September, 2015 - Fannie Lou Hamer - Brainstorm

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 - 1977)

"Nobody's free until everybody's free"

Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi.  She was the youngest of 20 children.  Her parents were sharecroppers and she began working the fields when she was only 6 years old.  She continued to be a share cropper after her 1944 marriage to Perry "Pap" Hamer.  In 1962, she attended a protest meeting and met civil rights activists who encouraged blacks and register to vote, and soon became active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which fought racial segregation and injustice in the South.  During the course of her activist career, Hamer was threatened, arrested, beaten, and shot at.  She was severely injured in 1963 in Winona, Mississippi jail when she and two other activists were taken in by police after attending a training workshop.  Hamer was beaten so badly that she suffered permanent kidney damage.  In 1964, she helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, and ran for Congress in Mississippi in 1965.  Fannie also helped to establish the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971.  Hamer died in 1977 from breast cancer.

The Drink:

Brainstorm:

1.5 oz Irish whiskey
1.5 oz dry vermouth
.25 oz benedictine
lemon twist

Drinkability:  2
Drunkability:  4.5
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments:  PoC is a 3 if you dial down the vermouth just a bit.

From "Women of the Civil Rights Movement" hosted by BallBuster

June, 2014 - The Astronauts Wives Club - Dirty (Vodka) Martini

**See previous post (read The Astronauts Wives Club) **

The Drink:

Dirty (Vodka) Martini

2 parts vodka
1 part dry vermouth
splash olive brine

(If you like olives) Drinkability:  2.5
Drunkability:  5
Taxic Diversity:  2
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  4

(If you DON'T like olives)
Drinkability: .5
Drunkability: 0
Taxic Diversity: 1
Accessibility: don't care
Priority for Conservation: 0

Comments:  "If you don't like olives, you will not like this drink."

From "Wives of the Astronauts from Apollo 13" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

June, 2014 - The Astronaut Wives Club - Vieux Carre

This month, Fluffy Ruffle drew from a non-fiction book for her source of women:  Lily Koppel's The Astronaut Wives Club.  (It was Friday the 13th, and a full moon, so the wives of the Apollo 13 mission was the focus.  Outside of this book, however, there was not a lot of information to be found about the women.  So, read the book!

The Drink:

Vieux Carre

1/2 teaspoon (0.08 oz) Benedictine
1 dash Peychaud’s Bitters
1 dash Angostura Bitters
3/4 ounce rye whiskey
3/4 ounce cognac
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth

Drinkability: 3
Drunkability: 5
Taxic Diversity:  4
Accessibility:  3

Priority for Conservation:  2

Comments:  "Very similar to a Manhattan ... would probably prefer to just have a good Manhattan."

From "Wives of Astronauts of the Apollo 13 Mission" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

May, 2014 - Kiki de Montparnasse - Atty Cocktail

Kiki de Montparnasse — born Alice Ernestine Prin (2 October 1901 – 29 April 1953)

Nicknamed Queen of Montparnasse, was a French artist's model, nightclub singer, actress, memoirist, and painter. She helped define the liberated culture of Paris in the early 1920s.   She started modeling nude at age 14 and soon became the muse for for many of the Surrealist artists of the 1920s,  including Chaim Soutine, Julian Mandel, Tsuguharu Foujita, Constant Detré, Francis Picabia, Jean Cocteau, Arno Breker, Alexander Calder, Per Krohg, Hermine David, Pablo Gargallo, Mayo, and Tono Salazar, and Man Ray.  A painter in her own right, in 1927 Prin had a sold-out exhibition of her paintings at the Galerie au Sacre du Printemps in Paris.  Her drawings and paintings comprise portraits, self-portraits, social activities, fanciful animals, and dreamy landscapes composed in a light, slightly uneven, expressionist style that is a reflection of her easy-going manner and boundless optimism.  Her music hall performances in black hose and garters included crowd-pleasing risqué songs, which were uninhibited, yet inoffensive. Long after her death, Prin remains the embodiment of the outspokenness, audacity, and creativity that marked that period of life in Montparnasse. In 1989, biographers Billy Klüver and Julie Martin called her "one of the century's first truly independent women."

