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Blink

 If you're of a certain age range you probably remember finding bands through Napster (or later on Limewire). Sometimes the bands were mislabeled, sometimes they were somehow linked through a search for another song. There are quite a number of bands that I found through Napster that I still listen to regularly today. Daily, monthly, annually...even less frequently. One of the..probably annual? bands..that I found in the Napster days was 88 Fingers Louie. I can't say with 100% surety that this is how I became aware of 88 Fingers Louie..but it seems to make sense to me. I just searched Blink on Napster (because of Blink 182) and downloaded stuff that I thought might be good. Well, it worked out. Blink is a dope song. 88 Fingers Louie is a great band. A couple years after first hearing Blink I was flipping through used cd's at CDPlus and came across an 88 Fingers Louie CD, "The Dom Years". I flipped to the back to see what songs were on it, well dang, Blink's right there. Score! It was the first but not the last cd that I picked up from this melodic hardcore / skatepunk / speedpunk band. They still band and I love going back to them at my leisure, or even their 2017 Thank you for Being a Friend. 

One of my first posts on this blog I wrote about the defunct Old Dutch Rave potato chip line. I extolled the virtues of this line, specifically their extra Salt & Vinegar and Buffalo Wing Flavours and lamented their passing. Flash forward 8 years and some change. I was at baseball about a month ago and a person on the team brought a box of Old Dutch chips to the game. Like a kid on xmas morning I was elated, chips! Once I got a look into the box I was taken back. Old Dutch..Ridgies....extra Salt & Vinegar! This can't be. They brought the flavour back? Old Dutch brought the flavour back!? They're not Rave. And they have mini ridged as opposed to the smoothies that Rave were. But extra! I had to get some of them in me. When I cracked the bag I could smell vinegar. When I put one in my mouth....I was somewhat let down. Maybe it's the rose tinting of memory, but I recalled Rave's extra S&V being rip your face off vinegary. These are indeed extra, but not painfully so (or amazingly so depending on your perspective/taste). The chips have a medium crunch, not a ton of skin to be seen. The vinegar is aggressive, don't get me wrong. But after plowing my way through a 200g bag my tongue is only slightly raw. Well, maybe it's pretty raw. These chips are actually quite extra vinegary. Yeah, these bang. Huzzah!

Stay hydrated,

Marc

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