Nukem?

Here's a tidbit from World Nuclear News: Russia's AtomStroyExport (ASE) has completed its purchase of the Nukem Technologies subsidiary of Germany's Nukem. The two companies signed a contract in August regarding the sale of the business, which specialises in decommissioning, waste management and engineering services.

There was no mention of any plans to change the name of the company. Apparently no one's figured out yet that it might seem inappropriate in some English-speaking countries for a company whose business is nuclear safety to be called Nuke 'Em!

Clifton Update

While looking for Bradwood Landing, I came across signs of the dead town of Clifton. Yesterday, I happened across more information about the town on an old 1993 episode of "Oregon Field Guide." Apparently it was a small fishing settlement, one of many that used to dot both sides of the Columbia River. Immigrants from a variety of countries used to fish this stretch of river in sailboats called "butterfly boats" because of the shape of their sails. A passenger train from Portland stopped at Clifton twice a day. Nothing is left but an abandoned general store, some railroad tracks, and some pilings, which used to support houses. There was also a dance hall and a tavern. Apparently the residents of Clifton were of Mediterranean background, because they used to order up a rail car or two of grapes every year and make their own wine.

Delicious, refreshing uranium

Today the New York Times reported on the alarming number of Safe Drinking Water Act violations that have occurred in the past five years, including “illegal concentrations of chemicals like arsenic or radioactive substances like uranium, as well as dangerous bacteria often found in sewage.”

If the Bush administration goes down in the kind of infamy it deserves, it won’t be for being too conservative — it will be for being criminally lazy. 

Anyway, the mention of uranium reminds me that it’s high time to tell the story of the glowing green cocktail glasses at the top of this blog. Actually, they were probably meant to be berry dishes, and sold as part of a genteel set of glassware of a style known as Depression glass, or vaseline glass, or uranium glass. The distinctive feature of this type of glass is its green color, which was achieved by glassmakers in the 1880s through 1960s by adding uranium to the glass. In regular light, it’s a pretty, clear, pale green that looks just right in grandma’s kitchen. But under black light, it glows like the Chevy Malibu at the end of “Repo Man.”

According to my extensive Wikipedia research, it’s safe to drink out of, but it’s not recommended that you drink liquids that have been stored in it. It will set off a Geiger counter.  

If you happen to be in Japan, you can check out the Fairywood Glass Museum, http://kanko.town.kagamino.lg.jp/fairywood%20english%20ver/ dedicated to uranium glass “with mysterious shine,” which they manufacture in an adjoining studio. You can also find uranium glass in pretty much every antique mall in America.

How to Make Blue Curacao, Part One

When you’re basing cocktails recipes on famous environmental disasters, it often seems appropriate to make a Blue Drink. The blue itself is so unnatural, and there’s a whole string of associations there, too. The most famous Blue Drink is the Blue Hawaiian, which makes me think of Elvis, then Vegas, then the Nevada Test Site. Also, Hawaii, the U. S. military in the South Pacific, then Bikini Atoll, where we’re still doing damage control (although I read that the Spam and Coke are now causing a lot more health problems than the radioactivity.)

Anyway, the DeKuyper brand blue curacao that I have tastes really gross. I thought I could do better.

My first idea was that curacao was just an orange-flavored liqueur, so I’d buy some Grand Marnier or Cointreau and die it blue. But that stuff is expensive, about $40 for a fifth, so I went with plan B: A bottle of grain alcohol (about $15) and some oranges.

I peeled two oranges and a lemon and put the peels in a pint-sized mason jar. I filled it with grain alcohol (it’s called Clear Spring) and added a really old vanilla bean. For good measure I also added a splash of the bourbon that the bean had been resting in, and three or four teaspoons of sugar.

Two days later, I had a very powerful brew. It was a lovely orange color (see photo) and drunk straight, was almost painful. The booze burned, but not nearly so much as the long, bitter orange aftertaste.

So I added some water, and found that I had created a liqueur with louche: it turned from clear to opaque when water was added to it, just like absinthe does. But it still didn’t taste very good, even when I added more water and more sugar. Adding blue food coloring made it look pretty cool, but didn’t help the taste.

As a last resort, I decided to actually look up a recipe for curacao. It turns out that it’s flavored with the peels of the bitter laraha fruit, which grows only on the island of Curacao, off the north coast of Venezuela. Maybe it’s supposed to be that bitter? I don’t know, but I’ve got half a bottle of Clear Spring left, so I’m going to try again.

Cocktail Recipe: The North Pacific Gyre

The New York Times recently wrote about one of my favorite environmental nightmares, the islands of plastic trapped in ocean currents:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=gyre&st=cse

If you want to be accurate, follow these proportions, but make your drink twice the size of Texas:

1 1/2 shots vodka

1 teaspoon honey

Pour into a large bucket type cocktail glass and stir well. Let the honey dissolve for a while (don't use ice cold vodka)

Crush some ice 

Add 2-3 shots of grapefruit juice and the crushed ice and stir

Run around the house in a swirling, whirlpool-like manner, collecting every small bit of plastic you can find, and cram it all into the glass

Top with soda

Cocktail Recipe: The Love Canal

Don protective clothing.

Add to shaker:

Ice

1 shot rye whiskey

1/3 shot Black Seal rum

small drizzle molasses

Shake well and strain into a martini glass

Cocktail Recipe: Three Mile Island Iced Tea

In a tumbler over ice pour:

1 shot bourbon

1/3 shot amaretto

1/3 shot blue Curacao

3 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Squeeze in and add a wedge of lemon

Stir well

Top with seltzer