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Not knowing is the worst. As someone who is brand new to this whole ‘creating life’ business, I have found that pregnancy is not all baby-showers and name books. Yes there was that initial burst of unbelievable excitement (“I did WHAT?”) but then, as the reality sets in, there is a lot of waiting. A lot.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In our age of instantaneous gratification, there is something to be said for waiting for something, especially when that something is going to be the light of your life.

So we wait. Like many other parents-to-be we go through the ups and downs together. I’ve learned quickly that crackers and ginger ale are no longer just food items, but essential medicine to have on-hand at all times. I’ve learned that there are going to be nights where my wife will be awake from four to six, and other days where she will want to go to bed around 7pm. After having taken a nap.

Mint Julep, Photo by Robert S. Donovan

Cocktail recipes and drink suggestions, inspired by our favorite pieces of literature! Sip away whilst reading a great piece of writing. Just don’t drink too much. We’d like you to remember it later.

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Gimlet photo by Michael Korcuska

Gimlet & Raymond Chandler’s Mystery Novels: Philip Marlowe, the primary character in Raymond Chandler’s mystery novels, helped to cement the classic noir archetype of the hard drinkin’ detective. In The Long Goodbye, Marlowe spends an awful lot of time drinking gin gimlets with his new buddy, Terry Lennox. According to Lennox, “‘What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice and nothing else. It beats martinis hollow.”

And so:

2 oz Gin

2 oz Rose’s Lime Juice

Be a totally badass detective and get wrapped up in all kinds of crazy, violent, and convoluted conspiracies involving sexy women with guns and even more alcohol.

If you’re a bibliophile, you love books, plain and simple. You probably have more than you know what to do with (or have space for), but you always acquire more. You have yellowed old classics and brand-new glossy New York Times bestsellers. But now you’re looking for something more unique to round out your book collection, maybe something vintage, or something that reminds you of your childhood.

Today, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice celebrates its 200th anniversary.

As Quirk fans know, we sure to do love Jane Austen here at the HQ, what with our mashups like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters. To celebrate, we’ve got some giveaways on our Facebook, the interactive eBook App for Pride & Prejudice & Zombies is free (today’s the last day!), and I’ve got this cute excerpt from the Jane Austen Handbook on letter writing.

Why letter writing?

Letters play an important part in Pride & Prejudice (ie: the letter Darcy writes to Elizabeth and Jane’s letter about Lydia running off with Wichkham) and a lot of other Austen books.

So read on, and learn how to write and prepare a proper, Jane Austen era note. Enjoy!

When you’re the host of a get-together, there’s nothing more reassuring than to know you’ve got a ginormously gorgeous baked ham ready to be the centerpiece of the table.

Your guests will not be able to resist the sweet glaze that flavors each spectacular, succulent slice of this ham. Make it ahead, bake it while you’re wrapping presents or writing cards. And when you’re ready to serve, put it beside other entrees, the bread basket and wine.

This ham’s versatility is the best part. If there are leftovers, you can have some flavorful ham sandwiches, sides, salads or whatever ham heaven your heart desires.

For the 40th anniversary of Apollo 17, December, 2012

I

Soon after brutal apes were graced
With cunning minds and nimble hands
That grasped both word and implement,
They sought more fruitful far-off lands.

Devising hieroglyph and rune,
They logged the heavens, wielding tomes
To guide their craft across the seas,
Subduing wilds to make new homes.

Withdrawing wisdom from its sheath,
They felled old plagues, then lit the waste
With bolt and arc in copper veins,
Contagion and the dark erased.

II

Then clad in fragile armor, we
Assailed the sky, defying void
Between the Earth and distant Moon;
Man’s highest boundary destroyed.

Our race’s ardor tried and spent,
With thinning purse and swollen fame
We shunted wealth to mend the poor,
Make well the old, a carnal aim.

We climbed down from our highest mount,
Resigned the goal, shook off its dust,
Surrendered gear as monuments,
Consigning all to moth and rust.

Then christening metallic thralls
In zeal for life and fearing woe,
We coasted shallows in their shade;
Paid absent heed; remained below.

III

But then a ghost rose into view
Discerned through artifice of glass;
Bleak omen of a monolith,
Far portent of some deadly mass.

With former prowess at its ebb,
We forged new arms to meet the bane
And flung our shafts against the foe,
Contesting blood and home in vain,

For they who measure signs foretold
The writ of doom would not be stayed.
Our scruples fled; we furled the law
And sundered oaths; all cried, some prayed.

The common clung to brood and creed,
While kings fled to a deep retreat;
Then stony fist turned flaming spear
And stabbed the Earth with melting heat.

IV

When mortal blow had landed home
To score the ground and cast its plume,
Then every vale was made a pyre
Of leaden ash and choking fume.

Bereft of drink, of grain, of kine,
Stark hunger reigned past any ban.
Each set his face against those dear,
Ate brother’s flesh, devoured clan.

Dim sunlight shone through fatal clouds
On pillars dashed, on fallen throne,
On mounds of corpses bound in earth,
Souls humbled to mere drifts of bone.

Epilogue

If strangers from a far-flung sphere
Should trace and track our trail of wit,
Then sailing to our furthest shore
Would come to find upon it writ

Small furrows dug by dust-shod feet,
Bold sigils of an Earth-ward land,
A fleet exalting ancient gods,
Its iron vessels now unmanned.

If they could solve a distant tongue,
On metal remnant they would find
Our sentiment made epitaph:
“We came in peace for all mankind.”

Sole witness now, this sterile orb,
Proceeding ’round through ageless span-
Grim herald of the tomb below,
A stone to mark the grave of Man.

Scott Hendrik Van Hoeven is a computer systems coordinator for Northwest Independent School District. He lives in Saginaw, Texas with his beautiful wife and two sons.