January 30, 2009
I usually shy away from the more modern quotes (cause, well, modern folks just aren’t as poetic. Except you. You’re awfully swell, and speak like a tipsy angel. And many writers today have fine quotes–I just tend towards the older quotes. So sue me) on the site and in the books, but I just read this article on Slate, about how President Obama is turning around Bush’s no-cocktail-party ethos and having drinks again around the White House (which, naturally, tickles me) with a little dip into past presidential drinking, and came across a great, great quote. It’s by the article author, John Dickerson, talking about a cocktail affair with folks from both parties there after a hard day of hill haggling, and I dug it (even if it wasn’t written 100 years ago):
First, drinking in moderation leads to an equitable distribution of the humors, and we want our president to be healthy. Second, among adversaries, drinking promotes relaxation and laughter. I doubt it will lead to an agreement on the size of small-business tax cuts in the recovery package, but a few drinks might shave off a few layers of posturing. All of the guessing at motives will decrease. Without so much chest-thumping, the two parties may even get to genuine points of disagreement faster. As a community organizer, Obama knows the power of getting everyone to recognize themselves in one another. What better way to do that than over a few drinks? (Those who disagree should stop wondering why they are lonely at parties or aren’t invited at all.)
–John Dickinson, Obama Raises the Bar
January 22, 2009
I actually know this quote from the Burton-Taylor movie and not the book (though perhaps it’s in there too? Who’s literary enough to answer that question? Or sober enough, for that matter?), but since I have a couple pals quitting, or attempting to quit, or playing at quitting, smoking right now, it certainly seemed appropriate. And maybe will spur them to finally give up the stinky sticks. And even beyond that, it’s such a darn fine quote:
Now, I will hold your hand when it’s dark and you’re afraid of the boogeyman and I will tote your gin bottles out after midnight so no one can see but I will not light your cigarette. And that, as they say, is that.
–George (Richard Burton), in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
January 6, 2009
Wait, hold up, before introducing this quote, let me say happy freaking New Year booze-y pals. Here’s to a fantastically tipsy 2009. And, while it’s not 01/01/01/09 (the first second of the first day and all), it’s still the year’s start, and this quote is a sillily lovely way to start said year. It’s another bubbling gem from The Complete Imbiber #1, from an essay by Paul Holt (who, I feel bad to admit, I don’t know much about–any help?) called “The Wine and the Waistcoat.” In it, he talks about drinking and dressing, but it’s a fairly long quote, so I’m just gonna back out of its way:
“In this connection I feel I must deal with the problem of pink champagne. It is well known that many a romance has been wrecked for the lack of this romantic tipple.
I would say, here, that if it must be drunk in such a good cause, the costume is absolutely de rigueur. A sincere dressing-gown with red morocco slippers is as important as the guardsman’s bowler and brolly. (This last attire goes excellently with a large whiskey in the morning, particularly if you can manage to hide the brief-case that so cruelly accompanies it these days.) . . .
Perhaps, after all, it is best to stick to Pernod, if the sartorial consequences of imbibing interest you as much as they do me. This if only for the reason that however you start off drinking the stuff, you’re bound to end up more or less naked.”
— Paul Holt, “The Wine and the Waistcoat”
December 9, 2008
Okay, I can throw this out there for all the William Makepeace Thackeray fans to get up in arms about (cock your slings and arrows-delivering devices now): I’m not a huge fan of Vanity Fair. I mean, I like it all right. But Mr. Thackeray just doesn’t get me involved in the way other novelists (English novelists, two specifically, and if you’ve read this blog you can guess who I mean) do. He always feels like he’d sit in the corner at any party pooh-poohing the people laughing loudly and spilling peanuts on the floor. And I’m usually one of those people. But, I did buy some maraschino liqueur last Friday, and I do really love it, and at least like Vanity Fair better than, say, 92.3% of the books published last year. And I would thoroughly enjoy having someone administer maraschino to me. That sounds divine. So, this quote seemed well-timed:
“The cook was there with blackened face, seated on the beautiful chintz sofa by the side of Mrs. Raggles, to whom she was administering Maraschino.”
