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The Magazine
The Cocktail Renaissance
Aug 3, 2009, Vol. 14, No. 43 • By ROBERT MESSENGER
We've forgotten where we came from. The names of many cocktails survive, but what they are sits in a realm of hazy inexactitude. The highly reputable drinks writer of the Wall Street Journal not long ago implied that "fresh orange slices" were essential to an Old-Fashioned, which may have been true during Prohibition with the rotten liquor, but wasn't when the drink was born and isn't today. What makes the confusion in this case almost amusing is that the Old-Fashioned originated in purists' rejection of the fancy concoctions of the 1870s--when the modern cocktail was truly born--by ordering an "old-fashioned whiskey cocktail," that is, one without all the syrups, fruit juices, and wines. But, one of the things that makes this true beauty is that you can vary it in endless ways, not with extra ingredients but with different types of alcohol and different bitters. Old-Fashioneds are splendid with the more aromatic gins and aged rums. I make them with Armagnac and with Calvados, or with Laird's worth-any-search bottled-in-bond Straight Apple Brandy. The basic recipe is just that. And there's the rub. There are only a tiny number of foundational cocktail recipes: the Martini, the Manhattan, the Old-Fashioned, and the Daiquiri. Making these well is just something to master: like the sound of Bessie Smith's voice, how to carve a turkey, and the order of the Triple Crown races.
What's more, even these obey the simplest of principles: One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak. This is a baseline ratio for all cocktails. The weak is, of course, water--most particularly ice. You shake or stir not just to chill your drink, but to improve its balance with a bit of melted ice. Strong is the liquor--in most cocktails at least two ounces of this good stuff, though varied to taste. I base all my cocktails on two ounces of the main spirit, as it keeps me from making mistakes as the accessories go in, but you can do just as well at 1.5 or 2.5. Sweet is sugar, most often diluted in water as simple syrup. (Easily made at home by warming an equal amount of sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved, then storing in the fridge.) Sour is just about anything from citrus juice and aromatic bitters like Angostura to vermouth and the complex bitter liqueurs of Italy. Follow these principles, and you'll likely prepare a decent drink from the ingredients to hand. Just as you can sub parsley for any herb in cooking, you can substitute in cocktail making. Make a Martini with bitters instead of vermouth--it's called a Pink Gin. Make a Daiquiri with grapefruit instead of lime--sometimes called a Hemingway, though that name conjures as many cocktails as there are bars in the world. Make a Manhattan with brandy instead of rye--oft called a Charles Cocktail. Put a single splash of Angostura in a Daiquiri and then try one with orange bitters. It's all to the good. You're rolling your own.
In the cocktail world, the phrase "roll your own" is indelibly associated with David Embury, whose Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948, revised 1952 and 1958) remains the single best book on the subject. Embury (1886-1960) was a successful New York tax attorney, who, according to his daughter Ruth, excelled "at everything he did. Besides being a lawyer and cocktail aficionado, he was a magician and bridge expert, and played both the piano and banjo." He was the classic amateur and in that spirit sought to understand the cocktail's principles. Embury broke a drink down into three constituent parts--the base, the modifying agent, and the special flavoring and coloring agents. The base is our "strong," the alcohol, which to Embury should constitute 75 percent of any drink and never less than 50 percent. (In a drink like a Martini, it will be upwards of 90 percent.) The modifiers are our "weak" and "sour," as well as "smoothing agents" like sugar and egg whites. These will be most of the rest of a drink's volume with only tiny additions of the liqueurs and fruit syrups that constitute "special flavoring and coloring agents." From this simple description, Embury was able to explain all cocktails as a matter of proportion. What is a traditional Daiquiri? Nothing but 8 parts Cuban rum, 2 parts lime juice, and 1 part sugar syrup. Embury took it to heart that you would never be mixing up a single cocktail, but likely four or eight, and proportions gave you the power to make a good cocktail for your guests that, equally important, tastes the same each round.
But Embury was concerned about more than just how to make good cocktails--he sought to define just what one was. He found six key characteristics:
* First: It "must whet the appetite, not dull it." This sounds simple enough but actually disqualifies whole swaths of alcoholic drinks from consideration and leaves us focused on the dry and sour drinks that show off a spirit. Nothing served at a rowdy bar could ever qualify. Nor anything that disguises the taste of the liquor; it would cloy and dull your palate and hardly be the lead in to a decent oyster pan roast and some lamb chops. Embury's focus was on quality not quantity--though he did describe himself as someone who prefers to drink the first too fast and then savor the second. He was, moreover, asserting that the cocktail is a thing of its time and place, holding a key spot in the day's endeavors: after the labor and before the meal. It's a reward, but like a good dinner it takes a bit of effort to prepare.
* Second: A cocktail "should stimulate the mind as well as the appetite." Embury understood that cocktails are part of a civilized and contemplative life. You should be able to anticipate your first drink after the day's work and use it to refresh your spirit and relax your mind. It should awaken senses dulled at the office and by the speed and distances of contemporary life. It should move you from the determined needs of a workday to a thoughtful consideration of the better and more charming aspects of living and talking and reading. Anticipation should not be underrated as an aspect of any aesthetic experience. It is as essential to a cocktail as it is to a good production of Cymbeline or Don Carlos or a cassoulet.
* Third: A cocktail "must be pleasing to the palate." By this, Embury meant a drink that is dry with all of the flavors balanced. You should be able to sense every ingredient in a well-made cocktail. Some of it might be elusive, but it is there in some definable sense. When you add one or two drops of absinthe to a Corpse Reviver No. 2, you are adding a defining flavor. You cannot leave it out without changing the drink into something else.
* Fourth: A cocktail "must be pleasing to the eye." This is an underrated virtue. At a many-starred hotel, I was recently brought a rather good Negroni in a brown-tinted old-fashioned glass. It came close to ruining the moment. The bright red color is one of the pleasures of this masterpiece, shining out from an up glass close to one's right hand. Bringing a tray of four Pegu Clubs to your coffee table will liven up your guests, setting everyone to considering the drinks and their color. Like wrapped packages and Christmas crackers, well-presented cocktails add festivity to an occasion. One trouble is that old saw about shaken versus stirred. James Bond has no idea what he is talking about. Nobody wants a shaken Martini, which is a cloudy drink when a Martini should be absolutely clear. Stir it with a long spoon until it is rabidly cold. Shaken or stirred is a debate about how a drink should look, not how it should taste. Any drink with fruit juice in it will be cloudy, so shake away--shaking being the most efficient method of chilling. If your drink has any hope of being clear: stir. And anyone who mentions the concept of bruising alcohol should be offered a beer to drink.
* Fifth: A cocktail "must have sufficient alcoholic flavor." Even the simplest of cocktails like a vermouth cassis must taste of alcohol. If you don't like the taste of the stuff, drink soda water. There's nothing else to say. Drinks that don't taste of alcohol were developed for coeds and the saps who try to get them drunk. There are cocktails for every palate, and every cocktail is adjustable. If you don't like bitter herbs, make a Negroni with simple syrup substituted for a quarter of the Campari. A cocktail tailored to your palate will still taste wonderfully of the alcohol. A cocktail that does not taste of its alcohol is likely something disreputable.
