Edgar Allen Poe

Five Spirits and Cocktails for Adult Halloween Parties

Filed under: Spirits

With Halloween falling on a Sunday this year, the night before, sometimes referred to as "Mischief Night", will be ideal for adult parties while the kids prepare to go trick-or-treating, or to parties on Sunday afternoon.

In keeping with the "spirit" of the occasion, here are several good ways to stock a bar for the grown-ups, and prepare for some themed drinks.

Here are recommendations and recipes:

Absinthe:
Reintroduced in the last couple of years to liquor stores, it is a anise flavored distilled spirit, emerald green in color that turns to cloudy opalescent white when mixed with a bit of water, which is traditionally poured over a sugar cube. Known in the 19th century as "The Green Fairy" for its power to bring on hallucinations. It was known to be a favorite of such "dark" artists and writers as Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemingway. Lucid is one brand, priced at about $50.00, and packaged in a cool black bottle featuring the eyes of a black cat.

Crystal Head Vodka:
Apprpriately bottled in a crystal skull, you could buy a few to make a real statement at your bar. Price: about $42.00. Here are two recipes to make use of Crystal Head:

Brain Freeze
1 1/2 oz. Crystal Head Vodka, 1 1/2 to 2 oz. Pure lime juice, 1oz. Simple syrup.
Combine all the ingredients with ice in a blender. Blend until ice is well crushed. Serve in a sugar rimed rocks glass garnished with a slice of lime.

Tags: Absinthe, Chambord, Crystal Head Vodka, Edgar Allen Poe, Grenadine, Halloween cocktails, Hiram Walker Pumpkin Spice

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The World of Rare Books: The Gutenberg Bible, First and Most Valuable

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

There are countless rare books in the world, but by most expert's standards the rarest of them all is the Gutenberg Bible. It was the first book ever printed back in 1456, and although several hundred copies were originally printed finding a complete first edition would net you $25-$35 million. In today's market single pages alone go for $25,000 each, and several years ago just 1 volume (it's a 2 volume set) sold for $5.5 million.

Besides the Gutenberg Bible other rare books include the first edition of Shakespeare's collected works from 1623 (worth $6 million), a collection of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts (potentially worth as much as $100 million), and of course any first edition copy of the Declaration of Independence (worth $8 million). Edgar Allen Poe's work also makes in onto the "rarest books" list with his first published poem ("Tamerlane") being rare and difficult to find due to a byline of simply "By A Bostonian." It's worth as much as $200,000 to the right buyer.

Source

Tags: Bible, book, books, Declaration of Independence, DeclarationOfIndependence, Edgar Allen Poe, EdgarAllenPoe, first edition, FirstEdition, Gutenberg, rare, rarest, Shakespeare, the rare, TheRare