Best Way To Get Your Ego Bruised

Several months ago a friend told me that he had offered our blog up to the decaying Gods of print (7x7 magazine to be precise) as fodder for their upcoming "best of" edition. I thought it was kind of him to do so, but suspected they would find our somewhat regular swearing perhaps not quite the fare for their demographic. So imagine our surprise when we were eventually contacted by somebody at 7x7 telling us that we had been selected to be in the issue. Even though we they asked us if we could give them a call to gather some background information, I continued to think there was some sort shenanigans going on.

More surprise was in store for us when we got on the phone, and the person doing the research seemed to have actually, well, researched. She asked us about specific cocktails we had come up with, the abomination that was my red bull bitters, and even what our "philosophy" was. Not having a philosophy I had to make something up on the spot, then change my answer when Ed came up with something smarter. It seemed much more likely that we weren't being had, but I was still cautious as I'm a raging pessimist. Nevertheless, I started spreading the good news, and getting pretty excited.

I wouldn't characterize Ed and I as being particularly egotistical, but blogging is pretty much a labor of love, and not as easy as it looks. So, even though I'm not sure we're quite "best of" materiel right now, the idea of some outside validation, and exposure to the masses was a pretty cool idea. Besides, when we did the interview the woman was unable to tell us exactly what we would be the best of. It seemed that it would ultimately be an editorial decision -- That right there is a damn fine hook. We paid for the whole seat, but we were only going to be using the edge!

Neither Ed nor myself knew the date when the magazine would hit the stands, so I kept a vigilant eye out on my local news stand. We were rewarded last Saturday when I finally spotted a bright, shiny copy in the racks. I grabbed a copy on my way out to see Ed at Elixir, my mind racing at what very nice things they might have to say about us. Settled into the bar, I began searching for our entry. And searched -- We were nowhere to be found. As our searching became fevered, we began to get desperate. "Maybe we're in the fashion section. You know, best thing to drink after buying a ten thousand dollar hand bag or something." But no, search as we might, strain our eyes on the small print, there was no escaping the fact that we had been left on the cutting room floor.

While it was kind of disappointing to not make it, it's hard not to be gracious in defeat. We're very much babes in the cocktail blog-o-ball, and as they say, it's nice to have just been nominated.

Hell, now that I've written this, it'll probably turn out that we ended up on some obscure page which was the only one we didn't look at.

Comments always welcome or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.