Philip Spiess

Since Paul Simons has inquired about several matters, and has full confidence in my ability to respond to them, I suppose I might as well:

First up:  UFOs and other extra-terrestrial matters (Paul's Post #5851, 12-16-21).  Judy Holtzer originally made inquiries relating to such things, and I believe I answered this sort of inquiry at my Post #5411, 1-16-21, citing the very dubious works of George Adamski and Donald Keyhoe.  I later followed up (Post #5420, 1-18-21) with a reference to the possibility of UFOs being mentioned in the Bible's Old Testament.

Now on to more important matters, namely food.  Paul inquires (Post #5857, 12-18-21) about the well-known but questionable names of various popular salad dressings.  Let us take them in order:

French Dressing:  The original "French dressing," as everyone will agree, is a simple "vinaigrette," invented by the French, namely, an oil and vinegar (usually red wine vinegar) mixture, seasoned with salt, pepper, and various herbs, most often thyme or maybe tarragon.  It often includes a dollop of Dijon mustard (my favorite), well shaken together or otherwise mixed.  But wait!  Paul refers to French dressing as an "orange goop"; this is a commercial American dressing that is creamy, tartly sweet, and (I quote The New Food Lover's Companion, 4th edition, here) "red-orange in color."

Russian Dressing:  This salad dressing, containing mayonnaise, pimiento, chili sauce or catsup (giving it its distinctive red color), chives, and various herbs, is actually American in origin.  There are two schools of thought as to its name:  (1) earlier versions of the dressing apparently contained Caviar, for which Russia is famous; (2) so-called because of its red color, the color inevitably associated with Russia, particularly in its Communist days (this is the theory I adhere to as a cultural historian). 

1,000 Island Dressing:  A mayonnaise-based salad dressing made with chili sauce and finely chopped ingredients, including stuffed green olives, green peppers, pickles, onions, and hard-boiled eggs.  The dressing is named after the Thousand Islands area of upstate New York, which includes 1,864 islands in the St. Lawrence River between the United States and Canada, which extend downstream from the eastern end of Lake Ontario.  All of those little chopped-up bits referred to above, floating in the chili sauce-enriched mayonnaise, constitute the "1,000 Islands."

Caesar Salad Dressing:  Though many make the mistake of assuming that this salad and its signature dressing are named after Julius Caesar or one of his descendants, it is actually named after its creator, Italian chef Caesar Cardini, who created it in 1924 at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico (it quickly caught on with visiting Californians).  It consists of Romaine lettuce tossed with a garlic vinaigrette dressing (made with Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice), grated Parmesan cheese, croutons, a coddled egg, and topped with anchovies.  A bottled Caesar salad dressing (not necessarily the complete recipe as indicated above) is still available in stores under the Caesar Cardini label. 

Ranch Dressing:  Reputed to be the most popular salad dressing in America, ranch dressing is named after Hidden Valley Ranch, a 120-acre dude ranch near Santa Barbara, California.  In 1949 Steve Henson, a plumbing contractor, went to work in Alaska; his job included being cook, and he developed a recipe for a buttermilk-based salad dressing.  When he and his wife moved to California, they opened the dude ranch, and their salad dressing became the house specialty.  Patrons of the ranch so loved the dressing that the Hensons eventually sold the dressing commercially under the name "Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing."  Other food producers, seeing the dressing's success, began to create "ranch style" dressings and other products in the mid-1970s and 1980s.  [Note:  Ranch dressing beat out Italian dressing in 1992 as the best-selling salad dressing in America.]

(And what about) Green Goddess Dressing:  This classic salad dressing was created in the 1920s by the chef at San Francisco's Palace Hotel in honor of actor George Arliss, who was appearing in the play Green Goddess (silent movie starring Arliss, 1923; sound movie starring Arliss, 1930).  George Arliss was a movie superstar of the 1920s and 1930s; his most famous role was as Disraeli in "Disraeli" (silent movie, 1921; sound movie, 1929; you can still find this movie, which is good).  The dressing is a blend of mayonnaise, tarragon vinegar, anchovies, parsley, chives, tarragon, scallions, and garlic.  Besides salads, it is often used as a sauce for fish and shellfish.

