A Great Absinthe Drink - The Sazarac Cocktail

In 2008 the Louisiana House of Represenatives voted to make the Sazerac the official cocktail of New Orleans. It’s a great mix of flavors and packs a kick. A favorite with those who understand the art of living dangerously.

• 1/2 cup ice cubes
• 1 sugar cube
• 3 dashes Bitters
• 2 ounces rye Jim Beam or Old Overholt RYE (not bourbon) whiskey
• 1/2 teaspoon of absinthe
• lemon twist

Chill an old-fashioned glass by filling it with ice and water. In second old-fashioned glass, mix together sugar, bitters, and ½ teaspoon water thoroughly. Add cognac or whiskey and remaining ½ cup ice, and stir well, at least 15 seconds. Take the chilled glass, discard ice and water and pour in absinthe. Swirl it around so the absinthe coats the interior of the glass. Add rye whiskey mixture into the chilled, absinthe-coated glass. Add lemon peel and enjoy.

Popular Science August 09

Hoo-ray! The new (August 09) issue of Popular Science (which of course, the above picture is not) sports a fun article featuring me and my flamethrower. The article is basically an abridgment of Absinthe and Flamethrowers. It presents five ideas for adding danger to your life. I liked the ideas they chose: making gunpowder, using a whip, making a rocket, eating fugu and of course, building a flamethrower.

You can see the article by clicking here.

It also features a picture of me and my flamethrower standing in front of my garage in the middle of winter. Brrrrrr.

Live in Washington with Jack Rice

I was on the Air America Radio Network today, discussing the art of living dangerously on "Live in Washington with Jack Rice." Fun interview, the host is pretty engaging. Air America used to handle Al Franken's radio show from 2004 to 2007.

I think it's a fairly new show.. Air America is left leaning radio network, I assume to counterbalance all the right wing talkers on the radio.

Listen to the show here!

Today on WHYY: Absinthe and Flamethrowers

Today, I'm being interviewed on WHYY- Philadelphia's NPR Affiliate:

Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane is an intelligent talk show dealing with issues of the Delaware Valley, as well as issues of national and global concern. Radio Times is produced by WHYY in Philadelphia.

Hour 2 (11 AM Eastern Daylight Time)
This hour, learn how to make a flamethrower in your own garage with engineer and author WILLIAM GURSTELLE. Gurstelle gives instructions on this and other explosive projects for the do-it-yourselfer in his new book Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously.

Listen on line at:http://www.whyy.org/91FM/live.html

The Takeaway - PRI and WNYC national radio interview

I did a national radio interview from a phone booth in Lisbon, Portugal last week. It was a bit strange but I think it worked out okay. It was a pleasure talking with John Hockenberry, the host of The Takeaway. The picture above is me in a phone booth taking via cell phone to the host. Alison is the BBC producer who is taping me on a digital voice recorder. A bit crude but they got it done. The audio got fixed up in post production by the crack WNYC producers.

The Takeaway, according to Wikipedia:

The Takeaway is a morning drive radio news program co-created and co-produced by PRI- Public Radio International and WNYC-New York Public Radio with editorial partners the BBC World Service of the United Kingdom, The New York Times and WGBH Radio Boston of the United States. In addition to co-producing/co-creating the program, PRI also distributes the program nationwide to its affiliate stations. The program's goal is to advance an authentic American conversation on issues and topics of importance.

You can hear the Takeaway episode here at: http://www.thetakeaway.org/stories/2009/jul/03/do-it-yourself-fireworks/

NPR's Science Friday

The 4th of July is the time when people really start thinking about the things that go whoosh boom and splat, so Absinthe and Flamethrowers is getting a lot of media attention.

Yesterday, I appeared on National Public Radio's Science Friday show. The subject of the show was how to make those oh-so-interesting projects such as spud guns and smoke bombs.

Science Friday is a live show, but I was on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Luckily there was a good satellite connection, so the call and the interview could happen.

You can here the interview at the NPR Science Friday website or by clicking here.