* Finally: A cocktail "must be well-iced." This rules out most of the drinks you can get in American restaurants, as they are too large. A cocktail is about four ounces, and today's Martini is six, maybe even eight. It's warm before you can contemplate its measure. The chill is essential. Cocktails do not open up like wine, they just get warm. Plan on more than one round and consider steps like chilling your shaker and making ice cubes from distilled water. (Better ice is an overlooked way to improve cocktails--it's a lot like making your own stock and pie crusts.) But regardless, serving smaller drinks at colder temperatures is as essential as not overcooking the trout.
There isn't any part of the cocktail process that Embury didn't examine in Fine Art, from glassware and the strength of drinks to whether you should mix liquors and the "Social Effects of Overindulgence." His belief that you should cut the amount of water in a cocktail to the bone meant that his simple syrup is three parts sugar to one part water--a thick additive that experimentation showed him had the maximum sugar he could get into water without its returning later to crystal form. His assured manner left plenty to argue about: the ratio of his Sours (far too much brandy in the Embury Sidecar, for instance), the base of the French 75 (he favors cognac rather than gin), even the number of foundational cocktails. He presented six, adding the Sidecar and the Jack Rose. Now, I love both those drinks, but what are they other than a Brandy Sour and an Applejack Sour in exactly the way a Daiquiri is a Rum Sour: the foundational Sour? They are brilliant variations, not pillars. Embury is our one true philosopher of the cocktail, and the conversation never flags.
Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is not just the best modern book on cocktails. For years it has also been the grail of aficionados. When found, copies were in the hundreds of dollars. (A book dealer of my acquaintance paid $200 for one a year ago.) For close to a decade I had only a photocopy until chance and increased income came together. Into this breach has stepped Greg Boehm. While many of us wanted Embury to be in print, Boehm went to the trouble of tracking down Embury's daughter Ruth and acquiring the copyright. (She was hard to find he told me and "had no idea that her father was a legend.") Boehm comes from a successful publishing family and is proprietor of the small Mud Puddle Books, which he wants to make the "major publisher of cocktail books in the world." Ten years ago at Salvatore Calabrese's legendary Library Bar in the Lanesborough Hotel in London he discovered how good a cocktail can be. Wanting to learn more, he began buying old cocktail books and ended up with so many that he started selling duplicates on eBay. (He has the largest collection of cocktail books in the United States, though he points out this is mainly because the one larger collection was sold to a guy in Germany.) One day, a woman named Audrey Saunders bought one, and he emailed her to say he had other cocktail books if she had any interest. She did. So was a friendship born and the path to Mud Puddle struck out upon.
Saunders is the proprietor of the Pegu Club in New York and one of the catalysts behind the city's serious cocktail culture. Boehm fell in with her merry group of classic drink revivalists and soon opened his library of 2,000 books to the city's bartenders and aficionados. Bringing them back into print was the next step. Last summer, Mud Puddle published facsimile editions of six of the most important books in cocktail history: How to Mix Drinks; A Bon Vivant's Companion by Jerry Thomas (1862), Modern Bartender's Guide by O.H. Byron (1884), The Mixicologist by C.F. Lawlor (1895), American and Other Iced Drinks by Charlie Paul (1895), Bartenders' Manual by Harry Johnson (1900), and Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone (1927). Then in October came the long-awaited Embury reprint. For $29.95 you can now acquire Fine Art at the click of a button day or night. Boehm has 22 more titles in the pipeline--this summer's releases are six delectable gems: Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappelar (1895), The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them by William Boothby (1908), Drinks by Jacques Straub (1914), Recipes for Mixed Drinks by Hugo R. Ensslin (1917), Cocktails: How to Mix Them by Robert Vermeire (1922), and The Artistry of Mixing Drinks by Frank Meier (1936)--and the folks he is working with read like a who's who of the better bartenders and cocktail writers in contemporary America: Saunders, Dale DeGroff, David Wondrich, Ted Haigh.
It is with them that we pick up the thread of our story. For things started changing for the cocktail about five years ago. It wasn't a fad or some new cocktail craze but something I think might be better termed a "renaissance," for it is a rediscovery of antique knowledge. It began in our high-end restaurants, particularly venues like the Gramercy Tavern and Chez Panisse. A large percentage of profits in such restaurants comes not from the food but from the beverages that accompany it. (It used to be joked that McDonald's sold hamburgers to get you to buy Coke. Well, our better restaurants sell braised porkbelly in the hopes that you will buy first-rate Pinot Noir.) Just as these restaurants were educating an urban audience to eat frisée and sweetbreads and to drink Argentine Malbec and Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, so they eventually began to encourage some chef-like flourishes behind their bars.
The "Swingers" craze, too, had beneficial side effects. Restaurateurs discovered that people would drink anything called a "Martini," and various classic cocktails reappeared under that name--you could suddenly get Manhattans made properly with rye whiskey under the campy name of a Wry Martini, and the heavily marketed Hennessey Martini was nothing but a Sidecar in disguise. Equally important was the irresistible rise of the Cosmopolitan, which convinced a couple of generations of young women to drink cocktails. The much-debated origins of this drink are irrelevant; what matters is that a combination of vodka--most often citrus-flavored--orange liqueur, cranberry juice, and lime juice in the tall, clear architecture of the Martini glass became immensely popular. And then it did something much more unusual: It became a standard. This hadn't happened in decades. (That its name already sounded like a classic may have helped.) It was a gateway drug, and, as women are the ever hoped-for, prayed-for, marketed-to-at-any-cost growth market of liquor companies, the news was spread rapidly by the vodka reps. While women were busy splashing pink liquid on their dates--very hard to drink eight ounces or more of booze out of a Martini glass while standing in a crowded bar--men had been busy discovering the greatness of single-malt Scotch. This in turn led our makers of Kentucky's finest spirit to point out that all straight bourbon was essentially single malt and bring to market some stunning new brown liquors.
Out of this sudden interest in serious booze--and backed by restaurateurs who saw a good source of profit--sprang a generation of bartenders who cared about the history of their profession and the quality of their ingredients. As with chefs in the 1970s and 1980s taking a stage at the restaurants of the Brothers Troisgros, Alain Chapel, or Frédy Girardet, bartenders were collecting the old cocktail manuals and banding together at spots like the Rainbow Room and Firebird in New York, where they worked under the tutelage of the godfather of the cocktail renaissance: Dale DeGroff. In the late 1980s, DeGroff had been charged with creating a classic cocktail menu at Joe Baum's Aurora (and again at the fabled Rainbow Room). A skilled professional bartender, DeGroff was suddenly an archivist and inventor as well. He had to track down old recipes and create modern equivalents for long-defunct ingredients.
DeGroff's progeny went off to create bar programs at restaurants around the country and to found lovely little lounges of their own. In most of the major American cities today, you will find a place that specializes in good drinks and a cozy atmosphere: places like Saunders's Pegu Club or Death & Co. in New York, Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, the Violet Hour in Chicago, Alembic in San Francisco, and The Gibson and PX in Washington, D.C. Here the bartenders do things like make their own ginger beer and vermouth; macerate sour cherries and infuse spirits with ginger; distill their own celery and kumquat bitters; and of course flame lemon peels before your eyes. The results show in every glass. And just like the chefs of the 1970s who, needing good goat cheese and baby arugula and squab, found courageous foodies to build purveying businesses, we now have a number of boutique producers of cocktail ingredients, a new generation of distillers getting going, and a wild cocktail subculture. (There's also been a sudden uptick of molecular mixology--bacon-infused bourbon, a Sazerac gummy bear, Red Bull foam, and the much-discussed Pisco Sour Marshmallow--but I assure you, despite the fascination newspaper editors seem to have with these antics, they are as much a fad as they are foolish.)
