Ask Alfred Soto

I hope these recs were impactful.

Came real close to making a "now that's what I call humanizing the vacuum" tweet after that last post, but thought better of it.

Flippant, but I would've meant well.

read any good books about lobbying / lobbyists? i'm RAing for a game theorist who studies political access and proves all these counterintuitive results about lobbying and it's cool and all but I'm kinda like hmm

This classic account is worth the read but it's about the nineteenth century. Matt Taibbi's Smells Like Dead Elephant examine the influence of money on the GOP Congress of the 2000s. I'd like recs too!

thx. 19th century definitely relevant

this is a brand new book on the topic that i will prob read: http://www.amazon.com/The-Business-America-Lobbying-Corporations/dp/0190215518

when i asked the prof this question he told me to watch tv series 'house of cards' and movie 'thank you for smoking' lol

one of the things these game theorists study is how politicians interact strategically with lobbyists, to extract the most $$$ out of them with the least political favours granted, so it's not obvious how effective a lot of the money thrown at politicians is. i'd love to read some first-hand accounts to see how the theory lines up

Alfred, would you recommend a biog of FDR?

Sure!

H.W. Brands' wrote a solid conventional one in 2008 called Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt; it's where I tell the curious to go. If you liked it, go to:

Ira Katnelson's Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time documents the lengths to which the New Deal and the Solid South, with its poverty and racism, remained wedded together.

The Coming of the New Deal, the second part of Arthur Schlesinger's battleship cruiser of a bio, deals with the nuts and bolts of the legislation. I think it's surpassed by Michael Hiltzik's The New Deal: A Modern History.

All of those except the first would be great mixtape titles.

I bought Traitor to His Class on Alfred's recommendation and yeah it's good. Oddly, I still did not entirely understand *why* he was such a staunch traitor to his class, that aspect of his character is still a bit of a mystery to me. The ending is also a bit abrupt, it's basically "and then he died. The End", with no real conclusion or summation or anything. Minor quibbles both, granted.

Hiltzik was a regular patron at UCI's library where I worked for years -- very personable fellow.

Thanks Alfred!

my pleasure!

jaymc had asked upthread for mixology tips. I wrote the following a few months ago and updated it yesterday.

You will know me by my hatred of bad drinks.

Each of those drinks has their place, (except the LI Iced tea)

Actually lemon drops are gross too and moscow mules are for ex girlfriends. Mimosas are the lifeblood of the economy.

Of the brunch economy.

Some of those cocktails are more defensible than others, but few are irredeemable. Even the Long Island Iced Tea, my fave bar in Chicago does a classy version of that, along with a classy Pink Squirrel and a classy White Russian (with fresh coffee in it). However, I am so not a fan of beer-based cocktails, which taste like someone had been drinking a beer out of the glass, dumped out the dregs, then filled the glass again with a cocktail without washing out the glass first.

I can't really defend any of those, although perhaps a skilled mixologist could make decent versions

Do you know that your Buñuel roundup may be your best one yet?

Oh, I see you already posted on other thread

ha -- thank you!

Summer's here, the time is right for Negronis.

I recently had an excellent negroni with capoelletti (which I don't think I had ever heard of) and cochi torino (same).

See, that's what I hoped for – suggestions.

Spanish vermouth with a slice of orange on ice is a great summer drink!

I was just trying to remember that Italicus bottle this weekend during some spirits shopping! I could not recall it.

Beefeater seems out of place to me in that selection of good quality spirits.

love this local gin, well worth a try if you ever see it (the Small batch one with the yellow label)

http://swallowtailspirits.com/our-vodkas-gins-and-whiskeys

My lovely wife sometimes makes a fantastic negroni using Antica formula, Gran Classico bitter and then a decent clean gin (often Plymouth or Martin Millar's, that kind of thing).

I may have mentioned it elsewhere on here but my current favourite Friday night just-got-home-from-work drink is a thing we copied off a bar in Santander last autumn, that they called a "gin vermutonic" - single shot of gin (usually Plymouth or Hendricks, I think) double shot of vermut negra or other sweet vermouth, topped up with decent tonic water, all over ice, slice of orange, cherry if you can be bothered, absurdly refreshing.

Beefeater seems out of place to me in that selection of good quality spirits.

― Tim, Thursday, June 20, 2019 11:47 AM

A solid martini gin when done well.

As I read this I am sipping a Blood Orange Beefeater gin (which I didn’t know existed) negroni. I heartily approve.

I like Beefeater because it's a straightforward gin at that pricepoint.

I'm so glad my 36-year-long revulsion for gin has passed. Also that I discovered Bristow (made by the Cathead vodka people).

The St. George's recommendation is of course choice, signed, someone who lives across the bay from where it's made, so.

I like gin as a cocktail ingredient, and I do notice variations in gin, but it's nothing I can ever get excited about the way I like (and enjoy) bourbons, tequilas/mezcals and rums. But then, I don't like martinis, and that seems to be the drink most beholden to gin.

*waves away vodka 'martinis'*

1:1:1 ratio is what makes a Negroni a Negroni, though everyone has their own taste and I would gladly accept your variation if you were making one for me.

Try a Bijou: Gin, Green Chartreuse, and sweet vermouth in equal parts. Stir with ice and strain. Garnish with cherry. One of my favorites.

I think ingredients make recipes not ratios. Agree w this ratio too fwiw.

"this" = Alfred's negroni

Negroni, like the corpse reviver #2 (more or less), is awesome for being an equal ratio cocktail. Easy to remember!

I avoid vodka entirely. I'm a total snob in that regard. I once heard vodka described as an elaborate prank played on Americans by Europeans.

xps I prefer 1.25 gin. 1 vermouth, and .75 Campari but ymmv and it depends on the gin

thought that said "yummy"

it is!

as far as highball riffs go, I've been mixing campari and topo chico lately.

Vodka is for people who don't like anything about alcohol besides getting trashed.

It's....irritating living in a city where Tito's is the official drink.

a shot of vodka in topo chico with a couple nuun hydration tablets over ice is good when the heat index is 110.

a shot of vodka in topo chico with a couple nuun hydration tablets over ice is good when the heat index is 110.

Another vote for St. George, I particularly like their Terroir gin. I visit my uncle in Alameda every year, but still haven't made it inside the distillery.