From: "Files, Patrick" <PFile@aironet.com>
E-mail  message
October 7, 1999
Akron, Ohio

Dear Dr. Edmunds:

I read with pleasure the first chapter of your book on Martinis, Martini, Straight Up: The Classic American Cocktail. I became an admirer of Martinis when I was a boy, and I saw the beginning of the movie M.A.S.H. when it was first shown on network television. My father came along soon after it began and changed the channel, saying the movie was too violent for youngsters.  But before my dad spoiled the party, I saw how cool Donald Sutherland looked holding that distinctly American glass.

It's at this intersection of interests, Martinis and M.A.S.H., where I must point out (like a pedant, and not a swinging Martini-drinker) what might be an error in your first chapter.

You quote Hawkeye saying to Ho-John, "Fine of kind, Ho-John." I'm fairly sure that what Sutherland was supposed to say was, "Finest kind, Ho-John." In the old days in Maine, where Hawkeye grew up, when you asked someone how the pie was at the local diner, the answer was likely to be, "Oh, they have the finest kind of pie." Sometimes old-timers would shorten it to "Finest kind." This expression has gone out of date Downeast, but it still appears in books on Maine speech.

Now that I've written all this, I realize that the chapter I read, on the Johns Hopkins University Press website, was an uncorrected proof. No doubt some sharp Baltimore editor pointed all this out to you long ago. If that's the case, please excuse my nitpicking, and accept my thanks for an interesting read.

Sincerely,

Patrick Files
 

Patrick Files
Technical writer
Aironet Wireless Communications, Inc.
phone: 330-664-7991
fax: 330-664-7922
pfile@aironet.com

© 2001, Lowell Edmunds