Archives: December 01, 2005

Drink of the week: Champagne Celebration

Saturday, 31 December 2005 11:24 AM

Champagne is lovely on its own, but sometimes you want a little something extra. This recipe ups the excitement. Peychaud bitters aren't the same as Angostura bitters (the kind you find at most bars outside Louisiana), and the unconventionality of the ingredients is part of the fun. (You can fake it with Angostura bitters and a splash of orange water but the real thing is worth the search.)

Cheers!

Champagne Celebration

Ingredients:
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Presidente Brandy
1 cube Sugar
Peychaud bitters
4 oz Champagne
Mixing instructions:

Add Cointreau, Brandy and Sugar cube aturated with Peychaud bitters to champagne flute. Fill with your favorite champagne. Garnish with an orange twist.

Creator/contributor's comments:
Created by Tony Abou-Ganim of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

Recipe courtesy Webtender

Hey, I know that guy!

Tuesday, 20 December 2005 12:56 PM

Not a fan of "reality" TV, I missed the fact that I knew someone who was a contestant on The Apprentice. And now it seems that he won.

Randal was in the year behind me at Sloan -- we were both in the Leaders for Manufacturing fellowship program, in fact.

The LFM program is sponsored by manufacturing companies and those companies use it heavily as a recruiting tool. Every LFM spends six months interning at one of the partner companies and writes his thesis on the internship. There's a good deal of pressure to interview with the partner companies and hire on with one after graduation. If one doesn't pick a partner company, one is ... let's say "encouraged" to join a manufacturing company, and preferably a U.S.-based manufacturing company. Each graduate meets with a program head for an exit interview to discuss this stuff.

I didn't get too much flack for joining a software company when I graduated, but I had interviewed with a few management consulting firms and felt a little dirty doing it. It isn't only the program heads that frown on consulting -- some of my fellow students asked whether I didn't feel an obligation to the partner companies for sponsoring the program, why I didn't see I should work to improve American manufacturing.

I see from Randal's show bio this: "Randal, 34, is the founder, president and CEO of his fifth venture "BCT Partners," a multi-million dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark, N.J., that works with corporations, government agencies, philanthropic and nonprofit organizations." MIT gets a mention but LFM does not -- he mentions one MIT book (The Fifth Discipline by Peter M. Senge, which is about systems thinking and system dynamics (and incidentally that's what my first company out of school focused on, in software form)).

LFM hasn't mentioned Randal in its emails to alumni (I think), but MIT is heralding his success. I sure hope he likes working for The Donald though.

Maybe I should check in with him and see if he needs anyone to build a website for him....

L'absinthe, c'est la mort!

Monday, 12 December 2005 12:38 PM

Regular readers of My Brilliant Mistakes (and happy holidays to all three of you!) know that I've a deep fondness for all things absinthe.

It turns out that there are others much more obsessed, and they're kind enough to share their love with everyone: Please enjoy the amazing and extensive Virtual Absinthe Museum.

Not only do they have new and antique items for sale -- you can sign up for the waiting list to buy bottles of vintage absinthe from 1915 and earlier -- but they offer extensive notes on fake absinthiana. (Not surprisingly, buyer beware on eBay.)

And yes, any of these items, even the reproductions, would make a delightful holiday gift for yours truly.

Side note: Doesn't the ecstatic redhead pictured above remind you of my choleric avatar? I see a trend here...

(Absinthe link thanks to the delightful Regine at we-make-money-not-art.)

Life in the time of the choleric disposition

Wednesday, 07 December 2005 10:03 AM

I'm recovering slowly from the writerly exertions of November. Extra slowly because with December have come a slew of social events -- more than usual even -- and the attendent buying of gifts and figuring out of outfits and general fussing with hair. And there's still the regular work and so forth.

I have had a tiny bit of time to check other sites though, and thus discovered at Creating Text(iles) the suggestion to take a very brief quiz to discover my temperment. The results are startlingly accurate:

You Have a Choleric Temperament

You are a person of great enthusiasm - easily excited by many things. Unsatisfied by the ordinary, you are reaching for an epic, extraordinary life. You want the best. The best life. The best love. The best reputation. You posses a sharp and keen intellect. Your mind is your primary weapon. Strong willed, nothing can keep you down. Your energy can break down any wall. You're an instantly passionate person - and this passion gives you an intoxicating power over others. At your worst, you are a narcissist. Full of yourself and even proud of your faults. Stubborn and opinionated, you know what you think is right. End of discussion. A bit of a misanthrope, you often see others as weak, ignorant, and inferior.

Note the picture. I have red hair even! Although it's not quite as bright as that, nor as long. And maybe I should get a big butterfly to perch on my arm while I dance with abandon. This is going to be a very busy month indeed.

Copyright © 2004 – 2007 Cynthia Closkey