Paul Simons

Phil Spiess I knew you could do it!! To me there are two types of mysteries. First the type that requires the Hubble and now the Webb space telescope to solve - are we alone in the universe or can we assemble some evidence that we're probably  not? And second this thing that we take for granted, this mystery hiding in plain sight - what is it, really? What events has this lowly bottle of salad dressing witnessed? Was it or its kin on the table when Al Capone took control of the bootlegging operation? Or when the FBI agents made arrangements to take him down? Does one like it sit on the dining room table of that West Virginia mansion where slave traders, coal barons, and corrupt politicians regularly meet? In any case, job well done! (Note - historical accuracy not guaranteed. Truth, justice, American way reinstatement still pending.)

Philip Spiess

Speaking of Al Capone, Prohibition, and bootleggers (as we approach another New Year's Eve), let me take you back to December 30, 2018 (Post # 3780), when I introduced to this Forum the true story of George Remus, Cincinnati's "King of the Bootleggers."  (Somewhat later I announced on this Forum that, to my astonishment, not one, but two full-length books on the life and times of George Remus had just come out.)

Well, now a new wrinkle has appeared on the sleeve of the bent-elbow of Time:  a fully-fledged "George Remus, King of the Bootleggers" Straight Bourbon Whiskey has made its appearance on the shelves of our local Virginia ABC (Alcoholic Beverages Commission) store!  You could have knocked me down with an ice cube!  Delving into the matter a little further, I learned that it is a product of Cincinnati's downstream neighbor, Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Lawrenceburg, Indiana, has been home to the distilling industry for over 169 years (yes, including during Prohibition -- see my George Remus post).  Through much of the 20th century, the largest distillery there was owned by Seagram's, and, as I passed through Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on my way to Hanover College (further down river in Indiana) in my undergraduate days before Interstate 71 was completed, we would open the car windows to savor the pungent smells of the brewing whiskey which permeated the town.

But Seagram's parent company (a Canadian firm) expanded too far into other areas, and it was bought out by a giant European concern in 2000 and several chunks of it were sold off.  The huge distillery at Lawrenceburg was bought and sold a number of times throughout the ensuing years until it is now owned by a giant distilling conglomerate (I won't go through all of the compsny changes).  The end result is that "George Remus, King of the Bootleggers" Straight Bourbon Whiskey is now produced there by the George Remus Distilling Company.

When I've had a chance to try it, I'll let you know my opinion.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Phil: How can you be so well-informed and continuously entertaining on every subject? I learned more than I ever expected to know about the history of salad dressing and boot legging just readingyour last 2 pieces! I do recall that in the 70s when my brother taught at Morehad State (in KY - not to be confused with Moorhead State in MN) the county was still dry, largely through a coalition of preachers and bootleggers! But those days are gone forever. I was teaching in Richmond KY till 1986, which was half dry, but the wet half was VERY wet! The country club was in the dry half, so you couldn't buy booze with dinner, but members could have lockers to store their goods, and the servers would provide glasses and a bottle opener with dinner. But I don't know if there are any dry spots left there...

