November, 2018 - Margaret Hamilton - Crimson Bulleit Punch

Margaret Heafield Hamilton (August 17, 1936 - )

Margaret Hamilton is an American computer scientist, systems engineer, and business owner. She is credited with coining the term "software engineering". Hamilton was Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. In 1986, she became the founder and CEO of Hamilton Technologies, Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company was developed around the Universal Systems Language based on her paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF) for systems and software design. On November 22, 2016, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Barack Obama for her work leading the development of on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo Moon missions. 

The Drink:

Crimson Bulleit Punch
2 parts Bulleit bourbon
2 parts cranberry pomegranate juice
1/2 part Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
2 parts Champagne

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

Comments: (comments from the web: the ladies seem to have gone off the rails before they finished this cocktail. No notes recorded.) 

From "Packs a Punch" themed meeting hosted by Irish Knockout.

September, 2018 - Margaret Murie - Maple Smash

Margaret Thomas Murie (1902-2003)

Born in Seattle Washington, and relocated at the age of 5 to Fairbanks, Alaska, “Mardy” is recognized as the “Grandmother of the Conservation Movement” by both the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.  After becoming the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, and marrying her husband in 1924, she moved to Jackson Wyoming where she accompanied her husband in studying ecology and the elk populations in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. She was instrumental in creating the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the passage of the Wilderness Act of 2964, and the recipient of the Audobon Medal, the John Muir Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. After her husband’s death in 1963, Mardy continued the conservation work and became writing articles and letters, as well as making public speeches. She returned to Alaska to survey for the National Parks Service, and worked on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act signed by Carter in 1980, doubling the size of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 

The Drink:

Maple Smash
1 oz gin
1 oz maple brandy
juice from half a lemon
7-8 blueberries
1/4 oz maple syrup

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

Comments: *AZ requests to lower Accessibility to at least 3 retrospectively. The maple liquor wasn't that easy to find.

From "Women in Conservation" hosted by Alabazam and Boiler Maker

September, 2018 - Alice Eastwood - A Cure for What Ails You

Alice Eastwood (1859-1953)

Born in Toronto Canada, was an early ecofeminist.  The family moved to Denver when she was a teenager, and would forgo college in lieu of teaching high school after graduating as valedictorian. She was a self-taught botanist, relying on botany manuals and local experience. She was known to wander the Rocky Mountains by herself looking for specimens, including climbing Mount Whitney. In 1891, her specimen collection was reviewed by the California Academy of Sciences, and she was hired to assist in the CAS’s Herbarium, being promoted to joint-curator in 1892. During her life she published over 310 scientific articles, and authored 395 land plant species names.  She strongly advocated that local American flora should be preserved, and protected against disappearance or natural disasters. There are currently 17 recognized species named for her. She was also well known for her disregard of social convention, especially on how a lady should dress, and in her degree of candor. 

The Drink:

A Cure for What Ails You
2 1/2 oz mead
1 1/2 oz ginger beer
1 oz lemon juice

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

Comments: Opinions differed depending on how well you like spicy ginger beer. 

From "Women in Conservation" hosted by Alabazam and Boiler Maker

September, 2018 - Ellen Richards - Mead-Hattan

Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911) 

Born in Dunstable, MA, an only child, and was home schooled until the family moved to Westford in 1859. Her gift with Latin, French, and German made her in demand and allowed her to further her studies. She enrolled at Vassar College as a “special student” in 1868, graduating 2 years later with her bachelors, followed by a Masters by 1870. She was the one of the first women to break into the world of chemistry, and the first woman to attend MIT. She also worked as an unpaid chemistry lecturer at MIT from 1873-1878. Her passion became environmental nutrition and clean water, gathering 40,000 samples to study water quality in Massachusetts. This led to the development of the “Richards’ Normal Chlorine Map” which was predictive of inland water pollution in MA. She fought continually not only for water purity and her “humanist ecologist” cause, but for women’s equality, arguing that women’s unpaid labor in the home was the foundation of their second-class status and what kept modern capitalism in motion

The Drink

Mead-hattan
2 oz rye
2 oz cyser (a mead made with apple juice, a kind of half-mead/half-cider)
dash orange bitters

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

Comments: President and Secretary agree that for a Manhattan, it's a 5+, Opal Hush added a dash of leftover honey syrup to hers and said it was much more to her liking. 

