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Why don't people chill red wines? It's all about tannins, Oldman says, which come from grape skins and seeds. They're used in the making of red wine but not white. Tannins are often described as tasting bitter and puckery (they're also why strong black tea can taste astringent), and cooler temperatures make them more prominent. But light reds have imperceptible tannin levels, so chilling those varieties isn't a problem. In fact, doing so will make the wine taste more refreshing and will help "focus" its flavor. It will also make it taste less alcoholic, or "hot," in winespeak.
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Today, the insightful and inspiring Patchett steps off the page to explain to Life Lift about her personal struggle with a little old two-letter, one-syllable word. How exactly do we know when to (politely) say no—not just in our work or other commitments but also with the people we love? Patchett's answer to that very question is a tad surprising. Hint: It involves a piece of pocked, gray stone, a gift from Elizabeth Gilbert and various kitchen appliances.
Read the full article here
Photo: Melissa Ann Pinney
 | It is ... only kindness that raises its head / from the crowd of the world to say / it is I you have been looking for, / and then goes with you everywhere / like a shadow or a friend. — Naomi Shihab Nye from "Kindness" |  |
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The Internet may be worshipped for all of the following things: crowd wisdom, missed connections, videos of baby elephants in a baby pool...none of them are what this stop-everything-and-watch-now talk, given by Web pioneer Jim Gilliam, is about. Gilliam went to college as a born-again Christian who had an affinity for computer programming. But, by his first spring break, he couldn't breathe. Not in a metaphorical way; he wasn't anxious. Gilliam had cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He told his story—how he fought the cancer, twice, and found a network of activists through his work—this week at Personal Democracy Forum. There was a standing ovation, and (warning) tears. So, just press play for a reminder of what having faith really means. After watching, we've only got one more thing to say: amen.
(via The Hairpin)
When it comes to listening to the issues of the people we
care about, we so often try to say the right thing and end up saying the wrong
thing. Or we worry that we're going to say the wrong thing, and say nothing
(my specialty). But those days are now at an end. I'm just going to slap a
magnet on everybody in the world, regardless of whether I know what his or her problems are:
A friend of mine recently handed me one of these. I hugged him so hard his head went wobbly. Then I said, "Can you give me nine more?"
"It's a magnet," he said. "How many refrigerators do you have?"
I said, "I'm at a point where I need to stick these puppies up even places they don't actually stick."
Back at home, with the help of Scotch tape, I posted them in every place in my house where I need the Invisible God of Encouragement to tell me that I wasn't alone and that I could, if I reached deep, keep going. Yes, I could make some kind of gluey pasta dinner (forgot to defrost the chicken) while hard-boiling eggs for tomorrow's lunch (husband ate the lunch meat) while sitting on hold with computer support (screen went black) while watching my 5-year-old try to dry his sopping wet sneakers (failed to buy a backup pair even though his school has a tennis-shoes-only policy) with a tiny plastic fan that is supposed to blow bubbles out of his bubble-making water gun.
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Snap quiz: Your friend tells you she's participating in a fundraiser and asks you to donate money to her cause. You've got the funds, and you adore the friend. In which situation would you be more likely to pony up?
(a) Your friend is training for her first marathon with a group that raises money for cancer research.
(b) Your friend is hosting a masquerade charity ball to raise money for a children's after-school program.
[Find out which option most people choose, after the jump.]
As Charity Ferreira's article in O magazine's June issue shows, making Popsicles at home—rocket-shaped or otherwise—isn't rocket science. Still, Oprah.com editor Leigh Newman hit a few snafus when she tried making pops recently. Ferreira came to the rescue.
Q: Leigh had some trouble removing the pops from their
molds, even when she rinsed them under warm water. Any advice?
A: Running the outsides of the molds under warm running water should be enough to get the pops out of their molds—but it may take up to a half minute or so. The other option, if you want to unmold all the pops at once, is to fill a bowl with hot water and submerge the pop molds to just below their tops (so that water doesn't run into the pop itself). Let them sit for 30 seconds, and then check to see if the pops slide out easily.
Last week, we started our weekly public gratitude journal here on Life Lift, and even though we're not sure how seven days just flew by, it's that time again. Today, we're feeling happy about...
- The toddler who's got Glee's "Teenage Dream" performance down pat. Don't even get us started on the outfit...
- Textify.it: An idiot-proof app that turns anyone into an impressionist painter, using text (via Kottke.org)
- This summer's first 3-D see-it-in-the-cinema movie because it's about line drawings in a 32,000-year-old cave
- Real, unstoppable, gushing love for one person (in this case, Meredith Vieira leaving Today) complete with T-shirts and "Don't Stop Believin'" (via Today)
- Knowing that we each love at least one person so much that we would make her a T-shirt like that too
| Photo: Thinkstock |
Two weeks ago, it was my birthday. In a stroke of marital genius, my husband presented me with a large box containing an iPad, knowing that not only would I love the iPad, I would be so busy streaming videos that I would forget the kitten that I had asked for—and the stinky litter box that would have come with it.
Then we drove to the beach. He casually asked, as if the idea had just occurred to him, to use the iPad to check traffic patterns. Wait a minute! He had a bought the iPad for him via me! It was a freeloader gift, not unlike giving somebody a blender so they can make you smoothies every morning!
Or was it? I thought, watching him zip his index finger over the various electronic maps of Long Island. From now on, we would drive around the world, minus the depressing, stereotypical yet inevitable ask-for-directions fight or the fight about whether or not we had time for me to stop and use the bathroom in Hardee's. The iPad was a gift for me and us. It was the gift of being quiet, while listening to the radio.
So I stole his idea. Father's Day is coming up and I'm going to give him something that's good for him and us, books that will help us argue a little less and understand each other a lot more.
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