My first Blanton’s bourbon was in Georgetown at the end of a long day of touring by foot and then a longer night of bar hopping. My young companion, the son of an executive, had very sore feet and said he wanted the horse stopper. I asked the bartender if we could get the stopper. She asked the manager who said the bottle wasn’t empty. I made a quick visual calculation, gambled, and asked her to pour out the remaining shots in a line.

As the filled shot glasses grew, I realized I may have underestimated the remaining contents of the spherical bottle, but with it empty and with a nod from her manager, the bartender handed me the stopper. I presented the horse and jockey to my pleased companion. We then worked the line, closed the bar, hopped in a taxi, and retired for what was left of the night.

As I write this, I am finishing off my second bottle of Blanton’s awarded for payment in full of services rendered to a local publishing company. I am now starting my own horse and jockey collection.

The barrels are dumped by hand without using machinery. There are eight different stopper designs, each with a different letter of the alphabet molded into it and topped with a figurine of a racehorse and jockey. When placed in order, spelling “B L A N T O N’ S”, the horse and jockey’s poses display eight different scenes of a horse race, from standing at the gate, to crossing the finish line with a win.

When flying between meals, I’ll get a bag of peanut m&m’s in flight. Ever since Delta quit taking cash, I use my company card. My assistant asked me recently, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, what are these $2 fees Delta has started charging you. Is it for baggage?” I then confessed it was for m&m’s. She thought that was funny.

On my last trip, I was well through the bag when I spotted something at the bottom. It looked like a rock. Turns out there were two of these rocks and a really bad looking m&m. After determining the rocks were just gunks of smashed up m&m’s, I ate the rest of the contents. I have to admit, the final m&m’s did not taste as good since they had more “gunk dust” on them that the first m&m’s.

Thought I’d include the photos to share with Mars. The second one has a lot number they may find useful.

Opened a new package of Kroger brand chips. The bag was 1/3 chips and 2/3 air. That’s a 3/3 (total) rip off! Don’t buy Kroger chips!

Introducing (or really re-introducing) Five Forks Food, a recipe database that is a special “community blog” format supported by Movable Type. In theory, any member of Mac5 can contribute recipes or add comments. I’m still figuring it out.

You will find a link titled “FOOD” in the upper right corner of Mac5.

These are recipes Kathy typed into our Macintosh many years ago in a Hypercard Stack. She references them all the time. Later I converted them from HyperCard to a Lotus Notes Domino database that could be used on the web. (It is still here for the moment.)

A random set of recipes is published on the home page every 10 minutes.

Lost in translation are the 1 – 5 Fork ratings. I likely will have to key those by hand. You can look by category, look by name under the “All” link, or do a search on a word using the search field. For example: Search for bourbon.

If you make any of these, take a picture and send it to me. I’ll embed the photo in the recipe!

The best Indian food in Atlanta, per Danny’s old boss at La Scoop. The cook is from England, where the best cooks live. He doesn’t work on Thursdays, so don’t go then.

Mirch Masala

1713 Church Street

Decatur, GA 30033

Map