​On Washington Island, drinking Angostura shots is the rule, not the exception.

ANGOSTURA, THE BITTERS PACKAGED IN the ubiquitous, yellow-topped bottles, can be found on nearly every bar in the world. Typically, a dash or two of the potent liquid is enough to add an earthy, sharp tang to any drink.
But on Washington Island—a remote locale off the tip of a tiny peninsula, surrounded by Lake Michigan in the northernmost part of Wisconsin—people do things a bit differently. To truly drink like a local, you must take a full one-ounce shot of Angostura at Nelsen’s Hall Bitters Pub (as one of only a handful of bars on the island, that means pretty much every resident is a regular). According to the card you receive as an initiated member of the “Bitters Club,” that shot means you are “now considered a full-fledged islander and are entitled to mingle, dance, etc. with all the other islanders.”

Tom’s tonic proved to be extremely popular among locals, many of whom apparently suffered from previously-undiagnosed stomach ailments until then. In fact, customers who kept Nelsen’s open for the entirety of Prohibition are directly responsible for the pub being the oldest continuously-operating tavern in Wisconsin. That’s despite more than one visit from the feds, who harbored their doubts about the island’s sudden onset of tummy troubles, but were never able to successfully shut down the pharmacy-cum-bar.
Prohibition was repealed in 1933. Though the pub eventually resumed normal operations, and even after a full bar was reinstated, the bitter shots had embedded themselves in the island’s drinking traditions. Shots of Angostura continued to be one of the most popular items on the menu. Tom himself is said to have consumed up to a pint (about eleven shots!) of bitters every day. “The bitters were a huge part of his life,” Jaworski says. “He lived to the ripe old age of 90, and drank his bitters until the very end.”
In the mid-twentieth century, Tom’s nephew, Gunnar, and his wife, Bessie, took over the pub and carried on his legacy by founding the Bitters Club, which has continued under several different owners. The club has proved so popular that Nelsen’s is officially the largest purveyor of Angostura bitters in the world. According to a representative from Angostura, the bar singlehandedly sells upwards of 10,000 shots every year. Many members of the club have told Jaworski that the experience inspired them to buy bitters for their home bar, though more often to use in Old Fashioneds than as shots.
“We go through case after case,” says Jaworski. “Busy weekends we’ll go through three cases of bitters. When we get a first-timer who wants to join the club, we try to be encouraging. We tell them that it smells like clove, and that it’s not going to be as bad as they expect.”
Maryn McKenna was one of those first-timers when she arrived in Washington Island with a boyfriend in 1992. The two visited the island on a whim and wandered into Nelsen’s knowing nothing about its specialty.
“We stepped into this big white building where there seemed to be lots of people at the bar, and someone was slamming back a shot glass and gagging,” McKenna recalls. Naturally, she was intrigued. “I had never heard of the Bitters Club. I’d never even heard of Nelsen’s. Anyway, they poured the Angostura, I tossed it down, I didn’t choke, and the bartender stuck her thumb in the dregs. She stamped my card with a thumbprint and initialed it, gave me my card, and wrote my name in a ledger.”

​

As a child when we visited the country side, this would be a familiar sight.  Great memories.  I wonder if this is still continued today?
​

​US military and local police allegedly thwarted an IS plot to attack Trinidad's famous carnival. But almost all the suspects have been freed.

PORT OF SPAIN - It was billed as an Islamic State atrocity in the making, plotted by "high-value" suspects and heroically thwarted by local police and US military. But in the fallout, doubts have been cast on whether the plot to attack a famous Caribbean carnival ever even existed.
A spokesperson for the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) told local media on 8 February that four people had been arrested for questioning after an alleged threat to the event, which was due to start on 12 February. Local media reported that the spokesperson repeatedly declined to say if the threat was terrorism-related.
The carnival, whose present-day origins date back to the early 19th-century, is a big draw in the regional calendar. The Trinidadian government estimates that carnival revenue exceeded TT$ 334m (US$50m) in 2017.
The alleged plot made headlines around the world: the US and UK governments responded by issuing travel warnings to their citizens, including mention of the carnival.
While most news outlets simply reported the travel advisories, CNN went further. An articleauthored by Ryan Browne and Barbara Starr, CNN’s Pentagon correspondent, said that the US military had helped thwart a terrorism attack.
The article, which is based on interviews with two anonymous US military officials, uses dramatic language and paints the US military in a very favourable light.


