4 March
2014
2 March
2014
Today’s cocktail – Green Wedding
2 March
2014
Today’s cocktail – Barn Door
2 March
2014
Zest for life!!
1 March
2014
Tonight’s cocktail
27 February
2014
New Puzzle
Thursday evening. No flight today. I got done with it on Monday. But still there is a puzzle…
Mary would like to go out with John but John did not care much for Mary. So Mary agreed to play a guessing game with him. John asked her to guess the apartment number that he first lived in. He let her know it was between 8 and 100 (both inclusive). But she had to guess with as few questions as she could.
Her first question was “Was the number more than 50”?
John answered the question. But what Mary did not know is that he lied. (he really did not care to go out with her).
Mary then asked “Is the number divisible by 4?”
John answered that question. But once again, he lied.
Mary thought for a while and asked “Was it a square number”?
This time John answered the question truthfully.
Mary excitedly asked her final question “I know the exact answer if you tell me if the number started with 3 or not”
John answered that question too. But we do not know whether he was telling the truth or not.
At that point, Mary proceeded to guess the apartment number. As you can imagine, she got it wrong. (After all John lied at least twice).
Now, can you tell me what was John’s apartment number?
27 February
2014
The in-thing in fashion these days..
I had gone to get my left knee checked today. More of a preventive action than any long term pain or anything. There is an occasional pain and I am worried more about the mechanics than any structural issue.
In any case, I was asked to get a quick X-ray before meeting the doctor. And then I was ushered into the X-ray area. The lady took me to a room and asked me “take your trousers off, put in these paper shorts and keep everything else on”!! Those shorts are actually made of paper!!
As I pondered over getting papyrusly clad, I wondered what she meant by “everything else on”. To play it safe, I kept my jacket as well as dress shoes and socks on!! Evidently I was not the only one with this ridiculous look. As I stepped out, the whole corridor was a veritable Versace fashion show of people milling around, all dressed up to various levels of hilarity like me!!
Perhaps a fashion show in Scotland somewhere!!!
24 February
2014
Come again?
24 February
2014
For my Bengali friends…
23 February
2014
This evening’s cocktail – Moscow mule!!
Made with lime juice, Smirnoff vodka and ginger beer. Garnishes can include wedge of lime or even mint sprig but I have none 🙂
I did make up for the lack of proper garnishes by serving in the proper glass for this drink – a copper mug!
This cocktail has an unique history. There was a Martin in the 30s who was struggling to sell vodka in USA (he had bought this business from a Kunett who had fled Russia a few years back). Whiskey was the drink of choice in US. Vodka was little appreciated those days. He was a great sales guy though. He even sold it illegally as “White Whiskey – no smell no taste”!! One day while commiserating with a Morgan who was himself struggling to sell something he had started brewing – ginger beer in his Cock-’n-Bull store, they concocted this drink – by essentially mixing two failed drinks. To add to the aura, they added another element – it had to be had in a copper mug only – which by the way was a failing business for another friend of theirs.
Professional bartenders hated it. The people loved it! It became – especially in LA – in the early forties, the most popular cocktail. And thus Smirnoff vodka got a boost in this country. So three failed businesses added up to an outstanding success!
There are stories of Martin’s legendary selling skills. Evidently, he would get a bartender to mix a Moscow Mule for him and then request a picture to be taken with him. Promptly he would fish out his Polaroid camera that he had invested in for this purpose and have a picture of the bartender with the drink. And then he would simply finish the drink and walk to the next bar and tell the bartender there that this drink was the biggest hit in the previous bar. And show the picture as a proof. And kept repeating it!!!