Dale Gieringer

   My parents used to take me to a swimming pool in Western Hills known as Gehrum's.   It was in an undeveloped country area off Queen City Avenue,  invisible from the main road,  with a long access drive and gravel parking lot, next to a stately country house.  Only years later, upon reading Edward Behr's Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America, did I learn that it was the former site of George Remus'  "Death Valley Farm," the center of his bootlegging distribution operation.   Its owner, George Dater, had failed at making homemade wine, but the caretaker, George Gehrum, "a little, rat-faced, shifty-eyed individual who lived in perpetual fear of his wife, a young woman of vigorous propensities and a taste for strong drink,"  accepted payment from Remus' operation to store liquor there.  Eventually, Remus remodeled the entire farm, installing several large storage cellars and an undergound bottling plant.  He subsequently fortified it with a sentry box, armed guards, floodlights and a buzzer to alert the house when anyone approached.  Death Valley Farm became the center of Remus' smuggling operation, serviced by twenty armor-plated trucks specially designed so as not to break their bottled freight.  Bootleggers came from as far away as Florida, California, and Texas to shop for goods. The Farm was impregnable at first,  as Remus paid off Cincinnati Prohibition Bureau agents to stay clear.  Eventually though, two out-of-state "untouchables" from the Bureau tricked them into busting the Farm, leading to Remus'  arrest and eventual conviction.  I believe Phil has elsewhere expatiated on the rest of Remus' saga, his arrest and successful insanity defense for murdering his wife, and his extravagant mansion in Price Hill, now long gone.  So, I believe,  is Gehrum's pool, whose history I was blissfully unaware of when swimming there sixty years ago.

Philip Spiess

Becky:  For many years, Bourbon County, Kentucky, where Bourbon whiskey was invented (made out of the available corn), was a "dry" county (it is no longer).  But there are still "dry" counties in Kentucky; in 1985, when my wife Kathy and I decided to take an "all-Kentucky" vacation (she is from New England, remember, and had never been there), we were traveling from eastern Kentucky along the southern highways that parallel the Tennessee border going to Mammoth Cave.  As we tend to do our summer travel around our anniversary, we were looking for a place to buy some champagne.  Every exit off the highway led into another "dry" county.  Finally, we were in a grocery chain store that sold mixers -- but no alcohol.  In exasperation, Kathy asked a teenaged store clerk stocking goods on the shelves if there was somewhere around there where one could buy alcohol.  The youth paused, looked at the floor, and then said, under his breath, "That . . . can be arranged."  Kathy got the picture, and, not wanting, let us say, to meet his uncle the judge (who probably could have provided the said alcohol), she gracefully thanked him and we left.

Later in the afternoon, in rural western Kentucky, we crossed a stream on the far side of which was a barn with this message painted in big letters on its sloping roof:  "FIRST CHANCE."  Yes, it housed a liquor store and the roof slope on the other side, facing the other direction, said:  "LAST CHANCE."  When we finally celebrated our anniversary, we were in Bardstown, the geographic center of Kentucky's Whiskey Trail (and home to the Oscar P. Getz Museum of Whiskey History, located in a former Catholic seminary), staying in the 1779 Old Talbot Tavern (believed to be the oldest continuously operating tavern in the United States) -- and we finally got our bottle of champagne.

[On another trip, on stopping in Morgantown, West Virginia, for supper, we learned that we were in a "dry" county and, in order to get wine with our dinner (yes, they had a wine menu available), we had to "join the club," i.e., pay a nominal fee of $1 per person to join the establishment's "dinner club" in order to purchase wine.  In Sapphire Valley, North Carolina, at the Red Door restaurant (the only really decent meal around), we had to cart in our own wine or liquor, paying a "corking fee" for the waiter to open our bottle on the premises.  Mind you, all of these "dry" counties are "ultra-Christian," their "dryness" promoted by the Anti-Saloon League in the latter half of the 19th century.  And yet they all espouse the central Christian ritual of Communion, which requires wine as well as bread.  (Of course, most of us Protestants are forced to sip grape juice instead of wine; I think the Episcopalians are the exception.  Go figure.)]

Philip Spiess

Dale:  Thanks for your very interesting memories of the Gehrum property.  I first learned about George Remus from my grandfather, who mentioned him to me when I was young (perhaps 10?) while passing the entrance to the property on Queen City Avenue (the name, "Death Valley Farm," stuck with me).  Although I have a vivid memory (I think) of that entrance, I have never found it since; I assume it must be long gone, probably turned into subdivisions.