Charles Rolls, who revived the classic Plymouth gin brand in the late 1990s--he was bought out by Absolut in 2001--started up Fever-Tree to bring you a decent tonic water, one not dominated by high-fructose corn syrup like Schweppes or Canada Dry. Why buy a premium spirit, he wondered, if you're going to add mediocre sugarwater? His stuff is magic. Made from cane sugar, Sicilian lemons, African marigolds, and hand-pressed Tanzanian orange oil, it tastes deeply of quinine. Yet an equally good tonic is made by Jordan Silbert at Q Tonic, and it lacks almost any quinine bite. Silbert uses agave nectar instead of sugar, and Q Tonic is notably sharp. With two other artisanal tonics now on the market--Stirrings and Fentimans--it's like the days when D'Artagnan suddenly made Magret duck available in every big city in America. And then there's the Internet, which Greg Boehm points out turned his cocktail books from a novelty into a working library. Online you could track down missing ingredients and order all sorts of odd products. Want to make your own tonic? You can order citric acid and cinchona bark online. Need Kina Lillet, Bols, or real grenadine? Pull out your credit card and watch for the UPS man. The Internet proved there was a market for such things, and businesses responded.
Eric Seed is the owner of a Minnesota-based importer--Haus Alpenz--that is devoted to tracking down the lost ingredients of the classic cocktails: things like Pimento Dram, Velvet Falernum, and Batavian Arrack. His business is connecting boutique producers with top restaurants. He finds the unusual ingredients that serious bartenders need to feed their fancies and guarantees the steady supply that makes educating consumers worthwhile. The wonder of last winter was the Dolin Vermouths de Chambéry that he's brought back to America. Made according to the same recipe since 1821, they have a wondrous freshness that simply banishes any thought of using Cinzano or Noilly-Prat. All three--a dry, a blanc, and a rouge--are worth drinking on their own. For years we have been merrily adding something we wouldn't drink straight to our favorite gin or whiskey. The mind reels.
In 2007, Seed tracked down a source for crème de violette--a pale blue liquor made by macerating violets in brandy--which put the long-lost Aviation (8 parts gin, 2 parts lemon juice, 1 part crème de violette, 1 part maraschino liqueur) on cocktail menus around the country. (It's been so successful that spirits entrepreneur Rob Cooper has revived Crème Yvette, another long-defunct violet-based liqueur.) Last summer, Seed began importing an Old Tom gin from Hayman's, the oldest family-owned gin distillery in England. (It was thanks to interest from the cocktail revivalists that Hayman's again began producing it from the old family recipe.)
Old Tom is the missing link of the gin world. When the first great cocktails were being created in the middle of the 19th century, gin was a range of spirits, not just the London Dry that we know and love today. At the other end of the spectrum is Holland gin, or genever, a much sweeter spirit than London Dry. Old Tom sits squarely in between. The original Martini--the Martinez--called for Old Tom, as did a Tom Collins. (The John Collins wants genever.) The fine Silver Cocktail is best with no sugar and Old Tom--4 parts gin, 4 parts dry vermouth, 1 part maraschino liqueur, two dashes orange bitters, shaken and served with a lemon peel.
Seed believes that the revival of such cocktails is not part of some fad, but just the next step in our culinary revolution. Beverages represent the largest share of a restaurant's profits, and crafted cocktails and a serious bar program are the natural extension. "Diners want something exciting at each and every step of the meal," notes Seed, and the cocktail renaissance is being driven by restaurants' evolving to provide a full dining experience. The best parallel is again with what happened in the kitchens of America in the 1970s and 1980s. The businesses that sprang up to meet the needs of adventurous chefs soon turned to the home market. So it is that a product like the Rothman and Winter crème de violette Seed found for his restaurant and bar clients, soon went into the specialized liquor stores that cater to us cocktail geeks.
There is an amazing array of new products in America's liquor stores. For decades, there were only two brands of rye on the market--Old Overholt and Jim Beam rye. Both were a perfectly acceptable base for a Manhattan, yet at this present moment I have four bottles of rye on my shelves and nary a Beam or Overholt in sight. There are remarkable new spirits like the Anchor Steam brewery's Old Junípero gin and Portland's Aviation gin, and you'd have a hard time convincing me that George T. Stagg--part of the Buffalo Trace Antique collection of bourbons--isn't simply the greatest spirit ever crafted by American hands. And this is to say nothing of the bitters revolution that began with Gary Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6. Where once was just Angostura, you will now see a dozen little bottles.
Restaurants taking a chance on a cocktail program, moreover, restored the profession of tending bar. As Seed points out, for restaurants, "Cash flow is everything. You need to turn your inventory, which means you need people to educate your clientele." Restaurateurs are suddenly keen for their cocktail-interested staffers to spend time encouraging the customers to try a Clover Club or a Blood and Sand. As more cocktail revivalists followed their inclination to the other side of the bar, more good lounges opened and more people had a great cocktail. Like the rock Sisyphus pushed up the hill, the cocktail revival is suddenly rolling. The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post both hired first-rate cocktail columnists. Websites have sprung up compiling information on every facet of cocktail history and every kind of spirit. (Ted Haigh and Martin Doudoroff's Internet Cocktail Database is a particularly notable compendium of drinks and ingredients lost and found, and includes a random cocktail generator based on Embury's theories.) There's even an annual New Orleans drinkathon that passes as a convention, called Tales of the Cocktail, where the likeminded gather to drink, er, attend sessions on "The Scented Trail: Techniques on How to Develop Aroma in Your Cocktails" and "Making Your Own Spirits: A Look into Modern Nano-Distilling." Cocktails are a viable business in 2009.
There's no better case in point of the new bar professionalism than D.C.'s Derek Brown--the man who first pushed Eric Seed to seek out the Dolin vermouths. He grew fascinated by the drinks trade early and worked as the sommelier in some of D.C.'s best restaurants. Yet his heart remained more behind the bar than in the -cellar. The beautiful revival speakeasy The Gibson is now his stage, and its owners have faith their investment will pay off--they spent about $200,000 renovating a ground-floor space into a dark, wood-paneled dream. There are only 48 seats and, if one isn't open, you won't be welcome to loiter until one is. The new cocktail lounges are all about preserving a comfortable atmosphere for drinks and conversation. (Milk & Honey in New York, one of the best spots in America for the classic cocktail drinker, has a famous set of rules, including the wonderful instruction to its female patrons, "If a man you don't know speaks to you, please lift your chin slightly and ignore him." My favorite: "Do not bring anyone unless you would leave that person alone in your home.")
To watch Brown at work behind the bar is to see an artist among his elements. There's showmanship--the double old-fashioned glass spun four feet in the air to spread the absinthe for each Sazerac--and a glorious preference for flaming lemon peels to finish a drink. (Brown wonders what would be the point of coming to work if you can't light things on fire.) The ease of action almost belies how much prep work is behind each of the cocktails and how much experimentation went into honing each recipe. The Gibson is the perfect place to give thanks for the cocktail renaissance. Begin with a Sazerac or a Martini in a nod to where we came from. Then try a classic variation. If you went brown, I'd suggest the Vieux Carré (rye, brandy, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, Peychauds and Angostura bitters) or a Boothby, the great San Francisco barman William "Cocktail" Boothby's 1908 idea of a Manhattan--rye, Carpano Antica, bitters, and champagne. If you started out with clear, order up one of the cousins of the modern Martini: the Fifty-Fifty (equal parts gin and dry vermouth: the clearest, cleanest drink I've ever been served) or Brown's version of the Improved Gin Cocktail (gin, maraschino liqueur, and ale bitters).
