Prohibition: A fascinating Ken Burns series about the noble experiment

(Slate) What should a PBS viewer pour himself to enhance his enjoyment of Prohibition (PBS, Sunday through Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET)? In posing the question, I don't mean to suggest that this documentary, directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, needs any help to go down easy. But it seems correct to celebrate the freedom to get one's buzz on.
The freedom is, of course, vastly more important than the buzz itself, as Prohibition notes in its closing words. Here, the writer Pete Hamill, one talking head among a distinguished roster, says that he has hasn't had a drink in three decades. But, hypothetically, he'd be proud to touch the stuff again in a public protest against any legislative attempt to deny his fellow citizens that right. Continued

Mrs. Damon Runyon's Serving Suggestion

Somehow, it just never occurred to me that Damon Runyon had a wife. I guess I confused his writing with his life, assuming he spent all his time screwed to a bar stool, drinking rye whisky and pounding out stories about gangsters and the such.

"Boardwalk Empire" State of Drink

(Cigar Aficionado) How do you celebrate the season premiere of a television show centered on the Prohibition era? By taking a drink, of course.
That's the premise behind the promotions for two separate whiskies as HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" starts it second season on Sunday. Canadian Club and Templeton Rye, both of which have historic connections to the dry era that ensued after America's 18th Amendment took effect in 1920, are suggesting a libation may go best with the return of the critically acclaimed cable series. Continued

Photo: Enoch L. ("Nucky") Johnson