Toothpick Swords

bluebloodandbourbon: Now that you mention it, I could stand to...

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:26:36 -0400

Now that you mention it, I could stand to have my ears lowered a bit…

putthison: Via Kottke and nyer photo booth, bootleggers’ Cow...

Tue, 15 May 2012 20:09:32 -0400

Via Kottke and nyer photo booth, bootleggers’ Cow Shoes:

A new method of evading prohibition agents was revealed here today by A.L. Allen, state prohibition enforcement director, who displayed what he called a “cow shoe” as the latest thing front the haunts of moonshiners.

The cow shoe is a strip of metal to which is tacked a wooden block carved to resemble the hoof of a cow, which may be strapped to the human foot. A man shod with a pair of them would leave a trail resembling that of a cow.

The shoe found was picked up near Port Tampa where a still was located some time ago. It will be sent to the prohibition department at Washington. Officers believe the inventor got his idea from a Sherlock Holmes story in which the villain shod his horse with shoes the imprint of which resembled those of a cow’s hoof.

I'm making tonic

Sun, 13 May 2012 09:45:53 -0400

I called the health food store.

“I’m looking for something…forgive me if I say it wrong…sin-choan-uh…kin-chone-uh…it’s spelled c-i-n-c-h-o-n-a. It’s a powder or a bark.”

“Yes.”

“Can you order a pound?”

“Yes.”

“Can you order a pound of citric acid, too?”

“Sure.”

My wife walked in. “Why are you ordering bark?”

“That’s where the quinine is.”

Maybe I was always like this, or maybe there was some transformational moment earlier in my life, but I want to make things. I want as few steps between me and what I consume or use as possible, and I want my hands in all of it.

This is where you start thinking I’m a luddite. This is where you imagine I’m part of the idle middle class, so burdened by invasive technology and so bored of convenience that I can’t help but romanticize a time when not everything was available already put together.

This is where I reject that, but not with the usual handwringing “we don’t make anything anymore” line or the old classic “we’re disconnected from what we consume.” This is where I say it’s just fun to make things. It’s a challenge. It’s hard. The stakes are low and the reward is high.

I want to make tonic so I know I can make tonic (and so I can avoid HFCS and the higher prices of real-sugar tonic). It’s a matter of time before I try to make bitters. I’m sure I’ll get it wrong, but eventually I’ll get it right.

This is also making-as-guilt-avoidance. It’s easy to pour a drink and the satisfaction of a simple bourbon neat is nothing I want to be without for very long. It’s a simple exchange, though. I spend money on whiskey, I drink whiskey. With a more complex drink, the satisfaction is higher if I’m the one mixing and consuming. I spend money on ingredients, I mix the ingredients, I drink. So mathematically, a drink that I assemble from ingredients I assembled would provide even more pleasure. I can’t not make tonic. It’s science.

I should clarify that I’m not going to stop enjoying simple drinks. There’s a time and a place for everything (that time is usually “after 6”). The enjoyment from drinking is one we all have experienced. But the enjoyment of making something isn’t. They are two joys I want to combine. Each drink can be a reward. I want to make each drink a prize as well.

"Polls reveal that a mere quarter of Southerners have ever sampled the iconic cocktail. Even..."

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:58:41 -0400

“Polls reveal that a mere quarter of Southerners have ever sampled the iconic cocktail. Even Louisvillians derisively begrudge one glass a year to May festivities, while others leave the clichéd imbibing to naive tourists. How did the mighty julep fall?”

- Derby City’s best new publication schools us on the julep’s history.

Get ready for a lot of mint julep posts

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:57:37 -0400

Because it’s that time again.

Wikipedia's List of Cocktails

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:11:58 -0400

Wikipedia's List of Cocktails:

Because you have no other plans for the evening.

Buster Keaton for Smirnoff Vodka. Photographed by Bert Stern.

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:19:47 -0400

Buster Keaton for Smirnoff Vodka.

Photographed by Bert Stern.

"I don't give a shit that your family goes back to pre-Revolution and you've got more wealth than I could imagine. If this wine's no good, I'm gonna say so."

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:44:09 -0400

"I don't give a shit that your family goes back to pre-Revolution and you've got more wealth than I could imagine. If this wine's no good, I'm gonna say so.":

youllbehealed:

William Langewiesche in the Atlantic.

I’m guessing this was the lunch buffet. New Albany...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 10:07:59 -0400

I’m guessing this was the lunch buffet.

New Albany Confidential at the American Distilling Institute’s annual conference.

Time to make the whiskey. Archive photos of Louisville’s...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 07:38:42 -0400

Time to make the whiskey. Archive photos of Louisville’s bourbon industry.

Prohibition lives on in parts of the south.

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 16:01:48 -0400

Prohibition lives on in parts of the south.

ourpresidents: The Beer and Wine Revenue Act legalized the sale...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:31:38 -0400

ourpresidents:

The Beer and Wine Revenue Act legalized the sale of certain alcoholic beverages after 13 years of Prohibition. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the act into law on this day, March 22, 1933. Prohibition was officially repealed by the 21st Amendment in late 1933.

During his presidency, FDR enjoyed hosting a pre-dinner cocktail hour in the White House. The President mixed the drinks, and topics related to politics or government were banned from discussion.

Here’s the silver cocktail shaker that FDR used for these occasions.

Cheers!

-from the Roosevelt Library

Store Brand

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:21:05 -0400

I live in Kentucky, where liquor and wine cannot be sold in grocery stores. No big deal. I live in Louisville, where liquor stores can be found within walking distance of almost every grocery store.

