Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with snob

Wine Advocate?

furiousxgeorge — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:11:03 -0800

Are there any wine review sites similar to Beer Advocate or Rate Beer? I'm looking for a site with a database that hits nearly everything in the world with a good amount of user reviews for reasonably popular wines.

BA and Rate Beer really helped me when learning about beer and how to appreciate it. They gave me a frame of reference for what I was tasting and what others tasted in the beer.

When I try to find reviews for wines I maybe find one or two and otherwise just links to online liquor stores or generic epinions type crap.

comics for snobs

sponge — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:20:07 -0800

Can you recommend any graphic novel / comic forums or groups that focus on more obscure, non Barnes and Noble titles? Or that are more focused on the art, illustration qualities.

Related: 1, 2.

Thanks!

Alternatives to mainstream baby paraphernalia?

kmennie — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:54:23 -0800

I'm looking for alternatives to some of the mass-market baby products. For example: using cloth table napkins as "burp cloths." And, can you buy decent disposable diapers in Canada? Baby arriving any day now, panic setting in. Most mainstream baby stuff is hideous -- those bassinets look like lawn furniture wearing a teen-aged tart's clothes -- and dreadfully made; I'm not sure what it is with the fetish for icky-patterend pastels that pill. Here and there, I'm finding little work-arounds, like buying some nice linen/cotton napkins to throw over my shoulder for barf, but I need more.

What makes a good 'receiving blanket' that's not the cheap thing from the baby store, or the $100 designer deal? Is there a soft cloth something I'm not thinking of that's the right size and thickness, just not sold as a baby blanket?

Is it reasonable to think that a futon store can custom-make me a crib mattress that's inbetween the $50 Wal-Mart crinkly plastic deal and the $450 organic job?

Would, as Mr Kmennie insists, a baby really enjoy lounging in a cat bed? (NB: not for unsupervised naps; more for hanging out on the porch, etc.)

Any suggestions for tasteful (yeah, this is going to be the first child of somewhat older parents) baby work-arounds, jerryrigging, etc, to get me out of buying overpriced mass-market garbage or overpriced designer garbage are welcome. I'm tired of having "But I wouldn't (wear/sleep on/want to look at/smell like/etc) that!" panics mixed in with the odd "That's perfect, but why is it $500?" I hate having to shell out to just get something that doesn't have that ghetto Dora on it...

On a related note, I was irked to find that all disposable diapers have licensed characters on them these days. Even generics -- !! And a lot of them are perfumed to hell. Can anybody point me to a brand sold in Canada that's unscented and not festooned with advertising? (Am near Ottawa, and not near a Whole Foods or similar.)

P.S. I am also open to recommendations for baby and child instruction manuals that cater to the "I am crunchy-granola, but not prone to paranoia about vaccines" crowd."

Graphic Novels for Snobs

grumblebee — Mon, 25 Apr 2005 13:31:53 -0800

I'm a snob. What graphic novels should I read? Okay, I'm poking fun at myself (and hoping not to offend -- I can't help liking the things I like).

People keep telling me that certain graphic novels are masterpieces, but when I read them, I don't like them. I keep wondering what their criteria are for judging a book a work of genius. Do they mean "it's a masterpiece compared with other comic books" or "it's a masterpiece compared with any work or literature"? Because I don't care how something ranks within the comic-book world. I just want to read good stories. I'm convinced there MUST be good stories in graphic novel form.

The art is important to me, but the story is more important (by story, I mean plot / character / writing style). One thing I HATE: when the art simply illustrates the prose. If a character says, "look, there's a giant monster," then the artwork better give me some additional information -- not just show me a giant monster. The art and prose must play off each other to form a whole. They story should be impossible to follow if you take either away.

I know about (and like) Ghost World, Lynda Barry and Chris Ware.

My literary tastes include classics (Shakespeare, Chekhov, Jane Austen), really well-written genrea novels (Hammet, Kim Stanley Robinson), and well-crafted "middlebrow" novels (Margaret Atwood, Ann Tyler, John Updike). TV I watch includes "Deadwood" (my favorite), "The Sopranos," old British series like "Upstair Downstairs" and "I, Claudius" and "Freaks and Geeks."

I dislike camp.