Did you know that the popularization of the Dirty Martini is credited to Franklin Roosevelt? While I am glad that FDR was a lush, I was hoping that this travesty of a drink would belong to someone less admirable, and more dirty and briny, someone along the lines of, I don't know, perhaps a Sarah Palin. As Dale points out, anyone who has worked in a bar or restaurant would likely shy away from a drink that involves a splash of olive juice, from the jar that countless hands violate per shift.

Given that I on numerous occasions have expounded the virtues of the classic clean martini, why would I go and make a dirty one? It has to do with the bottle of Dirty Sue olive juice that came to my attention (and with the fact that the drink is in the book, and has to be made at some point). Dirty Sue is all brine, all the time, with no pesky olives to get in the way. Being no expert on the Dirty Martini, I cannot verify whether or not a martini made with this product tastes better than a martini made the traditional funky-jar-juice way. But from a sanitation perspective it is outstanding.

I personally don't prefer the Dirty Martini, but Dirty Sue may be a godsend for those of you who do. I have a bizarre vision of women toting little dropper bottles of Dirty Sue to bars so they can clandestinely doctor up their martinis, the way you see people busting out the Stevia at the coffee bar.