Better yet, stop back by for an after-dinner treat like Brown's reinvention of the Pisco Sour, the Salad Days Sour (celery-infused pisco, lemon juice, celery bitters, and burnt cinnamon), or his Rhum Manhattan (Neisson Rhum Agricole Réserve Spéciale, Carpano Antica, and orange bitters). As Brown likes to quote Hemingway: "Dessert is for people who don't drink enough."


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I'll Have What She's Having: The white clothing fashion trend continues with a dose of celebrity style as Leelee Sobieski wears a fantastic white shirt dress by Jil Sander to The Tribeca Film Festival Raf Simons last few seasons at Jil Sander saw the designer taking cues from Yves Saint Laurent met with Isaac Mizrahi & Bill Blass' iconic…Published on April 25, 2012
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Reaching Today's Bicultural Latinos
by Cara O'Flynn on May 31, 7:12 AM
New technology and more complex identities will require changes in strategy for marketers.
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'I Am Yasuni': An Example of Multicultural Understanding in Targeting a Market When the Coin Lands On Its Tail
by Juan Aceves on May 24, 7:14 AM
Brands, advertising agencies, the government, political candidates and anyone else seeking widespread support in this nation must unravel the seeming mysteries of communicating with and understanding the Hispanic community. Forums like this one, as well as many other columns, conferences and symposiums, all attest to his need, which is recognized by most (if not all) major marketers.
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Making the Connection
by Mari Provi Florez on May 17, 1:18 PM
During a recent trip to Los Angeles, two colleagues and I dined at a Spanish restaurant awarded by Los Angeles Times as one of the top "Most Memorable Dining Experiences." After a rough start with our designated waiter, Raul, a Latino waiter who had been watching us, came to our rescue. He was determined to make sure we felt welcome and that we would enjoy their creative approach to Spanish cuisine. Even more than the food, it was Raul's attentive and personal approach that really made the experience memorable for us. It made me think about how we as consumers ...
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CVS Faces Uphill Battle With New Spanish-Language Website
by Lee Vann on May 10, 5:41 AM
In launching a Spanish language version of its website, CVS is attempting something that only Best Buy has been able to pull off -- successfully launching and supporting a robust Spanish language e-commerce site in the long run.
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Hispanicize 2012 And The New Media 'Emprendedores'
by Jose Villa on May 3, 8:42 AM
In April I had the opportunity to attend, speak at, and sponsor the third annual Hispanicize 2012 conference. The event has quickly grown into a premier conference for the new Hispanic social world - the intersection of business and Hispanic media, advertising, film, culture and social media. I have had the unique vantage point of having been intimately involved in the conference since its inception in Dallas back in April 2010 (originally billed the Hispanic PR and Social Media conference). 2012 was a real coming of age for the conference, with more than 700 attendees, 43 major brand sponsors, and ...
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Egg-Stuffed Tortillas In Pumpkin Seed Sauce
|Shelled pumpkin seeds
|4 Ounce (1 Cup)
|Canned green chili peppers
|4 Ounce, rinsed, seeded and finely chopped (1 Can)
|Dried epazote
|1⁄2 Teaspoon, crushed
|1⁄4 Teaspoon
|1 1⁄2 Cup (24 tbs)
|6 inch corn tortillas
|Canned tomatoes
|16 Ounce (1 Can)
|1 Medium, cut up
|2 Teaspoon
|1 Teaspoon
|1⁄4 Teaspoon
|1⁄8 Teaspoon
|Cooking oil
|2 Tablespoon
|Hard cooked eggs
|6 , chopped
Toast pumpkin seeds in 350° oven for 15 minutes.
Place pumpkin seeds in blender container; cover and blend till coarsely chopped.
Turn into saucepan; add chopped chili peppers, half the epazote, and the 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Slowly add water.
Cook and stir over low heat for 20 minutes; do not boil.
Cover and keep warm.
Meanwhile, wrap stack of tortillas tightly in foil; heat about 15 minutes in 350° oven.
In same blender container combine undrained tomatoes, onion, cornstarch, the 1 teaspoon salt, sugar, pepper, and remaining epazote.
Cover and blend till smooth.
Pour into saucepan; add oil.
Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly.
Season eggs lightly with salt and pepper.
Spread about 2 teaspoons of the pumpkin seed mixture on each tortilla.
Top each with about 2 tablespoons chopped egg.
Roll up.
Place seam side down in a 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
Pour remaining pumpkin seed sauce over tortillas; top with tomato sauce mixture.
Bake, covered, in 350° oven for 20 to 25 minutes or till hot.


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By JoseGPM
from McAllen, TX, United States
Comments about GE 30" JBS55SKSS Free-Standing Stainless Steel Electric Range:
4 Years with range , and is really good , excellent! My wife is really pleased with it.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
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Great Oven
By armywife07
from Fayetteville, TN, United States
This oven is amazing so far. We have not had any problems with it at all. The burners heat up quickly which is important to my family. It brings liquid to a boil quickly so you're not standing around for 15 minutes waiting for something to heat up. The oven preheated pretty quickly, I think it was under 5 minutes.The oven bakes very evenly. I had cookies on the bottom rack second level from the element and not a single one burned. The timer has a one minute warning which is nice when I'm trying to multitask around the kitchen or house. The simmer and melt features are a cool benefit. It may not have all the bells and whistles of more expensive stoves but I think it's a fantastic product.
By STEVE123
from South Carolina, USA
the glass top may break for no reason
By Anonymous
from Lubbock, TX, USA
my glass top broke when i turned the burner on high one morning for no reason right after the one year warranty went out beware of this product the glass top may break for no reason very dissatisfied
Bottom Line No, I would not recommend this to a friend
Looks great in my kitchen
By ERITR
from Ky
I like this range because looks great, and works very well. When I bake anything it looks and even tastes different than my former old range. The only thing I don't like is that it gets dirty very fast and it takes a little more time to clean it up because you have to be very careful with the surface.
By Nater232
from Richmond, VA, USA
This is a medium grade oven and we don't have any problems with it. Great price for those on a budget and easy to keep clean. Highly recommend it.
worst stove I've ever purchased!!,
By RosalindaBH
from Kalamazoo, MI, USA
Very poor heat control, and distribution. Takes for ever to boil water, esp for tea or canning, can't control temp well for stir frying, poor searing temperatures, oven heat is uneven, and roasts take a lot of turning and temperature watching. Very hard to clean the stainless, streaks with ordinary wiping up, NO broiler pan was included, and had to go and buy aftermarket ! Stay away from this product!!
Quality range
By LaDeDa
from Tampa, FL
This range is a great upgrade from my previous one. I like the look of it in my updated kitchen. The burners heat up quickly. I can cook several dishes at once using appropriate size burners. The oven has been suitable for everything I've cooked in it so far. My only complaints are that the oven seems to take a long time to preheat and the clock doesn't display when the oven is on. The display shows the oven temperature setting or the timer. I can understand that the timer should be displayed, but don't know why the oven temperature setting needs to remain on while cooking. I like to see what time it is when I put the food into the oven so I have an idea of when to take it out. Everything else is great.