From "Women in Conservation" hosted by Alabazam and Boiler Maker

September, 2018 - Florence Baily - Bramble Variation

Florence Augusta Merriam Baily (1863 – 1948)
Born in Locust Grove, NY, grew to became not only an ornithologist, and one of America’s first activists for the protection of birds, but also published the first bird field guide, Birds Through an Opera-Glass, published in 1890.  When she first started her study, the standards were based on collections of skins; but she wanted to study the living birds in the field. After college, she moved to Washington and helped organize the Audobon Society of D.C. in 1897, and began to teach classes on birds the following year.  Because of her activist work, she was also instrumental in the passing of the Lacey Act of 1900 that banned illegally traded wildlife to be sold across state lines. After marrying she would do extensive field work with her husband in the American West, and documented her studies in several books, including The Handbook of Birds of the Western United States and The Birds of New Mexico. In 1908, a subspecies of mountain chickadee was named in her honor; and in 1992, a mountain the southern Oregon Cascade Range was named in honor of both her and her husband by the Oregon Geographic Names Board.

The Drink

Bramble Variation
3 blackberries
1 oz gin
1 oz berry mead
3/4 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz honey syrup

Drinkability: 5
Drunkability: 3
Accessibility: 1
Taxic Diversity: 4
Priority for Conservation: 5

  Comments: "AZ, you'd better find more raspberry mead, because we're going to need more of this for the Christmas party." 

From "Women in Conservation" hosted by Alabazam and BoilerMaker

February, 2015 - Olga Brajnikoff - Crimson Bulleit Punch

Olga Brajnikoff

At 18, Olga Brajnikoff left her middle-class family behind in Moscow to pursue her education in France, where women were allowed to attend medical school.  She graduated in 1900 from the prestigious Paris Faculte' de Medicine, with a thesis on the effects of heavy alcohol consumption, a new area of interest among physicians.  Brajnikoff practiced at the Ville-Evrard Asylum, the only hospital with a ward for alcoholics.  She was the first woman doctor in France to study and treat alcoholism.  Her status as an outsider marginalized her research interest:  male physicians routinely mocked her for studying what they viewed as a working-class, non-French, problem.  Although her research is largely forgotten today, Brajnikoff was one of many faceless women who courageously braved the male-dominated halls of French medicine.  

The Drink:

Crimson Bulleit Punch

2 parts Bulleit (or other bourbon)
2 parts cranberry-pomegranate juice
1/2 part Domaine de Canton (or other) ginger liquer
2 parts champagne
lime slices

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

Comments:  "temporary tattoos!"

From the inaugural meeting, themed "Newbies", hosted by our newest member Irish Knockout

February, 2015 - Eileen Collins - Queen Mary

Eileen Collins

Daughter of Irish immigrants, Eileen was born in Elmira, NY in 1956.  Starting off with an associate's degree from a community college, Eileen went on to get two Masters degrees and then to become the second woman to be admitted to the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School.  Twenty years ago, Eileen broke through the glass ceiling (or literally the atmosphere in this instance), becoming the first female pilot of the Space Shuttle.  Four years later, she was the first female commander of a Space Shuttle Mission.  Eileen has spent 38 days, 8 hours, and 10 minutes in space.  Eileen is an inductee to the national Women's Hall of Fame and has been recognized by Encyclopedia Britannica as one of the top 300 women in history who have changed the world.

The Drink:

Queen Mary

3 cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 oz gin or vodka
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 oz dill pickle brine
1-2 dashes hot sauce
1 pinch kosher salt (for rim)

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

Comments:  "good with either voka or gin, maybe better with gin as long as its a good gin"

From the inaugural meeting, themed "Newbies" of our newest member, Irish Knockout

January, 2015 - Rosalind Franklin - The Good Doctor

Rosalind Franklin - July 25, 1920 - April 16, 1958

The structure of the DNA was discovered in the early months of 1953.  Nine years later, three men were jointly awarded a Nobel Prize for this achievement, which has proved to be one of the most consequential in the history of science.  James Watson and Francis Crick, who worked at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England, came up with the famous double-helix structure.  The third man honored, Maurice Wilkins, was a scientist in London; although he worked at a rival lab, he did make available to Watson and Crick some of the experimental evidence that helped them clinch their discovery.  BUT - the person actually responsible for this evidence was not Wilkins but a colleague of his named Rosalind Franklin, who had died four years before the prize was awarded.

Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA, which led to the discovery of the DNA double helix.  According to Francis Crick, her data and research were key in determining the structure.  Franklin's image of X-ray diffraction, confirming the helical structure of DNA, were shown to Watson without her approval or knowledge by Wilkins.  This image provided valuable insight into the DNA structure, but Franklin's scientific contributions to the discovery of the double helix are often overlooked.  Neither Watson nor Crick ever admitted to Franklin that they had relied crucially on her research; neither so much as mentioned her in his Nobel acceptance speech.

After finishing her portion of the work on DNA, Franklin led pineering work on the tobacco mosaic virus and the polio virus.  She died in 1958 at the age of 37 of ovarian cancer.

The Drink

The Good Doctor

1.5 oz Amaro
1.5 oz rye whiskey
6 oz Dr. Pepper

Drinkability: 0
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  N/A
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  0

Comments:  "This drink is TERRIBLE! NOOOOOOOO"

From "Forgotten Women" hosted by CZ

January, 2015 - Chien-Shiung Wu - Infamous Wisdom

Chien-Shiung Wu

Born in Liu Ho, China, in 1912, Chien-Shiung Wu overturned a law of physics and participated in the development of the atom bomb.

Wu was recruited to Columbia University in the 1940s as part oft he Manhattan Project and conducted research on radiation detection and uranium enrichment.  She stayed in the United States after the war and in the mid-1950s, two theoretical physicists, Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang, approached Wu to help disprove the law of parity.  The law holds that in quantum mechanics, two physical systems - like atoms - that were mirror images would behave in identical ways.

Wu's experiments using cobalt-60, a radioactive form of the cobalt metal, upended this law, which had been accepted for 30 years.  This milestone in physics led to a 1957 Nobel Prize for Yang and Lee - but not for Wu, who was left out despite her critical role.

The Drink

Infamous Wisdom

1 1/2 oz ginger liqueur
1 oz bourbon
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
brandied cherry, for garnish

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

Comments:  ginger gives it some heat

From "Forgotten Women" hosted by CZ.

January, 2015 - Emily Roebling - The Big Apple

Emily Roebling - 1803 - 1903

Emily Roebling stepped in as the first woman field engineer and technical leader of the Brooklyn Bridge when her husband, Washington Roebling, became paralyzed and could no longer work without the help of his wife.

Emily became responsible for much of the chief engineer's duties, including day-to-day supervision and project management, relaying the information from her husband to the workers, and carrying out her own studies of technical issues, materials, stress analysis, construction, and calculations.

In 1882, Washington's title of chief engineer was in jeopardy due to his sickness.  In order to allow him to retain his title, Emily went to gatherings of engineers and politicians to defend her husband.  To the Roeblings' relief, the politicians responded well to Emily's speeches and Washington was permitted to remain Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn Bridge.

With Washington Roebling still Chief Engineer, the Brooklyn Bridge was finally completed in 1883.

The Drink:

The Big Apple

1 lady apple, cut in half lengthwise, or 2 slices of a larger apple
3 oz whiskey
1 oz dry vermouth
2 dashes bitters
1 cup sparkling apple cider

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

Comments:  no comments

From "Forgotten Women" hosted by CZ

January, 2015 - Joan Clarke - The Suffering Bastard

Joan Clarke - June 24, 1917 - September 4, 1996

Joan Clarke's ingenious work as a codebreaker for Britain during WW2 saved countless lives.  But while Bletchley Park hero Alan Turing - who was punished by a post-war society where homosexuality was illegal and died at 41 - has been treated more kindly by history, the same cannot yet be said for Clarke.  Joan was the only woman to work in the nerve center of the quest to crack German Enigma ciphers.  She ultimately rose to deputy head of Hut 8, and would be its longest-serving member.

In 1939, Clarke was recruited into the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) by one of her supervisors at Cambridge, where she majored in mathematics - although she was prevented from receiving a full degree, which women were denied until 1948.  As was typical for "girls" at Bletchley, (and they were universally referred to as girls, not women) Clarke was initially assigned clerical work.  Within a few days, however, her abilities shone through, and an extra table was installed for her in the small room within Hut 8 occupied by Turing and a couple of others.

