Hangovers, Roast Duck, Fathers

The All-Time Greatest Description of a Hangover:
"Consciousness was upon him before he could get out of the way...The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again. A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by the secret police. He felt bad." ~ Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim. (lol - I'm nominating that last line for the greatest understatment of all time.)

I didn't write that, but I wish I had. It's from Alcoholica Esoterica by Ian Lendler.

Cures for hangovers:
Japan: Wear a gauze surgical mask soaked in sake. (Yuck. How long can you hold your breath?)
Hungary: Drink sparrow droppings in brandy. (I'll have my brandy straight up - no sparrow droppings for this Prairie Crocus. Hair of the dog, okay, but I draw the line at droppings of the sparrow.)
Ancient Greece: Draw blood through self-flagellation, allowing the alcohol to seep out. (By the time of the hangover, the alcohol has already "seeped out." And correct me if I'm wrong here, but doesn't the drinking that causes a hangover qualify as self-flagellation?)
And my favourite from those fun-loving Ancient Libyans: Mix seawater into your wine. That way, you can't get too much wine into your system before the seawater induces vomiting.

Let that be the final word from this great book on Alcohol.

Last night Margot, Joel and I had a wonderful dinner. Margot cooked duck in a raspberry sauce. It was delicious. Margot got creative with the rotini and tossed in a few pecans along with some olive oil. (Yummy. It's been cristened - Rotini a la Margot.)We also had Caesar salad with homemade Caesar dressing, French onion soup (insipid due to its lack of salt and weak beef stock. My fault.)Lemony Biscotti and Mango Sorbet. We managed to consume a couple of bottles of wine over the course of the afternoon and evening - hence the preoccupation with hangovers.

Yes, I did have a slight hangover this morning. Not as bad as the one in the above description, although if I'm being honest I'd have to admit I've had one that bad once or twice.

This will be a busy week for me. I have a Red Hat Society Meeting on Tuesday, my Walk and Talk Bereavement Group on Wed., and on Thursday I go to Victoria for a few days to help my brother-in-law celebrate his birthday.

Happy Fathers' Day to all the fathers out there. Don't forget to kiss your kids!
Tata...PEACE.

NORA: What hit me?
NICK: That last martini.
The Thin Man, 1934