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MY NEW COCKTAI L BOOK
Taken from Joseph Hergesheimer's
"SAN CRISTOBAL DE LA HABANA"
which contains much wisdom concerning drinks,
cigars and the art of fine living
"The moment had arrived for a Daiquiri, it was a delicate
compound:if elevated my contentment to an even higher pitch.
Unquestionably the cocktail on my table was a dangerous
agent,for it held in its shallow glass bowl slightly encrusted with
undissolved sugar the power of a contemptuous indifference
to fate; it set the mind free of responsibility: obliterating both
memory and tomorrow, it gave the heart an adventitious feel
ing of superiority and momentarily vanquished all the cele
brated, the eternal fears. Yes, that was the danger of skillfully
prepared intoxicating drinks...The word intoxicating ade
quately expressed their power, their menace to orderly, mono
tonous resignation. A word, I thought further, debased by
moralists from its primary ecstatic content... but then, with a
fresh Daiquiri and a sprig of orange blossom in my buttonhole,
it meant less than nothing."
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