneville is my favourite.

You can make your own chocolate liquors. Buy a jar of marachino cherries, empty out the liquid, replace with the liquor of your own choice. Let marinade for about a month in the back of your refrigerator. Melt your favourite chocolate and dip the cherries into it and let cool. And voila!

Derick,
The best liquor-filled chocolates I've ever had come from Russia. Don't know where we can get them here. Will do some research! But if you're in New York, there's got to be an immigrant importing them, don't you think?

Russia makes wonderful dark chocolate. Russian chocolate must have the red dome with Russia written on it in cyrillic to be true Russian chocolate (some Swiss and German chocolatiers put pictures of Moscow and other Russian locales on their boxes to full ya!).

I wish I could import the Russia chocolate here. They'd make a fortune. I could even become the CEO of a big company!

penny

Mmmm, chocolate. Penny, you and I are of one mind when it comes to chocolate. Scharffenberger (sp?) is the best American chocolate I've found. In July, when the real strawberries ripen, we like to dip them in the dark chocolate.
Why is it that it's so tough to find good chocolate in the U.S.? Last time I was in Germany on a business trip, I went to the supermarket and just filled my cart with a suitcase full of chocolate and chocolate biscuits (I had to fed ex all my paperwork back to the office to make room in my suitcase). What is standard fare in Europe, is exceptional fare here.