I am a lover of both language and whiskey. Both have been acquired tastes, both continually honed as I get older.

I am re-trying John Steinbeck. “Travels with Charley: In Search of America” led me back. It is the source of the quote:

I am in love with Montana – for other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection but with Montana it is love, and it’s difficult to analyze love when you’re in it.

…an obvious favorite of mine and one I’ve had framed in my home since shortly after moving to Montana in early 1994 and additionally a must read for all rv’rs.

I loved “Ahab’s Wife” despite it being on Oprah’s list… I loved it for the story, for the words, for a richness of words describing simple things in an ordinary and yet extraordinary life – all fiction – spawned from a single line from Moby Dick.

Back to whiskey…

I think my first whiskey was J&B Scotch. I tried it out of a romantic affinity for some character in some book. I was in my mid-20’s. It was the start.

I have never been a mixed drink person. But straight spirits, those I enjoy. It is, though, the whiskeys that I truly love. As my reading evolved, and my budget, so did my exploration of whiskey. A Dick Francis book led me to try Laphroaig Scotch – an Islay single malt. A Patricia Cornwell book led me to Bushmills Black. Fast forward to the blog world and Dooce* and my current favorite, Maker’s Mark bourbon.

Reader, JJNorth commented on “Just a walk in the woods” with this quote:

‘It’s the beauty that fills me with wonder,
it’s the stillness that fills me with peace.’ RS

I was entranced by the words. But who is RS? Thank goodness for Google! RS is Robert Service and those beautiful two lines are excerpts from his poem titled “The Spell of the Yukon”.

My Google search led me to Dennis McCarthy’s site named: “Sippin’ Poems: A Drinker’s Companion to English Verse.” – Perfect!

Dennis suggests Rye with “The Spell of the Yukon”…so yet another whiskey to explore.

The last four lines of the last stanza of “The Spell of the Yukon”:

It’s the great, big, broad land ‘way up yonder,
It’s the forests where silence has lease;
It’s the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It’s the stillness that fills me with peace.

In reprise…”Just another walk in the woods”

* a disclaimer: I stopped reading Dooce but I am grateful for the introduction to Maker’s Mark.