FM: National Productions
DT: Friday August 24, 2012
RE: 51% Show #1206
STATIONS: If you have comments or suggestions, please contact Susan Barnett at SBARNETT@WAMC.ORG
We encourage stations to air the entire show in full, but you can also excerpt portions, with appropriate credit given upon notification of WAMC.
Here is this week's information on 51% #1206.
(SHOW THEME)
BILLBOARD – Susan Barnett (Music Out)
(:51)
Absinthe, also known as the green fairy, is a pale green alcoholic drink made of distilled wormwood. It has a centuries old mystique. Once used as an elixir for everything from pain to anemia in the late 1800s. It became wildly popular and the drink of choice in France; a handy substitute for wine after grapes were wiped out by a blight and wine became too expensive. But in the early 1900s, the tide turned against absinthe – it was said to cause hallucinations, madness, even death. By 1920, it was banned both in Europe and in the US.
But its legend never died – not only its mystique, but the ritual surrounding its preparation, the Victorian water dispensers and sterling serving spoons make it unique among alcoholic drinks. Now absinthe is making a comeback both in Europe and the US, and one distiller is a woman in rural New York, the owner of the artisan distillery Delaware Phoenix. Her name is Cheryl Lins. She’s as fascinated with the history of what she makes as the process of making it.
9:45 Cheryl Lins
Cheryl Lins owns and operates Delaware Phoenix Distillery in Walton, New York. Find out more at DelawarePhoenix.com
Up next, another unusual drink – this one from south of the border. If you missed part of this show or want to hear it again, visit the 51% archives at wamc.org. This week’s show is # 1206.
(12:02)
Absinthe isn’t the only traditional drink that’s coming back from obscurity. We’re familiar with tequila and mescal, both made from the agave plant. But there’s another drink made from agave. It’s called pulque. It’s a mildly alcoholic beverage that has been consumed in Mexico for thousands of years. Beer made it go out of style, but Shannon Young reports pulque is making a comeback.
4:17 Pulque PRX
That story came to us courtesy of the World Vision Report.
And finally, with all this talk of alcohol, it’s a short hop to the cocktail…and a woman who was part of a legendary literary group that gathered for drinks at New York’s Algonquin Hotel. Gilles Malkine has more.
6:04 Dorothy Parker Malkine
Gilles Malkine is a writer and musician. He lives in New York’s Catskills Mountains.
(11:12)
That’s our show for this week. Thanks to Katie Britton for production assistance. Our theme music is by Kevin Bartlett. This show is a national production of Northeast Public Radio. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock.
If you’d like to hear this show again, or visit the 51% archives, go to our website at WAMC.org. You can also find a regular column related to 51% at feminist.com. Thanks so much for joining us…we’ll be back next week with another edition of 51% The Women's Perspective.
(:36 pads out to 25:00)
