Sticky wicket

Saturday mornings when I'm having my corned beef hash, fried egg, wheat toast with Rockfish Gap strawberry preserves, V-8 juice and coffee, and watching the television classic The Secrets of Isis (don't laugh--her mild-mannered alter-ego wears khaki A-lines), I often recall the late Hunter S. Thompson's description of his favorite breakfast:  "Four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a  half pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chiles, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, chopped lemon for random seasoning, something like a slice of key lime pie, two margaritas, and six lines of the best cocaine."

Although I eschew some of the items on that list for obvious reasons, it does make a useful segue into a discussion of the drinking customs of the intelligentsia, and the preppy pastimes that sometimes accompany them. We're all familiar, of course, with the first and last word on the subject, the out-of-print and much-coveted 2004 tome Tipsy In Madras. An amusing supplement, and one which provided the Thompson quote, is Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide To Great American Writers. It was here, thanks to the entry on Carson McCullers, that I learned a few years ago what a Long Island Iced Tea was. Per my suggestion, this delicious libation was later served at an off-site kickoff event for our library's "Big Read" programs on The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, sponsored by the National Endowment For the Arts. To my delight, the assistant rector of my church, who I would gladly have read the phone book to me all day long, also accepted our invitation to participate in one of the daily read-alouds.

But I digress. In truth, the volume which really stimulated this post's original line of thinking was this new title, chock full of recipes for leisurely weekend cocktails and their prescribed food accompaniments...

 

But how does one while away an afternoon with friends following said Boozy Brunch? Although it's a wretchedly inappropriate time of year for such activity in certain parts of the country, I couldn't help thinking while examining these mouth-watering recipes of a book of slightly older vintage--1988, to be exact--which crossed my path a while back, and seemed an aesthetically appropriate companion.
 

 The style and setting here make my heart skip a beat.

 

 

 

Perhaps I should give the game a try when warmer weather returns.