Category Archives: Gin

Nick and Nora

The Thin Man Drinking Game

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Nick and Nora

Nick and Nora

Apparently TCM is running The Thin Man, one of the truly great movies of the Thirties, featuring two of the truly greatest performances, those of William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. And also, since it was released just after Prohibition was lifted, featuring an awful lot of every possible kind of booze, making it perfect for a drinking game.

So, without further ado, here is the drinking game I came up with. Basically, every time the characters toss back a Rock and Rye or a Martini or a raw slug straight out of the bottle, you take a drink, one relating to what they’re drinking at the time.

You will need a bottle of Scotch, white wine, Champagne, a cocktail spirit of your choice (we don’t recommend sticking with Scotch all the way through), one shot of Jaegermeister per person, a lot of the mixer of your choice, appropriate garnishes that should be pre-prepared because you’ll be too drunk later, cocktail glasses, highball glasses, wine glasses, champagne glasses, a cocktail shaker or pitcher depending on your preferred cocktail, cocktail ingredients of your choice.

For survivability’s sake, make all your cocktails and highballs singles, no more than 1 1/2 ounces of alcohol, and about 4-6 ounces of mixer. If you watch the movie, you’ll see that’s the standard size back then. The secret to the Six Martini Evening, as Nick knew and Nora discovered, is to keep to singles (which I was quite horrified to discover, bars still make unless you ask for a double. Huh. Imagine that. Ottawa; so very different from Vancouver).

It’s probably best to pre-mix a generous pitcher or shaker of cocktails before the movie starts. Keep lots of ice on hand as well, in case you get dehydrated or you bought the cheap Scotch. You will be drinking wine, taking shots, consuming cocktails, tossing back highballs, and quaffing Champagne. Should be quite a party.

Good luck getting to the end of the movie!

Seeing Nick and Nora have six martinis in the bar, DRINK A COCKTAIL

Looks like scotch and soda in the meeting with Macauley, DRINK A HIGHBALL

Nick handing out cocktails at the party, a dozen or so on a tray, so everyone have a COCKTAIL or HIGHBALL your choice

Nora handing out COCKTAILS at the party, have a COCKTAIL

Nick drinks a HIGHBALL although he appears to have had a few.

Nora hands the remaining cocktails to reporters. If you’re a reporter, bonus COCKTAIL! Only reporters drink this one.

Nick drinks Nora’s Rye COCKTAIL. Drink the cocktail of the person you came with. If you came alone, drink your own drink and re-examine your life choices.

Nora has a HIGHBALL she gives Dorothy. Give a highball to the person to your left.

Nick mixes himself another HIGHBALL. Drink a highball.

“maybe it’d help you to sleep” Nick pours himself a HIGHBALL and shotguns it, and you do the same.

Nora requests a drink, Nick makes her a straight SCOTCH which she doesn’t drink. Put the Scotch in front of you and leave it there. If you drink that Scotch, you lose this round, but only if someone is sober enough to notice.

Nick drinks her scotch, drink the drink of the person on your left. Now you’re even.

Nick gives her some straight SCOTCH to bring her around after he slugs her. Drink Scotch, but not the Scotch from earlier. This is a different one.

Nick slugs a lot of SCOTCH. You know what to do, assuming you’re still conscious.

Nora gives him a glass of HIGHBALL but drinks SCOTCH from the bottle. Twice. Do the same. (in Covid times, use an airplane-serving size bottle and don’t share)

Then he drinks the HIGHBALL in the tumbler. Do that.

Christmas morning, Nick drinks a HIGHBALL and you can have one too. Make me one while you’re up.

Nunhiem pours a SLUG for the Lt., Nick drinks it, and it’s nasty. TAKE A SHOT OF JAEGERMEISTER.

“It’s putting me way behind in my drinking” Nick has a HIGHBALL and you should as well.

Waiter/cop at dinner offers a COCKTAIL so have one.

Morelli drinks a glass of WHITE WINE because he fancy. You do it too.

Nick drinks some WHITE WINE, so have your second.

Glasses of CHAMPAGNE on the train. Wait, are you still here? Are you SURE you’ve been playing this game?

emo gossip linkage

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If only my parents had bought me this when I was little!

If only my parents had bought me this when I was little!

Okay so judging by the computer clock I have 12.5 minutes to finish this post and get it up, which may give you a hint why most of my posts seem rather … thin … lately. I have to jam them all up before the web cafe closes or walk several miles in the rain to get to the nearest 24 hour cafe and then pay another $2 for lousy coffee or $5 in the case of the nearest cafe, which has a two-drink minimum and NO I AM NOT EVEN JOKING so is it any wonder I’m having an emo breakdown? It’s only Monday by a few minutes and I’m already three days behind in posts.