The Drink:

Atty Cocktail:

1 1/2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce dry vermouth
1/2 teaspoon absinthe
1/2 teaspoon crème de violette

Drinkability:  2
Drunkability:  5
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  2

Comments:  "This cocktail is prettier than it tastes - is pretty opalescent, however very strong.  Would be improved if it was 1/2 tsp creme de violette, but only 1/4 tsp absinthe - too much anise flavor"

From "Muses" theme hosted by Alabazam

February 2014 - Jane Fonda - The Brooklyn Cocktail

Jane Fonda (1937-)

is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru from New York City.  Fonda opposed the Vietnam War and her associated activities were considered highly controversial.  She visited Hanoi in Northern Vietnam in July of 1972.  During her trip, Fonda made ten radio broadcasts in which she denounced American political and military leaders as "war criminals."  She was photographed seated on an anti-aircraft battery, the same used to bring down American aircraft.  The controversial photo outraged a number of Americans and resentment against her among veterans still exists.  For example, in 2005, a U.S. Navy veteran was arrested after he spat chewing tobacco in Fonda's face during a book-signing event for her autobiography, My Life So Far.  He told reporters that "she spit on our faces for 37 years.  It was absolutely worht it."  Fonda refused to press charges.  In 1988 interview with Barbara Walters, Fonda expressed regret for some of her comments and actions, stating, "I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm very sorry that I hurt them. [...] I will go to my grave regretting the photograph of me in an anti-aircraft gun, which looks like I was trying to shoot at American planes."  Fonda has also protested the Iraq War and violence against women.  In 2005, she co-founded (with Gloria Steinem) the Women's Media Center, an organization that works to amplify the voices of women in the media through advocacy, media, and leadership training, and the creation of original content.

The Drink:

The Brooklyn

2 oz whiskey
1 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
dashes Angostura bitters.

Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  5
Taxic Diversity:  2
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments: the "3" for Drinkability isn't because we don't like it, it's just a sipper.  

From Women of Vietnam hosted by BallBuster

January 2014 - Annie Cannon - Harvard

Annie Jump Cannon

Annie Jump Cannon was born in Dover, Delaware on December 11, 1863.  At a young age Cannon became ill and progressively became deaf.  Annie Jump Cannon sees herself as a deaf woman who primarily uses English for communication.  Cannon's love for astronomy grew at a young age because of her mother who taught her the constellations, would practice with Cannon.  As a young woman Cannon attended Wellesley College where she pursued her interests as a physics major since astronomy was not provided at the time.  She later studied at Harvard College Observatory where she worked on classifying stars and discovering variable stars and novae.  Cannon created the mnemonic device, "Oh! Be A Fine Girl - Kiss Me!" which is still used by astronomers today to classify stars.  Outside of the lab Cannon led a very exciting life full of travel and advocacy.  Cannon was part of the National Women's party and was a major advocate for women's suffrage.  Academic awards and honors were common occurrences in Cannon's life:  she received the Draper Award by the National Academy of Sciences, awards from Oxford, the Nova Medal by the American Association of Variable Stars Observers, and was voted one of the 12 greatest living women in America in 1923.  Annie Cannon became the world's expert in stellar classification and the Annie Jump Cannon award is given annually to new astronomers by the American Association of University Women.

The Drink:

Harvard

1 1/2 oz brandy
1 oz sweet vermouth
2 or 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  2.5
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  5

Comments:  "brandy, something sweet, and something non-sweet."

From "Deaf Women" hosted by 

January 2014 - Laura Redded - Journalist

Laura Catherine Redded

Laura Catherine Redden was born to Littleton John Redden and Wilhelmina Waller Redden in 1840.  In 1851, she lost her hearing at age 11 due to the illness spinal meningitis.  In 1855, she enrolled in the Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD) in Fulton, Missouri.  She learned sign language and the American Manual Alphabet from 1857-1858, Redden submitted poems to Harper's Magazine.  In 1858, Redden's first published essay appeared in the American Annals of the Deaf.  The topics of the essay were deafness, sign language, and writing.  In 1858, Redden graduated from the Missouri School for the Deaf.  Upon graduation, she was offered a teaching position at MSD which she declined.  In 1859, the St. Louis Presbyterian hired her as a columnist and assistant editor.  In 1860, she became an editorialist for the St. Louis Republican.  At this time, Laura Cathering Redden officially adopted the pseudonym Howard Glyndon.  In 1861, she was sent by the St. Louis Republican to Washington D.C. to cover and document the American Civil War.  She was a pro-Union loyalist and wrote poems about the experiences and human interests of the battle field.  She also wrote to Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant during the war.  After the war, 1865- 69, she traveled to Europe to become a correspondent for the New York Times.  By 1870, she returned to New York and Boston and was a staff writer for the New York Evening Mail and contributed to Galaxy, Harper's Magazine, and the Tribune.

