A Post Upon My Birthday

Yes, it's my birthday. I am not as old as the hills, but I am as old as the foothills. Old enough to know better but still get away with it. Old enough ... oh, never mind. It's my birthday.

And naturally I received books as my birthday presents:

The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems, by William Morris, illustrated by Jessie M. King, published by John Lane, 1904.
This is a long coveted and stunningly beautiful book. Morris's gorgeous verse is sublimely illustrated by the delicate pen of Jessie M. King. A treasure.

Murder In Canton, by Robert van Gulik, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1966, First American edition.
I've been a fan of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries since I discovered them in the mid 1980s. This is the only first edition, American edition, that is, that I possess. Given my mania for collecting entire sets of a writer's works, you can bet that this will not be the last.

Cocktail Capers
I've spent the holiday weekend experimenting with some cocktails from The Ultimate A-To-Z Bar Guide which Mrs. Psmith gave me last Thursday. Latch on, here's the lowdown!

Oriental Cocktail: What goes better with Chinese food than an Oreintal cocktail? I set out, Devoted Reader, to find out if this lived up to it's name and whether it complimented Mongolian Beef (I wasn't aware they'd even been introduced) or not. A nice mix of whiskey, sweet vermouth, triple sec and lime juice which had a pleasant sweet-tart taste, but nothing too extreme. It did indeed compliment the Chinese food nicely and both parties agreed they'd meet again in the near future.

Dubarry Cocktail: I liked this one too, especially as it had a delayed reaction and quite a kick. A swellegant mix of gin, dry vermouth, pernod and Angostura bitters, it's like a Manhattan and a Martini which that punch that Pernod packs. Blooey!

Knickerbocker Cocktail: A variation on the Martini with dry and sweet vermouth. Not bad, but perhaps not essential.

Princeton Cocktail: Essentially a Martini with lime juice added. I wasn't very impressed, but then I may have added way too much lime juice as mine was extremely tart.