It works better with rye, but in the right drink it’s not too bad with bourbon. A Greenpoint or a Last Ward would probably work. There are nice Sazerac variations with Chartreuse, but I’d probably stick to rye with those.

Well, I certainly can’t sing when I’m not high, so what have I got to lose...?

A few years ago on an Air France flight from SF to Paris I was seated in business class, so plenty of legroom and a nice big touchscreen for entertainment. Unless you have unusually long arms, you have lean forward a bit to operate the touchscreen, especially if your seat is reclined, so the airline provided a hand…

I’d much prefer being able to read things.

It’s depressing that this article has to exist.

Well at that point, I had not only checked in, I had checked out. So from the hotel’s perspective, I was asking to be let into a vacant room to pillage the safe.

This reminds me of the time I couldn’t find my passport 10 minutes before I was supposed to hop in the car for an international flight home. After a few minutes of panicked searching, I realized that I had chucked it into the hotel safe — why, I don’t know, since I never do that — and had to race back to the hotel and…

You can blink though. Blinking won’t make you lose your spot in line.

Paris is a lot easier after August.

then I cut them into small pieces. Small pieces cannot be aggressive.

Gerald R. Fold International Airport (GRR)

I used to use Moleskine notebooks, but the paper is not very good and the pens I use tend to bleed through it. For awhile I was using various dot-grid Rhodia and CD Notebook notebooks (that seems redundant), but lately I’ve really been enjoying the Soumkine Carnet Perpetuel, which is great as a daily, weekly, and…

I’ve always thought that Fevertree and other “high-end” tonics are already too delicate for a regular old G&T, so I agree wholeheartedly with not using them in a sonic. That said, I tend to drink Fevertree straight, with no liquor, or not at all. I like to taste the liquor, but I want to taste the tonic too, and with…

Yeah, I can see your point — a greasy cocktail wouldn’t be much fun. The fat-washing thing never became a big deal where I live, though, and I have yet to have a greasy one, so I think the novelty hasn’t worn off for me yet.

I always look forward to your articles, Claire. Even when I don’t learn new facts, I often learn effective ways of describing things that up to now, I could not figure out how to describe. “Angry gin,” “reminded me of salty food” — I’m going to use those.

For what it’s worth, the vice president of the Fondation du Patrimoine (roughly translated, the French Heritage Society) has gone on record saying there are no trees in France that are big enough, and he’s not even sure there any in Europe. I have no idea whether he is correct, but I do know that if at all possible,…

I so totally agree with this. In the last 5 years I have taken dozens — no exaggeration — of 12-hour flights with co-workers and have actively avoided sitting next to them. So much so that it has only happened twice.

I haven’t tried Mango or Babbel, but with Duolingo I have found that no matter how many levels you conquer, it really doesn’t get you beyond a beginner level when it comes to the actual use of the language. It’s great to get you up and running in a new place or to give you some basic vocabulary for a vacation, but…

So for $16.75 somebody will watch my kid ... but for how long?

Ah, got it -- I was wondering why you brought the percentages into it! In any case, no worries, sounds like we’re on the same page.