Wednesday - Time to start thinking about a Martini!

In the TV series M*A*S*H, characters Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John McIntyre and B.J. Hunnicutt distill gin for martinis in their tent ("the Swamp"). Hawkeye declares, "actually, I'm pursuing my lifelong quest for the perfect, the absolutely driest martini to be found in this or any other world. And I think I may have hit upon the perfect formula." Trapper responds, "five-to-one?" Hawkeye replies, "Not quite. You pour six jiggers of gin, and you drink it while staring at a picture of Lorenzo Schwartz, the inventor of vermouth." (Vermouth was actually developed by Antonio Benedetto Carpano.)

In the television show The West Wing's episode "Stirred", President Jed Bartlet asks, "can I tell you what's messed up about James Bond?" "Nothing," his aide Charlie Young replies. Bartlet ignores him. "Shaken, not stirred, will get you cold water with a dash of gin and dry vermouth. The reason you stir it with a special spoon is so not to chip the ice. James is ordering a weak martini and being snooty about it."

Those Past Friday Nights

Take yourself back 10-12 years ago...back before marriage, before kids, before mortgage payments and deciding if a good nights sleep was better than sex. Back to those Friday nights....

Not sure where the nostalgia came from - it may have just been driving home last Friday listening to an old James song, but I started to think how things were simpler back then, how less complicated the decisions were....it wasn't necessarily a better time, just less complicated.

Somehow I would almost always be working at the Bay and Bloor branch of Knowledge Alliance each Friday - thank you scheduling team! If you have ever been to a training class, you'll know that the days sometimes drag on. What you may not know, is that the instructors have just as much (if not more) anxiety on getting out early. Put that together with a class full of Government of Ontario workers, trainers scheming in the 'bull pen' about getting some beer and suddenly you have a 3PM quiting time each and every Friday. Well, there was the matter of setting up for the next Monday's class...and of course Boudrey. Brian Boudrey could talk about Lotus Notes longer than anyone I have ever known. He would finish late and his class would be the most difficult to setup for the next week...remember trying to get the Notes Domino server to work?!

Eventually the crew would role...in the warmer days, right over to Hemingways or Remys. If it was cooler, over to Delant/Cochranes basement.

My mind is not quite clear about where exactly we would be the beer/alcohol - did we shoot down Spadina to that walk in Beer Store? I do remember the Dominion on the south side of Bloor - it had a bank machine as I remember - may have picked up a few chips there as well.

Random thoughts - please add more:

• for some reason I remember the futon store on the north west corner
• ordering pizza - by far the best moment - maybe top 10 - was getting Beaudry to answer the door and yelling in the back ground "Is he cute Brian? Is he cute? Is he clean? If he is invite him in." Beaudry was mortified and speechless - it was priceless
• Beaudry is still the only person I know who has passed out with his head fully resting on a pint glass
• Sundin is a Swedish person
• Did we through salt & pepper shakers out of the 3rd floor of the Maddie?

I'm sure there are more - all I'm saying is this....keep on keeping on.

Give me some memories of past Friday nights.