Flash company's been the ruin of a great many more

[sovay]

1. The Ivy+ Fine Spirits Showcase was delightful: there was interesting alcohol and interesting conversation and lots of both (including with sharhaun, whom I wasn't expecting to see there) and while I couldn't stay for dinner, there was lunch beforehand at Café Algiers. I have discovered the absinthe I want to buy when I have the money for it. (I have also discovered Bruichladdich's Botanist Gin, where the botanicals are things like birch, tansy, elderflower, hawthorn, and gorse. Dean believed firmly that it would have been a waste to dilute it with tonic water, but I still want to try bitter lemon. I like my quinine.) It was very thoughtful of TCM to provide Some Like It Hot (1959) for me to stare at when I came home.

2. Today is my mother's birthday observed. (Her actual birthday is a weekday, when my brother and his wife aren't free.) I believe we are taking her out somewhere. I owe a lot of everyone e-mail.

3. I don't know a thing about the creative team, but I do keep meaning to read the book this musical is based on, for all the obvious reasons.

4. Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "sadder than a map"? It is collected in Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary (1938) and I love the sound of it. As someone who has used the phrase "like gangbusters" in conversation before, I feel I should also try to reintroduce "a set of seven brights."

5. Handfish!

Comments

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday to your mother! (Get her a handfish.)

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

there was interesting alcohol and interesting conversation and lots of both

Sounds lovely. Were there also comfy chairs, the third element to delight?

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Grief. I am actually salivating at your description of the Botanist Gin (which I would drink just for the name alone). You may just get me off the ale trail at this rate.


I've never heard the phrase "sadder than a map" before! It sounds like it should end up in a Waits lyric.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Oh, and good choice of Floyd track! I only found out Grapelli had worked with them a tiny while ago; who else could tie them and Django together?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

The gin sounds very nice -- similar to one I had at a party not long ago, Ebb + Flow from Sound Spirits. I did have it with tonic, but there wasn't any lime, and I don't think it needed any (though lime would have worked with it as well).

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

That absinthe is the same brand that skogkatt and M. gave me, and it's delicious. Like being kicked in the head by a saddle-horse, but in a delicious way.

Thanks for those handfish, I'm delighted with them.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The handfish looks (a) furry (b) like he was designed by Dr. Seuss, and (c) slightly sleepy/dopey--makes me want to hug him.

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Thus far I've only had Lucid because they sponsored Anthocon and they required that people listen to a lecture on the history of absinthe before we got to drink it (of course, it took place in NH and we were going to hear a lecture on how government regulations are stupid regardless)

[sovay]

Happy birthday to your mother! (Get her a handfish.)

We got her a matinée of The Full Monty at the Boston Conservatory Theater and dinner at the Madrona Tree in Arlington. I think she liked it.

[sovay]

Were there also comfy chairs, the third element to delight?

I wouldn't have called them especially comfy, but they were upstairs away from the racket and good for sitting around and talking.

[sovay]

My dad used to say "sad as a map." Found it in this book

"That town was sad as a map and twice as flat to us."

Interesting. I wonder if that's a clue toward the phrase's origins or just an extension of the imagery.

[sovay]

I am actually salivating at your description of the Botanist Gin (which I would drink just for the name alone). You may just get me off the ale trail at this rate.

I forgot to mention the Fluid Dynamics 1850 Cocktail: whisky, absinthe, and cognac. I didn't even know barrel-aged cocktails were possible, but this one was very tasty.

It sounds like it should end up in a Waits lyric.

It really does!

[sovay]

similar to one I had at a party not long ago, Ebb + Flow from Sound Spirits.

I like the sound of that.

[sovay]

Like being kicked in the head by a saddle-horse, but in a delicious way.

I don't seem to get the kicked-in-the-head sensation from absinthe; I just like it!

(The homemade limoncello I had in Rome in 2002, however, was like a bomb going off in my sinuses, lemon-flavored.)

Thanks for those handfish, I'm delighted with them.

You're welcome. It's been a good week for weird wildlife.

[sovay]

like he was designed by Dr. Seuss

Yes!

[sovay]

Thus far I've only had Lucid because they sponsored Anthocon and they required that people listen to a lecture on the history of absinthe before we got to drink it

Did you like it?

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

I have been meaning to read February House for some time now, too. I had no idea someone had done a musical on it. Hopefully I'll have time to look into it further once my midterms are over with this week.

[sovay]

I had no idea someone had done a musical on it. Hopefully I'll have time to look into it further once my midterms are over with this week.

Please report back!

[sovay]

Oh, and good choice of Floyd track!

I got it a couple of days ago from derspatchel. I had no idea.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I'm delighted that the Ivy+ Fine Spirits showcase delighted you. I'm rather fascinated that there is such a thing as an Islay gin; as a general rule, I only drink brown spirits, but I might make an exception for that one.

For no very good some reason the term "Pennsylvania absinthe" amuses me.

Happy birthday to your mother! I hope her birthday observed was lovely.

3.

I might have to read that book sometime, myself.

4. Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "sadder than a map"?

Alas, I do not. I wish I did. It's a lovely phrase, in any event. I like "a set of seven brights" as well, although I can't seem to work it out without its native context. What exactly does it mean?

5. Handfish!

Thanks! I've not heard of them before. They look rather appealing.

Once, when I was a child and we were staying in a condo somewhere (I think) round Charleston, SC, my father caught a Sargassum fish in a bucket at the beach. There had been a storm a few days previous, and there was all sorts of weed and flotsam from as far as the Sargasso Sea around, with which the fish had presumably come. It was amazingly cute, although there was also some concern that it might be some sort of miniature lionfish; my mother rang up her brother in Mobile, who identified it from her description.

Sargassum fish don't look so much like the handfish, but they do have what look like little hands for grasping the seaweed. My father said it was probably an alien and its shipmates would come back to collect it, so we'd best make friends. Alas, they didn't.

We kept it in a big jar of sea water for a day or two, changing the water twice or thrice daily. If we'd been in Mobile, and my uncle had had a salt water tank with space for it, we might have given it to him, but we weren't and he didn't, so we released it out in the sea.

ETA: I'd no idea Stéphane Grappelli and Pink Floyd had ever collaborated. I'm rather intrigued by the notion.

[sovay]

For no very good some reason the term "Pennsylvania absinthe" amuses me.

Just so long as it isn't reminding you of Illinois Nazis . . .

I like "a set of seven brights" as well, although I can't seem to work it out without its native context. What exactly does it mean?

"Set of seven brights (n.): one week."

There had been a storm a few days previous, and there was all sorts of weed and flotsam from as far as the Sargasso Sea around, with which the fish had presumably come.

That's lovely.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I read it a few years ago and enjoyed it. I don't remember what caused me to pick it up, quite possibly the title.

There was some fascinating interpersonal trivia and I really enjoyed the descriptions of how the relationships evolved.

I am now curious about the musical. This also reminds me, I need to finish getting together that mix I'm making you!