Adventures in tea: Lapsang Souchong

(following up slowly on the initial post)

 

Lapsang Souchong from VT Tea and Trading Co is bin #325 in City Market's bulk section.  It is a type of black tea; what differentiates it from other black teas is that during the drying process it is smoked on a pinewood fire.

The batch I had was strongly piney, though Sarahmac declared it "smelled like bacon".  I enjoyed it for a week, but probably will not have it again anytime soon.

Adventures in tea

A long time ago, probably in grad school, I became a regular tea drinker.  I hadn't acquired a taste for coffee, but tea was a good way to take a quick break from work, have a sociable hot drink, and get a little caffeinated.  After trying several teas, I settled on the Twinings Earl Grey as my favorite, and mostly drunk different brands of Earl Grey since (mostly the VT Tea and Trading Company, which is what's in the bulk section at City Market).  For a while I would alternate with Gunpowder Green tea on days when two pots of tea were needed (often in the winter), then switched to making an herbal tea for the afternoon pot so I wouldn't be up all night, then switched to making two pots of Earl Grey.  This past winter I was often making three pots of Earl Grey a day, and it started to get monotonous, so it was time to mix things up a little.  Over time, I'll jot down some notes about the teas.

A few years ago, a catalog from Upton tea had this nice explainer on the general types of tea.  There are then, of course, many varieties within these general types.  I tend to prefer black and white teas; we'll see what else the bulk section has to offer!

Jonny Wanzer's "The Trial of Sarah George"

 Jonny Wanzer burst onto the local social media scene 5 years ago with very short (1-few minute) videos poking at local problems. That evolved into 5-10 minute videos that started to include more research into the piece.

This is a beast at 2h. Wanzer takes us through the entire process of creating the video and the emotional and social toll it took to produce it. I already knew who Sarah George is, since VTDigger has been covering her since 2017, but this was still an interesting watch. I hope that it reaches folks who otherwise only know about George from comments on social media.

The importance of not knowing what the Emperor could do in 1983

 ... or, happy Star Wars Day 2025?

<<Star Wars spoilers below>>

In 1980, The Empire Strikes Back loosed Darth Vader from Tarkin's leash, and while he ran rampant across the galaxy, he was still beholden to the Emperor.  Despite a brief mention in Star Wars and a short conversation with Vader in Empire, in 1983 the Emperor was still a cipher.  Was his power mostly political, or did he have powers like those of a Jedi?  (*probably* latter, because the conversation in Empire strongly suggests that he can sense disturbances in the Force) 

Not knowing is key to enjoying the best throughline of Return of the Jedi: the looming second confrontation between Luke and Vader, the Emperor's and Vader's attempt to turn Luke to the Dark Side, and Luke's victory.

Our appetite is whet by Vader's arrival on the second Death Star.  The Imperial in charge of construction is willing to complain that the timelines are unreasonable to *Vader*, you know, the guy who spent the last movie choking out everyone who crossed him, but when Vader invokes the Emperor, he is quickly cowed.  So the Emperor inspires an extra level of fear!

The arrival of the Emperor (*just* "the Emperor", for he is never named Palpatine in the original films) shows us a wrinkly old man leaning on a cane.  How dangerous could he be?  Then again, Yoda was a wrinkly old guy leaning on a cane...

Over a few scenes, it becomes more clear that the Emperor is indeed sensitive to the Force, and he interrogates Vader on whether his "feelings" on the matter are clear, after Vader reveals he sensed Luke on the mission to Endor.  

Luke turns himself in to Vader, who has gone from offering Luke to "rule the galaxy as father and son" to "I must obey my master."  We're left wondering, what kind of hold does the Emperor have on Vader?

Then in the throne room, the Emperor finally shows he has telekinetic force powers by unlocking Luke's shackles with a wave of his hand!  Throughout the following encounter, the Emperor needles Luke until he can bait him into a duel with Vader.  Vader successfully tempts Luke towards the Dark Side and then... then Luke throws away his lightsaber.  It is the most heroic action of the series.  The Emperor has failed, and he will not get a new acolyte.  What will he do?  What can he do?  "So be it, Jedi," he spits contemptuously.  And then the scene cuts away.

When we return, the Emperor approaches menacingly.  "If you will not be turned, then you will be destroyed!"  And the lightning flies out of his fingertips.  The theater was shook.  We had never seen anything like this before.

While I appreciate that Rod Hilton has given this serious thought and agrees it is the greatest flaw of his "Machete Order" for viewing the Star Wars series, I have to respectfully disagree with choosing a better "twins reveal" over "what the Emperor can do reveal".  Machete Order sounds great on a rewatch.

Lines; Sung J. Woo; 2024

Sung J. Woo's Lines begins as a Sliding Doors-style story and follows the trope of showing us two very different paths that a couple's relationship takes after they literally collide in Washington Park, or have a near miss.

What Sung does so beautifully is that the two paths of the relationship are not different purely because of some mechanistic reason (e.g., like in the movie, catching the train leads to finding your husband is cheating); instead he taps an essential truth of human relationships.  I am afraid to spoil anything further, will stop there, and simply recommend reading.

What Grows From the Dead; Dave Dobson; 2024

Note: this was actually published on 4/6/25; I backdated to 3/24/25, when I finished the book 

This is a short recommendation for friend Dave Dobson's What Grows from the Dead.  In the author's note Dave says his premise with the novel was to "merely start him out about as low as he thought he could possibly be, and then to start to make things worse for him."  Bujoldian in approach and tone!  Things are grim, but never grimdark, in this thriller / mystery / crime(?) novel set in modern day western NC.

Annual Average Temperatures in Burlington

It's the start of another year in Burlington with no snow on the ground and none forecast in the near future.  NOAA provides a ton of weather data and so I downloaded some Burlington, VT weather data in CSV format.  The data I used comes from two stations, one for measurement prior to 1940, and data from the Burlington International Airport since 1940.

A quick scatterplot shows the average temperature in degrees Fahrenheit by year.  The years start with 1902 and go to present day.  The average yearly temperature ranges from about 42 to 50.  Obviously, average daily temperatures for individual days within every year have a much wider range; looking at the average yearly temperature is a useful first look at long-term trends.  Just by eyeballing, it certainly looks like there is a decades-long upward trend from the 60's to today, and a typical day in 2020 is 8 degrees warmer than a typical day in 1960.  That could easily be the difference between a January with snow cover and a January with bare ground.  

Fitting a best-fit line to the data helps us to see that long-term upward trend: 

... though a quick examination of the residuals confirms that the straight line is not a great model here.

A third-order polynomial does a much better job of capturing the initial stability, followed by an upward rise in temperatures.  A piecewise spline might be even better, but this is enough for a first quick look.  

Next steps might be to look at how the temperatures change over time for each day of the year, or look at the snow depth data.