The JzB Martini

Yesterday was National Martini Day.   Alas - I missed it.   But I had places to go, and don't drink and drive.  Maybe I'll catch up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, as a public service, I will reveal the recipe for The Jazzbumpa Martini.

3 oz Gordon’s London Dry Gin
1 oz New Amsterdam Gin
1 oz Martini and Rossi dry vermouth
2 or 3 ginormous pimiento stuffed olives
Some sort of a small skewer (a toothpick works)
Ice - approx. 6 or 8 cubes

Put the ice in a stainless steel cocktail shaker.  Pour in the gins.  Get your martini glass, skewer the olives and put them in the glass.  Don't rush.  Add the vermouth to the shaker.   Stall a little.  Put the lid on the shaker.  Swirl it around for a while.  Swirl it around some more.   Stop just before the moment when your fingers get frostbitten.  Pour the mixture into the glass and onto the olives. 

Sip.

Close your eyes and imagine you are in a pine forest.

Ooohh - that is nice.

What the Hell?!? Friday - Martini Purist Edition

In response to this atrocity, I posted this rebuttal, in limerick form.

Martinis are made using gin. 
No other spirit goes in,
Except for Vermouth. 
Now here’s the harsh truth:
To do otherwise is a sin!

Now vodka is fine in its place; 
in martinis, though, never a trace!
It’s swilled on the docks, 
Can be used to clean clocks,
Or in cranberry juice - on the rocks.

Oops.  That second one violates the form.  Oh, well - let it stand on the basis of sincerity and righteous indignation.

Update:

Oh, WTH - here's an alternate last line:

The gearwork, the hands and the face.

Here is my recipe for the JzB Martini.

3 oz Gordon's London Dry Gin
1 oz New Amsterdam Gin
1 oz Martini and Rossi Dry Vermouth
2 or 3 honkin' big pimiento stuffed olives skewered on a tooth pick
Ice cubes

Place ice in a steel drink shaker.  Pour liquid ingredients over ice.  Pause for a long moment (or a short minute).  Mix the contents of the shaker by swirling.  Continue until the shaker is too cold to handle, taking care to avoid frostbite.

Place skewered olives in a proper martini glass.

Pour the liquid over the olives.

Enjoy!

(picture credit: Mr. Alan)

WTH?!? Friday - Drink Up

Some old drinks and their prohibition-era substitutes. H/T to Sharon

What The Hell?!? Friday, Pt 2. - "Something Fishy" Edition

Before dinner last night, I had my first martini in who-knows-how-long - maybe October. Then we had Gorton's battered fish fillets and pirogi for dinner. LOVED it! If anyone ever doubted that I come from good, solid peasant stock, you can now be disabused of that mistaken notion.

Anyway, it occurred to me that at least those battered fillets were finally able to get out of an abusive relationship.

I suppose they were cod-dependent.
.

Best Random Surreal Generator Message EVAH!

A trombone a day keeps the jug away.

Full disclosure: this statement cannot be verified.

Courtyard Fountain

Outside Smackwater Jack's, Lexington, MI.

A great place for soup, sandwich and a beer.

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

I have to say that the greatest influence on my life,
and on my writing, directly and indirectly,
has been my two Children.
-- Raymond Carver

UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Raymond, I am not like you,
Though we've both known drunkenness and despair.
And we've both been influenced by our children,
But I think in different ways.
And I, too, have a brief attention span,
Limiting me to things of a single sitting --
Poetry and short fiction. I speak now of reading.

You were John Gardner's most famous and successful student.
I can only know him from his words,
And seek vainly to find him in yours:
Words honed sharp on a blue whetstone
Worn smooth by the sea,
Found in a handkerchief under your desk,
Then passed from hand to hand.

Blue is the precise word, I believe, for
Your free strophes full of drunkenness and people pissing,
And your spare prose, pared too deep sometimes,
But greater still than larger things.
I hope your too-short life was not so sad as they suggest.
Where did you pass the blade, Raymond,
When your carving days were through?


Copyright Jazzbumpa. All rights reserved.

Cycles

For my money, this lovely nymph qualifies as a fairy (albeit of the non-winged variety.) But, evidently, not in Alabama!

Marketing

Remember this old slogan?

THINGS GO BETTER WITH COKE

OK. Maybe I'm dating myself here.

That is the sort of quasi factlike statement that inspires neologisms like "truthiness."

But, whatever might have been truthy of things in general, appears not to be truthy of yak's milk.