Dedicatio

(image source: Quora)
no copyright infringement intended

Found on Quora:

Vodka drinkers like to think of themselves as a no-nonsense people. Vodka is a no-nonsense drink. Well, drinkers and vodka make a great pair.

Wine, beer and the rest of the stuff involve too much of gustatory and olfactory factors. Too cumbersome to produce, shelf life as a factor of quality, the confusion of picking the right sort. You bring in your buddies, and they drink—and someone always comments on something that is not all perfect about the taste, or smell, or color, or vintage. Neither mismatches with the food and the occasion will ever go unnoticed. This is all so irritating!

Vodka makes you free. Correctly brewed, it doesn’t smell or taste anything. Right from the fridge, at minus 30 centigrades, it doesn’t even taste alcohol. Heaven enters your body as effortlessly as the air you are breathing.

Vodka is timeless, affordable, simple. It’s the Godly promise of clarity, ease and elegance which are often too hard to come around at our place.

I'm too fucking old to drink now vodka other than occasionally, but I had my own history when I was young and brave. Tempi pasati.

The picture above represents the three bare bone basics of all this stuff. Rye bread is the food that has been carrying vodka drinkers through thick and thin. The faceted glass cup is said to be designed by a woman, so there is no sex discrimination. And of course vodka, looking like water, the baseline liquid of life—but much, much cooler!





(A Life in Books)

Ramadan Night in Cairo

Cairo Coffee Shop on a Ramadan Night
(image source: Washington Post)
no copyright infringement intended

Ramadan has a tendency to bend space and time. For those participating in the fast, especially in the summer, the daytime hours crawl by like a snail on tranquilizers, while daily routines are like running a marathon through a desert of thirst. In contrast, nights are transformed into veritable days, with cafés and restaurants bursting at the seams late into the night, especially in my hometown of Cairo.

(source: Jerusalem Post)

Splendid words, written by an author I wish to know more on him, Khaled Diab. I dream being there, on a Cairo street, busy with cafés and stores and small restaurants, on one of these holy nights of joy and frenzy after a whole day of fast.



(Sufi)