Macduff:
What three things does drink especially provoke?
Porter:
Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and
Urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes;
It provokes the desire, but it takes
Away the performance: therefore, much drink
May be said to be an equivocator with lechery:
It makes him, and it mars him; it sets
Him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him,
And disheartens him; makes him stand to, and
Not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him
In a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
-- William Shakespeare
The Tower Bar in the newly refurbished Argyle Hotel is a fine place to bend an elbow. Try the sazerac, it's nicely tart and puts a golden atmospheric halo around the lights of L.A. below. Order another, and L.A. is a glamorous galaxy seen through a rose-tinted telescope.
French Revolutionary era cartoon of Louis as a drunkard wearing a peasant's Phrygian cap, above.
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