In order to be paid for her promotions, Clarke needed to be classed as a linguist, as Civil Service bureaucracy had no protocols in place for a senior female cryptanalyst.  She would later take great pleasure in filling in forms with the line:  "grade: linguist, languages: none."

The navy ciphers decoded by Clarke and her colleagues were much harder to break than other German messages, and largely related to U-boats that were hunting down Allied ships carrying troops and supplies from the US to Europe.  Her task was to break these ciphers in real time, one of the most high-pressure jobs at Bletchley.  The messages Clarke decoded would result in some military action being taken almost immediately.  U-boats would then either be sunk or circumnavigated, saving thousands of lives.

The Drink:

The Suffering Bastard

1 oz bourbon
1 oz gin
1 oz fresh lime juice
dash Angostura bitters
4 oz ginger ale

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

Comments:  3/4 splits depending on how much you like ginger ale.

From "Forgotten Women" hosted by CZ

January 2014 - Nancy Sharpless - Bee's Knees

Nancy Sharpless

Nansi Sharpless was born on October 11, 1932.  When she was 14 years old she came down with meningitis which caused her to become deaf.  She attended Oberlin College where she struggled, but she had a friend that took notes for her.  She graduated with her bachelor's degree in Zoology in 1954.  She continued her education at Wayne State University where she got her doctoral degree.  She started working at Albert Einstein's College of Medicine where she studied the chemicals of the brain and mental disorders.  Sharpless wanted to help people with mental disorder.  She worked in The Department of Psychiatry at Albert Einstein's College of Medicine on October 9, 1987.  She was remembered in the scientific community because she was deaf.

The Drink:

Bee's Knees

1 1/2 oz. gin
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

No notes, as it was the last drink, and we've had this one before.  HERE

From the "Deaf Women" theme hosted by

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 - Ruth Benedict - Girl Talk

Ruth Benedict

"The trouble with life isn't that there is no answers, it's that there are so many answers." - Ruth Benedict

Ruth Benedict was an anthropologist born in New York on June, 5 1887.  She became partially deaf due to an illness in early childhood.  She was not diagnosed until she attended Norwich Public School in 1895.  Due to her partial deafness, Ruth became a very quiet and shy person.  This did not stop her from dominating, as a woman in a field that was predominantly men.  She was a humanist scientist, a feminist, and a poet.  She wrote several books but the most widely read, Patterns of Culture, was translated into 12 different languages.  Ruth's father died before she was three and her mother, a school teacher, struggled to provide for her and her younger sister.  Even though Ruth was a shy person, students of hers claimed that they were surprised by how soft-spoken she was.  Because Ruth liked to travel she eventually moved to Los Angeles.  She met her future husband, Stanley Benedict in Los Angeles.  They eventually moved back to New York in 1914 and bought a house in Long Island where Ruth entered Columbia University.  That is were Ruth met Margaret Mead, her lifelong friend whom she shared an intimate relationship after separating from her husband in 1930.

The Drink:

Girl Talk:

(awaiting recipe)


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

Comments:  you have to like grapefruit juice, if you don't, you won't like it.  Basically grapefruit and tequila. 

From "Deaf Women" hosted by 

August 2013 - Susan Anderson, M.D. - The Clinic

Susan Anderson, M.D.

Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Anderson's family moved to the booming mining camp of Cripple Creek, Colorado while she was still a young woman.  In about 1893, she left Cripple Creek to attend medical school at the University of Michigan, from which she graduated in 1897.  While attending college she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and soon returned to her family in Cripple Creek, where she set up her first practice.  For the next three years she sympathetically tended to patients, but her father insisted that Cripple Creek, a lawless mining town at the time, was no place for a woman.

Anderson then moved to Denver, but had a tough time securing patients as people were reluctant to see a woman doctor in those times.  She then moved to Greeley, Colorado, where she worked as a nurse for six years.  Word soon got out and the locals began to ask for her advice on various ailments, which soon led to her practicing her skills once again.  Her reputation spread as she treated families, ranchers, loggers, railroad workers, and even an occasional horse or cow, which was not uncommon at the time.  The vast majority of her patients required her to make house calls, though she never owned a horse or a car.  Instead, she dressed in layers, wore high hip boots, and trekked through deep snows and freezing temperatures to reach her patients.  

