On New Year’s Eve, two friends of mine and I sat around tweaking with our new electronic gifts.  J. had his new boom box, which he was playing downloaded pop songs from; and M. had his ipod, which had recently-loaded Beatles songs on it. As we dabbled in special foods we had made that day and indulged in nice wines, we took turns listening to select Beatles songs from the ipod, intermittently enjoying the Christmas and other songs playing through the room.  There was something like a parallel universe about it, something Déjà vu, something nostalgic and powerful and profound about listening to my teenaged favorites like “Paperback Writer” (”Dear Sir or Madam will you read my book/It took me years to write, will you take a look?”) and “Ruby Tuesday” (”Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday/Who could hang a name on you?”)  and “Come Together” (”He say I know you, you know me/One thing I can tell you is/You got to be free/Come together, right now/Over me”) and “Eleanor Rigby” (”Eleanor Rigby, picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been/Lives in a dream/Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door/Who is it for?/

All the lonely people/Where do they all come from?/All the lonely people/Where do they all belong?”)

But more, Beatles songs recall history, individual pieces earmarking select moments or impacting events.  And Beatles songs, at the same time, remind of us what we no longer have, who we are no longer blessed with.  On September 12, 2001, on the early morning commute show, stations were playing select Beatles songs, those done by the brilliant soloists (after the Beatles split), specifically, John Lennon’s “Imagine”:  “…You may say I’m a dreamer/But I’m not the only one.  I hope someday you’ll join us/and the world will live as one.”

The Beatles’ songs are mouthpieces for a generation, for many generations.  (Notice how kids today will take to Beatles songs as if they were NOT old fogy music, as if the Beatles were jamming now, and not over 45 years ago-on 45s, at that?)  The Beatles’ songs are testimony and testament to great movements (of course “Revolution” comes to mind”.  Beatles songs are reminders of who we were, how many brilliant minds we had access to (and still do, thankfully), why we listen to works about, think about, and write about the spiritual and heartfelt responses to cultures and their values and actions.

The Beatles’ songs are, it sometimes seems, all we have left.

Most of us use the standard automatic coffee maker to brew all of our coffee. However, you may have heard of the French press, a manual coffee brewing system, hailed by coffee gourmet folks to be the only way to make a proper cup of coffee. A coffee press? What’s that? How do you use a coffee press? Does it really make such a superior cup to make the effort worthwhile? Here we answer these questions and show you how to use a coffee press. Perhaps you’ll become a convert.

The traditional French coffee press is used in cafes and bistros throughout France. The coffee press comes in several sizes, is made of Pyrex, with a pouring spout and has two stainless steel bands fixed to the outside of the tall glass cylinder at top and bottom, from which a large handle protrudes. The press consists of a stainless steel stem, with a round fine screen, surrounded by coiled wire around the edges which fits tightly against the edges of the pot. The top of the press, at the other end of the pressing stem, holds the lid, made of two pieces of heat-resistant plastic. The outer plastic rim serves as a guide to keep the press screen in a perfectly straight line going down the cylinder when you use a coffee press.

So, how do you use a coffee press? Your water must be boiled separately. For a four cup pot, just three heaping tablespoons makes a rich pot of robust coffee. Spoon the coffee in to the French Press. The water should be at a boil when you pour it into the pot. Take care that the water is poured slowly and evenly over the coffee grounds, beginning at the edge of the pot and working your way to the center. Be sure that all of the coffee grounds are submerged, with no floating clumps of grounds. Pour the water to within 2 inches of the spout. Allow the pot to sit, without stirring, for about two minutes. This allows the full flavor of the coffee to be extracted from the water before you use a coffee press to finish the extraction.

Here’s where you need to be careful. Seat the screen of the press at the top of the pot and press down gently, with a firm hold on the pot’s handle, in an easy, circular motion, until the screen is submerged. If you’re too heavy-handed, the pot may tip over and make quite a mess. (This process becomes second nature after just  the first few times you use a coffee press.) When the screen is submerged below the brew by just a couple of inches, seat the outer band of the lid on top of the pot. This ensures that the screen goes down to the bottom in a straight line, preventing coffee grounds escaping into the brew from the sides of the screen. Depending on the fineness of your grind, it may take some strength to push the press to the bottom. When you’re done, the inner portion of the lid will fit perfectly inside the outer band of the lid. You’re ready to pour out a delightful cup of Joe.

When you use a coffee press, you may want to take advantage of one last tip. For an absolutely clear brew, place a coffee filter beneath the screen before you start to press. This guarantees that no grounds escape into the coffee, no matter how fine a grind you’re using.

As for taste, a French press produces the best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted!

For the very best cup of coffee, step up to whole beans, freshly ground in a coffee grinder!

Americans love their coffee. Some of us drink it morning, noon and night. If you now use commercially produced coffee which is already ground, there are a number of coffee manufacturers which make a more than acceptable brew for everyday use. The small growers are impinging on their market, with organically grown varieties of Arabica beans in small, 12-ounce bags of superior grades of coffee.

Now, you’ll see that the major coffee companies are introducing their jugs of ground coffee, made of 100% Arabica beans, just in order to regain their edge in the market. Coffee is big business and consumers are beginning to appreciate the flavor and aroma of the smaller grower’s offerings. Yes, they are a little more expensive, but make a nice weekend treat. However, there is a way to enjoy this special treat on a daily basis. From stage left, enters the coffee grinder.

No matter how small your home town, chances are you have a local coffee shop which sells whole coffee beans. Some shops roast their own green coffee beans, providing the very freshest product you can find. You’d be amazed at the difference between a commercial ground coffee in a vacuum sealed container and freshly roasted beans. Even in a vacuum sealed container, much of the original robust flavor and aroma are lost in the process of roasting, grinding, packaging and transportation time required before that coffee end up in your coffee maker. No matter how good the beans were to begin with, the essential oils evaporate in all of this processing, resulting in a subsequent loss of flavor. Let’s see what goes into the perfect cup of coffee. The coffee grinder plays an essential role.

