Have you ever been to the shuttle launch pad? Have you ever seen that beautiful and preposterous thing the astronauts ride? Imagine it’s you sitting on top of a 12-story winged tube bolted to a gigantic canister filled with 2 million liters of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Then picture your own buddies — the “closeout crew” — who met you at the pad, fastened your emergency chute, strapped you into your launch seat, sealed the hatch and waved smiling to you through the window. Having left you lashed to what is the largest bomb on planet Earth, they then proceed 200 feet down the elevator and drive not one, not two, but three miles away to watch as the button is pressed that lights the candle that ignites the fuel that blows you into space.<\/p>\n
Three miles! That’s how far they calculate they must go to be beyond the radius of incineration should anything go awry on the launch pad on which, I remind you, these insanely brave people are sitting. Would you not want to be a bit soused?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When asked what I drink, I usually respond, “Gin! Gin is my rocket fuel! Vodka, on the other hand, makes me explode on the launch pad.” In that spirit, I’m pleased that Charles Krauthammer has joined me in celebrating astronauts who tip a few back before liftoff: Have you ever been to the shuttle launch … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “The final frontier”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-gin","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-q6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5419,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-7510","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":0},"title":"What It Is: 7\/5\/10","author":"Gil","date":"July 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: Once I was done reading financial filings, press releases and analyst reports for my Top Companies ish, I was able to kick back, relax and celebrate the July 4th weekend by re-reading Heart of Darkness! What I'm listening to: Night Work (Scissor Sisters),\u00c2\u00a0We Are Born (Sia), a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B003T70B46","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3851,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/without-portfolio","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":1},"title":"Without Portfolio","author":"Gil","date":"April 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Portfolio magazine, Cond\u00c3\u00a9 Nast's big business magazine, closed down today. Because it's Cond\u00c3\u00a9 Nast and because it was all about big money, people keep talking up the purported $100 million (or is that $150 million?) that was spent on this mag for fewer than two years of existence. Anyway, everybody's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5833,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/in-this-almost-empty-gin-palace","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":2},"title":"In this almost empty gin palace . . .","author":"Gil","date":"January 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I planned to try out 12 new (to me) gins in 2010. I was going to write about one each month and add a \"My Year of Gin\" feature to my blog. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly and decided to sample a whole bunch over the course\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1768,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/maybe-its-just-the-gin-talking","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":3},"title":"Maybe it’s just the gin talking…","author":"Gil","date":"November 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":". . . But that fountain-show outside the Bellagio is pretty amazing.","rel":"","context":"In "Las Vegas"","block_context":{"text":"Las Vegas","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/travel\/las-vegas"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1330,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/adventures-in-gin","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":4},"title":"Adventures in Gin","author":"Gil","date":"February 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We stocked up for tonight's party at Bottle King yesterday and, as is my wont, I sidled over to the gin section to look over the wares. They had one of my favorite gins in stock: Martin Miller's. There were two of the six-sided bottles on the shelf, so I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":785,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/gin-pecans","url_meta":{"origin":1618,"position":5},"title":"Gin & Pecans!","author":"Gil","date":"January 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the office today, for the first time in almost 2 weeks (except for a one-hour stop last Wednesday when I filled out 3 months' worth of expense reports). What do I find waiting at my desk? A jar of glazed pecans and a giant bottle of Tanqueray! 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