My references to George Remus's story on this Forum were on 12-30-2018 (Post #3780), the main story; on 1-16-2019 (Post #3822), giving some additional information (including addresses of his homes); and on 9-13-2019 (Post #4297), noting that two new histories of George Remus and his career had come out, specifically:  (1) Karen Abbott:  The Ghosts of Eden Park:  The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America (New York:  Crown, 2019); and (2) Bob Batchelor:  The Bourbon King:  The Life and Crimes of George Remus, Prohibition's Evil Genius (New York:  Diversion Books, 2019).  I found the former book more interesting reading, but the latter book has more pictures.

Paul Simons

American bluesman, Russian kids. There's hope!

Becky Payne (Shockley)

An updated version of a favorite Christmas poem

‘Twas the night before Christmas, but Covid was here,
So we all had to stay extra cautious this year.
Our masks were all hung by the chimney with care
In case Santa forgot his and needed a spare.
With Covid, we couldn't leave cookies or cake
So we left Santa hand sanitizer to take.

The children were sleeping, the brave little tots
The ones over 5 had just had their first shots,
And mom in her kerchief and me in my cap
Had just settled in for a long winter's nap.
But we tossed and we turned all night in our beds
As visions of variants danced in our heads.

Gamma and Delta and now Omicron
These Covid mutations that go on and on
I thought to myself, "If this doesn't get better,
I'll soon be familiar with every Greek letter".

Then just as I started to drift off and doze
A clatter of noise from the front lawn arose.
I leapt from my bed and ran straight down the stair
I opened the door, and an old gent stood there.

His N 95 made him look pretty weird
But I knew who he was by his red suit and beard.
I kept six feet away but blurted out quick
" What are you doing here, jolly Saint Nick?"

Then I said, "Where's your presents, your reindeer and sleigh?
Don't you know that tomorrow will be Christmas Day?".
And Santa stood there looking sad in the snow
As he started to tell me a long tale of woe.

He said he'd been stuck at the North Pole alone
All  his white collar elves had been working from home,
And most of the others said "Santa, don't hire us!
We can live off the CERB now, thanks to the virus".

Those left in the toyshop had little to do.
With supply chain disruptions, they could make nothing new.
And as for the reindeer, they'd all gone away.
None of them left to pull on his sleigh.

He said Dasher and Dancer were in quarantine,
Prancer and Vixen refused the vaccine,
Comet and Cupid were in ICU,
So were Donner and Blitzen, they may not pull through.
 

And Rudolph's career can't be resurrected.
With his shiny red nose, they all think he's infected.
Even with his old sleigh, Santa couldn't go far.
Every border to cross needs a new PCR.

Santa sighed as he told me how nice it would be
If children could once again sit on his knee.
He couldn't care less if they're naughty or nice
But they'd have to show proof that they'd had their shot twice.

But then the old twinkle returned to his eyes.
And he said that he'd brought me a Christmas surprise.
When I unwrapped the box and opened it wide,
Starlight and rainbows streamed out from inside.

Some letters whirled round and flew up to the sky
And they spelled out a word that was 40 feet high.
There first was an H, then an O, then a P,
Then I saw it spelled HOPE when it added the E.

"Christmas magic" said Santa as he smiled through his beard.
Then suddenly all of the reindeer appeared.
He jumped into his sleigh and he waved me good-bye,
Then he soared o'er the rooftops and into the sky.

I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight
"Get your vaccines my friends, Merry Christmas, good-night".
Then I went back to bed and a sweet Christmas dream
Of a world when we'd finished with Covid 19.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Phil: Thanks very much for your narrative on finding the "wet" spots in dry counties. Very interesting! I do remember eating dinner at a convention in Salt Lake City at a restaurant in Cathedral Square, and I think you had to join a club there to order wine as well...

Philip Spiess

Becky:  Remember that Utah is a Mormon state, and that Mormons are supposed to be teetotalers.

