To Whom Are You Drinking Right Now?

[qwertyy]

Clink to Mrs. B and hillvalley to DR.com, which has helped me realize that it's more satisfying to cook dinner for a friend than to order pizza, even on a weeknight. (And ditto to this clink deserving better than the plonk I'm currently drinking.)

[DonRocks]

Clink to Mrs. B and hillvalley to DR.com, which has helped me realize that it's more satisfying to cook dinner for a friend than to order pizza, even on a weeknight. (And ditto to this clink deserving better than the plonk I'm currently drinking.)

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. But let's not take away this moment from Elizabeth Edwards. I cannot think of anyone who (at least in terms of the press) had a sadder ending that should have been full of - dare I say it - joy, or at least a quiet, peaceful contentment. Hopefully, it was.

We all die; in 150 years, every single person alive on this earth will be gone. But she got a raw deal. I hope to God she knows there are people who look up to her as a role model. I certainly do.

Right now, I'm drinking a 1998 Donnhoff Schlossbockelheimer Kupfergrube Riesling Spätlese in her honor.

[RaisaB]

Don, I wish there was a like button for your toast to Elizabeth Edwards. I was thinking the exact same thing tonight. May she rest in peace.

[Barbara]

Drinkin' and prayin' for Aretha. Wow, what a tough week--on several fronts.

[squidsdc]

Drinkin' and prayin' for Aretha. Wow, what a tough week--on several fronts.

Yes, very sad. At least they were able to operate, I understand. Hopefully that has helped her situation some, but it won't be an easy road either way. A friend of mine was recently diagnosed, but by the time they actually found the tumor it was too large to operate. (the fact that they didn't see it sooner pisses me off greatly as he was undergoing testing due to his complaints with pain in the abdomen...but that's a story for another day.)

[DonRocks]

Yes, very sad. At least they were able to operate, I understand. Hopefully that has helped her situation some, but it won't be an easy road either way. A friend of mine was recently diagnosed, but by the time they actually found the tumor it was too large to operate. (the fact that they didn't see it sooner pisses me off greatly as he was undergoing testing due to his complaints with pain in the abdomen...but that's a story for another day.)

Not to add too much medical detail, but with pancreatic cancer, I'm pretty sure you either have a successful Whipple Procedure, or you don't make it. If they operate, that's a GOOD thing (the procedure is a major ordeal, however).

[lperry]

Not to add too much medical detail, but with pancreatic cancer, I'm pretty sure you either have a successful Whipple Procedure, or you don't make it. If they operate, that's a GOOD thing (the procedure is a major ordeal, however).

Seconded. I lost both my Aunt and my Grandmother to pancreatic cancer, both within weeks of diagnosis. It moves fast. Here's hoping Aretha is faster.

[Anna Blume]

It's only coffee, but Liu Xiaobo!

[JPW]

James Moody. RIP.

[goodeats]

Drinking to those seeking new employment due to weirdo, shove-off bosses who choose to pink slip right before Christmas. Peace and warmth to all.

[Barbara]

Richard Holbrooke. What a terrible loss.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/world/14holbrooke.html?_r=1&hp

[leleboo]

To the inimitable KMango, who reminds me each time I see her why I value her friendship so dearly. May 2011 be her best year ever.

[theakston]

Mister Zoot Horn Rollo, hit that long lunar note, and let it float.

[Ilaine]

Mister Zoot Horn Rollo, hit that long lunar note, and let it float.

Goodnight, Captain Beefheart, wherever you are. Listening with tears in my eyes.

[deangold]

To the end of DADT. Now those who are willing to die for their country can serve without the fear of being themselves. What took so fucking long?

And no, no one should be thankful it's over. We should be ashamed that it took so long to end. 31 idiots still think that gays do not deserve full human rights. I am drinking to forget the lamentable state of politics in America, where this is a victory of great proportions.

[dcs]

To the cast and crew of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts production of Dreamgirls. The young woman who played Effie White in yesterday's 2pm performance is going to be a star.

[Waitman]

To teh gays. And, God help me, to the eight Rs that voted right. John Ensign -- who knew?

[B.A.R.]

Grandma DeStefano.

[goodeats]

To neyla and choirgirl - hope you're hanging in there!

[Waitman]

Sally Jackson. I remember the first time I ran into her cheese, at Dean and DeLuca, a Banon-like thing wrapped in chestnut leaf. It was like: there's an American who can pull this stuff off? For as much press as American cheesemakers get, very few hold their own with the best of Europe and Sally was certainly one of them. And unfortunate ending but a brilliant career.

