Imbibe is a drinks magazine, and as such, it covers a range of beverages–coffees, teas, beers, spirits, and wines. (I’d love to see features on specialty colas, root and ginger beers, and other soft drinks.) The first issue contains articles on hotel bars, the drinks culture of Oaxaca, Ted Haigh, Trappist ales, and organic wines. It’s a fun magazine that fills a heretofore open niche.

A lot of magazines have come and gone in the last couple of years–Radar (twice) and Chow are the ones I most lament. This seems to be a hard time to keep a new magazine afloat, but then perhaps it was ever thus. It’s hard to say how long Imbibe will succeed. Nevertheless, I’ve voted with my credit card and purchased a subscription. (Actually, due to incompetent use of a web browser, I seem to have purchased two subscriptions. I’ve been on the web for a decade; I have no excuse.)

As I mentioned earlier, the premiere highlights twelve hotel bars. Among the bars featured is Bistro Moderne in Houston’s Hotel Derek. The write-up discusses a Moderne specialty cocktail, the Texan, providing only the ingredients (Woodford Reserve bourbon, Sauza Conmemorativo tequila, and lime juice) and not the proportions.

I was intrigued but nervous about the bourbon/tequila mix, but since we have both ingredients at home, as well as plenty of limes, I wanted to try it. I had no idea what proportions to use, so I winged it. In a mixing glass, I poured three ounces Very Old Barton bourbon, two ounces Herradura Añejo, and one ounce lime juice (for two cocktails). I sampled just a bit of that and found it a little harsh, so I added half an ounce of simple syrup. I shook that over ice and strained it into two cocktail glasses.

Jen and I both liked it, but we felt it was lacking complexity. The sweetness was fine–any more than half an ounce of simple syrup would have been too sweet. I started thinking about bitters, and since triple sec is a common companion for tequila, I thought about Gary Regan and his orange bitters.

Good thought. Our second batch went as follows, and it was, we felt, a better mix:

1½ oz. Very Old Barton bourbon
1 oz. Herradura Añejo tequila
½ oz. lime juice
¼ oz. simple syrup
3 dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

Shake over ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

I’ll happily entertain suggestions for garnishes. I left the drink naked. Salted rim? Lime twist?

Meanwhile, let’s all raise a toast to Imbibe’s long life.

Good news.

I see from various blogs [links below] that the print edition of Seed has indeed relaunched, with advance copies going out to prominent science bloggers. The Seed Media Group site says the mag will be available worldwide on October 1, but I’m going to sneak down to the big Hudson News in GC after work to see whether it has arrived yet.

I’m pleased to see that its cover story, a Chris Mooney piece on the evolution/intelligent design “controversy,” is already sparking debate on LuboÅ¡ Motl’s blog, even before the magazine hits newsstands. That’s both the point and the value of Seed, in my opinion: to highlight the role of science in our governance and culture. To see such a vibrant discussion appear so soon is, to my eyes, delightful.

[Links: Luboš Motl; Clifford Johnson; Peter Woit; Chris Mooney and his The Republican War on Science.]

I’m eager to get the new Seed, but this is a busy period for me, and I don’t know how quickly I’ll actually read the thing. Here’s a list of things I’m working on right now, usually at lunch and on the train:

• the book Evolution : The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
• daily reads of the Wall Street Journal
• a self-taught review of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus
• the book The Joy of Mixology : The Consummate Guide to the Bartender’s Craft
• a reread of Tender Is the Night, which I’ve sort of stalled on, because I pretty much hate Dick and Nicole Diver and their social circle
• Planning a wedding
• Revamping my website (look, Todd, color!)

All this in addition to watching cool TV shows (My Name Is Earl, Everybody Hates Chris), cooking yummy dinners, and sleeping. I don’t know where I’m going to slot Seed in, but I’ll have to find some place for it.

Seed Magazine returns this month, after almost a year off. I’ve been looking for a new issue for months, with no luck, so this is happy news. I started reading with the second issue and loved its emphasis on science and culture. Its publisher, Seed Media Group, secured a new round of capitalization and is poised to launch ventures online, on television, and in other media. The website, which just yesterday featured content from the magazine’s last issue, a year ago, is now vacant pending a relaunch.

