Piper Posey

1/2 oz Cointreau
2 oz gin (preferably a mildly floral one, like Pinnacle)
a few grinds of black pepper
one large ripe strawberry

mull the strawberry thoroughly in a shaker (even better if you can let the strawberry soak in the liquors first). add liquors and pepper. shake vigorously; serve in a chilled martini glass.

with Apologies to Bob Dylan

Love is the limit
a song

my parents eat in silence
without ideals or violence
they say 'I love you',
but are static like ice like fire

they stuff their faces
with food of no flavor
the wine flows freely
but without laughs or tears

cattle for the slaughter
like they are ingesting
to work just to get by
and sleep is never rest--

I weep for them
and worry I'm no better
a self-aware hypocrite
without excuse of dogma.

From JT and me:

I have absolutely no time for absolutes.

From Dan:

A shitwalk cake.

From Women

"Just living until you die is hard work."

A new moon

On Friday night,
two nights ago,
the moon was closer
than it has been to the earth
in 15 years.
You could tell--
even though I didn't know at the time--
it was full and huge and bright
on a clear, cold winter night.

From Ham on Rye, re: wine

"This stuff may not be good for surgeons but anybody who wanted to be a surgeon, there was something wrong with them to begin with."

A plane couplet

This plane is going to drop out of the sky
And we are all going to die.

How does this happen?

There is a store in the Newark airport simply entitled "America!".

There were lots of flags about.

A conversation

Stopping for brunch at the Highland Bakery on the way to the airport, Josh and Sam ask me about my plans for Thanksgiving break, which includes train rides.

Josh: I've never been on a train.
Sam: You've been on a MARTA train.
Josh: Yeah, but not a choo-choo train.

Recommendation:

Fall in love on a train.

I've done it twice, both times in New York (or New York to New Jersey).

The first time was Thanksgiving day, on the subway, going to Central Park to see the John Lennon memorial. He was talk, slim, had dark hair and thick-rimmed glasses, and looked slightly nervous.

The second time was on the train from Newark airport to Penn Station. He looked like Josh Radnor from "How I Met Your Mother', but cuter, and kind of hipster--wearing a peacoat and a hat, and I think he was eating an apple.

Two things my friend Seth and I will do

1) Live together and have a piano

2) Own a bar called 'Brew-kowski's'

Drinking quotes attributed to me

I've figured out what other people call 'hungover' I call 'morning'.

Drinking helps with life.

Perfect in its simplicity

Sign on Ma Gooches' Restaurant in Cleveland:

"Lunch: Meat & 2 Vegetables $4.95"

Do you really need any more than that?

Lazarus and Lobsters

The other one: Lazarus--the idea everywhere. Humans do latch on to certain archetypes or metaphors, like lobsters, lazarus, the fisher king, the wizard of oz...

A webcomic

I read several webcomics, and this is one of my favorites, Octopus Pie. The author is still struggling to make it all work, so she's asked for plugs. Check it out--and go back to the beginning. You could make it through the archives in a couple of days. It'll be like a short story collection with pictures.

Spreading holiday cheer

Cynicism and schadenfreude for all!

A new motto

After, or rather in the middle of a quiet, unproductive day (up to that point), I was emptying (or was it loading?) the dishwasher, still in my pajamas, and suddenly thought, Just fuck it. Why not get married, spit out a kid, and then I could just stay home all the time and do nothing.

My next thought was, That would be so boring.

I would also hate taking care of a kid--it would take away from my time.

Hence a later conversation I had with my sister about her maybe someday having a child:
"I'd make a horrible parent, but I might make a good aunt."

the Persephone

That drink earlier, with the juices and gin and Cointreau served martini style--this is its name.

Love and Lobsters

I've been collecting a lot of quotes and ideas about lobsters lately. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but for some reason lobsters fascinate me, the human interaction with them, and they do seem to crop up a lot--I have quotes from Bill Maher, Bukowski, Liars (title of post), Rachel Maddow, to mention a few, and also David Foster Wallace's fantastic article on the Maine Lobster Festival.

So where will all this lead? Who knows. But you just gotta follow it.

Spontaneous conversational couplet

Where's the postal service when you need it?
Where's the junk mail when you want to read it?

--Between me and Dr. Windy Charles on 12/9/08

What I'm going to have to do now

Why don't I strap on my job helmet and squeeze down into a job cannon and fire off into Jobland where jobs grow on little jobbies?
--Charlie, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

The Ho Ho Ho (or Gin and Geezus)

Make a simple syrup with cloves and cinnamon.
Mix about a teaspoon of the syrup with gin, shake over ice.
Line a chilled martini glass with Angostura Orange bitters.
Pour the concoction into the glass and serve with a lemon (or orange) twist.

Happy (late) Repeal Day!

Toast the End of an Error

"In the words of the Roman poet Horace, drink 'unlocks secrets, bids hopes be fulfilled, thrusts the coward onto the battle-field, takes the load from anxious hearts. The flowing bowl — whom has it not made eloquent? Whom has it not made free even amidst pinching poverty?'"

From Bukowski's Ham on Rye:
"Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away fromt he obvious enough, you wouldn't become obvious yourself."

new drink

gin, squeezed wedge of lime, dash of Cointreau, dash of cranberry, dash of pomegranate

shake over ice, serve in chilled martini glass

An English Meeting:

gotta make more than 6 people
gotta take for major
20 English majors

the silent, subtle power struggle
between English Father and
English Mother continues.

(I'd rather be drinking
and not discussing policy.)

"Can we plan an English drunken brawl?"

drink of the day

Hendrick's martini:

chilled glass, dash of Martini & Rossi dry vermouth, chilled Hendrick's gin, cucumber garnish.

poem of the day

Incarnation

"The Word was made Flesh..."

logos logos logos

You don't know what the word of god is.
I know what the word of god is because I know
it's not there.