Category: Intro Letter

“Few women, I fear have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.” ? George Eliot in her diary in 1857 Are we really at the halfway point of 2014? In the last couple weeks, I’ve been a judge in an Angel’s Envy bourbon cocktail… Read more →

“Only those who have transcended the world can bring about a better world… Everybody you come in contact with will be touched by your presence and affected by the peace that you emanate… You teach through being, through demonstrating the peace of God.” ? Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now As I settle in as Zagat Editor for San Francisco/Bay… Read more →

“It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done!” ? Vincent van Gogh, My Life & Love Are One You may have heard: I took on the job as Zagat Editor for San Francisco/Bay Area (sign up… Read more →

“We do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual.” ? George Eliot, Middlemarch Fresh on my wonderful trip to New York with Tastemade, I’ve jumped right into the throes of writing and editing, writing a guide to food, drink and Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans for 7×7 Magazine, writing for and editing the… Read more →

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o-er wrought heart and bids it break.” ? William Shakespeare, Macbeth Recently back from Seattle, I then headed immediately to New York to work on a Top 100 Bites & Drinks in Manhattan project via one minute videos with Tastemade (best viewed via phone app). Also, here are… Read more →

“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” ? Annie Dillard, The Living This issue finds me in Seattle, moderating a panel on Women in Distilling at ADI’s Craft Spirits Conference, attended by over 1000 industry folk, with a gala dinner last night announcing craft spirits medal winners from the judging I was part of… Read more →

“A writer is someone who pays attention to the world – a writer is a professional observer.” – Susan Sontag I’m off to Oregon for a sake and izakaya press trip, but meanwhile have been savoring the continued radiant weather at home with walks in the park, front stoop drinks with neighbors, and gazing out at the ocean with The… Read more →

“I worry about the prospect of collective amnesia. While access to information has never been so universal as it is now… the total sum of knowledge of anything beyond the present seems to be dwindling among those people who came of age with the Internet. Anything beyond 1945, if then, is a messy, remote landscape; the centuries melt into each… Read more →

“Above all, San Francisco was alive. The painter John David Borthwick said of of it, ‘People lived more there in a week then they would in a year in most other places.’  – Gary Kamiya, 49 Views of San Francisco Returning from an action-packed week of craft American spirits judging in Seattle, this issue uncovers more Bay Area joys, Brazil’s… Read more →

“… one genie-soul and only one ever proved too strong for me: San Francisco – up and down the hills I pursued him, missed him and was pursued, by a presence, a powdering of fall gold in the air, a trembling brightness that pierced to the heart, and the sadness of coming at last to the sea, the coming to… Read more →