I got nothing.
We’ve been so busy this month that I just didn’t get my shit together in time to even make anything from scratch, let alone write it up.
That doesn’t mean I won’t have something else to post this week, though. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, point your eyes at Doug’s Pegu Blog for his wrap-up post, later this week, and thanks to Doug for hosting.
Man, 32 already, huh. It seems just yesterday that MxMo was finally old enough to drink–soon, MxMo will be old enough to run for president of the U.S. Ain’t that crazy?
Now, the topic of this month’s installment is …
uh…
Oh, that’s right, guilty pleasures. Sorry if I zoned out on you there for a moment. I had to run to the kitchen to make sure my Jell-O didn’t burn. I’m prepping a test batch of a Halloween-themed, brain-shaped Melon Fusion Jell-O mold, spiked with Sour Apple Pucker and Absolut Sheboygan.
All right, everything’s gelling up just fine, so it’s time to talk dirrrrrrrrty pleasures.
Except. I don’t really have many anymore. Not to be snahby or anything, we just don’t drink that way for the most part these days. The only thing I feel guilty about is that when we have a second drink before dinner, it’s almost always an Old Fashioned. I get creative for round one and lazy for round two.
That’s not to say I don’t have a history of embarrassing drinks. The first drunk that I can recall was at my eldest cousin’s wedding, in Southern Illinois, in–oh– 1982 or so. I was 14 and obviously underage, but the bartender served me at the reception anyway. My first drunk, I shit you not, was on Tom Collinses. Now, I guess that’s not terribly embarrassing, but they weren’t really Collinses as much as they were gin and Sprite.
Actually, I think that’s exactly what they were: gin and Sprite. And at 14, I wasn’t much of a drinker, so three of those in about an hour kinda messed me up. I went back to the hotel room, read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, laughed my ass off, and fell asleep, at which point a million-gallon vat of custard upended itself over me without warning.
I proved myself such a man that weekend that my grandparents started plying me with drinks when we’d go visit them. Ah yes, such a gentleman of leisure I was in my high-school days that I developed a taste for the Fuzzy Navel.
http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/844481/fuzzy_navel_cocktail_drink_recipe.swf
I can’t believe this guy gets work – At least he didn’t pick his nose this time
But just because I’m no longer prone to quaffing gin and Sprite while chortling at Marvin’s antics, or sipping a Fuzzy Navel in front of the Rose Bowl parade, doesn’t mean I’m always high-brow when I’m out drinking. When Jen and I were in New York, we went out often with friends, and that normally meant a good dive bar or neighborhood pub. Unless we were in a specialty beer bar, such as D.B.A., I was always happy to go with a humble brew of regional renown.
Yes, East Coasters, behold my favorite party-time beer in New York:
Thanks to Stevi for hosting, and for choosing such a fun topic.
I dunno whether anyone’s paying attention on this long holiday weekend, but my wife’s blog, Last Night’s Dinner, is down at the moment. I’m working on getting it back online, but there are mitigating factors too boring to mention that are complicating things.
Jen hasn’t gone away; in fact, the site outage is an unintended consequence of an LND redesign. So if you’re one of her loyal readers, fret not.
With apologies to the folks in this eGullet thread…
You know you’re a cocktail nerd when you move house, and one box contains nothing but bitters.
We’re in Providence as of yesterday afternoon, but we’re still digging out. Catch up with y’all soon.
A website that I won’t name (I don’t want them to get the traffic) has been scraping and republishing my content without my consent. I think this is reprehensible, and it’s pissing me off. The very post I put up earlier today has already been scraped and republished. The site has Google ads on it, so I’ve already reported it to Google, following the advice here. I’ve also added a copyright header to my RSS feed so that it’s very clear that no one has the right to reproduce my material. Finally, I’m telling the scrapers right now to fuck off and die.
photo by Jennifer Hess
This was a bitch to find this year, and I finally grabbed a six of it only yesterday.
Back in 2008. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a happy new year!
My overtime period has ended at the day job, so expect regular posting to return.
I’m blasting back in this week with two product reviews–one is of a liqueur and the other of a fairly new book. I don’t receive review offers often, and I don’t accept everything I am offered, so it’s fair to say that most of the products I review here are items that I myself have purchased, unless I say differently in the review.
In other words, if it’s a freebie, I’ll mention it. But since the vast majority of what I drink, read, etc. is stuff I’ve bought for myself, it seems silly to say so every time I talk about a product.
The liqueur I’m reviewing was sent to me for review, and I’ve mentioned that in my drafted post. The book was something I myself purchased, and in my draft, I haven’t mentioned that fact. I’m saying this now in case anyone wants me to clarify or alter my position before I publish these posts.
I think I’m the last of us to post about this, but I’ve joined the Spirits and Cocktails ad network that Darcy O’Neil and Jeffrey Morgenthaler have set up.
My rationale for joining is this: I’ve never expected to get rich from this site, but I would like to bring in a little money to cover my expenses and, more importantly, to fuel my hobby. As most of you know, spirits aren’t always cheap, and I’d love a little extra cash each month to purchase new products, cocktail manuals, equipment, and so forth–all with the goal of providing more material for this site.
Seeing my name among the folks involved in the initial group of sites (Darcy, Jeffrey, Natalie, Paul, Gabriel, and Rick) is a little heady, so I’m even happier to take part. We’d all attest to getting press releases regularly from distributors and PR firms with recipes and other drink ideas. Speaking for myself, I’ll only ever build a post around these press releases if I’m actually interested in the product or the drink recipe mentioned therein, but it shows that these companies are actively trying to reach our readers.
Through advertising, the companies can talk to you, our readers, directly. And if we can make a little money off of it, so much the better.
The press release, after the jump.
Just a quick pimpin’ here. The Gin Fizz picture I posted yesterday is the result of the arduous and laborious research forced upon me by the taskmasters at Imbibe, who wanted a paragraph about, and a recipe using, orange flower water. The pain I suffer for this site…I tell ya.
My bit appears in the Q&A feature of the July/August issue, which hits newsstands and mailboxes this week. Get yerself a copy! You should be reading Imbibe anyway, so you have no excuses!
If stuff starts looking odd around here, it’ll probably be because I’m in the middle of redesigning this site. I want to switch to a three-column layout so that the blogroll and categories are easier to access; I plan to redesign the logo (I just now noticed how much it cribs from the Imbibe logo); and I have other cosmetic changes in mind.
But that’s going to mean testing design elements out on the live site, so if things shift about or just look weird, give me a couple of hours and I’ll straighten it out.
