Last night we decided to celebrate the final State of the Union Address of the Bush presidency. I called up a few like-minded friends and told them that I thought that it was worth toasting that we would never have to hear G-Dub give another such address; and I lured them with the promise of games and cocktails.
For entertainment, and to make sure that everybody was paying attention to W's talk, I made up Bush Bingo cards with keywords that I thought the President was reasonably likely to say: evil, economy, climate, God, Taliban, Amurrikah, etc. There were a few words that I had not thought of such as "empower" and "trust" that the Prez said about fifty times each. Another one was "Veto" which I thought he used with almost reckless abandon, given his relatively restrained use of the power (in reality the Signing Statement is W's preferred method of circumventing the will of Congress, but that is the business of a different blog than this one.) We all had placed personal wagers on how many times W would say "Nukular", and though the word appeared on only a couple of the Bingo cards, everybody cheered the first time he said it.
If it weren't for this glass of whiskey, I don't think Phil would have made it as far as he did on this Bingo card
For cocktails, we created the "State of the Union," a libation crafted entirely from domestic ingredients, of course. I chose Rye and Applejack because of their historical significance and seasonal appropriateness. (However last night we were experiencing something more like a Hot Summer Night than a typical January evening; my friend Mike and I sat around the fire ring out back, though we didn't light it) I also figured that the drink should be strong, given the famous closer that it seems every president must use some permutation of.
Did you know that the State of the Union Address is Constitutionally mandated? I did not know that until one of our guests, a history professor, Philled us in...
The State of the Union
1 1/2 oz. Laird's Applejack
3/4 oz. Wild Turkey Rye
1/2 oz. Simple syrup
Dash Peychaud's Bitters
2 Dashes Fee's Orange Bitters
Stir cocktail until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Try not to choke on it while you listen to the president say things like "Purveyors of false populism in this hemisphere..."
Mike showed up with his "Texas Travel Kit," which consists of a pile of meat from Smitty's BBQ in Lockhart, a jar of pickles, and a travel-size bottle of Maker's
