21.3.06

Martinis and other cocktails

I was listening to a bartending related podcast a little while ago and it reminded me of one of my pet peeves: the issue with martinis.

I'm not sure about the exact time, but it seems that about 5-8 years ago many bars discovered that they could boost sales by giving their cocktails names with the word "martini" in them. This tactic has a few things going for it, first and foremost being that most bar-going people have heard of martinis, even if they don't exactly know what they are. Then there is the cool factor of martinis, which are, in many people's minds, associated with James Bond. Last, there is the non-PC girly drink issue: it's easier for the average man to order a pineapple martini than a Bahama Mama, even if they are one and the same.

While this naming-everything-martini thing works out great for bars, it hurts cocktail culture because it essentially mis-educates people. So, to help in the fight against the everything-is-a-martini crowd, let's define the martini.

A martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth. Historically dry and/or sweet vermouth were used. Today, most usually a martini will contain dry vermouth, making it a dry martini. The ratio of gin to vermouth can be anywhere from 2:1 to 10:1. If you use less vermouth, you are more or less drinking cold gin, which is ok if that's what you like, but you wouldn't call it a martini. Another variation on the martini that unjustly stretches the definition of the word is one made with vodka instead of gin. Once again, this is a matter of taste so we won't pass judgement on it, as long as it's ordered as a "vodka martini".

Next time you go to a fancy bar, remember that a martini is a classic cocktail made with gin and vermouth. It tastes great, if you ask me. And while there are many other great tasting cocktails out there, they need to get their own names, and not use the word martini.

9.3.06

Born in the USA

Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" came up today while I was shuffling songs on my PC. I looked up the lyrics to read along as I listened. Understandably I was shocked to find the lyrics to be critical of the US.

6.3.06

Jon Stewart

I've been spending a lot of time lying in bed since I broke my ankle. With a laptop and an internet connection, it's not too hard to keep yourself occuppied. Today I went over to YouTube and searched for Jon Stewart. Mainly I wanted to find his monologue at the Academy Awards presentation, but of course I got many results from the Daily Show. Since I hadn't seen the show in a while, I decided to watch some of them. It was really good stuff. It's hard to the Daily Show to be great every day but I think over time it produces many good segments. However, one of the most interesting videos I watched was a part of Jon Stewart's appearance on Larry King Live on CNN.

Before I'd ever watched Larry King Live, I had an image of Larry as a good interviewer with a long, respected career. After seeing him with Jon Stewart today, I lost some respect for him. Maybe my image of him was undeserved, or maybe it's wrong for me to judge him on a couple minutes of just one show. It's just that the questions he asked were so ridiculous, and Jon Stewart seemed so rational, level headed and smart that in contrast, Larry looked stupid.

Oh well, I don't know who cares about Larry King anymore. But if you're not very familiar with Jon Stewart, and you have some time, go over to YouTube and search for his Daily Show stuff. Now that he's come to the attention of the general public, from being known among Comedy Central viewers, he's bound to be talked about more (although I've probably missed the boat on talking about this issue, since there was so much press about his Oscar hosting already).