Cool Features - Excellent Usability - Excellent Price
By aldo12
from Hawley, PA 18428, USA
GE brings innovation to work with its sleek elegant new look of GE free-standing electric ranges.This particular electric range comes with so many features that are actual usable,and the price for this appliance is breathtaking. Some of the features that this appliance offers its users includes the Quick-Set oven controls,which give you extremely simple operation as well as very accurate read-outs.Another feature is the size of the oven ,which is absolutely massive.Within the oven,there are also 2 own racks with a total of 6 different rack positions.There is also a dual-element baking system,which uses the upper broiling element and the lower baking element to heat up your food evenly.This appliance has a smooth top,so the heat is distributed evenly and the clean-up is extremely simple and fast.It also comes with a heating element-on indicator light,as well as a hot surface indicator light alert. This appliance also has feature that will help organize your kitchen and keep things you need readily available.There is a removable full-width storage drawer.And, there is also a large window and interior light in the oven that allows you to check in on your food without having to actually open the door.It is also energy-efficient.
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fitted wheel print shirt
Give nautical style a spin in this crisp, lightweight cotton button-up. Its small ship wheel print is contrasted by a different pattern under the collar and cuffs. Give the sleeves a roll and add our Lennox short for that effortless sunny day look.
- Cut slimmer through the shoulders, chest and waist
- Semi-spread collar, button front, long sleeves
- Contrasting pattern under collar & button sleeve cuffs
- Button patch chest pockets, shirttail hem
- Cotton
- Machine wash
- Imported


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Bill Cosby
Amy Schumer Tries To Defend Bill Cosby in the Court of Public Opinion: Watch
In her 'Inside Amy Schumer' sketch, she's not one of the women suing him, she's actually defending him in the Court of Public Opinion.
'South Park' Holiday Episode Pokes Fun at Taylor Swift, Lorde, Iggy Azalea & Michael Jackson's Hologram
On the latest holiday episode of 'South Park,' they went for broke, poking fun at bloated holiday specials, smug celebrities and especially holograms, including those of Kurt Cobain, Tupac, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.
Taylor Swift Will Take a Seat on Bill Cosby's Couch in 'South Park' Holiday Episode: Watch
The episode will also feature Lady Gaga, Iggy Azalea and a hologram of Michael Jackson as Peter Pan.
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Florence Henderson loves Meryl Streep. Lionel Richie talks about face time with Presidents. Sarah Jessica Parker compliments Nancy Pelosi on her grooming. Elmo won't share his clothes, and other things overheard on the red carpet!
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The Bill Cosby Sweater Project
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Originally written on Pro Sports Daily | Last updated 10/20/12
The New York Giants activated defensive tackle Chris Canty from the physically unable to perform list and expect him to play in Sunday's game against the visiting Washington Redskins. Canty continued to practice this week, working his way back from offseason knee surgery. He was on the PUP list for the first six weeks of the season. Head coach Tom Coughlin said that Canty practiced well Wednesday and Thursday. "He's in very good condition. There's no swelling, so hopefully that's the way it will stay," Coughlin said. The Giants moved running back Da'Rel Scott to the reserve/injured list with a knee injury.Scott on Tuesday underwent a right knee debridement and a repair to the meniscus and is expected to be mostly idle for at least six weeks.
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text: Arri S2.RBU004 Ceiling Bracket with Eye Bolt is designed to suspend a T5, T6, or T8 rail directly from the ceiling with steel wires. The bracket is made of steel and sports a gray powder-coat finish. S2.RBC01 clamps, steel wire and the hardware required to install the bracket to the ceiling is sold separately.


text:
1. What is the purpose of the dual rater assessments?
The purpose of the dual rater competency assessment is to provide a clearer picture of the individual's developmental needs by combining self-assessment and supervisory input. Together, these two viewpoints provide a more informed assessment of individual strengths and developmental needs. Managers/supervisors and employees will be able to use competency assessment results to identify and address critical skills gaps through targeted training and development.
From an organizational perspective, the competency assessment process enables organizations to assess workforce competencies and helps ensure its current workforce has the right knowledge and skills to accomplish the mission. Competency assessment results enable an organization to prioritize training resources and create annual training plans that are based on quantifiable data outlining workforce development needs.
Assessment results are NOT to be used as input to performance evaluations or linked to pay.
2. What is the relationship between performance and competencies
The relationship between competencies and performance is indirect. As employees increase their proficiency levels, their performance outputs would generally be expected to improve. Organizations whose employees have high proficiency levels are organizations that would be expected to have superior organizational performance. However, this is not always the case. An individual may possess the required knowledge, skills, abilities, and behaviors but may be performing at a lower level than expected due to various factors, e.g., personal problems, lack of focus, job dissatisfaction, negative reaction to organizational change, lack of organizational resources, etc.
Performance plans establish goals (i.e. specific, measurable, attainable, relative, time-bound tasks and expectations) for individuals based on the needs of the organization to accomplish its mission. Employees are rated on performance in relation to how well they have accomplished the goals/tasks set out in their performance plans.
3. What is the Dual Rater Assessment tool's Three-Step process?
The Dual Rater Assessment tool involves the following three steps:
- Self-evaluate your skill levels
- Submit data to supervisor for review
- Receive a report identifying skill-improvement areas with corresponding learning and training recommendations
4. Why should I care about the competency assessment?
Supervisors are responsible for ongoing workforce development. However, career development is an individual responsibility too. Competency assessments are key tools for strategically identifying individual development needs. The assessment will help employees to:
- Customize their Individual development and career planning activities
- Identify relevant competency based training and development opportunities for sustained career growth
- Discuss with their supervisors the employee's strengths, areas for growth, and suggested training, and developmental activities
- Understand the competencies they would be expected to have to move into a new job, particularly for employees who are interested in becoming supervisors and managers or in changing careers
5. What is an Individual Development Plan (IDP) and how does it relate to competencies, performance, and promotions?
An Individual Development Plan (IDP) outlines developmental and career goals within the context of organizational objectives. It is a developmental "action" plan to move employees from where they are to where they would like to be or need to be. It provides systematic steps to improve performance and build on strengths related to one's current job, and to meet one's career goals. The goals of an IDP are developed by the employee with input from the supervisor. The IDP links the individual's career interests and needs to organizational priorities. IDPs are used to help employees:
- learn new skills to improve current job performance
- maximize current performance in support of organizational requirements
- increase interest, challenges, and satisfaction in current position
- obtain competencies that can help lead to career changes
An IDP IS:
- A developmental partnership between the employee and manager, involving feedback, clarification, and discussion about developmental needs, goals, and plans. Manager-employee communication is a key to the success of the IDP process. The mutual interests and concerns of the individual and the organization must be considered in the IDP process. The best IDPs begin with a plan to maximize current job performance. The activities can assist the individual in meeting both personal and organizational goals for success.
- A broadly defined developmental plan which may include on-the-job assignments, self-development activities, and formal classroom training.
- An active and ongoing process in the organization. Ideally, IDPs should be reviewed, updated, and revised every six (6) months, or as needed
An IDP IS NOT:
- A performance appraisal. The IDP is not a means to formally assess the employee's performance. In this regard, it does not replace the performance appraisal system to determine promotion, pay, awards, etc. Development is the purpose, not appraisal.
- A contract for training. Employees should include all training interests on an IDP. However, training is not guaranteed because it is on an IDP. Training decisions are made in accordance with DOE's policy, priorities, and budgetary constraints.
- A way to clarify or revise a position description. If a position description does not accurately describe the duties performed, this is a matter for the manager and the Office of Human Resources to solve.
