It's Tax Day (except, of course, in our currently turvy-topsy USA reality it isn't, postponed to a different "day of reckoning"...) which to me has always signified the official beginning of spring. The weather across North America (except, of course, in Winnipeg!) is mild, the flowers are doing their thing, and people are getting frisky (or, this year, they are least thinking about it, because "in the spring...").

So long story short, it's time to rekindle our romance with the boozy bromides of the season (is noir really a "spring thing"? or is it only springtime in noir when folks are in nightclubs slurping down the sauce...the FNF folks, with many experts in this particular province of noir, should do a round table on this subject and see which of their notables is left standing after they all dissect the issue while attempting to drink each other under the table)...

And what better choice for such an occasion than the libations celebrated in the attached, to which we re-link as a way to stay with the flow of liquid refreshment that has been the solace of many over the long, long winter. I fear that the gimlet is too Victorian to make a splash these days, though its simplicity makes it attractive to those who don't want to waste any time getting down to it; instead, I figure it's the Ramos Gin Fizz, which remains an alluring sight and has the right coloration to place beside the slinky young Liz Scott in DEAD RECKONING.

http://www.coastalillustrated.com/columns/coastal_columns/article_468fc7f9-a778-593d-8e90-e28aa23d6dab.html



DEAD RECKONING was an appropriate place for the Fizz to be prominent, given its setting in the South ("Gulf City" being a synonym for Tampa). The drink was actually invented in New Orleans, but that "gulf" thang clearly remains intact (even if you don't after your fourth "Fizz").

https://www.ginfoundry.com/cocktail/ramos-gin-fizz-cocktail/

Here's a bit more history on the Fizz--and we await the FNF dissertation on noir and booze. They're getting too darned serious in that e-zine: time to lighten things up and take a break from all those obsessive references to Felix Feist. (Of course, the rumor is that Felix's ex-wife Lisa Howard shared several "Fizzes" with Fidel Castro as she moved into troubled waters, so even an anthology article entitled "Bartender's Confidential: Noir and the Allure of Intoxication" would manage to throw in something about Felix by proxy.

What the hell--have another Fizz! As Liz says: "Nobody makes 'em the way you do, Louie!" (But, of course, we all remember what happened to Louie...)