–William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
November 27, 2008
I have two quotes from John Betjeman’s jolly essay, “Unwise and Wise Drinking,” printed in The Complete Imbiber #1 (a collection any drinker should invest in, if they can find it. I pulled my copy from the basement shelves of a bookstore in York, England). These two seem ideal quotes to have at hand for the holidays. The first just in case you have a really vocal TT (teetotaler) at your holiday feast:
“I expect you know that story of the ancient and reverend head of an Oxford college, a man of few words and those remarkable. Someone had brought a guest to the high table who was a confirmed teetotaler. At the end of dinner he was offered a glass of port, and proclaimed in a loud voice ‘I would rather commit adultery than drink a glass of port.’ Then, that ancient and reverend head of the house broke the silence by saying ‘And who wouldn’t?’”
and the second to remind us not to forget the important “drink” part of the feast (though he doesn’t mention cocktails specifically, they should recognized as an “essential” part of any holiday meal along with the wine family):
“And there we are all ranged round the tables, how essential a part of the feast is the drink: sherry, the wines, and the port and brandy. What a beautiful procession they make, often so much better and more digestible than the food! How dull the feast would be without them. And how the tongues are loosed, the hearts warmed, the better qualities brought out . . .”
— John Betjeman, “Unwise and Wise Drinking”
November 19, 2008
The Four Fists is a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which generally retells the narrative (in a few key scenes) of one character’s (Samuel Meredith) life. The scenes, as you might guess from the title, all revolve around times when he was punched in the nose. And then afterwards learned something from said punching that made him a better person. Don’t think I’m advocating violence as a solution here (I’m a drinker, not a fighter), but the quote below seemed to go so well with my fall highball-ish Hour Glass below that it seemed apropos. There are lots of good swilling moments in Mr. Fitzgerald’s stories (those jazz agers and floppers loved the cocktails and bubbly, bless ‘em all), so expect more Cocktail Talk from him later.
“He played football in the autumn, drank highballs in the winter; and rowed in the spring. Samuel despised all those who were merely sportsmen without being gentlemen, or merely gentlemen without being sportsmen.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The Four Fists”
November 12, 2008
Okay, I’m a little behind on posting about this (it’s funny to say “I’m a little behind” though, since I do have a fair amount of junk in the trunk. It’s like Bruce Banner saying, “I get a little angry” or something), but a couple weeks ago I had an awesome experience carrying on a cocktail conversation via email at Cookthink (if you haven’t been visiting the Cookthink and you like eating and drinking, you, pal, are missing out). And if a cocktail conversation at a good site wasn’t enough to make me smile like a bartender on payday, the fact that the two people I was conversing with were Greg Boehm, the publisher of CocktailKingdom.com and the bubbly Mud Puddle Books, and Rob Chirico, the author of The Field Guide to Cocktails and writer of Cookthink’s Hair of the Dog column, made me sort-of giddy. We talked about drinks, cocktails, books, modern trends, the word “mixologist,” and a whole bar-load of other subjects any imbiber would be interested in reading more about. So, quit dallying–head on over and dive in to the Cocktails Rising.
October 15, 2008
Charlotte Brontë’s third published novel isn’t rampant with cocktailing (more focused on life in a boarding school in a bustling French town), but it is brilliantly fun to read for the precise and flourishing prose, and for the following quote, which I think delves perfectly into the aroma, and nature, of whiskey:
“A heated stove made the air of this room oppressive; and, to mend matters, it was scented with an odor rather strong than delicate: a perfume, indeed, altogether surprising and unexpected under the circumstances, being like the combination of smoke with some spirituous essence–a smell, in short, of whiskey.”
–Charlotte Brontë, Villette
