You have to go to a cheese shop. They have many of them in Wisconsin, where you can buy fresh (unaged) curds that squeek when you bite them or you can get 15+ year old cheddar that has, umm, complex flavor. If you like 2 or 3 year old Tillamook, it is possible you would enjoy the really old stuff, but my feeling is the latter is interesting but not all that enjoyable.
I mean, it’s not like the Federation is giving it to you, all those pesky rules and all! So it’s likely our returning evil genie or mad scientist. And they’re the sort of bastards that give you the replicator - but no way to power it.
So I voted “other”. If the source is one of the evil, twisted bastards, I’m not getting anything, too many risks. If it’s a case of “the tech and supporting equipment fell out of a timehole” and largely intact but not able to be shared due to the lack of modern science, I think I’ll do humanity a favor and grab one of the many Time Travel technologies from the various series. Not all of which require a full ship mind you.
I leave it to the imagination of our clever and/or evil posters what I’d DO with time travel tech, though I promise it’ll be used for my personal benefit AND the greater good. Cross my heart.
I’d originally voted for “holosuite” in the Star Trek poll, but I changed to “other”: medical technology.
In Star Trek IV (“The One With the Whales”), Dr. McCoy gives a woman in kidney failure a pill, and she grows a new kidney within a few minutes. While that’s a one-off scene, it’s clear that their medical technology is at a point that the sorts of diseases and injuries which bedevil us can be easily dealt with in Star Trek’s timeline. (Other examples are Picard’s artificial heart, and Geordi’s cybernetic vision devices: the VISOR, and later, cybernetic eyes.)
I have two chronic health conditions, both of which are under good control at the moment, but which are likely to be defining factors over the course of the rest of my life. I have parents who are dealing with cancer and the various maladies and physical limitations which come with being elderly. To be able to see those conditions not negatively impact our lives the way they are now, and give us back our quality of life, would be amazing.
I want the piece of Star Trek technology that they should have had on the show. It is like a wide belt that uses a Holodeck-like system to generate your clothing. The belt is reasonably comfortable and has a patch on the back that adjusts your attire to your mood. Like, when the captain is talking to the captain of another ship, he might become hostile and suddenly be wearing an outrageous fur and leather outfit that makes him look like Attila the Hun.
The clothing, obviously, would never need to be washed, and the device accommodates your biological needs, powering itself on your own bodily waste (I mean, seriously, they never mentioned or dealt with that issue on any of the shows).
There is a second design that is kind of like a necklace/sash thing, but it requires charging because it cannot handle the biological issues, is not capable of generating a full environmental field (equivalent to having a spacesuit) and is susceptible to hacking because it is controlled by the ship’s computer.
So we’re basically evenly divided on cheesesteaks vs. French dips. That feels kind of unsatisfying. I was hoping for a definitive answer as to the Dope’s favorite beef based sandwich.
This particular piece of information is now nearly 50 years out of date and may well no longer be applicable, but:
in the late 1970’s I was out in Santa Cruz, California and I could not find a proper sharp cheddar, never mind extra sharp or sharper. I could find a cheese shop, and when I asked them for sharp cheddar they claimed to have some – but when I tasted it, it was just barely this side of mild.
Wisconsin would have been a different matter entirely.
Of course, these days you can probably get cheese shipped to you from anywhere. And it seems likely that really sharp cheddars have expanded their available range by now.
I have noted all of the excellent advice on cheddar cheese and cheese shops.
Thank you all.
I will be visiting the Seattle area in late September so I get to explore their offerings.
For a family reunion last month, the 6 of us (wife and I, 2 kids and their spouses) enjoyed some nice 24 year old cheddar together. Not quite as good as the 30 year old stuff we gobbled up a few years back, but nicely bright and sharper than a scalpel.
But a couple of people stated they voted for French dip because they were afraid of getting Whiz on their steak. Now that the ordering / making process has been described to them I think they would change their votes.
We went by a cheese shop in rural, western NY that had a cheese vending machine so one could get their fix 24x7
They are fairly similar- you can get a cheesesteak without cheese and a french dip with. Not the same of course, but both are really good. However, I can find french dips in many restaurants, but to me it appears cheesesteak is only in dedicated cheesesteak shops.