I was surprised, then, when, as a gag gift, a friend gave me a bottle of this:

Schnucks is a midwestern grocery store chain. I shopped there when I lived in St. Louis. Like all other grocery store chains, they had their own brands of certain foods. I never thought about store-brand liquor.

I haven’t tried this, and I doubt I will. But if I try it and like it, I doubt it would be hard to obtain more. It’s distilled by Heaven Hill, which is based in Kentucky.

Side note: My friend insists this bottle is new, despite the (possibly inadvertently) retro label.

I’m back from Paris. Let the blogging resume.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 19:27:00 -0400

I’m back from Paris. Let the blogging resume.

In case you didn't read the wedding post...

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:54:01 -0500

…I just got married. That means Toothpick Swords will be on vacation for two weeks while I’m on my honeymoon.

livelymorgue: Jan. 9, 1930: “The latest thing in speakeasies:...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:52:10 -0500

livelymorgue:

Jan. 9, 1930: “The latest thing in speakeasies: Sergeant Frank T. Zimmie and Detective Joseph Pallinado of the Philadelphia Police, exhibiting one of the twelve pint bottles of liquor cached in the papier-mâché clothes dummy, draped with an evening gown, found in the tailor shop they raided.” Two days later, The Times published an article about claims of a “police protected” speakeasy made at a luncheon of the Women’s Organization for Prohibition Reform in Philadelphia. Photo: The New York Times

I am getting married.

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:50:49 -0500

The wedding is in one week…and I’m frequently struck with concerns about the cocktail menu.

My bride-to-be and I are your typical midtwentieschildlessapartmentdwellers, so we’re still in that replacing-the-furniture-from-college phase where any money not spent on more comfortable chairs or some honest-to-god decent lighting seems ill-spent. We’re also not the type to have a lavish wedding. We’ve hired a taco truck to feed our guests. And we’ve asked a friend of ours (who has worked as a bartender) to tend bar for the reception.

So now what? We know everyone will have a good drink, but we don’t know if they’ll have drinks they like.

One of bride-to-be’s relatives has generously offered to supply wine for our guests, so we just need beer and liquor. We want to have beer that everyone, from the craftiest explorer (Brew Noob is my best man) to the casual sipper enjoys. So we’ll aim for a selection from local breweries that ranges from an accessible and light pilsner or ale to the cavalcades of hops that I suspect a few snobs only drink because they’re not instantly enjoyable.

Now for the spirits. We have about 80 guests. We know some of them will drink water or soda. We know some of them will stick to wine or beer. But the number of people who will rely on cocktails for the night ranges from 2 to possibly 75. There’s a good chance we can’t please all of them, but we want to please most of them. We also don’t want to wear out the friend who has donated his time to pour this stuff. At the moment, I’m thinking we need a limited cocktail menu that includes a few surefire crowd pleasers and a few classics done right.

For the former, there’s vodka. Early March in Louisville could be springlike or dismal. A little bit of tonic can accommodate one of those situations, while a coffee liqueur and a carton of cream could fit the other (plus, this is Louisville, home of Lebowski Fest). I’m no great fan of either, and I suspect most of the vodka will wind up being mixed with the sodas, but I want safe options for the casual cocktail drinkers.

For the classics, there’s bourbon. This is bourbon country. A few large bottles of midrange will go a long way. I’m expecting people to drink it neat, on ice, with water and with soda. I’m expecting a few people will want it in one of the drinks I always say are my favorites, so we’ll get sugar cubes and bitters. We’ll get a knife and some oranges to peel. We’ll also get some vermouth. I’ll be at this wedding, and nothing says Louisville wedding to me more than a nice Manhattan.

Then there’s gin. I like a bit of dry vermouth in my Manhattans, so we’ll have that on hand for martinis. We’ll get some olives. We’ll have some lemons to slice and twist.

And now to cater to the uninitiated. To the person who decides “What the Hell, I’ll have a cocktail.” To these guests, we shall offer gimlets. I love gimlets. It’s what I always make when we have parties. A good gin gimlet is tart and sweet and the perfect refreshment for mouths that are dry from chit chat. Plus, for the price of a few bags of limes (and an hour or so of squeezing) we’ll have an easy escape for gin or vodka.

I think this is the best we can do. The purists and the novices should be happy. Our bartender won’t regret volunteering. Not everyone will be happy. Maybe someone will be mad there isn’t any cranberry juice around. But I’d rather we dedicate ourselves to doing one thing right than end up doing a mediocre job at many things. It’s our wedding. If someone doesn’t like the cocktail options, there will be wine and beer in the corner and a full-service (but not free) bar down the street.

DEFEND NEW ORLEANS: Cocktail bar Cure turns three

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:36:50 -0500

DEFEND NEW ORLEANS: Cocktail bar Cure turns three:

defendneworleans:

Three years ago, the Uptown cocktail bar Cure opened to the public. “It’s been a wild ride,” said owner Neal Bodenheimer. “We’ve been able to explore what we think is cool and interesting, and other people have wanted to come along for the ride.”

On Sunday, February 26, the Freret Street…

Police hold man on suspicion of stealing five tons of ice from a glacier to sell as designer ice cubes for cocktails

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:42:58 -0500

Police hold man on suspicion of stealing five tons of ice from a glacier to sell as designer ice cubes for cocktails:

Police in Chile have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing five tonnes of ice from the Jorge Montt glacier in the Patagonia region to sell as designer ice cubes in bars and restaurants.

Local media reported that last Friday police intercepted a refrigerated truck with an estimated £3,900 worth of illicit ice allegedly bound for whiskies, rums and cocktails in the capital Santiago.

What’s that? You want me to drink you? But I’m in the middle of...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:07:37 -0500

What’s that? You want me to drink you? But I’m in the middle of a trial!