- A guarantee of a promotion to a higher grade. An IDP can help prepare an employee to become qualified for a higher graded position, but does not guarantee advancement.
- A panacea for manager-employee relations problems. The IDP is only one part of the comprehensive efforts of an organization to enhance job satisfaction and cooperative work relationships.
6. How does this competency assessment relate to my Individual Development Plan (IDP)?
Your IDP, which should outline your short- and long-term development opportunities, is developed in conjunction with your supervisor as part of the performance management process. Use the results from the competency assessment tool's skill gap analysis to write and update your IDP. Focus on the specific developmental activities and assignments you can complete during the performance cycle.
7. Why should managers and supervisors care about the competency assessment?
The assessment will:
- Identify specific strengths and skill gaps among your staff
- Assist with selecting appropriate competency based training offerings, curricula, and certifications
- Guide employee development efforts
- Assess the knowledge, skills, abilities, interest, and talents of the organization
- Identify available workers with the required skill sets
8. What is the purpose of the job behavior examples provided with each proficiency level?
The job behaviors examples provide the behavior expectations that would support a rating at a particular grade level or pay plan. There intent is to show a natural progression from the awareness to expert level as individuals advance in their careers. They are by no means all encompassing and other observed behaviors can support a rating at a particular proficiency level.
9. How do I determine the correct proficiency level for my grade or pay plan and what should I do if the job behavior examples don't match my employee(s)?
First read the definition of the competency and the job behaviors that describe how employees may demonstrate that competency. Then review the proficiency scale and familiarize yourself with the different levels. You will want to consider the ways that you have recently demonstrated that competency and select the most applicable proficiency level. For the General Competencies in particular, the expectation is for individuals and their direct supervisors to make determinations against the proficiency level associated with their pay grade and work experiences.
|Proficiency Level
|GS/GM grade level
|EK/EJ pay plan level
|(DOE not rating at this level)
The job behaviors are only examples, other observed behaviors can also fit the definition. The person being assessed does not have to demonstrate all the behaviors—one may be sufficient to fit the definition.
10. What is the next step after I assess my level on the DOE proficiency scale?
After you assess your level on the DOE proficiency scale, your supervisor should also assess your level. Then, you and your supervisor should discuss the assessments and establish an action plan or Individual Development Plan (IDP) that documents the steps you should take to continue to develop your proficiency level.
11. What does it mean if I do not meet the target proficiency level?
If you do not meet a specific target proficiency level, it may indicate that you should focus your development efforts on this particular competency. However, there are also other factors that will affect your development efforts, such as organizational priorities, team needs, etc. Therefore, you should obtain guidance from your supervisor to discuss the highest priority competencies for development.
12. How can employees increase their proficiency levels?
This can be done in many ways. For example, employees may take formal training to help build their proficiency levels. Employees may participate in developmental assignments on the job or on a detail to another job, read articles and books, participate in activities of a professional organization, take e-learning courses, be coached, be mentored, etc.
13. Why do the advanced and expert proficiency examples often assume someone is in a supervisory position?
The automatic assumption that a person must be a supervisor to demonstrate behaviors associated with the advanced and expert is not necessarily correct. However, the competencies can and should be used to develop people along the path to leadership positions. Competencies will be one of the criteria for determining Mission Critical Occupations, selection of leadership positions, and succession planning. That said, a supervisory position might require additional competencies.
14. Why does the Dual Rater Assessment tool include only six of the 30 DOE General Competencies?
EM leadership in consultation with the Office of Learning and Workforce Development determined concluded that EM managers and staff have significant demands (e.g., workload) on their time, and 30 competencies would be far too numerous and time consuming to perform a meaningful assessment. Therefore, EM leadership decided to limit the number of general competencies for the upcoming assessment effort to the following:
- Conflict Management
- Integrity/Honesty
- Interpersonal Skills
- Oral Communications
- Problem Solving
- Written Communications
15. What occupational competencies are included in the Dual Rater Assessment tool?
There are six engineering occupational competencies included in the assessment tool:
- Environmental Engineers
- Fire Protection Engineers
- General Engineers
- Mechanical Engineers
- Nuclear Engineers
- Safety Engineers
In addition, staff that performs Project Management or Acquisition duties will be assessed on specific occupational competencies.
NOTE: Employees that are assigned occupational competencies will also be assessed on the six general competencies (Conflict Management, Integrity/Honesty, Interpersonal Skills, Oral Communications, Problem Solving, and Written Communications).
16. What if there are other competencies that are relevant for my job but are not included in the models?
The DOE occupational models describe the global competencies required for all employees in a specific occupation. The occupational models do not describe every competency relevant to a job. If there are other competencies important to your specific job/role, you should discuss them with your supervisor and determine the best approach for incorporating them into your overall career development plan.
17. How will a dual rater assessment work if my supervisor is not trained in my occupation?
All assessments should be based on the display of behavioral indicators as observed by the supervisor. Once we progress to multi-rater (360°) assessments, peers, subordinates, and customers may also contribute to the assessment. The important thing to remember, assessment of a competency should be by observed behaviors.
18. What was the vetting process for the occupational competencies?
A number of occupational competencies were originally developed in 2008/9. DOE used the list of competencies as our starting point to develop and conduct occupational surveys. Respondents were asked to review and rank order the competencies that are most critical to their occupation. They were allowed to identify and rank order up to 15 competencies and were also provided the opportunity to add any competencies they felt were missing from the list. Based on the results, a list of critical competencies was developed and then further refined by a representative working group of DOE subject matter experts in the occupation.
19. How do competencies compare to Technical Qualifications?
The Technical Qualifications define the skills and abilities for the work and competencies define how you apply them to perform excellent work; competencies are how you use these skills/abilities at a higher level. They should not conflict but rather be the next iteration of technical qualifications. There is a very fine line between competency proficiency and performance achievement. But let's be clear, competencies will be used for development purposes only.
Example: A young man in the Navy graduated from the Nuclear School at the top of his class. When assigned to a nuclear powered ship, they find he is unable to apply that knowledge. He knew what to do but washed out because he was unsuccessful in demonstrating the practical knowledge (behaviors) necessary to be successful in his duties.
20. I have not received a notice to complete a competency assessment but people I work with have. Why it that and what should I do to have an assessment assignment to me?
Currently only Environmental Management (EM) employees with a pay plan of GS, GM, EJ, or EK, excluding of Richland / Office of River Protection employees, are participating in the Competency Assessment pilot.These EM employees that had Online Learning Center (OLC) account as of July 9th, 2012 should have been assigned a competency assessment. If you think you are meant to have a competency Assessment to complete please contact your local OLC administrator to have your name added to the assessment. Your local administrator will need your name, organization, and occupational series to ensure that you have the correct competencies assigned.
General Competencies
1. What is a competency?
A competency is defined by the Office of Personnel Management as a measurable pattern of knowledge, skills, abilities, behaviors, and other characteristics that are needed to perform work roles or occupational functions successfully. Competencies are developed, attained, and sustained through training, rotational and developmental assignments, experience (both professional and personal), education, and self development. Attainment of a certain level of competency is assessed based on demonstrated abilities to apply the competency in different situations and/or circumstances. Attainment is based on observable behaviors.
2. What is a competency model?
A competency model is a collection of competencies - often organized into categories or clusters - considered pertinent to an organization and a particular function within an organization (e.g. occupational series). Individual competencies are usually defined and supported by job behaviors. Models may be general and apply to all employees, while other models may apply to specific occupations or positions. At DOE the General Competency model relates to all DOE employees. Occupation specific competency models are for all employees within a specific occupational series. Not every competency in the occupation specific model may be relevant to an individual's position.
