The Supreme Tradition of Spelling Bees

That's strange, I'm sure I've wrote something earlier about "El Secreto de sus Ojos" winning the foreign language film oscar, but it's not here.

Have you seen it, Loscar? Here in Toulouse every year in March we have a Latin-American film festival. Just having a quick look at the programme, I see there aren't any Argentine movies this year, mostly Mexican, 2 from Chile, 2 from Colombia.

As these things seem to go--last night I was amusing myself reading a 1962 cookbook that had a whole section on swell menus for entertaining. The first Dinner for Six started with "Aperitif: Lillet" to be served with "assorted hors d'oeuvres." The main dish was Cornish game hens.

Do people still drink Dubonnet? St-Raphaël? I'm pretty sure they still drink Campari. I don't know anyone who ever drank Cynar.

On another note, happy 100th birthday Samuel Barber, March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981.

You mean Dubo-Dubon-Dubonnet? I suppose so, since I still see it in the supermarket, as well as St-Raphaël. Never heard of Cynar. The only person I know who drinks Campari is Dutch and she drinks it with orange juice.

I'm not a big drinker but, in my limited experience here in the south, apéritif drinks tend to be: beer, pastis, Floc de Gascogne or Pineau de Charentes, occasionally whiskey, some muscat-type wine from the south coast, champagne (if someone is showing off). Now, of course, I will serve Lillet until the bottle is empty.

I forgot -- lots of French seem to think port wine is an apéritif, but I don't agree.

Cynar is or was an Italian aperitif based on artichokes. Somehow that never tickled my fancy.

Campari is a favorite of mine. I like it with soda & lime. I had one of those silly conversations with the bartender/girl of all work at a pension in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. I asked for Campari e soda. She kept shrugging and pointing to the other side of the courtyard. It finally turned out that she (a Croatian guestworker) thought I was asking after my compares. Depending on the dialect, compare or cumpari can mean godfather, close associate, fellow countryman, or just plain buddy. So she was pointing out that my friends were sitting over there.

The only person I know who drinks Campari is Dutch and she drinks it with orange juice.

I've never heard of that particular mix, but mixed drinks in the Netherlands are generally of the "something-orange juice" or "something-coke" type. Genuine cocktails in the US sense are not common at all, but vodka-OJ, rum-cola, etc. are the staple drinks of age group 16-22 (roughly).

Are these apéritif's names trade brands or that's how they are called apart from their brands? I thought Campari was a brand, and also Cynar. Btw, my parents liked Cynar a lot and they used to drink it all the time, but not anymore.

The ones that are popular here are Cinzano and Gancia, both usually drunk with soda and lemon juice.

There's a drink called Fernet that became very popular in the last few years among young people. They have it mixed with coke, a mixture some call "Fernando".