Firsts & Lasts
“Scruples”
The gloaming brings a pulsation. Here I yield. Thither I go. At the least I'll pull an all-nighter. At the most I'll be carelessly disobedient. The figurative is piffle. The literal is caution.
-K-
“Desire, Jealousy, Love”
The End of Things
What is your relationship success rate? If you’ve experienced the end of a relationship (one that wasn’t ended by you), then Suicide Blonde and The End of the Affair may cover some familiar ground. If you’ve never been in a relationship that ended poorly, then these books can give you insight into the lives of the rest of us. The narrators of these books offer views of the end of their relationships (don’t consider that a spoiler if you haven’t paid attention to the titles of the books
These books, written 40 years apart, address desire, jealousy, love, and how all three overlap in a relationship. From the first to the last sentences (the first and last sentences of both books are quite memorable) we are privy to the relationship woes of Jesse from Suicide Blonde and Bendrix from The End of the Affair. Darcy Steinke and Graham Greene draw us in with believable characters we may not always like but can definitely empathize with.
Not every relationship has a happy ending. Suicide Blonde and The End of the Affair are stories of two such such endings. Steinke and Greene show us some relationships are tragic, but tragedy is part of life, as are relationships.
-K-
A man only has so many bottles of bourbon in him, why waste any drinking over silly shit?
-K-
A matchbook with a promise of love.
-K-
Four Line Blues Poems
“2”
Sunday's tears blame Friday's crazy. Monday's prison tomorrow. I feel despair knowing this whiskey From town is where the Preacher been.
-K-
“Bending Elbows: The Mix Tape”
“Hip Flasks and Other Accessories”
A Drinking Man’s EDC
For the serious drinkers (those with a historical bent to their bending elbows) today is a day of infamy. Today is the anniversary of the start of Prohibition. Some consider it the starting pistol for our nation sprinting head first and hell bent into the Roaring ’20s. In honor of speak easies, bootleg whiskey, hip flasks, flappers, and Outlaws who defied Prohibition I thought I would share my Drinking Man’s EDC (that’s ‘Every Day Carry’ for those of you not in the tactical know).
As I’ve said before, if you are going to do any serious drinking then you should be serious about your drinking. My EDC isn’t anything extraordinary, but it currently addresses my drinking lifestyle. What’s in your Drinking Man’s (or Womans’s, or Whoever, as long as your are old enought to legally imbibe) EDC?
-K-
“The Beauty of Bourbon”
Walker Percy on Bourbon
You don’t need a reason to drink Bourbon, and nobody should ask you to provide an excuse for wanting to drink Bourbon on a Wednesday afternoon. But if you do find yourself wanting reasons and/or feeling pressured to provide excuses may I suggest “Bourbon” by Walker Percy. Percy’s essay discusses the beauty of a shot of Bourbon.
As the first line of the Percy’s essay sates, “Bourbon” is not written by an expert (so the know it all whiskey snobs out there can go elsewhere). Instead, Percy provides us with an overview of the beauty of Bourbon and the benefits of knocking back a shot. These aesthetic benefits range from enjoying the taste to dealing with the “…anomie of the late twentieth century…” (and several points in between). Percy also provides us with several examples of how Bourbon played a variety of roles in his life. These examples provide those of us who imbibe Bourbon an opportunity to reflect about the various roles Bourbon plays in our lives.
Percy’s examples got me thinking about some of my own experiences with Bourbon. I remember my Pops buying a few jars of moonshine in Harlan County decades ago (I wonder what Percy would have thought of the taste). I think of canoe and camping trips with a bottle in my backpack, of weddings and funerals with flasks being passed around. Bourbon played an important and unique role in each of these and many other memories. If you put each of Percy’s aesthetic benefits in a checklist, I would be able to tick each box. If you enjoy an occasional (or frequent) shot then Walker Percy’s essay about the beauty and benefits of Bourbon is for you. And if anybody asks for a reason or excuse for why you enjoy that shot paraphrase Percy and let him or her know the effect of the shot is secondary to the joy of the shot.
-K-
“Bourbon” from Signposts in a Strange Land by Walker Percy
Voodooshooter 