At DOE all competencies include a definition and key job behaviors along with a proficiency scale.
3. How do knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) compare to competencies?
For a number of years, federal jobs have been described in terms of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) which typically focus on technical capabilities for the job. Research has shown that competencies go beyond the technical requirements and also include the "soft skills" that are so critical to an individual's success on the job. Thus, competencies define the "whole person" and provide the important distinctions for job performance among all employees while also tapping into a more qualified talent pool. The federal government has begun to adopt the use of competencies – a practice used by the private sector as well as state and local governments – to define the job requirements and proficiency levels.
To further clarify the differences between the traditional KSAs and competencies, users of the competency model should think of KSAs as a subset or part of competencies. The remaining subset or part is comprised of those skills, behaviors and characteristics (called "soft skills") that motivate the person and impact on his/her accomplishment of the technical job tasks. Competencies are often a simpler, broader way of describing the traditional KSAs and soft skills. Examples of how a user would define traditional KSAs in competency terms are:
|KSA Description
|Ability to draft written technical documents to support findings.
|Written Communication
|Ability to manage and resolve conflicts in a constructive manner.
|Conflict Management
4. What is the Department of Energy's General Competency model?
DOE's General Competency model is aligned with the Office of Personnel Management's (OMP's) government wide standard for fundamental competencies and Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs). The benefits to this realignment include improved linkage of general competencies with assessment tools and training opportunities available throughout the Federal government.
The DOE model differs from the OPM model in two significant ways:
- The DOE model includes proficiency level illustrations that provide examples of the job behavior which would support a rating at the grade level or pay plan. These job behavior examples take into account the general behaviors, knowledge, skills, and expectations for a particular pay plan or grade.
- The model includes two DOE specific competencies:
- Workplace Safety
- Knowledge of DOE Business
The DOE General Competency Model can be viewed/downloaded on Powerpedia at: DOE General Competencies
5. How have competencies been used by other organizations?
For many years, competencies have been used effectively in both the private and public sectors. They play a key role in organizational development and improvement by articulating the capabilities required for individual and organizational performance. Competencies serve as a solid foundation for human capital areas such as recruitment and hiring of talent, job assessment, employee development and training, performance management, career planning, and succession planning. Depending on the organization's choice, it can choose to apply competencies to all of these human capital areas or some of them. Competencies may be incorporated into position descriptions, interview guides, hiring criteria and methods, assessment processes, individual development plans (IDPs), performance management processes, and employee development opportunities, e.g. training.
What is the purpose of the dual rater assessments?
The purpose of the dual rater competency assessment is to provide a clearer picture of the individual's developmental needs by combining self-assessment and supervisory input. Together, these two viewpoints provide a more informed assessment of individual strengths and developmental needs. Managers/supervisors and employees will be able to use competency assessment results to identify and address critical skills gaps through targeted training and development.
From an organizational perspective, the competency assessment process enables organizations to assess workforce competencies and helps ensure its current workforce has the right knowledge and skills to accomplish the mission. Competency assessment results enable an organization to prioritize training resources and create annual training plans that are based on quantifiable data outlining workforce development needs.
Assessment results are NOT to be used as input to performance evaluations or linked to pay.


text:
Credits & Info
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- Weekly Users' Choice December 24, 2002
- Review Crew Pick December 24, 2002
- Daily Feature December 20, 2002
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Author Comments
Rated 5 / 5 stars
HOLY SHIT DUDE. thats some nice flash
how long to you have to practice flash or any other program to be able to make such great masterpeaces. what ever it is it must be a lot, well I hope to as good as you're in some time. and o yeah, plz make more.
Rated 5 / 5 stars
good like ur other flashes
but the person before go fuck your self and yes u are a morn and ill kick ur gay finland ass mother fucker
Rated 5 / 5 stars
Damn guys, this movie is sooo well done !!! I loved it a lot ! Really nice, so many cool graphix, teh sound was awesome, the story too... The credits at the end... Just like if I wuz watching a real movie on my DVD playa !!! Real nice ! DAMN
All ma five r Blong to tehz !
Rated 4.5 / 5 stars
nice ...
good work !!! awesome movie, cool sounds, best graphics in years, great story ! only a bit short ... hope you make more dude !!!
Rated 5 / 5 stars
this movie is wild. it's almost as if i was at a movie theator. The animation when the dude faught was amazing. going from tree to tree. DAMN. yous really did some great work on this one!


text:
1. Peel and finely chop the garlic, set aside.
2. Trim, rinse and spun dry the beet greens and cut into ¼ inch strips, set aside.
3. Slice the baguette into 12 ¼ inch thick slices, set aside.
4. Preheat a large heavy bottom pan over high heat, pour oil add garlic and chili pepper flakes, sauté it for 1 minute.
5. Add beet greens and toss it like a salad, and leave it to cook for 30 seconds and toss it again, repeat until the beet greens are wilted.
6. Sprinkle salt and pepper, toss well and turn of the heat.
7. Place the baguette slice in the broiler and toast it for few seconds.
8. Top each bread slices with the beet greens and drizzle some olive oil.
9. Serve the spicy beet green crostini hot.


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RAW VIDEO: American Airlines takes off
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This second volume of Ethical Theory deals with philosophical theories about how we ought to live, including utilitarianism, social contract theory, rights theory, virtue theory, and the New Kantianism.
Rachels, James (Ed.) : University of Alabama at Birmingham James Rachels is University Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is the author of Moral Problems (1990), Created for Animals: The Moral Implications of Darwinism (1991), and The Elements of Moral Philosophy (1993).
Introduction 1. What Makes Action Right?, W. D. Ross 2. Extreme and Restricted Utilitarianism, J. J. C. Smart 3. Motive Utilitarianism, Robert M. Adams 4. On Consequentialism, James Cargile 5. Justice as Fairness, John Rawls 6. Contractualism and Utilitarianism, T. M. Scanlon 7. Why Contractarianism?, David Gauthier 8. Can There be a Right-Based Moral Theory?, J. L. Mackie 9. Later Selves and Moral Principles, Derek Parfit 10. Persons, Character, and Morality, Bernard Williams 11. Quandary Ethics, Edmund Pincoffs 12. Supererogation, Wrongdoing, and Vice, Gregory W. Trianosky 13. Alienation, Consequentialism, and the Demands of Morality, Peter Railton 14. Consistency in Action, Onora O'Neill 15. The Right to Lie: Kant on Dealing with Evil, Christine M. Korsgaard 16. The Fragmentation of Value, Thomas Nagel Notes on the Contributors Select Bibliography Index
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Farouk CHI 44 Chi Iron Guard
180 reviews
50% would repurchase
Package Quality: 3.8
Price: $$$
Package Quality: 3.8
Price: $$$
INGREDIENTSWater, Sodium Polystyrene Sulfonate, SD Alcohol 40-B, Propylene Glycol, Polysorbate 20, PPG-20 Methyl Glucose Ether, Disodium EDTA, Hydrolyzed Silk, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein PG-Propyl Silantriol, Parfum, Diazolidinyl Urea, Methylparaben, Methylisothiazolinone, Ceramic.