The Cocktail:

Journalist:

1 1/2 tsp sweet vermouth
1 1/2 tsp dry vermouth
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 tsp triple sec
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 dash bitters


Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  4
Taxic Diversity:  2
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments:  high ratings for gin drink that tastes like gin, but low for general drinks (used  Hendrick's Gin, good gin makes all the difference)

From "Deaf Women" theme hosted by  Bandit Queen

October, 2013 - Bloodhound

Bloodhound

¾ oz. Dry Vermouth 

¾ oz. Sweet Vermouth 

1 ½ oz. London dry Gin

2-3 crushed strawberries

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility: 3
Priority for Conservation: 2

Comments: "FR abstains, 'This is my worst nightmare, I can smell the gin from like a foot away."

From "Women in Law Enforcement" hosted by BoilerMaker

September, 2013 - Judy Chicago - Bourbonnaise

Judy Chicago

     Judy Chicago is an American feminist artist and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces which examine the role of women in history and culture. Born in Chicago as Judith Cohen, she changed her name after the death of her father and her first husband, choosing to disconnect from the idea of male dominated naming conventions. Her father came from a twenty-three generation lineage of rabbis.  Unlike his family predecessors, he would become a labor organizer and a Marxist. Arthur's health declined, and he died in 1953.  Their mother did not allow Judy and her brother to attend the funeral. Chicago would not reflect on his death until she was an adult, and in the early 1960s she would be hospitalized for almost a month with a bleeding ulcer attributed to unresolved grief. In June 1959, she met and fell in love with Jerry Gerowitz.  The couple hitch hiked to New York in 1959 and lived in Greenwich Village for a time, before returning in 1960 to Los Angeles so she could finish her degree. Gerowitz died in a car crash in 1963, devastating Chicago and causing her to suffer from an identity crisis until later that decade. While in grad school, Chicago created a series that was abstract, yet easily recognized as male and female sexual organs. These early works were called Bigamy, and represented the death of her husband. One depicted an abstract penis which was "stopped in flight" before it could unite with a vaginal form. Her professors, who were mainly men, were dismayed over these works. Despite the use of sexual organs in her work, Chicago refrained from using gender politics or identity as themes. In 1968, Chicago was asked why she did not participate in the "California Women in the Arts" exhibition, to which she answered "I won't show in any group defined as Woman, Jewish, or California. Someday when we all grow up there will be no labels."  Chicago also began exploring her own sexuality in her work. She created the Pasadena Lifesavers, which was a series of abstract paintings that placed acrylic paint on Plexiglas. The works blended colors to create an illusion that the shapes "turn, dissolve, open, close, vibrate, gesture, wiggle," representing her own discovery that "I was multi-orgasmic." Chicago credited Pasadena Lifesavers, as being the major turning point in her work in relation to women's sexuality and representation.

     By the 1970s, Chicago had coined the term "feminist art" and had founded the first feminist art program in the United States. Chicago's work incorporates skills stereotypically placed upon women artistically, such as needlework, counteracted with stereotypical male skills such as welding and pyrotechnics. Chicago's masterpiece work is The Dinner Party, which is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum.

the drink:

Bourbonnaise

1 1/2 oz bourbon

1/2 oz dry vermouth

1/2 oz creme de cassis

1 dash fresh lemon juice

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability: 4.5
Taxic Diversity: 3.5
Accessibility: 4
Priority for Conservation: 3

Comments:  "lemony manhattan," "every breath is flames."

