Soaking up lit

[“Chapter and Worse.” Zippy, June 12, 2020.]

Will Nicholson Baker read today’s Zippy ?

If the name Virgil Partch doesn’t click: he is better known as the cartoonist Vip, a quintessential mid-century modern cartoonist. No connection to Baker that I know of. I must have first seen Vip’s work in Professional Mixing Guide: The Accredited List Of Recognized And Accepted Standard Formulas For Mixed Drinks, a tiny pamphlet (4 11/16 × 2 3/4) published by Angostura-Wupperman, makers of Angostura bitters. My copy is a fifty-second printing, with a copyright date of 1961. I’ve had this pamphlet since childhood (really) — it came with a bottle of whiskey we bought for my paternal grandfather, but it stayed with me. I liked its tiny size. I would have had no idea what Professional Mixing Guide even meant. But Vip would have: many of his cartoons were alcohol-themed.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard) : From The Anthologist : Nicholson Baker and Lawrence Ferlinghetti : Nicholson Baker on Maeve Brennan : Nicholson Baker reviews the Kindle : How to make an Old Fashioned (From the Guide)