Question re. boilermakers (I actually need to know this for a fic). Does a boilermaker always involve dumping the shot into the beer, or can one alternate? I'd also imagine that a boilermaker hangover is pretty nasty stuff.

Some people consider it still a boilermaker if you're shooting and chasing, but they're wrong like wrong things because, damn it, that's just shooting and chasing.

The classic boilermaker in school involved actually dropping the shot into the beer, glass and all. Dumping the whisky in still counts, but isn't as hard core.

(Edit again: of course, there are those who insist that the dropped in version should be called a Depth Charge. There are some serious regionalisms with this drink. To the point of Usenet flamewars, or close to.)

One or two boilermakers will make you nice and tispy, but the head's not too bad.

Edit: and yes, fine, there was nothing to do at Evergreen but drink. I drink much less now than I did at 20 and 21, but I keep my mix books around for reference.

I know very, very, very little about alcohol and while I'm always interested in new realms of geekery I don't think I will. My aunt was a bartender when she was younger and when we go over she always makes Interesting Drinks involving blenders-- last time I talked to John on the phone I was slightly drunk because they'd been having margaritas (!)-- but that's as far as I think I'll be going, in terms of knowledge.

But what *does* it mean to have a drink "neat"? No ice?

On the train today I was overhearing this woman explaining what fic was to her two male companions. I waited for a whole few minutes, until she was saying "they call it a beta, I don't know why," and I twisted around and said I thought it was from the tech vocabulary, beta-version-testing, and said I was a ficcer. She was very pleased to have run into me as a living breathing illustration. She was only familiar with X-Files stuff, though.

I like the term "beta-reader" better than editor or proofreader. A beta-reader is less dictatorial than an editor, but comments more on the actual content than a proofreader.

In other news, I thought [link] was kinda good. Several parts seemed rather... gratuitous, but there was a funny, Jossy vibe here and there.

Rachel Lee Arlington! I'll be damned. I didn't know she was still ficcing. She wrote one of my favorite XF smutfics, "With a Vengeance".

That was kinda fun, and the dialog was good.

Rachel Lee Arlington! I'll be damned. I didn't know she was still ficcing. She wrote one of my favorite XF smutfics, "With a Vengeance".

Oh my god! Some of the first smut I ever read was Rachel Lee Arlington. I *adore* "With a Vengeance", and have a huge soft spot for her Scully/Krycek stories. Off to read her new stuff!

RL, 'neat' means with nothing mixed in -- no ice, no garnishes, no seltzer or tonic or anything. Same as 'up' or 'straight', and my grandfather, a veteran abuser of his liquor, used to laugh at people who say 'straight up' because it's redundant.

Of course, he finally gave in and started ordering his martinis "up, with a twist", because if he just ordered them "with a twist" they put in vermouth, which he didn't want. (A twist is one of those little curls of lemon skin.) But every time he did this in my hearing, he felt the need to explain that 'up' technically does not include twists either.

He had vermouth issues.

So what was in his martini? Just gin? I didn't realise that was still considered a martini!

In college, the recipe for the Perfect Martini, was "pour chilled gin into a martini glass and think nice thoughts about Vermouth."

Yeah, he liked to say that you introduce the gin to the vermouth. "Vermouth, this is gin. Gin, this is vermouth. Which is going back in the cabinet now."

Although he used vermouth at home, and I think he had some places at which he was a regular where they rinsed the glass with vermouth and then filled it with gin.

old school, yo.