Now, first let me say that the version of "The Night Before Christmas" -- updated -- that you posted is infinitely better than many a parody of it I've read over the years (and I have a whole book of them).

Second, let me note that this is not the first time Santa or someone in the poem has been sick:  I refer to certain lines in the original poem, such as "Away to the window I flew on a hunch / Tore open the shutter and threw up my lunch," coupled with the lines that follow shortly thereafter, "As dry heaves before the wild hurricane fly. . . ."  Nor is that all:  there was the time Santa slipped going down the chimney and came down with the flue, and the time he slipped on the roof-tiles and came down with the shingles.

But there are more sinister allusions couched in the poem:  I refer to the fact that this old man sneaks into the house under cover of darkness, tempting the kiddies with sugarplums (and who knows what those really are?) and leaves them "presents" in their clothing!  If you think this isn't dubious behavior, recall the poem's lines:  "The stalking was done by the chimney with care. . . ."

On that note, I'll leave you with my favorite Christmas folklore, The Legend of the Angel On Top of the Christmas Tree [you will see that this is easily adaptable to COVID times]:

"Once upon a time, many years ago, at the North Pole the elves went on strike.  They complained of cold rooms to work in, long hours of labor -- particularly at Christmas -- too many specialized tasks:  carving, gluing, painting, packing, feeding reindeer, harnessing reindeer, cleaning up after reindeer, packing sleighs, etc., etc, and so on.  And what were they paid?  In cookies and funny little hats and boots!  They'd had enough!  What to do? thought Santa; with the elves on strike, I'll never be ready for Christmas Eve!  Then he had an inspiration:  he'd hire angels to finish the job!  A great idea in theory, yet it didn't work out:  angels are well-meaning creatures, but they just don't have the job skills necessary to replace elves.

"So it was suddenly Christmas Eve, and nothing was done:  there were toys to be painted (and paint takes time to dry), packages to be wrapped, the sleigh to be loaded, and reindeer to be harnessed -- and Santa was tearing out his few remaining white hairs!  Just then, the littlest angel of them all came in and said," Hi, Mr. Santy!  Here's the tree you wanted decorated!  Where do you want me to put it?"  And Santa told that littlest angel just where he could put that Christmas tree -- and that is the legend of how the angel came to be on top of the Christmas tree."  Isn't that a touching legend?

You all have a Merry Christmas or a Happy Chanukah, or whatever holiday you choose to celebrate at this time of year, and have a very happy -- and safe! -- New Year!

Paul Simons

First - what a fabulous rework of "The Night Before Christmas" Becky! Even better when read aloud! And next my contribution to the canon or perhaps the depleted uranium stockpile:

It was Christmas morning and when I awoke 
I remembered JFK and the way that he spoke 
"Let me say this about that" is how he would start
And whatever came next it was right from the heart.
A good way to start so right off the bat 
Allow me a moment to say this about that.

First about whiskey as Philip has noted 
We had insurrection right after we voted
Much has been said, it need not be quoted 
And on top of that more than two years of Covid.
It's been pretty rough, that's what I think 
It's more than enough to drive me to drink

Speaking of that these days when I drive
Towards Cincinnati on 75
I remember a time when the scent so rare
Of sweet Bourbon mash would fill the air
Those were the days, before the buzz killers
When booze was still made
At National Distillers.  

But it wasn't all bad, all brutal and cold
At the Olympics our country won gold
Led by a swimmer named Katie Ledecky
Whose freestyle's as good as the poem from Becky
So don't lose heart, love will find a way
It's Christmas y'all! Have a good Christmas Day!

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Phil and Paul: I am overwhelmed by both of your responses!!

Paul: you are a real poet (!) and I am tickled and deeply honored to be mentioned (in such a positive way!) in your amazing poem! Thanks!

Phil: I am glad to know that you rated my poem so highly, but your other parodies and legends are are pretty hysterical! Thanks for the laughs!

Nelson Abanto

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.  

