... we are still of the opinion that decent libation supports as many million souls as it threatens; donates pleasure and sparkle to more lives than it shadows; inspires more brilliance in the world of art, music, letters and common ordinary intelligent conversation than it dims ... We view the subject with clinical interest, continued joy and extreme toleration. We feel that so long as it is an existing part of human life, too strong and too important for prohibition, we should make the enjoyments as apparent and as controlled as possible; the tastes crisp, the compounding as intriguing as far ports of the world can afford.
Charles H. Baker, Jr., The Gentleman’s Companion, Vol. II (1939)
Monday, October 03, 2011
Miscellaneous: Words of Cocktail Wisdom
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Awhile back I read an old New Yorker excerpt about Francis and Richard Lockridge, the creators of Mr. and Mrs. North. Charles H. Baker, Jr. would have approved of the North's books because of the milieu in which they lived--Broadway, the Hamptons, penthouse parties with martinis in every hand martini in every hand and a clever fellow on the piano playing Cole Porter of course. (The world of Esquire magazine, far more cultured and ironic than Playboy's world ever was).
Lawrence Block said something similar to this when Pocketbooks reissued several of the Lockridge novels.
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