Renamed

I have decided on a new monicker for the "Mouthpiece of Evil".   That title was apt to seem a tad too harsh.  And our friend is not in fact voicing the evil himself.  Rather, he sees his job at the state-run magazine as being to dilute its evil as far as possible.  And he may be leaving there soon, anyway.   No - no more 'Mouthpiece', then; from henceforth, I am going to refer to him instead as Dr Manhattan.     Because he has a strange predilection for the Manhattan cocktail - and I cannot allow that to go unmocked.  He tries to persuade us that it is not a girlie drink - but I feel that in doing so, he only makes himself look more ridiculous.  He attempts to suggest that one can reduce the presence of sweet vermouth until it is almost negligible.  Even the cherry may be dispensed with, if one chooses.  So he says.  Hmm.  Well, why not just have a glass of bourbon, then, eh?   Perhaps I should cut him a little more slack.  After all, he is more knowledgeable about cocktail culture than me.  And perhaps he is also more secure in his masculinity.  All I know about the Manhattan is that Bette Midler ordered one at the beginning of her great bar-room duet with Tom Waits, I Never Talk To Strangers.   But.... for me, any drink that is sweet and red and (conventionally) has a cherry in it should only be drunk by the ladies.