TRADITIONAL FOODS of Sri Lanka (1997)

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:28 PM -0500 2/14/03, JJJRLandau at aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 2/14/03 1:06:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:
>
>>  I recommend substituting V8 and gin respectively, and adding lots of
>>   tabasco (or equivalent), Worcestershire, and celery salt.  The result
>>   is, I think, quite palatable, though unconscionably high in sodium
>
>Sounds more like a hangover cure.

I suppose, on the hair-of-the-dog principle

>
>Tabasco, Worcestershire, ...Would anyone notice if you forgot the gin?

Well, maybe not at first, but after the third glass...  (My son
vouches for the gin-less, Virgin Mary, version of the concoction.)

>
>You are aware, of course, that your recipe is logically impossible, since gin
>is a type of vodka.
>
Is this true in some technical sense?  I certainly don't have them
listed on the same mental file card.  The OED has

_vodka martini_, a martini cocktail in which vodka is substituted for gin

Why can't my bloody Mary use the gin spared by the poor soul who
engages in that OED-sanctioned substitution?

larry, thinking that (as a former colleague used to mutter at late
afternoon faculty meetings) it's getting dangerously close to
cocktail hour