Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Kassel Is Emasculated By An Empowerpuff Public Relations Morselette (And Brian Howlett)

Ever heard of a cocktail called a Mint Julep?  How about a Mai Tai? Yeah; me too, so why is the publicist from Empower Public Relations sending me emails listing them among ‘Five Cocktails You May Not Have Heard Of’? … Continue reading

Posted in GENERAL, LIQUOR, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Beat The Muddles: Drinks from the Beatnik Generation

January 6, 2012 would have marked the 77th birthday of John ‘The Hipster of Joy Street’ Wieners, an influential lyric poet who was one of the lesser known writers of the Beat Generation. Like any self-respecting beatnik, Wieners was born … Continue reading

Posted in GENERAL, LIQUOR, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition: The Best Booze in the Biosphere?

First, you mint a coin in honor of ‘Dirty Jobs’—that enchanting cable TV show that finds host Mike Rowe up to his neck in manure, leeches, cucarachas or bull semen in the Discovery Channel equivalent of a ‘Stay in School, … Continue reading

Posted in LIQUOR, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Calvados: The Apple of My High

Wherever mankind blazed his imperialist trail, booze soon followed.  Using whatever was fermentable, findable or farmable, liquor has been distilled by thirsty barbarians since the 2nd millennium B.C., taking any guise that propriety demanded: medicine, holy elixir, even fuel.  But … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | 1 Comment

Why Bomb Iraq When You Can Get Bombed on Arak?

There’s aragh, the sound you make when you skin your knee, and there’s ouzo, which is what drips from your infected skinned knee when you fail to treat it.  Both are also the names of some distant cousins of arak—a … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

When it comes to free-associating the term ‘barely legal’, there are two kinds of people in the world: those who imagine Miley Cyrus’s eighteen birthday party and those who think about absinthe. Long the realm of bohemian pre-rock rock stars—men … Continue reading

Posted in Miscellaneous | Leave a comment