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The Best of Its Kind
There are very few things that are universally recognized as the best of their kind. But some things were simply better than everything that came before them, and remain better than anything since. In honor of Rush Limbaugh, who was the best talk radio broadcaster in history, I thought it would be fun to hear some of your thoughts on what is the best of its kind. Any category will do – best beer, best album, best handgun – so let’s hear it.
I will say right up front that the best toy for children of all ages are Legos. They’re educational, versatile, can be used to create more than their advertised design, loved cross-culturally, and cross-gender, and are a better investment than many stocks.
What’s your best?
Published in General
Sheesh, that’s impressive array of “stuff”.
No.
Best category of kitchen utensil: potato peeler.
Best rock song based on the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation: “Lost the Plot,” by Newsboys.
Best introduction to great ideas from a great and underappreciated mind: my new video series on William James.
Best cartoon based on Plato’s Meno: mine.
You’re right, it’s not the best Rock album. It’s the best Album album.
With Pet Sounds waiting there on the podium.
Kind of Blue.
Best website: Ricochet.
Yes yes yes yes yes….
I’ve listened to it a million times, and it just keeps getting better.
Best sitcom: Cheers
Cape Cod has the best fish in the world. James Beard says in his American Cookery that the only place people can get really good chowder is on the Cape because we have the sweetest clams. And Wellfleet oysters and Nantucket Bay scallops are shipped to all the richest people over the holidays. And there’s our famous Cape cod and haddock. Not lobster so much–that honor goes to Maine. And of course, Alaska and the West Coast have the world’s best king crab and salmon.
But along with our wonderful fish are the most rugged fishermen (and a few fisherwomen!) in the world. Which is why the sea shanties are the best. The best sea chanty leader in the world right now is David Coffin. Here he is at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Maritime Folk Festival in 2010 leading the crowd in “Roll the Old Chariot.” The sea shanties were songs that the crews sang to keep them moving together in unison. So this is what New Englanders do for fun:
In this clip from that festival, David Coffin explains the history of the sea shanty and teaches the crowd another one:
Some people remember the first time they heard Rush. Some their first time getting high. I remember the first time I heard Kind of Blue. There were great jazz albums before and since, but for me it’s at the top of the heap by a small margin.
Great post. Only three.
Best European city: Barcelona.
Best beer: Anchor Steam.
Best college football team: Alabama.
As on Okie, the last one hurts.
And now I wish I’d planned on fish for dinner.
Rob, is that you?
Best all-around climate in America: the Pacific Northwest
Best radio talk-show host: Rush Limbaugh
Best, most versatile rock band: Jethro Tull
Best rock musician: Ian Anderson
Dr. B- Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. That stuff is terrific. I found it in Kroger in Bluffton, Indiana when I was home for my father’s funeral back in 15. Since then I have not been able to find it again. Is the distribution area limited like Coors used to be?
What keeps astonishing me about the Strat is how the price for a 3-pick-up model with tremolo, a pretty basic model, is still the best on the market for the instrument. You can spend a lot more, sure, even on a Fender instrument, but why?
If you like depressing nihilism set to music, sure. That is what I have come to intensely dislike about that album. The musician ship is world-class, for certain. The songwriting is very good. And the worldview behind it completely corrosive.
Best beer: Budweiser
In 1998 the London Times ran a beer World Cup using the top beer from each of the 32 national teams in the soccer World Cup in France.
Using the tournament format and blind taste testing by their staff (English newspaper people, experts by definition). The winner, to the horror of the paper, was Budweiser. They actually discussed not publicizing the result.
It’s served on tap at the restaurant in our lodge here in Lake Frederick, VA. Not bad.
Best novel in English: Pride and Prejudice.
Best sacred music, choral category: Allegri’s Miserere.
Love her! My favorite song she does is “Art Is Calling For Me”. She does a gaudy, unreal finish starting at 3:00:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tei12_KpMg
I also love Maria Ewing, my favorite being The Hanabera from Carmen. In this production, she really tramps it up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF5QONMTaA8
Being a fan of both, I own the DVDs . . .
Best Classical Album Album: Dvorak Slavonic Dances opus 46 and 72 (complete). George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra. The CO’s next music director after Szell, the late lamented Lorin Maazel, would give this as a gift to visiting musicians instead of some of his own fine work. It’s that good. Maazel’s successor, Christoph von Dohnanyi, recorded the Dances with the CO himself, but it’s not as good.
Best Jazz Album Album: Chet Baker, The Last Great Concert
So much from which to choose…
Always wanted one! I used to have a Gibson “The Paul,” which has a solid walnut body. Gave it up because I have carpal tunnel, so now I’ve moved to the bass.
Definitely in my top ten, but my favorite is Who’s Next? by The Who.
Update: With Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell a close second . . .
Best affordable cigar:
Padilla 1968 robusto
Plato here assumes that the idea to which a word (virtue) refers is discoverable by dialog.
Did the real Plato also do that?
(I did study Plato, but at the time I was unaware of the existence of this common fallacy, so I never learned whether he was guilty of it or not.)