The Big Olive

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

     From the Associated Press, 24 November 1999:

_Giant martini planned for New Year's celebration in San Francisco_
     SAN FRANCISCO (AP)--With a seven-story giant martini glass in the works for a New Year's celebration, San Francisco may have a new nickname: The Big Olive.
     Marketers at the Westin St. Francis hotel say the martini glass, which will feature a 10-foot-long olive sliding down a giant swizzle stick at the stroke of midnight, may make a new city landmark.
     "Our intent is to promote the West Coast," said Marsha Monro, marketing director at the Westin St. Francis.  "If New York can be known as the Big Apple, why can't we be called the Big Olive?"
     The olive is set to drop into the giant, inflatable, blue martini glass at Union Square, amid a fireworks display.  Monro said construction of the martini will begin two weeks before New Year's.
     Legend has it, the drink was created just a few miles from the city, in Martinez, a town northeast of San Francisco.  Locals say a gold miner stepped into a Martinez bar 150 years ago and asked the bartender to shake up something special.  The result became known as the Martinez, and later the Martini.  Others say Martini and Rossi distillers invented the drink.

    Somebody has got to tell this pronto to Ric Burns!  How can he possibly leave this off of his next great documentary, SAN FRANCISCO?