Wednesday 3 April 2013

Post #101: How to Drink Like a Gentleman

How to Drink Like a Gentleman: The Things to Do and the Things Not To, as Learned in 30 Years’ Extensive Research

By H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken was a columnist for the Baltimore Evening Sun and editor of the American Mercury. This essay was originally published in Liberty Magazine on January 12, 1935.
From 1924 to 1950, Liberty Magazine published the work of such writers and public figures as Greta Garbo, Margaret Sanger, Babe Ruth, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Its weekly circulation reached 3 million. Today, the magazine is largely forgotten, but many of its pieces are being reissued in several collections available on Amazon. This essay has been republished in the collection ‘Liberty on Drinking.’
"Before prohibition
, drinkers knew their liquor. Now even the wisest of us may grope helplessly unless we can recognize the bottle we met the other night at a friend's. Therefore the bar must lay out bottles for the drinker to recognize. In the old bar fine art had a place—good-natured Venuses; now we need the wall space for the dummy bottles. Of course you might keep the mural paintings by locating the receding shelves for bottles beneath the top of the back bar. Either way, the shelves should be of glass, with mirrors behind them. It is sometimes the other side of the bottle that the drinker recognizes. The ideal bar will have enough glass in the top to let you see what the bartender is doing. A good bartender desires your eyes upon him as he mixes the drink. It's a graceful act."

Tuesday 19 March 2013

"Collateral damage abound"

This was recently posted on a great design blog I follow that hadn't previously been udpated for a while. I know absolutely nothing about the dude who wrote this or what he's specifically referring to here, but I think I can guess:
When faced with ones own weakness, selfishness and arrogance, the enormity of it is too much too absorb.
Too painful.
It’s all too much.
Belief systems are compromised.
Collateral damage abound.
To live with knowledge that actions hurt people who have had your back…that have always been in your corner…that have always been your staunchest supporters and defenders…that have been your quiet harbor in a world full of stormy seas…that have shown you such love…is…crushing…
The reality of it all…is…crushing…
I love you E.
I love you my sons.
I’m sorry.
And sorry doesn’t begin to cover it.
Not even remotely.
And it can’t ever really encapsulate it.
…and thank you.
For being everything important…and good…and safe…in a world full of stormy seas….even when I don’t see it…or did my best to destroy it.
(to everyone else, normal posting to resume shortly)
Is it just me, or is this a really tossy way of publicly apologising to your wife for cheating on her? And who wrote this anyway? Alanis Morrissette?

Friday 15 March 2013

The best GIF of all time?


Thanks to Regretsy forum contributor Unfortunate Incident for this brilliant piece of fuckery.