In college, the recipe for the Perfect Martini, was "pour chilled gin into a martini glass and think nice thoughts about Vermouth."
This is my FiL and his brother.
The gin & tonic? Keep gin in fridge with a bottle of tonic; look at the tonic when pouring the gin.
	
 
		
		
In college, the recipe for the Perfect Martini, was "pour chilled gin into a martini glass and think nice thoughts about Vermouth."
I have a friend who makes screwdrivers in a similar way. 
Pour the vodka into a glass.  Go to the fridge.  Open the fridge.  Show the vodka the orange juice.  Close fridge.  Drink "screwdriver".
	
 
		
		
My husband's old boss preferred his vodka on ice, with a twist of lemon.  He made no bones of calling it anything else.  
For my martinis, I like the spray the vermouth over the ice with a mister method.  You get just enough vermouth.
	
 
		
		
On the original topic of Scotch -- there are two good cheap funky bars within staggering distance of what I've been known to refer to as the Mishadome. 
One has Laphroaig for $6 a pop, and the other has it for $5.  Now, since the beers I can drink run somewhere between $4 and $5 at these places (one does have cheap-ass beer for $2.50 per, but it's cheap-ass beer), I feel wrong not drinking the Laphroaig.  So I can say from experience that if you're already a Scotch drinker of any kind, the tolerance for Laphroaig is (a) quickly picked up, especially if (b) you're drinking a lot of it at once. So (c), if you find the right funky bar, it's a very affordable night out.  And (d), now I want a drink, and I need to get back to what I was doing before I logged on instead.
	
 
		
		
This is really, really funny.
	
 
		
		
Anyone have a Speranza link? It's in my bookmarks ... somewhere....
	
 
		
		
Cereal:
Damn. It would be really fucking difficult for me to figure out what fic author I would want to read before I die. It would be either Speranza or Ple. 
Damn, guh, glurble.