From "American Women Artists of the 20th C." hosted by FluffyRuffle

September, 2013 - Helen Frankenthaler - Canvas Back

Helen Frankenthaler

Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. Having exhibited her work for over six decades, she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. Frankenthaler began exhibiting her large-scale abstract expressionist paintings in contemporary museums and galleries in the early 1950s. She was included in the 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition curated by Clement Greenberg that introduced a newer generation of abstract painting that came to be known as Color Field. Her work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, including a 1989 retrospective at MOMA. Frankenthaler had been on the faculty of Hunter College. In 2001, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
     Growing up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Frankenthaler absorbed the privileged background of a cultured and progressive intellectual family that encouraged all three daughters to prepare themselves for professional careers. Frankenthaler studied at the Dalton School and also at Bennington College in Vermont. She met Clement Greenberg in 1950 and had a five-year relationship with him. She was later married to fellow artist Robert Motherwell, from 1958 until they divorced in 1971. Both born of wealthy parents, the pair was known as "the golden couple" and noted for their lavish entertaining.
     Initially associated with abstract expressionism her career was launched in 1952 with the exhibition of Mountains and Sea. In it, she introduced the technique of painting directly onto an unprepared canvas so that the material absorbs the colors. She heavily diluted the oil paint with turpentine so that the color would soak into the canvas. This technique, known as "soak stain" was used by Jackson Pollock and others and launched the second generation of the Color Field school of painting. Frankenthaler did not consider herself a feminist: she said "For me, being a 'lady painter' was never an issue. I don’t resent being a female painter. I don’t exploit it. I paint.“ At her death in 2011 it became widely known that Frankenthaler tried to stop the support of the National Endowment for the Arts to artists and was one of those responsible for the NEA dropping individual grants to artists. In a 1989 commentary for the New York Times, she wrote that, while "censorship and government interference in the directions and standards of art are dangerous and not part of the democratic process," controversial grants to Andres Serrano, Robert Mapplethorpe and others reflected a trend in which the NEA was supporting work "of increasingly dubious quality. Is the council, once a helping hand, now beginning to spawn an art monster? Do we lose art ... in the guise of endorsing experimentation?"

the Drink:

Canvas Back:

1 oz bourbon

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz gin

1/4 oz orange curacao

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 dash fresh lemon juice

Drinkability:  2
Drunkability:  4
Taxic Diversity:  4
Accessibility: 4
Priority for Conservation:  4

Comments: "this was our favorite of the night"

From "American Women Artists of the 20th C." hosted by FluffyRuffle

September, 2013 - Georgia O'Keefe - Ruby Cocktail

Georgia O'Keefe

Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916. She made large-format paintings of enlarged blossoms, presenting them close up as if seen through a magnifying lens, and New York buildings, most of which date from the same decade. Beginning in 1929, when she began working part of the year in Northern New Mexico—which she made her permanent home in 1949—O’Keeffe depicted subjects specific to that area. O'Keeffe has been recognized as the Mother of American Modernism.
     O'Keeffe turned to working more representationally in the 1920s in an effort to move her critics away from Freudian interpretations. Her earlier work had been mostly abstract, but works such as Black Iris III (1926) evoke  a veiled representation of female genitalia while also accurately depicting the center of an iris. O'Keeffe consistently denied the validity of Freudian interpretations of her art, but fifty years after it had first been interpreted in that way, many prominent feminist artists assessed her work similarly.  Although 1970s feminists celebrated O'Keeffe as the originator of "female iconography", O'Keeffe rejected their celebration of her work and refused to cooperate with any of their projects. 
     In 1972, O'Keeffe's eyesight was compromised by macular degeneration. Juan Hamilton, a young potter, appeared at her ranch house in 1973 looking for work. She hired him for a few odd jobs and soon employed him full-time. He became her closest confidante, companion, and business manager until her death. Hamilton taught O'Keeffe to work with clay, and working with assistance, she produced clay pots and a series of works in watercolor. On January 10, 1977, President Gerald R. Ford presented O'Keeffe with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to American citizens.  In 1985, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
     In 2006, a fossilized species of archosaur was named after O'Keeffe. Blocks originally quarried in 1947 and 1948 near O'Keeffe's home at Ghost Ranch were opened fifty years after being collected. The fossil strongly resembles ornithomimid dinosaurs, but are actually more closely related to crocodiles. The specimen was named Effigia okeeffeae ("O'Keeffe's Ghost") in January 2006, "in honor of Georgia O'Keeffe for her numerous paintings of the badlands at Ghost Ranch and her interest in the Coelophysis  Quarry when it was discovered".

the drink:

Ruby Cocktail (Variation)

3/4 oz sloe gin

3/4 oz gin

1/2 oz dry vermouth

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz Benedictine 

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 3.5
Accessibility: 4
Priority for Conservation: 2

Comments: ""fire" and gin and benedictine"

From American Women Artists of the 20th C. hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

October, 2012 - Jeannette Rankin - Diplomatic Answer

Jeannette Rankin

Notes lost, but WIKI is here.

