In Which Recent Events Are Summarized

Take it from me, when you read More Chains Than Clank you're effectively connected to the doings and momentous events that you would otherwise be utterly ignorant of. It is, naturally, the very least I can do!

Item: At the IBB things continue to go from bad (if that were possible) to worse (which would otherwise be improbable) and its beginning to look like the Titanic at two in the morning. Lifeboats are scarce and there's a scramble to get out without being caught in the undertow of the sinking business. Last week one baker quit following The Affair of the Unlocked Door and the Missing Receipts. Today the vacationing baker returned and quit. Hardly a surprise, but that does rather seal the fate of the IBB, especially when the Queen Bee has been filling up the pastry cases with fluffy pink-frosted sugar cookies that are enough to give you terminal diabetes just by glancing at them. The departing baker came over and chatted with me about her decision to get out while the getting out was good. Apparently the Queen Bee took the baker's resignation with an "eery calm" which tells me she knows the IBB's time is limited with the imminent arrival of the new coffeehouse. Six, two and even the IBB closes its doors by Christmas.

Item: I have been trying to create the Mysterioso cocktail. My preliminary experiments were not bad. Perhaps not necessarily what I had wanted (indeed, what had I wanted?), but still satisfying. Version 1.0 of the Mysterioso cocktail is as follows:

2 ounces of gin, a half ounce of benedictine, a half an ounce of dry vermouth, a quarter teaspoon of pernod.

The result was not unpleasant, but I got the impression that the ingredients tended to stand apart and not necessarily blend well together. The gin and dry vermouth were on one side, the pernod and benedictine on the other. Perhaps I should drop the dry vermouth altogether and slightly upping the benedictine and pernod?