"US troops participated in anti-terror raids...  helping to capture four high-value targets," it reported, before describing those arrested as "four extremists who are believed to be part of a network engaged in plotting terror attacks."
Starr's use of such sources has often been criticised, not least by Glenn Greenwald, who once described her as the "Pentagon's reporter at CNN".
A follow-up piece, filed by Starr and Nicole Gaouette, featured the headline "US issues security alert for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival" and began "Days before the carnival on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, multiple US officials tell CNN they are aware of a terror-related threat to the popular annual event."
MEE asked Starr and Browne about the article: they had yet to respond at time of publication.
The Islamic State 'claim'The reality, however, was very different.
The suspects were not so much "captured" as arrested by local police officers in their homes in the middle of the night. Several mosques in Trinidad were also searched.
During the coming days, at least nine more people were arrested, all of them members of Trinidad’s 66,000 Muslim population.
The world’s media moved on from the story – but it continued to dominate headlines in Trinidad and Tobago, especially after an article in the Trinidad Guardian reported that Islamic State (IS) had claimed the threat to the carnival, and was planning a "mega-attack... when the Carnival was in full swing".
According to reporter Gail Alexander, IS made the claims in the February 2018 issue of Dabiq, its propaganda magazine, which the Trinidad Guardian apparently quoted from at length.
As Middle East Eye has previously reported, Trinidad and Tobago has faced problems with citizens leaving the country to join IS, as up to 100 have done in recent years. The government is currently introducing an anti-terrorism amendment bill to combat the threat of the fighters returning.  
The legislation will criminalise travel for the purpose of terrorist acts, redefine terrorism to include acts committed abroad and make it easier for the government to propose names of suspected terrorists to the UN Security Council. The legislation was referred to committee in January.
Aaron Zelin, the Richard Borrow Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is separately editor of jihadology.net, a "clearing house for jihadi primary source material and original analysis".
He says that the IS magazine was "discontinued a while ago" and said of the Trinidad Guardian: "They have no idea what they’re talking about."
So where did the newspaper’s story come from?
The print edition of the story included a photograph of a screenshot of an article. The caption underneath reads that it is "An image of the story in Dabiq which claimed ISIS fighters plotting to disrupt carnival had been held."
But the screenshot includes a quote in which IS describes itself as "Daesh", an acronym for the group’s full Arabic name. IS considers the term to be pejorative: reports indicate that it once threatened to cut the tongue out of anyone that used it in its territory.
The screenshot is that of a story from the Voltaire Network website, run by 9/11 truther Thierry Meyssan. Indeed, the words "Voltaire Network" are clearly visible twice, including next to the dateline.

Shonari Richardson is an artist from Tobago.
The 22-year-old has been painting since the age of two. But only recent has he become a sensation in his hometown of Spring Garden.
How did he do it?
It does help if your cousins are Tobago-born Black Panther actor, Winston Duke, and Watson Duke, the politican and PSA president.
Winston Duke, who plays the character, M'Baku in the Marvel movie is described as an antagonist, itching to take the crown from his archnemesis, Wakanda King T'Challa played by American actor, Chadwick Boseman.
Richardson, who did the portrait of his cousin last week Thursday, said it took just about a day and half to complete it. He utilized acrylic paints to complete his masterpiece, which measures 22 inches in width and 30 inches in length.
Proud of his cousin's accomplishments, Richardson said, he could not find any fault in Duke's depiction of the character, M'Baku, and acknowledged the immense talent and scope of the movie directed by American film director and screenwriter, Ryan Coogler.
Before the hype and fanfare of the Black Panther movie, many Trinidadians and Tobagonians had no idea who was Duke. Not to be confused by minority Tobago House of Assembly leader Watson Duke, who acknowledged recently, he and the Black Panther star are cousins.
Richardson, who shares a close relationship with the Hollywood actor, posted this comment along with the painting:
I never got the drive to paint a painting like how I did this one and in record time too maybe because we're related or because he's Tobagonian and this most epic movie out right now. Anyways I've just painted Marvels movie Black Panther's M'Baku played movie star and Tobagonian Winston Duke…big up yourself cuzzo. So excited to see this movie eh. 
He said Duke is very low-key and makes surprise visits to Tobago to see the family.
Though Richardson may not share the same passion for the big screen as his cousin, talent definitely runs in the family.
He said, “I have seen the movie but I have no desire to become an actor. I plan to further my studies in Visual Arts at the University of the West Indies in August.”
Richardson continues to hone his art and has painted several prominent people in areas of politics and entertainment. From Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to former prime ministers, Kamla Persad-Bisessar, Patrick Manning and Dr Eric Williams to name a few.
Richardson's post has been shared on social media to rave reviews. It shows Richardson next to the completed portrait of the Black Panther star, Winston Duke.
One of the shares came from Duke himself, who posted the portrait and this comment on his Facebook page: Wow! This incredible Fan Art is courtesy of my tremendously talented Cousin and God Brother, Shonar Richardson Art! Friends, what do you think? Let's show him some love!  
Source:  Daily Express, March 2, 2018
The Black Panther movie has grossed $763.3M globally, and according to online US Magazine, Deadline Hollywood given the immense popularity amongst movie-goers, the Marvel sensation looks like it will rake in more than $1 billion.

