2009-06 – Catch 22
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Host: Pat
Whisky: Glenlivit Nadurra, Glengoyne
Rum: n/a
Enter the Buddha. Ginger Buddha, that is. Liquorature opened its doors to a new member this month. This was the first gathering to include Scott.
We nearly lit Pat’s home on fire, but that’s to be expected with this group of individuals. Uh…the wives don’t read any of this, do they?
Pat pulled this one from his “need to read” list, and surprised many in the group. Though this is one of Lance’s all time least favorite books (he had also read it before), the rest seemed to enjoy it. The humor won over most, I think. The story itself…meh…not too shabby. I gotta give credit for a great ending though. Topic conversation was about two hours, with much quoting and referring to specific parts that had everyone laughing.
Nice choice of whiskies. The Glenlivet Nadurra was our first run at a cask strengther. It is quite a beautiful dram that I had to try again months later (when Pat restocked) to fully appreciate. Just which Glengoyne we had…not certain. Maybe Pat can help out with that one.
This was a memorable night with much laughter, and good ambience. Given the subject matter, that was to be expected. Clint, to this day, proudly carries the heavyweight zinger award for the verbal bitchslap he gave Robert in one of the all-time greatest insults.
Aaargh, I hated this novel.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not so peasantlike as to not appreciate its style, or what it had to say about war, bureaucracy and incompetency’s fundamental absurdities. To me, it just seemed to start on that note, and stayed there, and nobody really seemed to go anyplace with it, or develop in any meaningful way. The characters were all pastiches meant to explain and illustrate this one point over and over and over again.
I’ve seen the film and it irritated me for the same reasons. Plot driven this stuff is not.
However, it must be said: since it observed Lance’s Law of Selection (a book should incite discussion and controversy), I cannot, on that level, find fault with it.
I just didn’t like it.
I really enjoyed this book – particularly Milo Minderbinder’s How-To guide for pyramid schemes.
Apparantly they botched up the movie translation and managed to suck every last drop of funny…my Dad looked at me like I had a third eye growing out my forehead when I told him what a hilarious book this was. I suppose it’d be like telling somebody that Saving Private Ryan was “wicked funny”.
As for the gathering, good time was had by all. We were still whiskey rookies at this point and blasted through the cask strength Nadurra (does this seem a little strong to you?), by the end of the night we ended up making our way through leftovers from Blood Meridian as well. The humourous tone of the book made for a lighthearted discussion. We made a helluva racket and had a good time.
You can’t teach size, fellas.
Rewritten.
it was either the glengoyne 12yr (non cask strength) or the glengoyne 17yr not sure which I’ll have to see if I’ve got any notes in my book somewhere. I’m leaning towards the 17 as it’s a bit darker and I seem to remember that being a talking point between the glenlivet and the glengoyne.
Found a card from willow park. It was actually the Glengoyne 21yr sherry finished.