Still hot out there. It’s to be expected at the end of August, but for a lot of visitors it’s getting a bit old. Let’s have something light and fresh as we relax in the garden’s shade.
Monthly Archives: August 2014
Quotes: Ovid
Your host is of no particular mind to attempt philosophy today, even on the favored topics of the Garden. Perhaps a little more sleep would be helpful, no?
Instead, today I shall spark your thoughts and mine with quotes from one of history’s greatest thinkers in the realms of love and pleasure, Ovid.
I Knew A Woman
Jimsonweed: Aphrodisiac?
Daturna stramonium is variously known as jimsonweed, thorn apple, stinkweed, Devil’s apple, and Gabriel’s trumpet. This fabulously dangerous plant is also fabled as an aphrodisiac. Its hallucinogenic qualities have been used by many peoples over the years in Europe, Asia and North America. Native Americans combined it with marijuana and smoked it to produce dreams.
Surfer On Acid
This morning I got to watch surfers from a beach house, something I could quickly get used to. The title above has nothing to do with them (I’m sure they were all quite sober), but rather for a shot you’ll find in many surf town bars.
The great part about more recent mixological inventions is that even popular drinks tend to have fewer variations than anything even a couple of decades older.
They tend to. This one’s got slight changes depending on where you order it, but really, how much change can there be to a shot? Generally the changes are a reduction in either the juice or the Jagermeister. Balance it just right for you.
Any way you look at it, it’s a tasty little drink with a very silly name.
yes I said yes I will Yes
This isn’t technically poetry in the usual sense, but it’s as poetic as prose can get. It’s the ending of Ulysses by James Joyce, stream of consciousness writing, the thoughts of Molly Bloom as she lies in bed, waiting for Leopold to return to her.
It is frankly beautiful. Moves this poor poet to tears.
Iboga: Aphrodisiac?
The root bark of this African shrub contains a hallucinogen called ibogaine which acts as a powerful stimulant. The result is great endurance for… well, whatever you may want endless energy for. Depending on your metabolism, the effects last between 15 and 36 hours. Some native tribes in Gabon use it ceremonially for lion hunts, dancing, and all-night sex.
Stinger
Some drinks have been mentioned, referenced, and joked about in literature and on stage and screen for most of their history. The Stinger is one such, but a cocktail that very few have had, these days, drinks with mint liqueurs seemingly being out of favor. It’s been in print since at least 1917, and has had an odd variety of opinions regarding it, from popularity as a New York nightcap to upper class connotations to being called “a whore’s drink” in the 1983 movie Gorky Park. The balance of history seems to be in its favor, though.
since feeling is first
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don’t cry
— the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids’ flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
(e.e. cummings)
Southern Comfort Manhattan
The Manhattan, invented at The Manhattan Club in Manhattan in 1874, got named in an apparent fit of uncreativity. It’s made with rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters and a cherry, and is rather different than its more well-known descendant, which we’ll make today.
1874 also marked the beginning of Southern Comfort. Perhaps it was inevitable that the two would meet and blend.