During the many  years that "Doc Susie," which familiarity became known as, practiced in the high mountains of Grand County, one of her busiest times was during the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19.  Like people all over the world, Fraser locals also became sick in great numbers, and Dr. Anderson found herself rushing from one deathbed to the next.  Another busy time for her was when the six-mile Moffat Tunnel was being built through the Rocky Mountains.  Not long after construction began, she found herself treating  numerous men who were injured during construction.  During this time, she was also asked to become the Grand County Coroner, a position that enabled her to confront the Tunnel Commission regarding workign conditions and accidents. 

Doc Susie, who was often paid in firewood, food, services, and other items that could be bartered, continued to practice in Fraser until 1956.  She died in Denver, on April 16, 1960 and was buried in Cripple Creek Colorado.

The Drink:


The Clinic 

2 parts Pear vodka
4 parts lemonade
splash of elderflower liqueur. 

Drinkability - 5
Drunkability - 3
Taxic Diversity - 3
Accessibility  - 4
Priority of Conservation  -  5

Comments: pear and elderflower

From the Women of the Wild West hosted by MPF

July, 2012 - Susan Solomon - Tahiti Typhoon

Susan Solomon

Susan Solomon (born 1956 in Chicago) is an atmospheric chemist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Solomon was one of the first to propose chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole. Solomon began her interest in science as a child watching The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. In high school she placed third in a national science fair, with a project that measured the percent of oxygen in a gas mixture.  Solomon received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1977. She received her Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981, where she specialized in atmospheric chemistry. 

Deciphering the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole came from Solomon’s theoretical work and first-hand scientific observations. Her theoretical work showed that reactions of man-made chlorine compounds occurring on the surface of polar stratospheric clouds could play a defining role in forming the Antarctic ozone hole. This has since been firmly established as the key to Antarctic ozone depletion.  Besides her seminal theoretical studies, her key measurements helped develop the scientific understanding needed to confirm the theory of ozone depletion. In particular, in 1986 and 1987 she led expeditions to Antarctica and personally carried out the first observations of chlorine dioxide, which showed that its abundance there is about 100 times greater than predicted. This was the first direct evidence that pointed to chlorine chemistry as the cause of the Antarctic ozone .  Solomon also showed that volcanoes could accelerate the reactions caused by chlorofluorocarbons, and so increase the damage to the ozone layer. Her work formed the basis of the U.N. Montreal Protocol, an international agreement to protect the ozone layer by regulating damaging chemicals

The Drink

Tahiti Typhoon:

3/4 oz lime juice
1 oz contreau
1 oz gin

fill with champagne

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

Comments:  BoilerMaker is elected new president!

from weather-y-science-y women hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

July, 2012 - June Bacon-Bercey - Dark & Stormy

June Bacon-Bercey

June Bacon-Bercey was the only African-American woman to earn a degree in meteorology in the 1950s.  She became interested in science in high school despite attending a segregated school in which she was not encouraged in the subjects of math, physics, and chemistry. However, when she returned to a racially mixed school in Kansas  her enthusiasm for science returned. She attended the University of California in Los Angeles, where she majored in math and meteorology. One of her teachers there suggested that she take sewing instead of meteorology. However, as Bacon Bercey told Contemporary Black Biography, when she earned an "A" in thermodynamics and a "B" in home economics, she knew that her decision to pursue a degree in science was the right one.

In 1970 Bacon-Bercey began working for an NBC television station in Buffalo as a correspondent on scientific news.  Soon after she began working at the station, the current weathercaster, who had a chronic gambling problem, was fired after being arrested for robbery. The station needed someone to fill his position in a hurry and Bacon-Bercey was the obvious choice since she had a degree in meteorology. Bacon-Bercey was so adept at the job that she became the station's chief meteorologist, one of the first African-American women to hold such a position.  In 1972 Bacon-Bercey became the first African American and the first woman to earn the American Meteorological Society's Seal of Approval for excellence in television weather casting. In 1977 Bacon-Bercey participated in a television game show called The $128,000 Question and she used her winnings to establish a scholarship fund for women studying atmospheric sciences. Bacon-Bercey believed the scholarship would help more women become meteorologists.  After working in Buffalo, she spent nearly ten years as the Chief of Broadcast Services at NOAA and worked on a number of other projects. After over three decades in the field of meteorology, Bacon-Bercey retired and became a consultant and an educator, dedicating much of her time to encouraging women and minorities to pursue degrees and careers in meteorology. 

