One Note: Andrew Farkas
How an interest in the Singapore Sling can lead to the ethics of draw poker
In One Note, Gabriel Blackwell asks writers for just that: one note, a single paragraph, on what they’re reading right now.
Today’s note comes courtesy of Andrew Farkas:
I found Charles H. Baker, Jr.’s The Gentleman’s Companion Volume II: Being An Exotic Drinking Book, or Around the World With Jigger, Beaker, and Flask (1946) because I had become interested in the Singapore Sling. I’m not sure where I first heard of the Singapore Sling, but I do know that I just decided one day while living in Tuscaloosa that I was sick of beer, so I needed to find some other kind of drink. I learned early on that there were many wildly different recipes for the Singapore Sling, and I figured that was the cocktail for me. While looking through Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail (yes, that’s a real journal), I learned of Baker and his book, searched for it at the library, found the library had The Gentleman’s Companion in the archives (of course), and therefore ended up with this bizarre work that’s a combination of bartender’s guide, travelogue, history (of various places), absurdist epic (where the hero isn’t really trying to get anywhere in particular), chemistry text, philosophy text, autobiography, etc. all written in a style that would’ve seemed more appropriate in Britain in the 19th Century, instead of America in the middle of the 20th Century. As for the Singapore Sling itself, the original recipe for which has been lost, perhaps John Ford would’ve said, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” but that isn’t Baker’s style. Instead, he says, “In the collection of this volume’s data we gradually came to realize that the great drinks around the world, like the ethics of draw poker, the length of ladies’ skirts and width of men’s pantaloons — the accepted, the proven thing is the right thing; the best thing, and all of these proven experiences march here.” They most certainly do march here with all the confidence of someone who has consumed every drink in this book.
Andrew Farkas‘s Self-Titled Debut (a collection of fictions) was published in 2009 by Subito Press. His work has appeared in The Cincinnati Review, New Orleans Review, Copper Nickel, and The Florida Review. He is also a frequent contributor to The Brooklyn Rail.
