After all, everyone knows the perfect "margarita" recipe:
Take a bottle of Hurradura Blanco
ADD:
Lime Juice, Curacao, absinth.

Drink the tequila.

Throw that other crap down the toliet.

Fester.

Something like a Kentucky breakfast: a nice steak, a dog and a bottle of Bourbon.

Feed the steak to the dog and drink the bourbon.

Another quote of note:

Is it true that you smoke eight to ten cigars a day?
That's true.
Is it true that you drink five martinis a day?
That's true.
Is it true that you still surround yourself with beautiful young women?
That's true.
What does your doctor say about all of this?
My doctor is dead. - George Burns


So, how is the discourse advanced? It is advanced by refusing to bow to the mundane laws and ideas of others, who have probably never really given them much thought.

In good company:

“My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol before, after and if need be during all meals and in the intervals between them.” - Winston Churchill (Obese smoker who died at 91. Considered by many to be “The Greatest Man of the Twentieth Century”)

So who at the end of it all had the better time on the planet?
Those who avoided the jelly shots, and the smokes, plus the aftermath of said vices, or those that jumped in with both feet, and had a blast?

At my fathers funeral, a drinker and smoker of some renown, packed funeral, standing room only, the minister said, if all they do in heaven is float around on clouds and play harps, Dave isn't there. Wherever Dave is, is where I'd also like to be after all is said and done.

FROM A SEINFELD EPISODE:

ELAINE: You could not care less could you?
PUDDY: What do I care, I´m not the one going to hell.

LATER:

PRIEST: So, you are having wild sex out of wedlock are you? Well, you´re both going to hell.
PUDDY: Wait, that´s not fair. I didn´t even enjoy it.

DOCTOR To DAWG at DAWG´S AGE 66: You´re a smoker aren´t you?
DAWG: I used to smoke starting at age 12 but quit at age 22 and haven´t had a cigarette since and that was in 1962 - about 45 years ago.
DOCTOR: Well, you are full of sh*t and I can see from your lung xray that you are a smoker and, I might add, a damn heavy smoker. In fact, if you can walk out of this room without collapsing. I´ll kiss your ass.
DAWG: Well, I´ll tell you what. Doc, Dawg worked as a banker from about 1966 ´till he retired in 2001 and was surrounded by sumbitches who smoked like there was no tomorrow including Dawg´s secretary who predated personal computers and blew smoke in Dawg´s face for twenty year that sorry no-good b*tch and if Dawg is to die from lung cancer today for that *sshole´s excesses then I´m gonna come back from the grave and stick 500 Winstons up her ass - filters and all.
DOCTOR: But, will you have the energy?

Hound Dog wrote:

FROM A SEINFELD EPISODE:

ELAINE: You could not care less could you?
PUDDY: What do I care, I´m not the one going to hell.

LATER:

PRIEST: So, you are having wild sex out of wedlock are you? Well, you´re both going to hell.
PUDDY: Wait, that´s not fair. I didn´t even enjoy it.

DOCTOR To DAWG at DAWG´S AGE 66: You´re a smoker aren´t you?
DAWG: I used to smoke starting at age 12 but quit at age 22 and haven´t had a cigarette since and that was in 1962 - about 45 years ago.
DOCTOR: Well, you are full of sh*t and I can see from your lung xray that you are a smoker and, I might add, a damn heavy smoker. In fact, if you can walk out of this room without collapsing. I´ll kiss your ass.
DAWG: Well, I´ll tell you what. Doc, Dawg worked as a banker from about 1966 ´till he retired in 2001 and was surrounded by sumbitches who smoked like there was no tomorrow including Dawg´s secretary who predated personal computers and blew smoke in Dawg´s face for twenty year that sorry no-good b*tch and if Dawg is to die from lung cancer today for that *sshole´s excesses then I´m gonna come back from the grave and stick 500 Winstons up her ass - filters and all.
DOCTOR: But, will you have the energy?

So, how's the secretary? I'll bet she's got plenty of energy, smokes and all.

Furthermore, how's her anal sphincter?

