sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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- Aug 15, 2011
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Welcome to National Chocolate Day!
There is no better way to celebrate Halloween’s approaching than with a piece of chocolate. But just in case you need another excuse to try your favorite treat, it’s national chocolate day.
Chocolate can be used in almost any dessert. It can be enjoyed plain, mixed into your favorite cookie dough or glazed on top of a cake. While I always enjoy the way chocolate tastes, I never really think about how it’s made. Here are a few insights into how your chocolate bar makes it into your grocery store.
Chocolate 101:
- Cacao trees grow around the world in tropical areas. They grow pods, which contain about 20 to 40 cacao beans.
- The beans are removed from the pods, and then fermented in piles for about one week. This process allows for the beans to dry out and develop their color and flavor.
- The beans are then taken to the factory and roasted. Next, they are “hulled” by removing the outside shell from the inside of the bean called the “nib.”
- The nibs are then ground into a chocolate liquor. Then, the liquor (it’s not alcoholic) is pressed to remove the fat, called “cocoa butter,” and the residual powder is what is mixed in to create different kinds of chocolate.
- Depending on the kind of chocolate (milk, bittersweet, semisweet, etc.) cocoa butter, milk and sugar are added to the chocolate powder.
- White chocolate does not contain the chocolate powder that regular chocolate contains. It just contains cocoa butter, milk and sugar.
Syracuse Football Players Are Young, As is Scott Shafer (thejuice; Stechschulte)
One of the themes echoing in our ears about this Syracuse football team is that they are very young and inexperienced. The team had to replace eight defensive starters. Two calendar years ago, the top offensive skill position players were in high school.
The list of youth contributing on the roster goes on and on and much of that talent excites the fanbase… until it comes to wins and losses. Particularly losses.
When the Orange started with three straight wins, that fanbase was excited. Even when SU fell at home to LSU, but turned in a very competitive effort with former walk-on Zack Mahoney at quarterback, there was a lot of electricity surrounding the program.
Then, three straight losses short-circuited that electricity. The last two defeats were by a total of nine points, the former in triple overtime and the latter to a nationally-ranked, ACC Coastal Division-leading Pittsburgh team on a final play field goal.
And, now, the worm has turned enough in the fanbase that the hashtag #IStandWithShafer is a real thing.
So, why does head coach Scott Shafer need a hashtag to support him? I have no idea.
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SU Coach Scott Shafer Optimistic Despite Skid (idahostatement; Kekis)
Syracuse football coach Scott Shafer retains a steely resolve despite four straight losses and fans taking to social media to vent their frustrations.
The losing streak comes on the heels of a 3-0 start at home and Saturday's 23-20 loss in the Carrier Dome to then-No. 25 Pitt.
"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty," Shafer posted Tuesday on his Twitter account, quoting Winston Churchill and later crediting his wife, Missy, for passing along the phrase.
The Panthers, coached by Shafer's friend Pat Narduzzi, used a play that the Orange (3-4, 1-2 ACC) have employed with great success — the fake kick. Last year, Orange punter Riley Dixon threw for a game-winning touchdown off a fake field goal and also ran for 42 yards off a fake punt, and last month he converted a fourth-and-4 on a fake field goal run against then-No. 8 LSU in a 34-24 loss.
Pitt turned the tables after Narduzzi feigned disgust at an incompletion on a third-and-7 play. Punter Ryan Winslow then completed a 12-yard pass from near midfield to linebacker Matt Galambos for a first down as the Orange were caught focusing on getting a good return. That kept alive what turned into a 19-play drive that started inside the Pitt 10, took more than nine minutes off the clock and ended with Chris Blewitt's 25-yard field goal as time expired.
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Jimbo Fisher Press Conference Recap: Syracuse Week (tomahawknation.com; Miller)
The press conference was much more focused on correcting the mistakes Florida State made in their game against Georgia Tech. Here's what we learned:
1. The defense is playing to Jimbo FIsher's standard.
Multiple times during the press conference, coach Fisher said he was very pleased with how the defense played both against Georgia Tech, and the season to date. He spoke about Josh Sweat and Jacob Pugh saying, "(Sweat), Pugh, thats' a great group right there. A couple of times he was trying too much, he just keeps evolving as a great player." The Noles enter Syracuse ranked 27th in total defense.
2. Florida State was prepared for a blocked kick return.
In practice, Fisher said they practiced a lot for a situation that ended the game. He attributed the problem to a low kick by Roberto Aguayo and the fact that the team had trouble finding the ball. Ryan Izzo and Giorgio Newberry were set up on the outsides specifically because of their long arms to tackle a retuner, but once they got around both of them, the returner only had two kickers to beat, which he did.
3. Expect to see a lot more of Javien Elliot going forward.
Elliot was praised many times for his play in Atlanta, and Fisher said, "I feel good about him playing," when asked about his potential participation in future games. FIsher said about the former walk-on's performance against Georgia Tech, "I Thought he played well, I thought he played a nice game, he was efficient." With the unknown injury toTyler Hunter, it may open up the senior to potential start in games down the road.
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Niko Tamurian Interview with Donovan McNabb (cnycentral.com; Tamurian)
Donovan McNabb is back in Central New York.
McNabb is in town to speak with insurance agents in the area and opened up about all subjects.
Even before our interview McNabb addressed his recent DUI arrests, saying "everybody makes mistakes".
McNabb says he plans on using his mistakes as a teaching point, to help others realize that it's not worth it to drink and drive.
"Do I have a problem? Absolutely not." McNabb told several reporters before our interview.
Back to SU Football, a subject Donovan keeps close tabs on, he thinks the Orange is very close.
McNabb even goes as far as to say that "in another year or two, we could be the Syracuse of old again".
To watch my entire interview with Donovan, click the play button.
Other
How the Gear Factory Will Look After Renovation
The Gear Factory: New Windows, Bright Sunlight, The Ghost of Albert Kahn (PS; Kirst)
Maybe it was the building, the shadows, the wind that blew unhindered through many openings. Whatever the reason, it was easy to believe in ghosts last Sunday at the Gear Factory - or at least in one famous ghost in particular - as Pete Oster stood on the interior side of a cinderblock wall, holding a 4-pound chisel and a mallet ...
And block by block the wall fell, until again there was a window.
Rick Destito's $1.4 million restoration of the Gear Factory is fully underway, on South Geddes Street in Syracuse. What that means, most dramatically, is that about 120 windows, most of them 14-feet wide or larger - windows blocked off for decades by cinderblocks - will again be open to city sunlight, thus returning them to the prominent function envisioned by their designer, renowned architect Albert Kahn.
It was Kahn whose presence seemed palpable in the chilly building, as Oster and other workers from the Syracuse Haulers -, a subcontractor for R.F. Esposito Inc. - knocked down those blocks. Kahn was a nationally famous architect from Detroit when the Brown-Lipe company, a maker of gears, brought him to Syracuse in the early 1900s to design a factory.
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