I was moved to respond to Phil's and Becky's comments anout Utah.  We are celebrating Christmas out here with our California family and that always includes skiing at this time oy year.  I am happy to report that Utah has modernized there alcohol laws quite a bit over the last 20 years.  You don't have to join a club to get a drink anymore.  Because all wine has to be sold through State stores, the selection is sparse to say the least.

It used tp be that, if you ordered a cocktail or a beer before dinner you could not get your wine until you had finished the first drink (I am not making this up).

Utah, by legislative fiat, still teaches abstinence in high schools, and it works just as well as it did when we were young ( Utah leads the nation in teenage pregnacies).

Enough about Utah.  If you want a good tip, go see the new version of West Side Story.  It is sensational.

Again, best to all.  I pray we can get together this summer to celebrate our 75th (or is it 76th).

Nelson

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Just so everyone knows, the updated version of Night Before Christmas was not written by me, but was sent to me by a friend. But I thought it was quite choice!

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Phil: While listening to the radio show WAIT WAIT DON'T TELL ME yesterday, one of the multiple choice questions given a celebrity guest (this one being Symone, famous from having won the last season of Ru Paul's Drag Race) was about a plumbers.  The second question was about a plumber in Alaska.  I didn't have to listen to the other two choices for "plumbers' hidden talents, after having read your post about salad dressing. The choices were: A.) Invented ranch dressing; B.) Personally mothered a flock of orphaned herons; C.) Was a notable tenor at the Juneau Lyric Opera.

Nelson: I took my stepdaughter and granddaughter to see West Side Story on the big IMAX screen.  I enjoyed it but, knowing the original Broadway cast album that I listened to until the grooves wore out, and after having watched my all time favorite movie, the 1961 version, for at least 100 times ( based on twice a year for 50 years), there was something lacking in Spielberg's version.  The cinematography and choreography were great, although some of the scenes showing tenement buildings partially remaining from the wrecking ball reminded me of bombed out buildings from WWII movies.  The lyrics were changed in some of the songs, as was the order of songs, I'm sure for story purposes.  I'm still not sure If I liked the new character, played by Rita Moreno, as "Doc's" widow.  It was great to see Rita and she did her part well, but she didn't need to be in the final scene, 
My granddaughter, who is 28, and obsessed with Broadway musicals, having been hooked by Wicked as a youngster, and has watched performances in London, Chicago, NYC, Louisville, and Cincinnati, had just returned from a weekend in New York, had NEVER seen any version of West Side Story (or Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet for that matter).  She loved it!  However, at the end, as I was passing out tissues to her and her mom, she said, "You didn't tell me it was going to be so sad." 
Of course, West Side Story always reminds me of the excerpts we did in the Peanuts of '62...BEST PEANUTS EVER!!!!

Bonnie Altman (Templeton)

Becky, what a wonderful poem!

Nancy Messer

The WHHS Alumni page of upcoming reunions shows our reunion in 2022 is cancelled.  What's going on here?

Philip Spiess

To help you welcome in the New Year (which, we can hope, will be infinitely better than the old one, at least COVID-wise), I offer two classic elixirs, aimed at those who like the taste of chocolate:

BRANDY ALEXANDER:

1 oz. Brandy     1 oz. dark Creme de Cacao (or you can use light)            2 ozs. Heavy Cream     Pinch of freshly grated Nutmeg                         [1 1/2 tsp. Port Wine (optional)]     [3 drops of Chocolate Bitters (optional)]

Shake all of the ingredients except the nutmeg with ice and strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with the grated nutmeg.  (The port wine adds a deliciously long finish to this drink.)

20TH CENTURY COCKTAIL:

1 1/2 ozs. Dry Gin     3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc     1/2 oz. light (or dark) Creme de Cacao*                     3/4 oz. Lemon Juice

Shake all of the ingredients in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a twist of lemon.  [*  The amount of Creme de Cacao you use on either side of this measurement depends on how prononced you want the chocolate flavor to be.]