Raq's husband, 74, can kick ass, still cook up a storm, built 3 kitchens, did house rehabs, until his back gave out a few years ago. The one and only time he got really sick was when he quit smoking. He started up again after that fact was pointed out to him.

On to drinking, BTW it is Happy Hour, the 74 year can, but usually doesn't, drink most people under the table. Right now he's having some vodka, listening to some Jazz, and making Coquilles St. Jacques. Plus he looks about the same age as me, if not younger. In his misspent youth as a guitar player in London pubs, he usually downed the equivalent of 10 American bottles of beer, and that's not gnats pee either. A few times he hit 20, then walked home.

Deduction: If you want to have fun, stay healthy well into your dotage, do it all.

As for Puddy, well he obviously just wasn't doing it right. Practice makes perfect, and Puddy just wasn't getting in his practice sessions.

If I check out early for any reason I will have no regrets about having deprived myself any experiences or pleasures. I don't feel I was brought into this world to practice abstinence or deny myself any aspect of living that brings me pleasure.

I thought those jelly shots were colorful and might make good holiday appetizers and party favors. I'm looking forward to that season. I will have some photos of my little penguinos that are already being requested. Those have no alcohol but are just cute and tasty. I like some toothpick foods and won't mind if some new suggestions are posted.

These penguinos are made by length-wise slicing open a pitted black olive and stuffing it with cream cheese leaving a broad strip of white to make the body. I take a little disc of carrot and cut out the feet and use a toothpick to mount the body to the feet. I take another olive and place sideways on the toothpick for the head and use a piece of the trimmed-off piece of carrot as a beak. The only problem I have is that they are too adorable to eat. A plate with about 15 or 20 of these guys make a handsome little flock. They do eventually get eaten but some guests have expressed feeling of guilt for doing so, at first.

I like my mundane pleasures as well. Not everything has to be a throb-thrill wild ride to get me off.

Quote :

These penguinos are made by length-wise slicing open a pitted black olive and stuffing it with cream cheese leaving a broad strip of white to make the body. I take a little disc of carrot and cut out the feet and use a toothpick to mount the body to the feet. I take another olive and place sideways on the toothpick for the head and use a piece of the trimmed-off piece of carrot as a beak. The only problem I have is that they are too adorable to eat. A plate with about 15 or 20 of these guys make a handome little flock. They do eventually get eaten but some guests have expressed feeling of guilt for doing so, at first.

When I was a kid, I read how to make fake, edible "candles" out of a banana segment, with a sliver of walnut as a wick.
The fun part was to lit the wick, walk into a roomful of my parent's guests, insouciantly blow out the "candle", and cooly start to eat it. Youthful hijinks.

Back to the subject of cigars. Although I gave up cigarettes back in 1972, in 2002, while in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, I marked my 60th birthday by going into a charming little tabaquería in the Casco Viejo—The Old Quarter— and selecting a short, stubby Habano from amongst the dazzling array within.

I went out of the store onto the Alameda Parque, where I lit up and for about 30 minutes got high on rich Cuban tobacco. I had to put it out before I floated off, a foot off the pavement, on my way to an Internet cafe.

While in Spain, we also noted that there was no inhibition in bars and tapas bars to smoking inside, tossing your butts, napkins and maybe shrimp shells on the floor. In fact, it was kind of expected.

Later, upon moving to México, I adopted a habit of smoking one to two modest cigars a week, until recently, when I had symptoms of bronchial asthma, and had to quit, with the greatest reluctance.

I don't suppose you were there for the pilgramage hike if you were puffing Havana's finest. Great experience, I am envious of your travels. I hope to make a trip to Cuba with Tere sometime in the not too distant future. Cuban puros are on my list of things to do but I will heed your caution.

Does the walnut sliver ignite? That may have been one of your kid pranks but I could see myself doing such just for a little sideshow comedy relief.

Sorry to hear about your asthma, tobacco is one of my joys. I never found a good tobacco store around here though. There used to be one in front of Hotel Casino but that hasn't been there for years. Most people now direct me to Sanborns but that is hardly the same.

Sure, the walnut sliver burns brightly, like a candle wick.

Out in the Parque Alameda of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, España, I asked directions of these two viejas, but it was useless.