The Geekly with a Twist: March 16th-22nd

Now this is a holiday I can get behind!  I know at the time of posting, it’s still a day away, but I vote to start the St. Pat’s celebrations early!  Although I still need to hit the store for a few more essentials (lamb, beef, cabbage, Irish cream, cocktail extras), I’m ready for tomorrow!  The green tie is prepped to go and my Crockpot is all clean.  Bring on the green and bring on the history!

March 16th, 1787: High school teacher and brilliant physicist George S. Ohm is born in Bavaria.

March 16th, 1995: Norman Thagard becomes the first American to visit the Russian space station Mir.

March 17th, 1950:  The sixth transuranium element to be discovered, the announcement is made out of UC Berkley that californium is the newest radioactive element (it’s number 98 on the periodic table of elements).

March 18th, 1899: One of the moons of Saturn, Phoebe, is discovered.

March 18th, 1950: A quirky actor known for roles including Wormtongue in LOTR, Piter De Vries in Dune, and much more, Brad Dourif is born in Huntington, West Virginia.

March 18th, 1965: – Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov becomes the first man to spacewalk.

March 21st, 2001: Nintendo releases the Game Boy Advance.  The handheld system was available for 10 years before being discontinued.

March 22nd, 1995: Russian Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns to Earth after a record-setting 437 days in space.

Okay, so we HAVE to go with something green this week…and forget about green beers, geeks can do it better!  In honor of the anniversary of the release of the GBA how about a bit of a Pokemon and St. Patty’s Twist: Bulbasaur, Ivysaur, Venusaur (drinks by The Drunken Moogle).

Bulbasaur

• 1/2 shot lime vodka
• 1/4 shot lime juice
• 1/4 shot melon liqueur 

Ivysaur

• 1 shot lime vodka
• 1 shot lime juice
• 1 shot melon liqueur
• 1 shot sprite

Venusaur

• 1 Bulbasaur
• 1 Ivysaur
• 1 shot lime vodka
• 1 shot lime juice
• 1 shot sprite 

For the Bulbasaur shot, simply mix all three ingredients into a shot glass.  For the Ivysaur cocktail, shake all alcoholic ingredients, pour over ice in a rocks glass, then add Sprite to fill.  Add a stem of mint as a garnish.  Finally, to evolve to the Venusaur cocktail, shake a Bulbasaur shot together with the alcoholic ingredients of an Ivysaur cocktail, along with an additional shot of lime vodka and lime juice, then pour into a highball glass and fill with Sprite.  Again, add a few leaves of mint as a garnish. 

Speaking of Garnish, let’s top off this week with a bit of March Madness!  No, I’m not making any suggestion to tune into some basketball, but rather head over to io9 and help vote on the worst SciFi movie ever made! 

The bracket includes, for the most part, the expected (flops such as Star Wars Ep.1, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and the most recent Indiana Jones to name a few) and it’s a great twist on the traditional brackets.  Round 1 Part 1 is already over as of posting time, but you can make it over for Part 2 and the rest of the rounds!

Anyways, until next week…beware the green beer and geek on!