- ABOUT THIS BLOG
- Everyone has done it – you’re in a bar, looking for a scrap of paper to write a woman's name and phone number on, or just want to make a note to yourself so you don’t forget something. You grab a cocktail napkin.
- (In the TV series The West Wing, a political consultant decides that Jed Bartlet – played by Martin Sheen – should run for President. He takes a cocktail napkin and writes down the slogan, “Bartlet for America.”)
- I work in bars. Over the years, I’ve accumulated enough of my own cocktail-napkin notes to fill six liquor bottle boxes.
- Here are the people and stories that wound up in those notes -- real-life characters like Jackie Rabbit and Maude the Broad, the narcotics cops Paul and Sonny, mafia guys, some shameless tramps and one suicidal young man. You'll meet an old-time boxer who wants to take me into the gym to teach me his trade, and a woman who thinks God is on the stool next to her, urging her to have one more whiskey and ginger. It's life behind the taps.
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Recent Entries
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Check out the stories you’ve been missing in our Archives (below). And my sincere thanks to all of you who have visited here!
Archives
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Author Archives: MikeQ
HOWIE
At first, we thought he was just a little weird, one of the many off-beat characters in Harvard Square. He wasn’t a bad guy; sometimes he was even funny, doing or saying something that made everyone laugh. And when they … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
8 Comments
FRESH STARTS/NEW ENDINGS
Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s hope it’s a good one. Now that the champagne bottle is empty and the noise-makers have bleated their last toot, here’s a few thoughts and resolutions that caught my eye–hope you enjoy them as … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
1 Comment
EDDIE VEDDER IN THE HOUSE
What a World Series! Great games, controversial calls, weird endings — and Boston won. Perfect. But what was with all the Eddie Vedder references? Apparently Pearl Jam has a new CD coming out, and during every night’s game they broadcast … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
5 Comments
FUBAR (and then a beautiful moment)
Sunday, 10/13/13, 12:18 A.M. It’s never good to leave a bartender working alone on a slow night. There’s too much opportunity to think. You keep glancing at the clock, again and again. You might listen to one of your customers, … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
3 Comments
THE PROMISE OF SEX
Everyone knows there’s a lot of sex in the restaurant business. It’s a promise that lures big crowds to the pick-up joints. Even in a quieter place, anytime there’s drinking involved you’ll usually find at least some sexual undertones. And … Continue reading
Posted in Life on a Cocktail Napkin
6 Comments