I suppose I should come out of the closet about this. Regular readers may have already pieced it together from a few hints and comments, but it is time to speak with candor.

I am a reader.

There, I said it. I read.

Not only do I read, but when confronted with a problem or new idea I often turn to reading as a solution. Cocktail month is no different. Today I read The Cocktail: The Influence of Spirits on the American Psyche by Joseph Lanza. At only 150 pages, with two dozen of those pages taken up by images, and its compact size, it’s really more of a long essay.

While parts of this book lapse into cataloging the appearance of cocktails in popular culture it’s rescued by Lanza’s nimble writing. I breezed through it in a couple of hours and now have some grounding in the history of the cocktail. Lanza ranges from the origins of the cocktail to the hipster cocktail revivals of the 1990s when tiki bars, cigars, and lounge music came back into style. It’s worth the read if you’re looking for a breezy introduction.

Tonight’s cocktail is the Manhattan. Since I had dry vermouth in the house it’s a dry Manhattan, which is 2 parts bourbon, 1 part dry vermouth, and garnished with a cherry. Stir the liquids with ice and pour into a cocktail glass.

According to Lanza one of the great cocktail lounges used to be right across the bay. Lenny Dee’s Dolphin Den in St. Petersburg (and later Lenny Dee’s King’s Inn).

Lenny was a master of the electronic organ and recorded over fifty-six albums.

Here’s a tribute someone made to Lenny on YouTube. The visuals are just a slideshow of Dee albums, but it’s a chance to hear him at work on his awesome Hammond organ. The same person, LennyDeeTribute has also posted about 30 clips of tributes. Check it out.

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