Ralph Gardner Jr.: A recent hole in my shot glass collection is … – Berkshire Eagle
5 min readGHENT, N.Y. — During the pandemic Americans were subjected to depleted supermarket shelves and shortages of various kinds. But our household is subject to a shortage peculiar to us. Only to me, in fact.
Were you to ask my wife — please don’t — she’d have no idea what you were talking about, even though she’s the approximate cause of our scarcity.
Lately, I’ve suffered a coupl.......
GHENT, N.Y. — By way of the pandemic People have been topiced to depleted Food market cabinets and scarcitys Of numerous sorts. However our household is topic to a scarcity peculiar to us. Solely to me, Truly.
Were you to ask my spouse — please don’t — she’d Do not know what you have been talking about, Regardless of The very Incontrovertible actuality that she’s the approximate Rationalization for our scarmetropolis.
Recently, I’ve suffered A pair of small but painful losses to my shot glass assortment. It’s Unlikely right to name it A set. To me A set signifies the involvement of a passionate collector who makes a focused effort To accumulate the objects in question; be it comic books, baseball playing cards or Picassos.
That doesn’t describe my shot glasses. They’re purely utilitarian. They don’t sit in a locked cupboard or in a protected deposit area. They’re referred to as into service on A daily, typinamey nightly, basis. Not all 20 of them, Really. By The biggest method, I’m Not sure it’s 20. Might be 10. Might be 30. I’ve by no means counted them. That’s how disinterested I am in sanctifying them.
They serve a single objective. And that objective is to shock and soothe the central nervous system by delivering 80 proof alcohol On to my stomach. I typinamey deploy no A quantity of or two Of these torpedoes An night.
However I’ve particular shot glasses for particular moods and events. Definitely one of them Consists of a snowy woodland scene. I exploit that when it’s chilly outdoors And that i even Want to really feel warmth inside. Others spark reminiscences of earlier good events.
The identify has worn off Of 1 shot glass after numerous dishwasher wash and rinse cycles, However it comes from A favourite seafood restaurant in Venice. A third options the façade of the White House etched into the crystal. I acquired that at their worker present store As quickly as I spent a quantity of days in Washington reporting on the Clinton administration. It typinamey makes an look on election nights, particularly if my candidate is locked in An reliable race.
The disaster started — I don’t assume I’m overreacting As quickly as I describe the state of affairs in dire phrases — when my companion decided that our kitchen cabinets have been too cluttered and that further room needed to be made for glassware. Although A method or The completely different The one factor that Appeared to go was my Playboy shot glass.
I purchased it at a yard sale a few years again for Decrease than a greenagain; apparently The vendor’s spouse Ought to have felt The identical method mine does and needed it out of The house. It Consists of a feminine sporting little Greater than leggings and prolonged night gloves. I don’t discover it titillating Inside the least. When I enhance it to my lips I really feel as if I’m partaking in a purely political act; I’m main the cost in the direction of wokeness, if only Contained in the confines of My very personal kitchen.
My companion reviews that the shot glass had found A cheerful new home in our basement. Since I don’t drink Inside the basement I don’t know what good it does dpersonal there. I can’t discover it Regardless of how exhausting I look. My spouse declares she is Aware of precisely the place she put it And might retrieve it as quickly as she has a second. Hundreds of seconds have handed since then.
I get no sympathy over the loss from pals, particularly feminine pals. “EBay them!,” one wrote As quickly as I complained Regarding the dislook. “You will Have The power to’t take them out and use them now with out displaying horribly skeevy.” That’s a hazard I’m prepared to take.
Were that affront to my extreme quality of life insufficient, my extremeer half simply broke ancompletely different favourite shot glass. I do know this was an accident And she or he was pretty repentant. There was no symbolism behind the vessel. It was a straightforward, elegant flute, its sole ornament an air bubble trapped in its heavy base. I Appear to rename I purchased it on Madison Avenue in NY metropolis at Georg Jensen, the Danish design retailer. However the store closed all through the pandemic and my on-line searches for a alternative have proved fruitless.
I assumed I’d drop by Bloomingdales housewares division this week, since I occurred to be Inside The world. I didn’t anticipate shot glass satisactualityion there. However I hadn’t go toed the division retailer, any division retailer, in years. For all I do Know it had been Turned a Dealer Joe’s. It hadn’t. However their shot glasses have been properly out of my worth differ. Typical was a set of six Baccarat crystal jiggers for $780. Who spends virtually 800 bucks on shot glasses? Apparently somebody should.
What my go to to Bloomingdales proved, if nofactor else as I surveyed their glassware division, is that I’ve strong opinions about shot glasses. For starters, I don’t like coloured glass. I Want to see what I’m consuming in its pure hue. Weight and type, what You’d possibly name hand really feel, are furtherly important. However design Might Even be most determinative of all. Shot glasses, till You’ve a consuming drawback And mightbe even then, are by definition festive, celebratory. You’d like one factor that rises above the mundane, one factor surprising.
After rooting round Bloomingdales for A the placeas I noticed there was little probability I exploitd to be going To Search out one factor To commerce my Georg Jensen glass, certainly not in my yard sale worth differ. However I suppose there’s a lesson to be found. You will Have The power to’t Buy groceries for for shot glasses, They need to discover you.
Making an try To commerce a damaged shot glass is a fool’s recreation. It’s like Attempting to catch lightening in a bottle. The enjoyment will come Find A mannequin new glass that speaks to the event. For event, my warthog shot glass acquired in a Nairobi lodge present store on my Method to safari. Or my seahorse and jellyfish shot glass, by far In all probability the most I ever spent on one. I purchased it at Rural Residence, alas a defunct home furnishings retailer of impeccable type in Hudson, N.Y.
I don’t primarily affiliate Hudson with beneathsea life, though it has a whaling previous. I simply assume jellyfish are beneathrepresented. I’d stored that shot glass beneath lock and key for particular events, fearing It’d get damaged. However it’s time for it to step up and declare its rightful place Inside the pantheon. Eparticularly with my Playboy shot glass unlikely to make an look anytime quickly.
