From Hogarth‘s Gin Lane:

Drunk for a penny
Dead drunk for twopence
Clean straw for nothing

This weekend, my husband and assorted friends and I will be trotting onto a ferry to Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island). The Ready For A Party Spouse suggested we bring cocktails onto the ferry, and since I am feeling slightly wistful about the end of summer, I suggested the most summeriest of cocktails, gin and Fresca (also one of the most white trashiest cocktails, I think, but that’s not why I asked for it).

Gin has a rich and storied history in the Regency; known as ‘blue ruin,’ gin became popular in England when the government allowed unlicensed gin production along with insisting on a heavy duty for imported spirits. According to Wikipedia, “by 1740 the production of gin had increased to six times that of beer, and because of its cheapness it became popular with the poor.” Eventually, of course, the British government realized they could be making more money, and enacted the Gin Act of 1736, resulting in riots, massive illicit distilling and the cynical marketing of “medicinal” spirits with such fanciful names as Cuckold’s Comfort and My Lady’s Eye Water. Because of its ease of production, gin was often mixed with even worse ingredients, and might have caused higher death rates.

The gin they drank back then–at least the gin that started it all–tasted different from the Gordons, Bombay, Tanqueray etc. East Coast elitists sip with their tonic on the golf course. The original gin was Genever, or Holland gin, is “Richer, maltier, and with a greater depth of flavor” than today’s gin, and from some accounts, gin elitists (not the same as E.C. elitists) mourn the loss of the earlier type of gin.

But then I saw that Amsterdam-based spirits company Lucas Bols is doing a global relaunch of Bols Genever, which is made from a recipe the company was using in 1820. New York liquor stores will start stocking Bols Genever at the end of this month, with stores in San Francisco and London to follow shortly.

Having read of the devastation gin caused in our period, now I’m not so sure I want to be drinking the stuff this afternoon, but I am interested in tasting Bols Genever, just to see if I can detect a difference in the flavor.

Do you have a favorite cocktail, either for summer or fall? Are you interested in the shadier aspects of Regency life? Do you like to try period-authentic flavors?

Megan

PS: Apologies again for not coming back to comment, I will be on the road most of today.
*Fagin to Oliver in Oliver Twist

Friday! First week of school for the Nine Year-Old! A friend visiting unexpectedly!

A brand new pedicure!

No, wait–back to explaining why I am barely posting today . . . I did some insanity with flip-flops, an overlarge bedspread and my knee, so I am hobbling around and things are taking longer than usual. Including posting (how this has anything to do with my computer and my hands is MY SECRET).

Anyway. I am off to the free hours at the Museum of Modern Art, and I leave you with plenty of excuses and no substance.

Do you have a favorite modern artist? Do you like modern art at all? Do you hate flip-flops with the same passion I do now?

Megan

Like many of you (and I know I’ve even blogged about it here before), I delight in finding words new to me. Without being boastful, lemme just say I have a large vocabulary. Which is why it’s so much fun to find new words. And now another generation has joined the fray: My son.

Yesterday, we did some back-to-school shopping. At the counter, I picked up a pocket dictionary for the boy because lately he’s been asking me what words mean, and I want him to be able to find them on his own. Mommy doesn’t always know for sure what the words mean, and I don’t want to lead him astray.

On the way back to the car, I showed it to him, he made a sound of glee, and immediately dove into it. His first word to look up? Despondent. Apparently a supervillain has that as his last name, and he wanted to know for sure what it meant. And then, little nihilist that he is, he looked up ‘death.’

Me, I had to text a friend to define “ichor,” which is the blood of Greek gods, rumored to be in ambrosia. I couldn’t wait for a regular dictionary, and it wasn’t in the son’s, and it was driving me crazy. And then I looked up “coruscate,” which was there, which means sparkling. Both those words were in the book I was reading.

I like interesting phrases, too; we are at the Jersey Shore (“down the Shore,” for those in the vernacular know), and we always go to a candy store that has “own make” candies.

My husband and I talk a lot in shorthand, citing phrases and lyrics that have come to mean something particular to us. It’s fun being married to someone as word-geeky as I am, although it’s REALLY ANNOYING when one of us uses a word incorrectly, and the other one corrects her.

What are your shorthand phrases? Or favorite idiosyncracies? What word did you look up most recently?

(And apologies for not coming back to comment last week and this, I am on dial-up down the Shore, it’s hard to get online).

Megan

Yay for us Riskies!

It’s been so much fun being here, it’s great to come geek out about the Regency, clothes, characters, books, books and writing.

But what I like most, most, most about our place is the diversity of opinions and visitors. Where else could you get Cara‘s Pope-ian twinings of Trek and Austen marching alongside Elena and Diane‘s fact-filled research posts as Amanda‘s equally fact-filled posts duke it out with her fashion obsessions, Janet poking massive fun at us all in her occasional skewers?

And that’s not even to mention the visitors here, all of whom have become personalities in their own right.

I don’t have that many favorite of my own posts–mostly, I’m horrified at how little I have to say, generally–but I did like the Dress For Success one, Accessible Beauty, Heroes, Death-Wish and my annoy-Janet tweak, Obligatory Hot Guy Post.

Comment on these, or anything you want, to be entered in to win a copy of my book, A Singular Lady, as well as a copy of the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

And thanks for sharing in our celebration!

Megan

“Friday On My Mind” by the Easybeats:

Tonight….I spend my bread,
Tonight…I lose my head,
Tonight…I got to get tonight
Monday I have Friday on my mind.

This week was my first full week after National and Family-Visiting. And an eventful one! My new agent sent pitches out on That Subtle Knot, my Regency-set historical. I’ve been writing “Fortune’s Lady,” my super-sexy novella, and a writing friend (known as The Delightful Phone Friend at my blog) just told me my writing’s getting better and better (good thing, too, or else this post would have been a lot more dour. Now I am happy.)

Question to more-published authors: What is a reasonable waiting period before I start deluging my agent with anxious emails?

The whole family has been getting Olympics fever, so much so that the could-not-sleep Spouse ended up watching women’s gymnastics last night. Bet I’ll never be able to say that last clause ever again in my entire life. My son, an enthusiastic swimmer, has taken to calling Michael Phelps “Phelpy” which is so cute I can not stand it. And track and field is still to come!

By the way, I have long been a fan of director Zhang Yimou, who has got to be the most amazing visionary in terms of color and scenery ever. He is the Chief Creative Director of the opening and closing Olympics ceremony, and my goodness, he did not disappoint. For more of his work, check out Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower.

Next week is my 44th birthday, which I like ’cause 4 is one of my two favorite numbers (19 is the other one; guess what day my birthday is on?). I am looking forward to sushi and gelato that evening, having lunch with a girlfriend sans Son that day.

And then the whole family goes to the Jersey Shore for a week. Yay! The VERY Hard-Working Spouse needs a break.

And then? AND THEN? School starts September 2!

The bad news is that my shift key is being a PITA. But that is minor, right?

I am not accustomed to being optimistic and forward-looking. My brain is frantically trying to find stuff to worry about, and it is succeeding. But still. Things are good.

Are you happy about anything? What are you doing for the last few weeks of summer? Are you watching the Olympics? Which is your favorite event thus far? Which athlete are you crushing on (mine is Ryan Lochte)?