The Gibson: Thanks, Given
If one writes poetry in bound verse, the poet must follow the rules or the form loses its character. “Blank verse” is written in un-rhymed...
Southern Comfort, Niall Ferguson and Peter Gunn
Cocktails, books, jazz, and crime. COCKTAILS Crude and low-fi, one’s early-life alcohol memories resonate, but they do so uneasily in our era of craft beers...
New Year’s Day: Reflection, Not Resolution
Reflection without discipline can be self-indulgent, especially as the year draws to a close and a new one opens before us. So, let us impose...
Christmas: Cocktails and Crime, Choirs and Cool
A few notes, as Christmas is upon us. First, what to drink? I don’t care for Bloody Marys; they’re too acid. The best Christmas drinks...
Thanksgiving Cocktails, Truman Capote, Puritan Poetry
A few notes for your Thanksgiving: a holiday examination, Mumm champagne, an old-fashioned cocktail from Garden & Gun, the French 75 (its history and variants),...
Lauren Bacall and The Big Sleep: Film Noir Cool, White Collar Crime, Cocktail Cold
To the extent that it reflected crime, Lauren Bacall’s work was noir, not white-collar; black, not white; guns, not accounting fraud. Yet, there was an...
Gin Van, Joan Collins and Rare Earth
Friday is upon us, so a few notes about cocktails. The cocktail snob is suffering a (deserved) backlash, as Robert O. Simonson of the New York...
Summer Crime, “Young Lawyers,” Martinis
Summer’s heat is fully upon us. Let us take a moment for crime fiction and cocktails. For recent crime-fiction releases, take a look at Midmonth...
Vermouth, Bitters and Black Coffee
In speaking of the martini, Winston Churchill supposedly observed “I would like to observe the vermouth from across the room while I drink my martini.” ...
Needful of a Negroni Cocktail?
I have been drinking Negroni cocktails recently. The Negroni presents three virtues: it contains gin, it is bitter and it is simple to make (equal...