This week in 1903, Texas’ most unlikely Justice of the Peace — Phantley Roy Bean Jr. — died. He literally held court in his frontier saloons, so we served ourselves a summons to one of the best cocktail spots in Austin to let another bartender lay down the (liquid) law.
A History Lesson With Booze ®
The Bloody Mary Shooter
This week in 1897, a young Bayer chemist named Felix Hoffman invented aspirin as we know it (and then used the same procedure to create another, far less innocuous pharmaceutical).
The 4th and Clyde
This week back in 1863, Charles Sherwood Stratton — better known as Tom Thumb — was married in what might’ve been the wedding of the century.
Tybee Bomb
This week in 1958, the U.S. military lost an H-bomb. It’s still lost… possibly somewhere off the coast of Tybee Island, Georgia.
The Nalo Smash
This week back in 1993, Chad Rowan, aka Akebono, became the first foreign-born athlete to reach yokozuna – the highest rank in sumo wrestling.
The Dem Donkey & The Jackass Neck
This week in 1870, staunch Republican Thomas Nast lashed out at certain Democrat-owned newspapers... portraying them as a crazed jackass. Later, he drew his own party as a frightened elephant on the edge of a precipice. Hear how both parties came to embrace Nast’s animal familiars... then throttle a cocktail, based on an equine classic.
The Eternal Optimist
This week in 1971, the hapless basketball counterpart to the Harlem Globetrotters – The Washington Generals – won their only game.
See No Weevil
Back in 1915, the insidious boll weevil decimated the cotton crops of Enterprise, Alabama… and paradoxically paved the way for a stronger local economy.
The Pong Pong
This week in 1972, a fledgling company called Atari installed the prototype of its first-ever video game in a Silicon Valley bar. Hear the story of how the simplest game ever launched a $60-billion-dollar industry.
The Black and Gold
This week in 1892, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger put the “pro” in pro football. Hear his story, then see if you can tackle a cocktail honoring one of the teams he spawned.