Author: mjhorn
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Martinis
We’re fast approaching our 100th drink snuck from papa Pynchon’s liquor cabinet, but this is only the second straight from the Slow Learner shelf. SL did share some vermouth concoction with Against the Day and a tequila sour with Lot 49, but its only solo credit here to date was a Tom Collins way back…
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Watered pink wine
Perhaps after a weekend of global celebration following the Americans’ step back toward sanity, I’m not the only one who could use some gentle Monday hair of the dog? My glass is half wine half water and I make no apology. If Pynchon is to be believed, the key constituencies for watered-down wine, other than…
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Imported German Beer
On page 986 of Against the Day, Frank Traverse has just recently put his engineering skills to use rigging a train with an imperial fuckton of dynamite and now finds himself in the Mexican Capital. (Why the Capital is Capitalised isn’t clear to me. Was Pynchon working on Mason & Dixon at the same time…
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Sherry
No one thus far has drunk sherry in a Pynchon novel that I have noticed. But sherry’s ghost does linger by a window during the Rathenau séance early in Gravity’s Rainbow. Milton Gloaming is telling Jessica about his statistical analysis of the paranormal investigations; Jessica’s “mad young gentleman” Roger is off in another room with…
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French Beer
French stuff gets a good run around here. Usually wine, occasionally brandy, now and then absinthe. Never before a French beer though. Beer doesn’t really register on the Franco-radar. According to this book Farmhouse Ales I happen to have sitting on my shelf though, the French have a “little known tradition of beer appreciation” and…
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Cloudberry Flip
Finally got round to the Cloudberry Flip! I’ve had this Finnish cloudberry liqueur sitting around for years, making its mysterious presence felt through an improvisational dash in a thrown together cocktail here and there. Mostly though, it’s been slumbering, awaiting this day. What a wonderful whimsical name is Cloudberry Flip: light, buoyant, dreamy… Lovely as…
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Tignanello
Bleeding Edge doesn’t see to be many people’s favourite Pynchon. A bit too narrow in its concerns maybe, or a little too careful with its tone; not grand enough to compete with the bigger books, not zany enough to stand up to Lot 49 or Inherent Vice. Not saying I dislike it though. The tender…
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A six-pack of Coors
Shall we add writing tasting notes for an American macro lager to the accruing ridiculousnesses of this blog? You already know it’s a cold crisp refreshing uncomplicated thing. Does anyone really want to hear about it if there’s a hint of corn, a touch of carbonic bite? Way back when I drank Rolling Rock, I…
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Imported Danish Aquavit
Happy Pynchon in Public Private Day all! Did you declaim a paragraph of Gravity’s Rainbow from your rooftop? Put a copy of V in the window? Change your zoom background to an Against the Day airship? I hope everyone’s homes or other places of social isolation are well stocked with Pynchon tomes. We venture here…
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Something dark and fizzy
Last night—or actually, at 2 AM this morning, thanks to the magic of time zones—I had the pleasure of hanging out with the Pynchon in Public podcast crew for their upcoming 100th episode, reprising my role as token podcast drunk. Having previously inflicted Hpnotiq and vodka with vegetable soup on those fine people, I this…
Tom Pynchon's Liquor Cabinet 