Jonathan Taylor writes:
Edge of the American West has helped us catch up with the Angostura Bitters shortage of 2009–10, since we’ve been taking a bit of a break from the cocktail-shaking scene.
If only Angostura, now a division of Bacardi, were still manufacturing its concentrate for U.S. distribution in Jersey City, as it was at the time of a 1934 Talk piece about the secret recipe, protected by the evasive wiles of the then custodian, Alfredo Galo Siegert:

It takes eight months to make Angostura Bitters. “After the first four months, we do different things for the next four months,” Mr. Siegert told us in a burst of confidence.

But you don’t need fancy bitters to make an authentically pre-Prohibition mixed drink. The 1910 Siegert-sponsored Complete Mixing Guide at my elbow contains numerous recipes using the bitters, but also a ton of others, mostly with this rough structure:

WHITE PLUSH

Use whiskey glass.
Allow customer to help himself to bourbon or rye whiskey, then fill glass with milk.

Here’s to Monday! For more on alcohol in The New Yorker, see this New Year’s entry in the Back Issues blog.

Emily Gordon writes:
Our friend and Print contributing editor Peter Terzian showcases some of the unused covers for Moore’s novel A Gate at the Stairs (which I reviewed not long ago). And there’s a double New Yorker connection! Peter writes:

Barbara de Wilde, associate art director at Alfred A. Knopf, has designed the jackets of Lorrie Moore’s novels and story collections dating back to Like Life, in 1990. For the cover of A Gate at the Stairs, Moore’s first book in a decade, de Wilde initially contacted Daniel Hertzberg, whose illustrations she had seen in The New Yorker. “I loved the high-contrast quality of his drawings,” she says. “It reminded me of Robert McCloskey books. I wanted all those remarkable colors from Blueberries for Sal and Make Way for Ducklings–those mustards and odd greens and quirky blues.”

Go to the post to see the parallel-universe covers!

Martin Schneider writes:
This is great. When our friend Ben Bass was in New York for the most recent New Yorker Festival, he told me about Michelle, this good friend of his who is…pretty much the biggest Steve Martin fan in the world, in the sweetest possible way. Even our own Emily must take a back seat to Michelle when it comes to Steve Martin adulation. And Emily really likes Steve Martin a lot.
So a while back Steve announced a fun little fan contest, to create a video for a jaunty piece of banjo music he had written, “Wally on the Run,” inspired by the frolics of his own dog Wally. The only constraint Steve imposed was that the video ought to involve a dog frolicking in some way. And…well, just go to Ben’s smile-eliciting post at Ben Bass and Beyond for the fuller story (and all relevant videos), and then come back here.
(Back? OK. Two things I feel the need to say. First, I love how Steve—perhaps the most polished TV performer of all time—even he comes off just a little dorky and wooden when he’s just shooting a quick little video for the internet. And second, I think I liked Michelle’s video better than the “Laika” one.)
I love this story. I love the internet. Good day to you.

_Pollux writes_:
The 2010 Eustace Tilley Contest is “here!”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/photocontests/eustace_tilley_2010#ixzz0Zyv008QH
It will coincide with the 85th anniversary of _The New Yorker_ (huzzah!). The image of Eustace Tilley is iconic, but is open to endless modification, metamorphosis, and transmutation in this fun contest.
Some FAQs:
_When is the entry deadline?_ January 18, 2010.
_And where can I see last year’s winners?_ “Here.”:http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/02/09/slideshow_090209_eustacetilley#slide=1
_How many Eustaces can I upload?_ As many as you want!
_What do the winners get?_ The chance to be featured in a slide show curated by the very excellent Françoise Mouly!
_Is the contest fun?_ Absolutely. My “Escher Tilley” above, which was fun to draw.

Emily Gordon writes:
Courtesy of one of my favorite blogs, Leif Peng’s “Today’s Inspiration”–which you can, and should, get as a daily email full of vintage magazine covers, illustrations, comics, ads, and all-around cup-spiller-overs–here’s a statement with which we can heartily agree, expressed in words by Richard Taylor (writing in American Artist in October 1950) and in pictures by good old Hank Ketcham.

_Pollux writes_:
Jillian Lovejoy Lowery and Howard Megdal come up with unscientific “rankings”:http://perpetualpost.com/?p=3654 measuring the greatness of the members of the Algonquin Round Table.
Some of these stars have dimmed since their heyday, and Lowery and Megdal discuss whether Alexander Woollcott, for example, deserves to be “buried by history” or whether Franklin P. Adams deserves his current obscurity. Dorothy Parker is no. 1 on both posted lists.
Emdashes readers, post your own rankings here!

_Pollux writes_:
We continue our “coverage”:http://emdashes.com/2009/04/the-plague-of-our-time-the-ban.php of the odium aimed at the font everyone loves to hate. No, not you, “Take Out the Garbage.”:http://www.dafont.com/take-out-the-garbage.font I mean of course Comic Sans.
Cameron Chapman, on the blog Six Revisions, “writes”:http://sixrevisions.com/graphics-design/comic-sans-the-font-everyone-loves-to-hate/ about why Comic Sans is hated so much, and shows some interesting visual examples of when the font has been used inappropriately. Chapman mentions that Comic Sans has seen wide and inappropriate usage, from a sign for a bone marrow transplant clinic to a grave marker.
Chapman also offers some alternatives to Comic Sans, like “Lexia Readable.”:http://www.k-type.com/?p=520 In the meantime, Comic Sans remains at large. Emdashes has committed an additional 30,000 typographers to address the problem.