The Drink

Diplomatic Answer

2 oz red vermouth
1 oz brandy
1/3 oz triple sec
4 oz lemonade

Drinkability:  4.5
Drunkability: 2
Taxic Diversity: 4
Accessibility: 3
Priority for Conservation: 5

Comments: "a little sweet," "it's weird that it tastes like iced tea when it's not iced tea," "beach drink"

From "Women in Congress" hosted by BoilerMaker

November, 2011 - Greased Lightning

Greased Lightning

1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz cherry brandy


Drinkability: 1
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility:  -
Priority of Conservation: 1.5

Comments: "we need more cherry", "we didn't not like it" "AZ notes that this smells like a dead Christmas Puppy" (***Archivist's Note: what I said was, that it smelled like sad Christmas, like the year they got you a puppy but forgot to put air holes in the box.  Not based on true events, btw***)

From "Untitled" (I think I remember Marathon runners?) hosted by CZ

October, 2011 - Frances Willard - Exposition

Frances Willard:

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard (September 28, 1839 – February 17, 1898) was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the United States Constitution. Willard became the national president of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union, or World WCTU, in 1879, and remained president for 19 years. Her vision progressed to include federal aid to education, free school lunches, unions for workers, the eight-hour work day, work relief for the poor, municipal sanitation and boards of health, national transportation, strong anti-rape laws, and protections against child abuse. 
     In the 1860s, Willard suffered a series of personal crises: both her father and her younger sister Mary died, her brother became an alcoholic, and Willard herself began to feel love for a woman who would ultimately go on to marry her brother.  After her resignation as the first Dean of Women at Northwestern University, Willard focused her energies on a new career, traveling the American East Coast participating in the women’s temperance movement. Her tireless efforts for women's suffrage and prohibition included a fifty-day speaking tour in 1874, an average of 30,000 miles of travel a year, and an average of four hundred lectures a year for a ten year period, mostly with her longtime companion Anna Adams Gordon.
  In 1874 Willard participated in the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) where she was elected the first corresponding secretary.  Willard was elected the first president of the National Council of Women of the United States, in 1888, a position which she held for the remainder of her life. In her later years, Willard became a committed socialist and called for government ownership and control of all factories, railroads, and even theaters.

The famous portrait, "American Woman and her Political Peers" features Frances Willard at the center, surrounded by a convict, American Indian, lunatic, and an idiot. This image succinctly portrayed the argument for female enfranchisement; without the right to vote, the educated, respectable woman was equated with the other outcasts of society to whom the franchise was denied.  Willard was the first woman represented among the illustrious company of America’s greatest leaders in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. 

The Drink:

The Exposition Cocktail:

1 oz dry vermouth
¾ oz cherry brandy
¾ oz sloe gin

Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  2
Taxic Diversity:  2
Accessibility:  3
Priority of Conservation: 1

Comments: "sloe gin = fake"