[DonRocks]

To everyone reading this who is alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning (I am, too).

[Heather]

To everyone reading this who is alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning (I am, too).

Cheers, Don, and Merry Christmas. I'll be alone this afternoon & evening, for the first time.

[Ilaine]

To everyone reading this who is alone on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning (I am, too).

To Don Rocks, thank you for a clean well-lighted place.

And to the whole DR community. Merry Christmas!

[deangold]

Raymond

One of the joys in owning a restaurant is meeting great people. There is a status somewhere between customer and "family" that some folk occupy. But there are some very rare people who break through and really touch your heart in a special way. Raymond was just such a person. When he started coming to Dino he wouldn't talk to anyone and seemed nervous just being out at a restaurant. But after a while he would nod hello and then finally strike up a conversation. On his most recent visit, we chatted at length about Brunello and his love of that wine with one of our dishes.

Today, just before going into service, we got a call from his father in Texas. Raymond passed on and they wanted us to know as Raymond would have wanted it that way.

Sometime life is just totally unfair. Raymond... I know every vintage of Brunello you enjoy from now on is perfect!

[zoramargolis]

Raymond

One of the joys in owning a restaurant is meeting great people. There is a status somewhere between customer and "family" that some folk occupy. But there are some very rare people who break through and really touch your heart in a special way. Raymond was just such a person. When he started coming to Dino he wouldn't talk to anyone and seemed nervous just being out at a restaurant. But after a while he would nod hello and then finally strike up a conversation. On his most recent visit, we chatted at length about Brunello and his love of that wine with one of our dishes.

Today, just before going into service, we got a call from his father in Texas. Raymond passed on and they wanted us to know as Raymond would have wanted it that way.

Sometime life is just totally unfair. Raymond... I know every vintage of Brunello you enjoy from now on is perfect!

Dean, the fact that his father in Texas knew to call you speaks volumes about how important you were in Raymond's life, and how much pleasure his visits to Dino gave him. We don't often have the ability to impact a needy soul in such a dramatically positive way. When I was working as a social worker for a registry in Los Angeles, I was sent as a temp to a hospital in Hollywood and was assigned an elderly patient, "Bud" who lived alone in a rooming house. He'd fallen and fractured a vertebra, and had been obviously having a hard time taking care of himself before that had happened. I found out in the process of interviewing Bud, that he had been the black sheep of a large family in the midwest, had left home in his early twenties and hadn't been back since. He'd had a wife for a time, but no children--his wife was in a nursing home with late-stage Alzheimer's near her own daughter in San Diego, and he hadn't seen her in years. I contacted one of his brothers, who had been sending Bud letters, inviting him to come to live in his house. The patient was too overwhelmed at the prospect of organizing his life to leave, so had not responded to the letters. (I think that he was also ashamed that he had so little to show for in his life.) The brother and his son, who were farmers, told me that they would drive out with a truck and move the old man's furniture and bring him back with them, after the harvest. A good six months later, I was assigned to a different hospital, and purely by chance was assigned the same old man, who had come into the emergency room the night before. I still had his brother's phone number, so I called to find out what had happened, and the brother told me that Bud had said he wanted to wait until he was physically "in better shape" and could sell his furniture, and had said he would call when he was ready to come--I had meanwhile also talked to the patient's building manager, who told me that the man's few belongings were essentially worthless. I had some long, heart-to-heart talks with Bud about how he wanted the remaining time he had to be, and he decided that returning to the family who truly wanted him was better than continuing to live in such isolation. The brother wired money, and I got Bud a plane ticket, arranged for transportation to the airport from the hospital, and someone to get him onto the plane in a wheelchair. His brother and nephew would meet the plane when it arrived. About three years later, a Christmas card found its way to me, from the patient and it was also signed by about a dozen of his relatives, thanking me for returning Bud to the family. His handwriting, which had been incredibly shaky when I had him as a patient, was strong and clear. He thanked me for "the best thing that ever happened to him in his life."

[porcupine]

Dr. Billy Taylor.

[goodeats]

RIP Kodachrome processing. We had good times.

[qwertyy]

To John

[Sthitch]

To Dr. Greg Griffin and the surgical staff at The Regional Veterinary Referral Center for taking such great care of my best friend and getting him back to us for the New Year. Now all we can hope for is that the lung mass is not cancer.

