I go through minor obsessions from time to time. Some little exposure to something cool will make me hyperfocus on a topic for about 3-6 months.

The only one that stuck was board games. Maybe this one will, too.

After hosting a cocktail party about a month and a half ago, I started getting into the idea of making fancy cocktails. I like the science of it, and I like the art of it.

They can be really pretty, and they can taste like nothing else.

They can also taste entirely terrible. So there’s that.

I got a pretty amazing book, called Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. A guy named Ted Haigh collected over a hundred old-timey cocktail recipes, researched how they were originally prepared, and put it all together into a fine-looking tome. He also includes some history of the drinks and the ingredients used to make them.

I’ve already bought it for three other people. It’s very cool.

I’ve sampled some of the recipes here and there. Some are fantastic, and some are not my style. But they’re all very cool.

I want to work my way through the book. I won’t be able to make every single one of them exactly to the standard — some use ingredients that are either really hard to find or completely unproduced anymore — but I’ll take a swing.

Also, my job and kid(s, soon) preclude me from hammering through it, along with the fact that I have no desire to become an alcoholic. So we’ll take it nice and leisurely.

I’ll post thoughts and pictures, maybe.

And then I’ll make a movie called, “Julie and Julia 2: Rich and Ted.”

Just kidding.