Lofty Praise

Congrats to King Randall, who as of today finished a textbook lost weekend. Most notably, pulling off what we in the know refer to as The British Isles.

A bottle of Scotch on Friday, gin all day Saturday, and a modest sum of Irish whisky to spell the beers on Sunday. Nice variation of a Hat Trick.

In which I speak briefly of Mardi Gras

So folks, here we are in February with that crippling romantic cack behind us and the rest of the drinking year ahead. Thus, a good number of you are celebrating Mardi Gras and therefore probably can't read this very well. We understand.

In fact, I'm going to totally mail this on in. Let's be honest, very few celebrants of MG that I've known care in the least about the traditions of this iconic party. Some make the pilgrimmage to New Orleans to do it proper, the rest of us fake it and get trashed locally. Meh. Beads are offered, boobs are shown, urination is public etc.

Allow me to compensate with a couple of esoteric MG favorites in case you are frigging sick of Hurricanes or Zombies:

Hand Grenade
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz PGA
1/2 oz melon liquer(nasty)
1/2 oz rum
1/2 oz vodka

Collins class works well here. Shake it together. Some folks like to garnish. Personally I add my own touch by garnishing with double the recommended booze. Mackey would triple it because he's living in Glugtown USA.

Also an obscure seasonal recipe is the Creole:
2 oz. light rum
1 oz. lemon juice
1 dash Tabasco sauce
1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1/2 oz. Beef Bouillon
dash of salt
dash of black pepper
lemon slice

The usual order of pouring Bloody Mary-like drinks applies so I won't bother with the details here. Shake the mixture, then add the lemon slice. This is really just another supercharged Bloody Bull, but I suppose every region has them.

If you are going to New Orleans, then please tell the Saint's fans to sober up and get back to work.

Panda FAIL

This place near Callahan/Clinton HWY doesn’t serve beer, wine or booze but they do cook a pretty mean bourbon chicken.

Am I missing something here?

My Kind of Town

The folks at Modern Drunkard Magazine have provided insightful and humorous entertainment going on 15 years now and they're still bringing it strong. Credit LVL for bringing them to my attention years ago and I've been a reader ever since. They go on hiatus from time to time (hey, they're drunkards) but currently seem to be active and have updated their website with some new stuff. Here is a link to an article that features a man's dream of the perfect place - Boozetown. I admire Mel's enthusiasm and passion for alcohol but I'm unsure if even our group of lushes could handle a town with so much focus on drinking. Who am I kidding, of course this is the place I'd want to live.

Loose Ends

Wooo, boy. Yeah. Whoa, um, yeah. That was a pretty good weekend - good meaning not doing a damn thing, nothing constructive anyway.

We managed to do some heavy drinking on Saturday before the town froze over, leaving Sunday open for R &R including sipping bourbon. I’ve been covered up with work lately and haven’t had time to go on a proper bender or make a fool of myself (ok, once) so I’ve not posted in a while and thought I’d wrap up a couple of small tidbits.

2009 Prick of the Year is Atlas. Those of you who know us personally already suffer him enough and realize this accomplishment is nothing new since he is a previous winner. For the rest of you, imagine a big, stout, gruff SOB quick to accuse you of fault regardless of the situation. Whether you’ve spoken on a particular matter or not, it makes no difference. Strategic, deceptive, ornery – usually all at once, yet compelling in irrational ways that confound the senses, you’ll find yourself on the losing end of a conversation you didn’t start. Those are the good days. Major offenses that carried him to the 2009 prize were his multiple, lame excuses to avoid interaction with the group. Some examples:

· No money
· Work (when unemployed)
· No insurance (he sells insurance)
· License expired
· Tags expired
· No health insurance
· The cats
· The in-laws
· The wife
· Illness
· Hockey
· Too cold

Yeah whatever, LVL has heard them all.

There is Woo in Rocky Top – Or at least there was, and No, I'm not talking about the song. That’s Frank McWoo, DK’s one and only Utahn who makes the annual pilgrimage to Knoxville during the coldest time of year. Woo made his unannounced appearance last week with none other than Catfish in town too. Sorry, P was unavailable but we retold at least a dozen old time stories and even some great new ones I was unaware of. We had a few pints at the brewery and went to Nama for sushi, only to return to the brewery for more beer afterwards. Good times, and the stories get better year after year.

Guess that’s about all for now. I’ve got to find a way to drink my way through 2 new bottles of whiskey I acquired over the weekend – a fifth each of Maker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve*. It may be another couple of weeks before I’m back around these parts.

Edit - Woodford Reserve provided by 2009 POY Winner Atlas. It makes no sense.