"We shall now have tea and speak of absurdities."

Third Uncle to Han Suyin
Love is Many-Splendored Thing
(1955)

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Mother Jones with Rachel Maddow

MJ: Since you have expressed your love for both classic cocktails and comic books, I'm wondering if you could name a few, and maybe even a pairing.

RM: There's a really good graphic novel called American Born Chinese, which I could recommend. Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, obviously, is really great. I'm a big fan of the series that's called Queen and Country. That's my one true love; if graphic novels were in an orphanage and the orphanage were on fire, I'd rush in and save Queen and Country.

MJ: And you'd read Queen and Country sipping a...?

RM: That's a very good question. There's a great drink called a Purgatory, and Queen and Country is all about emotional and bureaucratic purgatory. It's 100-proof rye, Benedictine, and Chartreuse. It's a kick in the teeth. It's perfectly balanced and wonderful, and it's super-alcoholic. I like big drinks that aren't afraid of the alcohol in them. Not big in size, but in flavor, and the way I can allow myself to enjoy them is by making them in very small quantities. I make tiny glasses of very big drinks.

MJ: Any cocktail you think is particularly overrated?

RM: I don't drink vodka. I don't think vodka is useful. I think it's for people who don't like alcohol, in which case, you probably shouldn't be drinking it. I also don't drink any flavored spirits. I realize there is a move among ambitious cocktail people to infuse their own spirits, but I just can't be bothered. I feel like if the ingredient existed in 1895, I'm interested in it. If not, I'm not interested in it.