When I was a small boy of four or five, my parents took me to the annual Easter Egg Hunt. It was quite the event in our little town, as what seemed like hundreds of kids all lined up at the edge of Cook Field, me among them, with wicker baskets clutched tightly in our hands. The air was electric as we gazed at the colorful plastic eggs scattered across the lawn, each with a prize inside. I remember the anticipation, like a racehorse at the gate, my father and mother standing above me, bearing witness to perhaps my life's first great moment. Seconds stretched on as I felt my leg muscles twitch in readiness, as I held my breath. And then, the whistle! That first step exploding with excitement!
For many of us, our first “mixed drink” was that time in high school when somebody scored a bottle of two-buck Popov. We watched in awe and anticipation as they sloshed the vodka into a plastic cup, followed by Tropicana orange juice from concentrate. A few swirls of the cup, and voilà! Like an old friend, this orange juice from our childhood breakfasts, paired now with this new, clear and present danger: VODKA. And of course, since this was the first vodka we ever had, we assumed that they all tasted like this. Then came another round. And another (we’re in high school, after all), with Black Sabbath blasting on the turntable. And not only did our friend score the vodka, he also had that r
X-Rated movies used to be different. Back in the late 1960s/early 1970s, mainstream Hollywood movies received an X-Rating if they dared to show male and female genitalia, if they dared even further to show said genitalia in action, and if they did the unthinkable and provided “a homosexual frame of reference” (Eee-Gad!). So declared the MPAA*, upon bestowing an X-Rating for John Schlesinger’s 1969 film, Midnight Cowboy. Another ground-breaking work, Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange, was also rated X, but both seem rather tame today, as far as explicit sexuality goes. In fact, sexuality in both cases was far from the point, or rather, the plots, which covered heady themes of al
A well-made Gin & Tonic, also known as a G&T, is a near perfect drink. It’s simple, elegant, delicious, and refreshing, especially on a hot summer’s day. And this hearkens back to its storied past. It’s the 19th century, the Golden Age of England’s imperialism when “the sun never sets on the British Empire.” We set sail for India, the British Raj, the all-powerful East India Company in charge. In India’s dripping tropical climate, the soldiers of the Crown are susceptible to malaria. Quinine, it’s discovered, can treat and prevent the disease, although by itself, as a salt, it’s too bitter to be ingested orally, and the other way, well, let’s not go there… So the soldiers are given quinine i