[Michael Landrum]

Valentin Caset. One year ago today.

[porcupine]

To two former friends, whose boorish behavior 25 years ago catalyzed my relationship with the man who would become my husband. Cheers, you a**holes!

[DonRocks]

To my Uncle Bill, who once owned a custard stand on Lakeshore Boulevard, rode The Thriller and The Flying Turns with me at Euclid Beach Park when I was a little kid, was one of the few uncorrupted, genuinely nice people I've ever known, and who didn't quite make it to midnight on New Year's Eve.

Right now, in your honor, I'm having a 2001 Christoffel Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese. The odds of you have knowing what this wine is would have been something approaching the chances of a grasshopper leaping to the moon, but trust me when I say it's a fitting tribute to you, my good, kind, gracious man. I love you, I'll miss you, and I'll always remember you, Uncle Bill.

Don

[hillvalley]

To my grandmother, who on New Years Eve, at 93 years and 364 days old tried her first kamikazes and remembered she that loves white russians but not fuzzy navels.

[SeanMike]

To all the folks I'm watching in "Restrepo", as well as my friends, coworkers, acquaintances who have served over in Afghanistan, along with those who are there right now.

[Jon Karl]

To my Uncle Bill, who once owned a custard stand on Lakeshore Boulevard, rode The Thriller and The Flying Turns with me at Euclid Beach Park when I was a little kid, was one of the few uncorrupted, genuinely nice people I've ever known, and who didn't quite make it to midnight on New Year's Eve.

Right now, in your honor, I'm having a 2001 Christoffel Ürziger Würzgarten Riesling Auslese. The odds of you have knowing what this wine is would have been something approaching the chances of a grasshopper leaping to the moon, but trust me when I say it's a fitting tribute to you, my good, kind, gracious man. I love you, I'll miss you, and I'll always remember you, Uncle Bill.

Don

I am sorry to hear about your uncle, Don. The 2001 Ürziger Würzgarten Auslese is a mighty fine tribute. He may not have known the wine, but I imagine he'd appreciate the sentiment. Cheers to Uncle Bill.

[bookluvingbabe]

Judge John Rolls. What the fuck is going on when it is okay to shoot a Congressperson in Safeway, kill a federal judge and innocent bystanders. I'm enraged, sickened and really scared. Fuck.

[squidsdc]

to Alex Popeck Very sad.

[goodeats]

Judge John Rolls. What the fuck is going on when it is okay to shoot a Congressperson in Safeway, kill a federal judge and innocent bystanders. I'm enraged, sickened and really scared. Fuck.

Seconded. Am toasting and praying.

[Jeff White]

Seconded. Am toasting and praying.

+1

[SeanMike]

Judge John Rolls. What the fuck is going on when it is okay to shoot a Congressperson in Safeway, kill a federal judge and innocent bystanders. I'm enraged, sickened and really scared. Fuck.

And to Christina-Taylor Green, the 9 year old girl (born on 9/11/2001) who was just elected to student council and killed by the same gunman.

[qwertyy]

To John (still), and to all the others who gave so much of themselves to make the Sudan referendum happen. This is important, and hopefully, worth the sacrifice.

[bookluvingbabe]

And to Christina-Taylor Green, the 9 year old girl (born on 9/11/2001) who was just elected to student council and killed by the same gunman.

That just slayed me. Drinking again tonight.

And for baseball fans, she was Dallas Green's granddaughter.

Sigh.

[MBK]

To my grandmother, to Debbie Friedman, and to the victims in Arizona.

It's been a hell of a week.

[Pat]

That just slayed me. Drinking again tonight.

And for baseball fans, she was Dallas Green's granddaughter.

Sigh.

Oh, man. I didn't think there could possibly be any more (as in additional) meaningful trivia about such a young girl .

[Pete]

To my brother and best friend Mark. It's hard to believe that it has been 1 year.

[goodeats]

Hoorah catharine!!

[Keithstg]

Not right now, but this evening I will raise a glass to Sargent Shriver.

[tonyb]

Last night, to my little lamb on her birthday.

[Davo99]

This weekend I've been drinking to the memory of my wife's grandfather, Roy "Jack" Gregory (1925-2011), who passed away last week. In keeping with his character, I'm alternating between the tartness of a Bell's Oarsman and the sweetness of the Hopslam.

[JPW]

This morning, a smoothie in honor of Jack Lalanne.

This evening, another Iron City for the Stillers.