Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Mad Men and Drinking, Season Two, Part III


One of the funniest and most disturbing drinking moments in Season 2 of the AMC series "Mad Men" comes when Sterling Cooper ad exec Don Draper and his Wife Betty are having a couple neighbors over the dinner.

Don employs her 8-year-old daughter Sally as barmaid, having her make the adults drinks. She first innocently gets Don his Old Fashioned. As she leaves, Don playfully scolds "Muddling mean you smash the fruit up."

Next, Sally comes in with a question about the ladies' orders: Tom Collinses. "OK," instructs Don. "That's gin and soda. And the orange and cherry go on the top. Try to drop them in right there on the top." Sally trots off.

Not a bad description of the drink, fit for a kid's understanding. But she's a kid. The thing about the scene is you don't blink. If you have parents from that era, that is. My parents studiously observed cocktail hour every night at 5 PM. They never asked me to prepare their cocktails. But I wouldn't have been surprised if they had, and, if they had, I would have made them and thought myself lucky to be involved in the adult fun. Today, such activity would get child services on you like a cheap suit. And they'd be right to throw the book at you.

Apparently, the scene inspired someone enough to create the above illustration. Gotta admit. Pretty funny.

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