1.Find a coffee shop which roasts their own beans in house. With coffee, time is of the essence. Buy a pound of these freshly roasted beans and a coffee grinder. You can purchase a good electric grinder for about $20. A coffee grinder will last for years, so it’s really a small investment in your favorite daily beverage.

2.Store the coffee beans in the freezer, with the bag folded shut tightly, with as little air remaining in the bag as possible. This prevents the loss of those essential oils, which are at the heart of a superior cup of coffee.

3.When you’re ready to brew, fill the grinder to the rim with the beans. Put the lid on the coffee grinder and press down with a pulsating motion, a couple of seconds on and then off. You’ll be able to see through the clear lid of the grinder to approximate the fineness of the grind. It takes but a few seconds to grind the coffee. The amount of beans that will fit in the bowl of the grinder should be enough to make 4-6 cups, according to your preference.

4.Pour the ground coffee into the basket of your coffee maker and brew. Fabulous!

To clean the grinder, all it takes is a single paper towel to wipe it out. It’s all ready to go for your next pot. The only caveat? Don’t use your coffee grinder for any other purpose, such as grinding herbs. Even though the bowl of the grinder is typically of stainless steel, it will pick up the flavor of other foods.

Freshly roasted coffee beans, stored airtight in the freezer and freshly ground for each pot is the perfect recipe for the very best cup of coffee you’ve ever had!

The Acura is known as one of those cars that is highly customizable.  You’ve seen them in some horrible movies like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, and a host of others.  They’re featured in trade magazines, hip-hop videos, various MTV programs and just about every other media venue that can market cheap crap to suceptible, credit-laden audiences.  Why such a medocre car has gained such an intense and devoted following is really beyond comprehension, but it’s a fact of life at this point.

Acura auto parts are easy to come by as a result of that devoted following.  There’s a whole cottage industry online - search the term and you’ll come up with something north of 1.2 million hits.  You can find anything from new headlights to new door handles, hoods, side panels… you name it, you can find it.

Of course, online isn’t the only place to find Acura auto parts.  Most local junkyards have a surfeit of spare parts.  Whether or not they’re legally obtained, though… that’s another thing all together.  Here in New York City Acuras are one of the most often-targeted cars for theft.  They’re then stripped down to the frame and the parts are sold individually at junkyards.  Flushing, Queens is notorious for junkyards that specialize in stripped parts, and the city has made some efforts to shut down these operations.  Right now most cases are still being tried with no immediate end in sight, but at least an effort is being made.

The funny thing about Acura is that it’s a brand owned by Honda that’s not even sold in Japan.  Acuras are basically the same cars as certain Honda models, but with a significant mark-up.  They’re sold in the US primarily to compete with the likes of Buick and Infinity, and the US market has been kind to the brand.  There’s a certain amount of “label” cache that goes with owning an Acura, which accounts for the cost differential.  The same car, with a Honda name, will run you five-thousand to ten-thousand dollars less.  Some folks obviously think the extra cash is worth it, though, for the “prestige” of owning the Acura.

Obviously, Acura auto parts see a similar price bump even though Honda auto parts work just as well in 95% of the instances.  Of course, most Acura modifications are purely aesthetic rather than performance or safety-driven, so it makes sense that most of the Acura auto parts you’ll find for sale are the ones that give the biggest aesthetic shift.  Headlights are the perfect example - folks will pay a premium for headlights that work no better than stock, all because they look slightly different.

It’s a crazy, crazy thing to the uninitiated, and I still can’t really wrap my head around it.

Back when I was in high school, I took a trip to Rome with my Latin class. The excursion lasted only four days, and served to whet my appetite for seeing more of that city as well as other capitals in Europe. I had hoped to return during or immediately after college in order to go backpacking for a few months, but unfortunately that idea never panned out. But now, a full 15 years later, I’m finally in a position to head back overseas. All I have to do is find a good European vacation package, and I’ll be jetting off in no time.

First of all, since I’m no longer a college student, I’m not too keen on traveling through Europe with nothing but a backpack. And staying at hostels is absolutely out of the question, as I certainly don’t feel like sharing accommodations with rowdy teens. So the European vacation package I end up buying will definitely be different from the one I envisioned all those years ago, but the goal remains the same. I still want to see all the amazing sights in historic cities like London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, and, yes, Rome once again.

I plan on spending anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks traveling, which means I have a lot of preparatory work to do. I want to have most of my itinerary set up by the time I depart so that when I’m in Europe I don’t have to worry about making additional arrangements. That means my European vacation package will have to include airfare, hotel, and transport on the continent. This initially seemed like a tall order, but once I started looking at various packages online, I saw that it would actually be pretty easy to come up with one that suited my needs.

There are a lot of online travel agencies that are willing to work with customers to craft a custom European vacation package. I have contacted a few of these places to set forth my wish list for my upcoming trip, and to see what the agents could do for me in terms of putting together a workable itinerary at a decent price. Thus far, all of the travel companies have been terrific. They’ve each come up with several different scenarios for my holiday, and have shown me how I can save money by shuffling the order in which I visit certain cities, changing my hotel preferences, and departing or arriving on certain days. So now I just have to choose the European vacation package that features the right combination of perks and price, and I’ll be all set.

Spending more than a month traveling around Europe to visit all the major cities sounds like something that would require a lot of work to pull off. But the process actually hasn’t been too terribly taxing. All that’s left to do is choose the European vacation package I like best and then start packing my bags!