Troy Patterson Likes Martinis, For Now

“Here is the deal: We sifted through 130 years of history to examine the best and weirdest of what has been written and said about the commingling of gin and vermouth, and we rounded up 80 notable recipes. Check them out, think them over, mix them up if you like — and then upvote or downvote them as you see fit. (Voting ends Sunday, March 17 at 6 p.m. EDT) The 60 most popular recipes will earn seeds in our Martini Madness tournament bracket. … And then what happens? I’m not 100 percent sure — and that’s part of the fun — but the premise is that your correspondent will judge martinis against one another in single-elimination face-to-face matchups, guided by his taste buds, his mixological principles, and his story sense.”
 — Slate’s Troy Patterson introduces the site’s new March Madness-style Martini tournament, with 80 martini recipes, divided into seven categories: sweet, dirty, garnish-y, dry, etc.

Is there a way to combine this with The Morning News’ Tournament of Books, and maybe with basketball, too? A tournament of tournaments. The Tournament Tournament. A tourmaline tourniquet. Troy, I have already been working on trying out some of the recipes.