I love Seed‘s mission: to increase public awareness of science to equip citizens to understand the fast-changing world around them. To that end, it features a mix of short fiction, interviews, conversations between scientists and writers, profiles of artists whose works incorporate science themes, and voters’ guides to science issues in political campaigns.

But it was often plagued by lateness. Its worthwhile series about science issues and the 2004 presidential campaign published its final voters’ guide after the November election, and its calendar of upcoming events often featured stuff that had already come and gone. I’m hoping the new financing will help Seed address these problems.

I was also frustrated that after an initial round of blogger and web interest (Boing Boing called it Maxim for science writing, which was a bit facile), it seemed to drop off the radar, and I could never find anything online, whether from official sources or connected bloggers, to explain its absence from newsstands.

However, I’m glad it’s back, because I think the magazine plugs a big hole in the media.

[Links: WWD Memo Pad: Seed Money ... Art Of Style; Seed Media Group; Seed Magazine Online]

Also, there’s word today that Bob Guccione Jr. is buying Discover magazine from Disney. Old-timers might recall that isn’t the Guccione family’s first attempt at science publishing.

Omni began in the late 1970s and featured articles and fiction, usually wrapped up in lovely cover paintings. I remember reading it as a kid, and although I don’t really recall much about the contents, I do remember really enjoying the hell out of it. The Wikipedia page did remind me, though, that I first read portions of Stephen King’s Firestarter in its pages.

I’ve never really cared for Discover. (I’d rather see a resurrected Omni.) If Seed is Maxim for science writing, Discover is probably TV Guide. But its good to see the Gucciones back in popular-science.

[Links: New York Times: Disney's Discover Magazine Soon to Have a New Owner; Omni (magazine)]

Be smart, by the way, and do not try out omnimag.com on a whim, for it now leads to penthouse.com.

In his ribald and tender first book, “Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries and After” (Green Candy Press, 2002), and now in a new memoir, “Let’s Shut Out the World” (Green Candy Press), Mr. Bentley announces himself to a gay literary scene suffering from middle-aged doldrums. And he does so in back-door fashion, with a diary and a memoir whose substance is, raunchily, bracingly and tenderly sex.

[Link]

It all sounds interesting enough that I’d like to read the book, even though the reviewers are not exactly wildly enthusiastic.

[Link: The New York Times review]

But while reading reviews on U.S. and British sites, I found out that, once again, the American and U.K. editions have different covers. I cannot decide which I prefer. The covers appear after the jump (note that one might not be safe for work).

U.S. edition, published by Harcourt:

U.K. edition, published by Secker & Warburg:

The U.S. cover appears to be more evocative of the reproduced materials that the reader will find inside, but it is not very subtle. The U.K. version features Josephine Baker and her yummy twins, along with some good cowboy and warplane imagery. The overall design and typography also owe much to the old pulp-adventure novels of the 1930s.

Overall, although I like them both I think I prefer the U.K. edition. I wonder if I can justify buying both.

I just launched a very unique book-trading website. Ron mentioned it on Beatrice — perhaps your readers would also be interested. It is an automated system that finds good homes for members’ used-books, while getting them titles they want in exchange.

Membership is free, and it’s easy to use. Like Netflix (the famous DVD-by mail website) everything is automated, and postage is provided. But instead of getting DVDs from a warehouse, members get books of equal value from other members. They receive a much greater return on their trade-in than at used bookstores, and we are connected to the US postal service, so postage and mailer labels print from their own printers ($3.99 to receive a book, no charge to ship them).

Well, color me intrigued. I think I’d seen some stirrings about this on other sites but never followed through to the link. Jen and I have been talking about offloading some of our books anyway, and this might be a great way to do that.

[Links: Bookins; Ron's comments]

[more]

Hard Case hired illustrators to paint old-style pulp-detective covers, and the imprint designed the trade dress in that fashion as well. The books look like this:

I’m going to buy and read them all because they look so great. They need to be in my home. They’re fun reads, too. Eight of them are available right now, with eight more on the way; I’ve bought four and read two.

I’m buying them in publication order because there’s no thinking that way. I just go out and look for the next one in the list. If I find it, I get it. Sometimes a guy just likes to be big and dumb and not think about what to read next.