From something most certainly about Prohibition hosted by FluffyRuffle

October, 2011 - Mabel Willebrandt - Warsaw

Mabel Walker Willebrandt

Mabel Walker Willebrandt (May 23, 1889-April 6, 1963), popularly known to her contemporaries as the "First Lady of Law", was the U.S. Assistant Attorney General from 1921 to 1929, handling cases  concerning violations of the Volstead Act, federal taxation, and the Bureau of Federal Prisons during the Prohibition Era. She received her law degree from the University of Southern California in 1916 and a master's degree a year later.  She worked as an assistant public defender without pay, the first public defender of women. She handled more than 2,000 cases of prostitution and her efforts changed court proceedings to permit the testimony of both men and women. 
     The second woman to receive an appointment to Assistant Attorney General as well as the first to serve an extended term, Willebrandt was officially appointed to the position on September 27, 1921.  Although a known opponent of Prohibition, Willebrandt aggressively upheld the Volstead Act and criticized the federal government's efforts to enforce the law in her book The Inside of Prohibition, describing political interference, incompetent public officials, and public indifference. Willebrandt's insistence to other federal agencies to prosecute bootleggers, specifically the Prohibition Bureau and law enforcement agencies, were initially hampered by the skepticism of senior officials in the Justice and United States Treasury Departments who overlooked advice from the 32-year old woman.
     During the early years of her administration, Willebrandt was successful in some of the biggest prosecutions during Prohibition including the 1923 prosecution of the Big Four of Savannah, reportedly the largest bootlegging ring in the U.S., as well as the bootlegging operations of Cincinnati bootlegger George Remus. She also argued more than 40 cases before the Supreme Court, a number few others have attained, and won several victories in cases regarding the control of liquor sales on both American and foreign vessels.  During the 1928 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate and Prohibition opponent Al Smith called her "Prohibition Portia".  She also argued for the federal prosecution of major bootleggers, saying that prosecuting speakeasies was "...like trying to dry up the Atlantic Ocean with a blotter.“
     Resigning her post in 1929 after failing to be appointed Attorney General by Herbert Hoover, for whom she had campaigned heavily in the 1928 election, she worked as an attorney and had offices in Washington and Los Angeles.  She was the first woman to chair a committee of the American Bar Association, heading its committee on aeronautical law, and she held several honorary doctorates.

The Drink:

The Warsaw Cocktail:

1 ½ oz vodka

½ oz blackberry liquer

½ oz dry vermouth

¼ oz lemon juice

Drinkability:  4

Drunkability:  4
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  4
Priority of Conservation:  4.6

Comments:  "We just now realized no one is taking notes.  Whoops!"

From "Unknown Theme" hosted by FluffyRuffle

May, 2011 - Friday 13th - Satan's Whiskers

Satan's Whiskers (curled)

1 oz gin
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
1 oz dry vermouth
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz orange juice
2 dashes orange bitters

Drinkability:  4.5
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  3.5
Accessibility:  2
Priority for Conservation:   5

Comments: "delicious", "drinkability depends on quality of gin"  - accessibility, apparently at the time orange bitters were hard to find "Red Hook is far away" is the notation.

From "Friday the 13th" hosted by Silk Stockings

January, 2011 - Ellen deGeneres - The Webster

Ellen deGeneres


Ellen DeGeneres (pronounced /dɨˈdʒɛnərəs/; born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedienne, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and was also a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season.  DeGeneres has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a film actress, she starred in Mr. Wrong, appeared in EDtv and The Love Letter, and provided the voice of Dory in the Disney-Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, for which she was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first and only time a voice performance won a Saturn Award.  She also starred in two television sitcoms, Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002. During the fourth season of Ellen in 1997, DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly afterwards, her character Ellen Morgan also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey, and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues including the coming out process.  She has won twelve Emmys and numerous other awards for her work and charitable efforts. In 1986 she appeared for the first time on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, who likened her to Bob Newhart. When Carson invited her over for an onscreen chat after her performance, she became the first comedienne in the show's history to be treated this way.

The Drink:

The Webster (premiered in 1983)

¾ oz fresh lime juice
1 oz gin
½ oz dry vermouth
¼ oz apricot brandy

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability: 2
Taxic Diversity: 3.5
Accessibility: 3
Priority of Conservation: 2

Comments: there was a chart drawn to show the polarized opinions on this drink.

From "1983" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

October, 2010 - Nerd Girls - Superman

Superman

1 oz gin
3/4 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz apricot brandy
1 oz mandarin juice
1 tsp grenadine syrup

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  2.5 / 3
Accessibility:   (left blank)
Priority for Conservation:  1

Comments: "sweet martini"

From "Girls of the Nerd World" hosted by BoilerMaker

July, 2010 - Spies - The American

The American

1 1/2 ounces Campari
1 1/2 ounces sweet vermouth
3 ounces chilled club soda
1 orange wheel and 1 lemon twist, for garnish

Drinkability:  0
Drunkability: n/a
Taxic Diversity:  4
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation: 0

Comments: "We can't drink this.  Various wood flavors, sweaty socks, cement, dry rot, pencils, etc. "

From Lady Spies hosted by CZ

July, 2010 - Spies - Mata Hari

Mata Hari

1 1/4 ounce Cognac
1 ounce Sweet Vermouth
3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
3/4 pomegranate juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup

Drinkability:  3.5
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 3
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments: (too busy talking about "secret baby story")

From Lady Spies hosted by CZ