Lawyers in Trinidad and Tobago are challenging the conduct of the country’s top judge, following questions about his relationship with a man who was shot in an ambush and is now seeking asylum in the UK.
The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago is investigating allegations involving the chief justice, Ivor Archie, after local media queried his conduct in relation to Dillian Johnson, 36, who survived a night-time shooting outside his home in December. Johnson fled Trinidad to the UK three weeks after the shooting and says he fears for his life if he is forced to return.
 Questions have been asked about whether the married judge took Johnson with him to a four-day Commonwealth law conference in Guyana in 2016, and whether he used his office to lobby for state housing for people, including Johnson. It was also alleged that he proposed to his fellow judges that they swap their state-provided personal security officers for others provided by a company that employed Johnson as a consultant.
Archie has denied the allegations and has accused the law association of being biased against him. He strongly denies any suggestion he knew about a plot to shoot Johnson, saying such claims were “ridiculous and false”.
Archie, 57, is an honorary member of the middle temple bench, one of London’s four inns of court, and is considered a liberal thinker on gay rights. He has denied having an “intimate” relationship with Johnson, a manager for the state water and sewage company who was convicted of forging job references in 2008. Archie’s lawyers declined to say whether he described himself as gay or bisexual as they said it did “not affect the chief justice’s professional conduct and concern[s] his private life”.
Johnson was shot outside his home on 3 December and arrived in the UK on 29 December. He says he fears for his life if he returns to his home country and believes he was the victim of a targeted hit.
“I fear being murdered for my sexuality if I go back,” Johnson said. “My relationship with [the chief justice] has been highly publicised.”
Johnson has complained that police have failed to bring his attacker or attackers to justice. He is being assisted in the UK by the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who said there was “public hostility and great stigma attached to homosexuality” in Trinidad and Tobago.
“Buggery” remains punishable by up to 25 years in prison and six gay men were murdered in the first five months of 2017, according to rights campaigners. 
Last week, a legal challenge was launched to repeal the laws criminalising homosexuality in the Caribbean nation, which has a population of 1.4 million. The UK-based gay rights advocate, Jason Jones, who is leading the case, has said he has received death threats as a result.
Growing up gay in the Caribbean, I was in constant survival mode

In January, photographs emerged in the local press, apparently showing Archie and Johnson on a hotel bed at a legal conference in Guyana. Another photo showed Johnson wearing what appeared to be Archie’s conference lanyard. Archie has said he did not stay in the same room as Johnson or pay his bills, and that US forensic experts had concluded the photos had been digitally manipulated.
Archie’s lawyers said he was “alive to the clear mischief of Mr Johnson” and that two of the photos “contain images which are false representations of the subject matter of the photographs”.
Johnson has alleged to police that Archie may have known about the shooting before it happened. Archie’s lawyers said Whatsapp messages which Johnson claims show Archie plotting the attack with another man “were as false as the doctored photographs and should be forensically examined by a reputable source before any responsible person seeks to rely on them for publication”.
In December, Archie won backing from a group of supreme court judges who believe he has been the victim of “false narration” in respect of some of the allegations against him. They took out a newspaper advertisement to declare it was they, not Archie, who suggested alternative security arrangements should be explored.
“At no time did the honourable chief justice seek then or since to ‘convince’ fellow judges to change existing security arrangements,” they said in a statement signed “group of judges”.
However, last week the Trinidad and Tobago Law Association said it had appointed two QCs to take their investigation into Archie forward. They said they had a list of allegations “sufficiently substantiated as to require a response”. 
Archie responded by saying he would issue a high court claim to halt the investigation. He alleges the law association is “tainted by bias” against him and is exceeding its powers.
Before Johnson was shot in Gasparillo, 90 minutes’ drive from the capital, Port of Spain, there was growing media speculation about the nature of the relationship between Archie and Johnson. Johnson believes he had been under surveillance in the preceding days.
After the shooting, Johnson made a detailed 13-page crime report to the anti-corruption investigative bureau of the Trinidad and Tobago police, including details about how he claims to have obtained the Whatsapp messages which Archie’s lawyers said were fake.
He described how, four days before the shooting, he was followed in his car by an unidentified man to a restaurant car park, where the man photographed his vehicle. The following day a friend introduced him to a man whom he recognised as having followed him 24 hours earlier. Johnson said the man warned him that the political opposition wanted to kill him.
Johnson told the police that on the day of the shooting he was outside his home when he was approached by a man asking if there was a mechanical garage nearby.
“I saw him move his left hand and pulled up his jersey and with his right hand he pushed it down the waist of his pants. I heard him say ‘Doh make a scene’. I felt fear and immediately turned and started to run. I heard loud noises and knew it was gun fire.
“I didn’t know I was hit until I came out of the bushes,” he told the Guardian. “The adrenaline was pumping.”
He had been shot once in the hand and went to hospital for treatment.
“The police came to me and took reports,” he said. “They did nothing to find the perpetrators.”
Asked to comment, the chief of the the anti-corruption investigative bureau, William Nurse, said: “I have no interest in speaking with the press, foreign or local.”
Source:  Guardian, Feb 28, 2018