Outrageous Cocktail Lounges on 1970's Commercial Airlines

In the pre-regulation go-go days of air travel, the major airlines competed on swank amenities more than price. The peak of outrageousness was clearly the 1970's on-board cocktail lounges in coach class. A Singapore Sling with fellow boozers would go a long way to soothe the jangled nerves of tentative flyers.



The oft mentioned absence of jet packs as evidence of a future utopia unrealized is somewhat lost on me. As a kid, I saw the future I was interested in and it was 1979. Jet travel, dry roasted peanuts, slender More cigarettes, Harvey Wallbangers, ascots and Truman Capote at Studio 54.




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Mysterious Zombie! Hangover Grip of Iron!

Check out this superb Wall Street Journal article about the legendary hangover machine known as the Zombie:

The Beachcomber issued a Barnumesque dare -- declaring the drink so potent that he would serve no more than two to a customer. (Drinks author David Embury would later note that the "fear-inspiring slogan" simply guaranteed that "everyone except Caspar Milquetoast, of course, comes back for a third.")

Don the Beachcomber came to be nicknamed the "Zombie Palace," and Beach kept four Filipino barmen cranking the drinks out. They were relegated to the kitchen to keep prying eyes from discerning the mystery drink's ingredients. And even the bartenders were in the dark about the makeup of certain key ingredients, such as "Donn's Mix."

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Syndicated columnist Lucius Beebe seemed to think the New York Beachcomber was an extension of the original California club, which he described as "a gloomy grotto of strong waters specializing in rum toddies of paralyzing dimensions." In a 1940 article headlined "Rash of Tropical Saloons Spreads Across Nation," Beebe wrote that it would soon "be possible to cross the continent without ever emerging from a Zombie swoon."

Oh, for the days of gloomy grottos and rashes of tropical saloons. The article is entertaining, as drunken debacles always are, but the spoiler top secret recipe is below for those amateur mixologists who want to get started right away.

ZOMBIE
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup
1 oz white rum
1 oz gold rum
1 oz 151-proof Demerara rum
1 tsp brown sugar
1 dash Angostura

Muddle the brown sugar in the citrus until it is dissolved, then shake all the ingredients with plenty of crushed ice. Pour, without straining, into a tall highball glass and garnish with a sprig of mint. And remember, don't even think about having a third one.

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Storied Bicycle Maker Campagnolo Produced Gold Corkscrews in 1974

D+R pal Randy Dugan generously contributed this great post on the Campagnolo foray into the world of corkscrews. Naturally, they attacked the issue of cork removal as if the future of wine hung in the balance. At first take, the gold plate seems a little much but you warm to it. Sure, it is over the top, but more Bulgari than Cash Money.

Randy Dugan writes:

The history and products of the Campagnolo company are legendary. The founder, Tullio Campagnolo, famously came up with the idea for the quick-release lever when his hands froze while racing his bicycle over a mountain pass, leaving him unable to unscrew the wingnuts that held his wheel in the frame. Tullio went on to invent (or steal, according to some people) the parallelogram-type derailleur, which adorns almost every chain-shifting bike made today. Along the way, the company also made cast wheels for Ferrari and helicopter blades for the Italian military. Campagnolo-equipped bikes had a near monopoly on Tour de France victories from the 1960s until the late 1990's. In the glory years before Tullio's death in 1983, the Campagnolo name was synonymous with innovation, precision and beauty, and its products remain supreme examples of industrial art.

Perhaps to commemorate its dominance in its industry, in 1974 Campagnolo released the "cavaturaccioli", a corkscrew that did for opening wine bottles what the company's bike parts had done for racing. Using one is a like closing the door of a Mercedes; it leaves the user with a sense-memory of mechanical perfection. While most were produced in pedestrian bronze or silver finishes, currently speedbicycles.ch, the website of a Swiss collector, is featuring a photo spread of a matched set of rare gold-plated versions of the corkscrew and its companion nutcracker.

Note that the pivot bolts for the arms are actually the same bolts that Campagnolo used to hold the chainrings to the crankarms on their legendary Record model cranksets. The rear derailleur in the photographs is a rare first-generation Super Record model, featuring titanium pivot bolts and a pulley cage hand-modified by drilling in an attempt to remove unnecessary weight.

Today, Campagnolo's market share has been dwarfed by component giant Shimano, but they are still the choice of a large percentage of professional teams, and they have a large, rabidly devoted following of recreational and amateur consumers.

The speedbicycles.ch site is remarkable and well worth checking out in its entirety. The photography is excellent and the collected items in this virtual museum are of the highest aesthetic and historic level.

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Thanks, Randy!

Japanese Cell Phone Charms: Six Stages of Drunkenness

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