1931 Old Waldorf Bar Days by Albert Stevens Crockett

OldWaldorf Bar Days and the expression "give him the raspberry" had not come into common use. Nor had "strawberries" entered the realm of slang. Berries were berries and fruits were fruits. It was a simpler age. A pimola was a green olive stuffed with pimento. A few processes employed by professors in the Amer– ican School of Drinking, and named here and there, seem to call for some clarifica tion. For example, to "muddle" meant to mash and stir up one or more ingredients, and had no objective reference to the person who was getting the drink; to "cup" meant either to shape or use as a cup, or to place in the bottom of a cup or glass; to "frappe" meant to cool with ice. More frequently than not, a bar-tender averse to the vigorous and more than local exercise demanded by ply– ing a cocktail-shaker achieved a similar effect by the finger-and-wrist method of gently stirring a few lumps of ice with a spoon. Two terms ofliquid measurement employed may need explanation to the younger generation. A "split," for in– stance, did not necessarily concern a Terpsichorean achievement or divertisement, bµt simply meant half an ordinary bottle of aerated or flavored H20, or else a bot– tle of half the regular size. A "dash" demands more elab– orate definition. Often in a bottle-neck was a device that held a metal quill. A "dash," in the sense of measure– ment, was the quantity of liquid discharged from the bottle when the. bar-tender, eleva ting the vessel shoul– d~-high, pointed it in the direction of the mixture he was concocting, and brought it down sharply and swiftly to within a few inches of the same. By carefully gauging [ 232]

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