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.

he had some places at which he was a regular where they rinsed the glass with vermouth and then filled it with gin.

That's how we did it at the place I tended bar in university.

I blame the BRQG (well, okay, and my desperate need to procrastinate) for the fact that I went looking for the infamous NSync/Pern crossover and read some of it last night.

It's not badfic in the traditional sense of the word; it doesn't have enough grammar/spelling issues to choke a cat, nor is there an egregiously-named MarySue. If you did a search n' replace with all the boy names, it'd be a pretty decent Pern story.