Bartenders, Pat Buchanan, Patio Man
Remember 1996? Remember Swingers?Right now a martini at your average bar costs between $8- $10. Correct? (I tend not to drink martinis) If you are at a comedy club or a fancy place it could cost between $14-$22. Martinis used to be a cool drink and I appreciate a good martini glass - it commits the drinker to a delicate balancing act , or facilitates one of the merriest things in the world: spilling an expensive drink over your own wrist. The wider the brim, the more difficult it is to drink without spilling. Who doesn't like to be challenged while drinking? Anyway, here is a great story about New York City's oldest bartender.
But he is a link to New York’s past, when a martini cost a dollar and a shot of Scotch was 75 cents.“With ten dollars I can take my girlfriend out, go to a movie,” he said, chuckling. “And have dinner. Still have change.”
Wong is slight of build and looks much younger than 90. His eyes twinkled as he reminisced about a life that took him from his birthplace of Hong Kong to San Francisco in 1940 and New York in 1942.
Even more of an honor, he once served perhaps the most important figure in the history of men's fashion since Beau Brummel.
His proudest moment came in 1961 when he mixed a drink for the Duke of Windsor. “He said he wanted a House of Lords martini in and out on toast.”
The wait captain was prepared to send Wong into the kitchen for a piece of toast, but Wong knew the duke wanted a martini with a lemon twist ignited with a match.
“After he drink, he liked it,” he said. “And he had a second one.”
Good show man.
In other news, Pat Buchanan on the release of his new book State of Emergency is putting up the occasional blogpost at Buchanan.org , although alot of the blogging is being done by Linda Muller. He'll be on the television and radio alot this week, including Meet the Press on Sunday.
Am writing this on Saturday, August 19, before Shelley and I head off Sunday morning to New York for the launch Monday. We hope to do Imus, the Today Show, Hannity & Colmes, Fox & Friends, and other national and regional radio and TV during this first week, before returning to Washington Friday. While book-tour schedules are notoriously fluid and change from hour to hour, Linda will be keeping you updated, as I am able to keep her updated. Hope to do a bit of blogging, as well, though the computer I am taking to New York is vintage 1995. We shall see. - Patrick J. Buchanan
Of course we are still living in a Buchananite moment. Jared Diamond said that you know a society is headed for a great collapse when the elite insulate themselves from the effects of their own policies. Yet we see everyday the development of new gated communities with no sidewalks in them or leading too them. Who needs a community when you can have a McMansion equipped with 300 channels, a sub-zero fridge, cheap "designer" furniture, 1.7 kids and two dogs? Plus those 300 channels will help all the potential populists out there soothe themselves with exquisitely designed lifestyles. In fact there should be a Bar-B-Q network so that Patio Man never thinks of plunging his long forks into the neck of some passerby elite member. Can we get an ad firm to just start pitching the content? How about a reality show where Stubb's of Stubb's Bar-B-Q sauce makes challenges for aspiring Patio Men?
Michael Brendan Dougherty
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NEW YORK - Marilyn Monroe came Wednesdays for lunch and ordered a Beefeater martini, very dry. Danny Kaye pulled his jacket over his head to avoid being recognized. Judy Garland sat in a corner drinking Johnnie Walker Red. -
Source: Launching Buchanan.orgIt is about the gravest issue facing the Republic: an unprecedented invasion of America by peoples of every culture, country, and continent that threatens the social cohesion, the national unity and survival of America as one nation and people. Folks who say this is too dramatic, too over-stated, will, I trust, read this book. For if we get this one wrong, we lose the country we grew up in.
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Jared Diamond said that you know a society is headed for a great collapse when the elite insulate themselves from the effects of their own policies. Yet we see everyday the development of new gated communities with no sidewalks in them or leading too them.
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...and when the elites not only do these things, but send out their kept-boy, running-dog journalist lackeys to denounce the unseemliness and incipient authoritarianism of any populist simmerings out there in reality.