So let me tell you about the time I had an emo meltdown on my one and only celebrity follower. Well, I have some celebrity journalists following me, thank god, because validation from writers better than one’s self is always welcome, but I have only one Actual Movie Star Follower, and that’s John Cusack. I’d tell you about him, but I don’t have time and you DO have google, so knock yourselves out.

It happened after I’d stayed up too long liveblogging Japan (for which I did get on the front page of Google for “Japanese Earthquake” for a time at least; I do think I did a good job, but GOD who can blog that for long without going ever so slightly insane, eh? I ask yez) two nights in a row and gotten an email from a friend in Hawaii mentioning the two quakes he’d had while he was replying to my email of a few minutes ago. Oh, swell.

Then I heard about the reactors.

That’s about when I DM’d my one and only Genuine Celebrity Follower, a man I know through conversations of about 420 characters total. And nothing is to be deduced from that purely coincidental number.

And what did I say to this near-stranger? “Do you ever have one of those days when you think the end of the world is actually here already?”

So, yeah, I’m apparently That Fan. Mother would be so proud.

On that note, here are your emo links for an early Monday morning. I should drink more, at least I’m a happy drunk.

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Operation Global Media Domination: the Cocktail Situation

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As someone who knows me (all too) well said, now I will be utterly impossible to live with: It will totally go to my head (or at least two or three of them will):

So there you have it: not only did Social Media Club Vancouver have a totally successful Meet the Geek dinner tonight (superthanks to Melody Fury of Vancouver Food Tour) but Operation Global Media Domination got the ultimate accolade: a tribute in booze and nomenclature. Can there be any higher? I think not! And not just because I’ve been drinking!

So, there you have it: a raincoaster cocktail is:

1 oz Gin (Hendricks, Plymouth, Broker’s, Old Raj, Beefeater)

0.5 oz Lillet Blanc

0.5 oz Cointreau

0.5 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

barspoon of Absinthe

stir, strain, add lemon zest (and Jay Jones always adds a great wide swath; none of your chintzy ribbons for him!).

Then, if you’re like me, you show it off to everyone at the bar and offer them sips of “your” cocktail and then before you or anyone who didn’t yet get a sip knows it, you’re staring into the bottom of your beautiful, vintage cocktail glass with the chipped gold rim, and there’s nothing down there but lemon zest and the dregs of regret. Ah, socialism! Perhaps I should cultivate a fondness for vodka instead?

Dorothy Parker, who really looks more Doloresy here

Dorothy Parker, who really looks more Doloresy here

Dry Spell

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Those of you who have been following the ol’ raincoaster blog for some time will know that I’ve been on a largely raw vegan die(t) for three months now, with the result that I’ve gone from an XL to an L and no, it was NOT worth it.

It was most particularly not worth it because I had to give up my beloved cocktails; in fact, I believe I only consumed alcohol one day in the month of July and that was my birthday. In August I gave myself a few more “days off” and enjoyed some wine, but it must be said that in this, as in most things in life, Dean Martin had it right.

Dino is my hero

Listen to Dino; he KNOWS!

“I’d hate to be a teetotaler. Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing that’s as good as you’re going to feel all day.”

Well, exactly.

So, how does it feel to be a neo-teetotaler in Lotus Land, when one knows all the best bartenders and they all know it’s a Negroni, up, when you walk in the door unless it’s cold outside and then it’s probably Jack Daniels or if it’s been a very bad day, Champagne? Well, it doesn’t feel good. Have you ever been the only sober person at a blowout? That’s right: it feels like a bad dream. It feels, in fact, just as depicted in this incredible documentary, 28 Drinks Later.

And, lest we forget, here are some words of wisdom from Diogenes:

“What I like to drink most is wine that belongs to others.”

Post-Christmas Hangover and National Drunk Blogging Day: deferred!

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Drunk Nativity Set

Alcohol
Image via Wikipedia

TRAGEDY STRIKES!

I have been informed that my vacation sponsors up here in Podunkaville can’t or won’t see their way into bankrolling my participation in National Drunk Blogging Day. Imagine! What’s the point of three week’s free vacation with a view, a hot tub, a fireplace, and a wall full of DVDs if you have to enjoy it sober? I ask yez.

So I have a plan.

  1. 1) Move the date back. This part is easy! Pick a date when 2. is available
  2. 2) Obtain booze sponsor. This means either Molson’s, who’ve been very, very good to me in the past, or a wine company, as getting a gin sponsor for this would be a) difficult (believe me, I’ve tried to get gin sponsors before) and b) massively destructive to one’s liver, as one must have one drink per post, and I make my Martinis on the large side.

So, anyone interested in hooking us up with some tasteh, tasteh C2H5OH, just let me know.

merry squidmas

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