on 1/7/2015 1:25:00 AM
Age: 25-29
Skin: Combination, Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
I used to use this heat protector but have since moved on. I would spray 2 sprays onto a brush and brush it through the section of hair to be straightened to distribute it evenly focusing mainly on the ends (since that's what is most susceptible to damage) and working it upwards. I never really had a problem with this, it protected my hair from heat as promised, however after switching I noticed something about my hair that STOPPED happening when I stopped using this... I have long hair and get regular trims every 4-6 weeks. Before I'd go for trim I noticed the ends of my hair were a lighter more orange shade of brown than the rest of my hair and never understood this. The hair was never fried or torched or brittle it was just orange. It drove me crazy! I'd always get the orange trimmed off and it always came back. I started using the kqc flat iron spray and stopped using the 44 iron guard and noticed there was no more orange! I can't say for sure it was this, but at the same time the signs all point to the product being the culprit. For this reason I will never use or repurchase this product again. No more orange hair for me!
on 9/23/2014 12:11:00 PM
Age: 30-35
Skin: Dry, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
This is a really great product! I'm actually really surprised by the reviews. I bought this on a whim before checking product reviews because I really needed a new heat protectant. I got home and checked the reviews here, and I almost returned it before even trying it. I decided to just give it a shot, and I'm glad I did. I bought this primarily for curling my hair with a flat iron. I haven't used it yet for straightening, but I'm sure it would work for that too. For reference, I have extremely thick, wavy, unruly hair that is just below bra strap length.
I clip my hair up in 4 big sections and spray this all over each sections before curling. My curls are bouncy, soft, and shiny, never sticky or hard like other reviewers have said. My style lasts all day with just a little bit of hairspray at the end. I use a pretty generous amount of this stuff too, so I'm not sure what is going on with people's poor results. Maybe people are using way too much? Yes, the scent is pretty strong and smells like men's cologne (like Cool Water), but once it dries, I don't even notice it.
I took off 1 lippie because I really wish this stuff would dry faster. It makes my hair really wet, and it takes a good 2 minutes each section for this stuff to dry. So we are talking a total of 8 minutes of standing around waiting for my hair to dry. I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but when you are trying to get out the door in the morning, it really does make a big difference. I learned the hard way to NEVER flat iron while hair is wet, not even damp. You will fry your hair beyond repair. lol
I think I paid about 15 bucks for this, which I really don't think is a bad price. All the big chain salons always have good sales, and I'm sure you can pick it up much cheaper if you can wait for a sale. Don't let the negative reviews scare you. I think it is a great product, especially if you have the right hair type. :)
on 5/27/2014 7:52:00 PM
Age: 19-24
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Neutral
Hair: Blond, Straight, Coarse
Eyes: Blue
This is the only heat protecting spray I'll use when I'm styling dry hair. Most heat protecting sprays leave your hair feeling heavy, and you have to wait a little bit for them to dry. This one is different! You can spray and immediately start straightening or curling your hair. I've repurchased this a bunch of times, and I plan to continue.
on 1/15/2014 2:03:00 PM
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Blond, Other, Other
Eyes: Blue
I was highly disappointed with this product, it leaves my hair more dry and brittle than it would be without using any product. It also makes my hair feel very sticky like a strong hole hairspray and the smell is not great either.
on 1/7/2014 1:40:00 PM
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Normal, Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Hazel
The first time I use my Chi flat iron, I used this product. It did a decent job, and my hair way pretty straight, so I was satisfied, considering my hair is extremely curly, thick, and difficult to straighten. I did this during the summer, and it was humid, however, and my hair did not hold up to the humidity at all. An hour later my hair was at this awkward not curly not straight stage. It was awful. I used this again, and decided that I absolutely hated the smell; it would almost make me gag. It also didn't even fully straighten my hair this time! every time I used it after that, I'd get the same result. I finally had to buy a different product, because this just wasn't working for me.
on 12/24/2013 4:49:00 PM
Age: 30-35
Skin: Acne-prone, Fair, Cool
Hair: Blond, Straight, Fine
Eyes: Blue
This was may first "salon" heat/thermal protectant spray. I have fine straight hair that is almost waist length (I'm an inch short) and find this does make my hair feel kind out dry after application. I apply to hair, wait until dry then proceed with my curling iron. I find it does protect the hair from burning, but leaves it looking "matte or flat". I find I need to use a shine spray afterwards.
on 12/11/2013 3:16:00 PM
Age: 19-24
Skin: Combination, Fair-Medium, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
I got this for free with my limited edition chi iron (breast cancer awareness), the packaging is pink, but I believe it is the same exact product. This product makes my fine wavy hair sticky and hard. I can't run my hands through it after and it looks dead. Dislike, and am currently on the market for something new. I'm thinking Redken 02 Satinwear based on these reviews.
on 10/31/2013 7:37:00 AM
Age: 25-29
Skin: Oily, Fair-Medium, Neutral
Hair: Black, Straight, Medium
Eyes: Hazel
I bought this at TJ Maxx for 10 bucks and would hate to pay anymore than that for a product Like this. I'm not one for bashing a product just because I didn't personally like it or because it didn't work for my hair type I like to give things a chance before doing so. But here is my verdict for this spray: At first I liked it and loved the smell but the more I used it and read the ingredients the more i started. Shying away from it. My hair is dense but thin so despite using a light enough amount it seemed to weigh my hair down and I recently bleached and put pink panels in my hair and noticed it fading out more every time. I am aware that heat can cause this but I definitely don't crank up the heat setting on my flat iron. I saw that sodium is one of the top ingredients in this spray so I wouldn't doubt that's the reason why it aided in fading my color and why everyone keeps complaining about the stiffness and dryness. Overall, if you have fine or really chemically processed hair I wouldn't recommend this. But if you have hair on the thicker side maybe it wouldn't be so bad..I passed it down to my sister in law who has really thick and long hair and she seems to like it just fine so Its just a matter of your hair type I suppose...Hence the 3 lippies
on 10/27/2013 2:32:00 AM
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Oily, Fair-Medium, Warm
Hair: Black, Straight, Coarse
Eyes: Brown
I rarely use heat products on my hair because my hair can never hold a curl since it's pin straight, even with hair spray. I used the Chi Iron Guard a few times when I curled my hair with my Bed Head flat iron, and without hair spray, the curl actually held for a few hours, which is extremely unusual. I don't know if the Iron Guard actually was the reason for the curl holding, but that was the only thing I changed in my routine. I used to use the Tresseme heat tamer spray, which worked well, but after I used the Chi Iron Guard, the curl held.
However, I don't know if my bottle was badly made or what, but I recently dropped the bottle on the floor, and it bursted. It wasn't exposed to heat or anything, so it was just strange.
on 9/21/2013 11:26:00 AM
Age: 18 & Under
Skin: Combination, Fair, Not Sure
Hair: Brunette, Other, Other
Eyes: Brown
The are multiple things wrong with this product.
1. The smell - in small amounts, the smell is fine, maybe even quite pleasant. But since it is a heat protectant, you have to spray it all over your hair, and the smell is disgusting
2. The actual product - this is horrible. It dried out my hair soo much, and made it tangly. It even made it harder to straighten. It was like I sprayed a whole bottle of hairspray on my hair. After I was done with it, my hair looked like a thick, tangly, frizzy mess. It didn't even stay straight the whole day!
3. The price - I mean, really? All of this for $18? I got this on sale for $12, and I think even that is ridiculous for how bad this product is.
IF you really want to buy this product, make sure your hair is brushed VERY well before you use it. And when you section your hair, before and after you spray the product, brush each section.
Will not be buying this again.
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