| Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
I wrote this over the weekend during our "Grand Deluge" here in NYC and thought that this would amuse your readers, especially the part about the red bees.
 I am totally bored with the news today. Like Jeralyn at TalkLeft there is little being reported except about Republicans and, like her they are just not interesting to me. They're all clowns, felons or religious zealots. Jeralyn lucked out going to her local farmers' market, but due to the weather here I couldn't go for a walk on the beach. I can't even get off the street because the intersection is under about 4 feet of water, the choice is row boat or SCUBA today.. So I surfed the net this afternoon for entertainment.
When I was back in college and in between jobs, I waited tables and tended bar. Not bad money back in '72 - '73, it helped pay the bills. One of the things I was very attentive about were garnishes for drinks, like lemon twists, maraschino cherries (UGH!) and olives. I'm rather observant about what goes on behind the bar and rather particular about my drinks, vodka martinis being my favorite, so when Rachel Maddow did a segment on her show about drink garnishes, I chuckled. Her rant on garnishes started because of red bees in Brooklyn, NY that had been getting into the Red Dye #40 laced cherry juice at the factory where the cherries are made. Her objections extended to olives which have "conceivably been lying out festering in their own juices in a warm room all night, with fingers on them." Well, while the alcohol kills a lot of germs, I usually peek behind the bar to see how the garnishes are kept. The better places keep them in trays over ice with little tongs or picks. Her take on lemon twists was pretty clear, it's there to add some flavor, "It has a job to do, and that job is not to be eaten!". The moral of her lecture was "Don't Eat the Garnish" and hold the maraschino cherries.
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