Briefly Noted

So you drink bourbon. Why the name? Because early Kentuckians, fervent Francophiles, romantically admired the French royal family. How many brands? More than 300. How big a sale? Greater than gin, vodka, rum, brandy, and liqueurs combined. How should bourbon be drunk? From a jug tilted over the elbow, a Waterford goblet, or a frosty silver julep cup. To what may be a Kentuckian drinking Scotch be compared? To a Frenchman from Burgundy drinking orange pop. Who is the great forgotten man in Kentucky? The Rev. Elijah Craig, a Baptist preacher who in 1798 distilled the first bourbon. Should the mint for a julep be bruised? No, only nudged if the whiskey about to be anointed is to evoke a paradisiac perfume. Why paradisiac? Because it has the fragrance of an angel's breath. The future of the julep? Already a ceremonial potion rather than a daily dram, eventually it may become merely a Kentucky tourist attraction. What then should be done? Adopt this formula: Pour bourbon into one glass. Into a second put mint, sugar, and water. Then throw them out, and drink the whiskey. The above information comes from a booklet, The Kentucky Jug, published with appropriate pictures by the Kentucky Jug Society of Lexington, Ky. The author is Gene Markey '18, who began drinking bourbon at the age of 16 and after 56 years of dedicated consumption is reluctant to attribute his longevity entirely to "Dixie Nectar."

Smetana and the Beetles, A Fairy Talefor Adults, by Alfred E. Kahn '34 and David Levine attempts in doggerel and cartoons similar in style to those found in The New York Review of Books and the review of Time and Newsweek to burlesque the career of Svetlana Alliuyeva, daughter of Stalin, and her book Twenty Letters to aFriend. In an appendix are outlined coincidences such as Miss Svetlana's early relations with her father (cooking, darning his socks, and learning to play the harp), love affairs (with the film writer Alexi Kapler and the Indian communist Brijesh Singh), her hide- away in Switzerland, her arrival and publicity in the United States, and the $3,000,000 in advance payments and earnings, making the 325-page manuscript worth almost $10,000 a page. An author's note at the beginning may perhaps set the tone: "Lest there be any confusion between the Smetana of this fairy tale and any living person, it should be pointed out that the word 'Smetana' in Russian (and in Yiddish) means 'sour cream.' It is also of interest that the two best-known works of the celebrated composer Smetana are The Bartered Bride and My Country." The publisher is Random House and the price $2.95.

In his publication "The Way to Lifelong Health and Security (Based upon the Laws of Nature), A New Thesis on Medicine and Money and An Offer to Set You Up in a Business of Your Own with Unlimited Sales Potential Requiring Little Capital," H. Winthrop Webber '14, the author and publisher proclaims the recuperative power of natural living "after six years of ineffective hospitalization" and also discusses 50 years of experience in self-employment without the need of capital. The booklet, which sells for $1.95. is third of a series entitled TheFacts of Life.

Mr Webber has also privately printed an article entitled "World Federation."