HAPPY NEW YEAR, CLASS OF '64!

Paul Simons

How well I remember riding on the 20th Century Limited, enjoying that very cocktail in the club car!

About Nancy's post - at the bottom of the Alumni page it says "Copyright 2020" so it's probably referring to the 2021 cancellation.

http://www.walnuthillseagles.com/news.cshtml?n=2831&s=6#gsc.tab=0

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Phil: Your mention of cocktails with creme de cacao ingredients calls to mind a drink I loved in my earthly adult days, when I only drank sweet mixed drinks, long before I acquired my taste for a fine single malt scotch or the EXTRA DIRTY vodka martini. These days, I don't drink much alcohol. Something in it triggers the same oral allergy syndrome that I have after eating pineapple, kiwi, melons, and cucumbers, although I did have a celebratory frozen margarita for my granddaughter's birthday in July. 
My Uncle Dick, had a Playboy key card, and often took my mom and me to Cincinnati's own Playboy Club for dinner. I had a friend who was a Bunny, and despite all my efforts to convince my parents that I should change my career from a caseworker at the welfare department for something more glamorous, they never relented. So, I had to be content going to dinner, and being served a Black Russian, on the rocks, in a souvenir mug that my uncle always bought for me. I had a full set of those things!!

Ingredients: 1 part vodka 2 parts coffee liqueur 

Philip Spiess

Ann:  As you probably know, it was President Franklin Roosevelt who intoduced the "Dirty" Martini to the world. (He served them to Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta Conference; Stalin's comment:  "It is very cold on the stomach.")  I, in turn, seeing FDR's martini set up in his bedroom at his Campobello estate (now International Park) in Canada, asked the guide if it was a "Dirty" Martini.  She had never heard of such, so I introduced the concept to the Campobello staff.  (Although I usually have a stuffed green olive in my martini, I prefer a marinated mushroom in my "Dirty" Martinis.)

And what is your favorite single malt Scotch?

Gene Stern

Phil asked to comment on my days in Winton Place since his mother spent two years there so I responded and he thought I should share on our forum:
 

Good Morning Phil: I lived on Derby Ave. in Winton place and walked to Winton Place Elementary (about 1 mile up Epworth Ave. Two of my closest friends also went to WHHS (Dave Brockfield who was President of the Class of 1963) and George “Goose Gossling.
At the end of Derby was Winton Road and the large stone wall surrounding Spring Grove Cemetery. My Mom and Dad both worked at P&G Ivorydale which was not far from our home.
Winton Place was surrounded by factories and railroad tracks-Formica and P&G being the two most prominent. I recall walking to the corner of Edgewood and Epworth to a drugstore owned by two Greek brothers and sitting down in the booths that had connctions to the juke box and ordering vanilla phosphates.
My Dad insisted I go to WHHS and being a Ukranian task master, gave me “homework” to stay fluent in our native Russian language, every night!
In my ninth grade year we moved to College Hill and I became eligible to drive on Jan 4 1962, and my Dad sold me his 1956 Ford Station wagon (for $200) with a three speed on the column and a V8 Thunderbird engine. You may recall it was blue and white.
Gennadij Victoravich Suttschenko. (My name on the German Birth Certificate)
 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

It has been so long since I've had a drink, I had to check to see what was still on hand in the kitchen cabinet. The 12 yr old Glenlivet is there but I frequently purchased a 12 yr old Glenfiddich, or a blended scotch called Monkey Shoulder, that is cheap, but pretty good for the price. As for vodka, for years I bought Absolut but when Tito's began its marketing campaign to "dog people" for dog rescue, that's the only vodka I would ever buy. 

Paul Simons

First Happy Birthday Gene - my first car also cost $200.00. A '57 Plymouth that was a piece of junk - old school definition. Alcohol - my last once-a-year-on-Thanksgiving Scotch on the rocks was about 3 or 4 years ago but Happy New Year with or without C2H5OH!