The Drink:

Dark & Stormy

2 oz rum

3 oz ginger beer

1 lime wedge

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  2
Taxic Diversity:  2.5
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  4  

Comments:  4 for accessibility due to ginger beer rarity

From weather-y-science-y women hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

July, 2012 - Joanne Simpson - Heat Wave

Joanne Malkus Simpson

Joanne Simpson (March 23, 1923 – March 4, 2010) was the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology. Simpson was a graduate of the University of Chicago and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Simpson contributed to many areas of the atmospheric sciences, particularly in the field of tropical meteorology. She researched hot towers, hurricanes, the trade winds, air-sea interactions, and helped develop the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission. By 1966, she became the director of Project Stormfury while chief of the Experimental Meteorology Branch of the Environment Satellite Services Administration's Institute for Atmospheric Sciences. She eventually became NASA's lead weather researcher and authored or co-authored over 190 articles.

Simpson had to endure years of not being taken seriously by her male colleagues and being passed over for jobs simply because of her sex. She is quoted as saying winning the Carl-Gustav Rossby Research Medal in 1983 made her feel "it isn't really so ridiculous that I did all of this. I'm not really a freak; I am a member of the community.“  Yet, poignantly, in an article published in the New York Academy of Sciences Annals, she was quoted as saying "I am not convinced that either the position, rewards or achievements have been worth the cost. My personal and married life and child raising have surely suffered from the professional attainments I have achieved.”

Her brother Daniel C. Gerould was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. 

The Drink:

Heat Wave:

1 oz dark rum

1 oz triple sec

1 oz rock and rye

½ oz lemon juice

Fill w/hot water

Garnish w/orange slice and cinnamon stick

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  3.5
Accessibility:  2.5

Priority for Conservation:  5

Comments:  more doodles, "hot beverage"

From weather-y-science-y women hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

July, 2012 - Robbie E Hood - Polynesian Hurricane

Robbie E. Hood

Robbie Hood is a Native American atmospheric scientist who, in September 2008, became the first permanent director of NOAA's Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program. Previously, she worked within the Earth Science Office of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. One-eighth Cherokee, Ms. Hood is a direct descendant of John Ross, the first elected chief of the Cherokee Nation. Mr. Ross is famous for leading the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears in 1938-1939. Ms. Hood spent much of her childhood in Neosho, Missouri and Picayune, Miss, where she developed an interest of weather by witnessing the devastating effects of Hurricane Camille in Miss. in 1969 and the1974 Neosho tornado. At NASA she was the leader of a group of scientists and engineers who have developed and deployed two aircraft sensors to observe precipitation and oceanic winds. In collaboration with her fellow lightning research colleagues at MSFC, her team has published research results highlighting the benefit of simultaneously sampled passive microwave observations of precipitation structures and storm electric field information to monitor the intensity of thunderstorms and tropical cyclones from an aircraft platform. As a strong advocate for scientific collaboration and partnership, Ms. Hood has been a mission scientist in three NASA research experiments studying hurricane genesis, intensity, precipitation, and landfall impacts. Ms. Hood credits her Native American heritage for her appreciation of the beneficial contributions that diversity brings to all community sectors. She also feels that the communication of scientific information across all community sectors contributes to better utilization of scientific knowledge for societal benefit. She frequently speaks to student and civic groups and has mentored both high school and undergraduate students. She enjoyed meeting Native Americans of other tribal communities when she served as the keynote speaker for the NASA Awareness Days symposium held with the North Dakota Tribal Colleges in 2002. 

The Drink:

Polynesian Hurricane

¾ oz gin

1 oz brandy

¾ oz apricot brandy

1 oz light rum

1 ½ oz pineapple juice

1 ½ oz orange juice

1 ½ oz lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

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

Comments:  more doodles than comment, AZ taking notes admits to pregaming with SS

from weather-y-science-y women hosted by FluffyRuffle

June, 2011 - Women Inventors - Bacon & Tomato Sandwich

Bacon & Tomato Sandwich Cocktail

3/4 oz Pimm's

1/2 oz dark rum

1/2 oz white rum

2 oz lemonade

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

Comments: "meh, again, also, how do you get rid of hiccups?"

From "Women Inventors" hosted by Boilermaker