National Martini Day may or may not be next week

It has come to my attention, via a press release for tequila, of all things, that June 18 is National Martini Day. I have to admit I got really excited and began dreaming of all the delicious martinis I would drink and where I would drink them and whether or not I would take a bath with one.

Then I turned to Google to learn more about the hallowed holiday. Much to my chagrin, I couldn’t find anything conclusive about the actual existence of the happy day, which was very likely dreamed up one gin-soaked midnight by a PR firm.

So, I’m left high and dry (quite literally), unless someone out there can send me something more conclusive. But before I sign off, I’d like to leave you with my very first memory of a martini:

It’s 1988, I’m 12 years old and “Vice Versa” starring Judge Reinhold is playing at the AMC theater at the El Con Mall in Tucson. In the film, Reinhold plays a dad who swaps bodies with his son (body-swapping was a popular plot line in the ‘80s), and there is a scene involving the boy-in-man’s-body confronted with a martini.

I remember sitting in the big-box darkness beside my mother in her “Put Your Brahms Around Me” T-shirt, and staring at the drink on the screen, its crystal-clear coolness in that perfect glass with the slender stem, punctuated, as it were, by a perfectly green, globular olive, and thinking, “How beautiful! I want one!"

When I turned 21, I would have three.

-- Jessica Gelt

Photo: A martini at Comme Ca made by bartender Joel Black. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Michael Fidanza]

I am a HUGE fan of a bone-dry, dirty Ketel 1 martini with 3 queen olives in a Hawkeye Pierce-oversized glass. It is simply martini heaven!

[Deborah Netburn]

I too love martinis! But you know what? I ask for mine on the rocks. When I turned thirty I stopped caring about the "right way" to drink and started drinking the way I want to: tanqueray martini, on the rocks, with two onions please! Oh and I like mine un-dry!

[Paul M. Mock]

For me, EVERY DAY is National Martini Day. Two beautiful Bombay Sapphires ice cold...dry as a bone...up with a twist. It has been my religion for almost 20 years now. (P.S. I can't remember the last time I even had a cold!!!) :)

[betsey]

I grew up in Tucson-still here. Funny to see El Con Mall mentioned.
Do you really need conclusive proof to declare Martini Day?
I definitely give my nod of approval.
Let's put it on the calendar!

[jessicagelt]

So the publicist who sent me the information about National Martini Day wrote to say that although the event her client is holding in celebration of the day--a private tasting of Maestro Dobel martinis at Palihouse--is on June 18, National Martini Day is, in fact on June 19. I still can't verify that with any solid sourcing though...

[klesb]

What a lovely memory!

June 18th will go on my ICal with "Never" for an end date!

Google doesn't know all the important things!