A mixology of high-altitude gadfly gossip for oxygen-starved brain cells
It’s locals’ month! The crowds have dissipated, the weather is still glorious, and the locals are free to do what they do best: frolic, frolic and frolic. The Lake can now spend the fall and winter months renewing and purging itself of gallons of pee, the Canadian Geese can detox from a steady diet of Cheetos, shoppers can actually get in and out of the grocery store in 20 minutes, and the fowl of the Truckee River have months of peaceful riverbanks until the Booze Cruise starts up again. By the by, the float from Tahoe City to River Ranch is probably one of the funnest things you can do around here, but one must now wait until next year when spring melts bring more water.
A hip chick named Sheri Gerber informed The Mix that there were really only three things one does over Labor Day around here: ‘Burning Man, The Nugget rib cook off or Rademacher’s.’
‘Rademacher’s’ is an annual Labor Day shindig that Steve and Sandy Rademacher have been putting on for 20 years. So well known and loved is the event that peeps from as far away as San Diego make the trek. Party goers can sign up for the annual horseshoe tournament or the blind wine tasting, which of course, The Mix imbibed in. Wine tasting host and sommelier for the tasting, Donna Scott, wrapped each bottle brought by guests in newspaper and numbered it. Tasters were then given paper and pens in which to make tasting notes and guess the varietal, if so inclined. Guests had a whopping 13 bottles to taste, so comments started off normally enough: ‘A refreshing summer wine with pleasant peach undertones’ and ‘Full bodied with a hint of white pepper.’ By taste #6, The Mix was as delicate as a freight train: ‘About as well-balanced as my ex,’ ‘Un-memorable, like my sex life,’ and ‘Thin, rather like my paycheck.’
All in all, a super party put on by a super couple. The Mix, however, was aghast to observe a mom lift a live crawdad from an ice chest and gleefully proclaim to her young child, ‘Look. We’re gonna eat this for dinner!’ So that’s how you do it. Start the desensitization towards wildlife at a young age. Sadly, hundreds of the tiny Donner Lake creatures were tossed into boiling water to be scalded to death – as if there wasn’t enough food. Well, it proves my long-held theory that there are two animals you for sure don’t want to be in these parts; a bear or a crawdad, because at some point – due to either human stupidity, callousness, or the demands of that insatiable entity called the stomach – you will probably die a horrid and unnecessary death.
~ Birthdays? Just born? Celebration? Bad News? Juicy Gossip? Ridiculous Trivia? Got a tidbit for The Mix…Up? Send to mix@moonshineink.com. We’ll take it, distill it, and uncork pure nonsense.
