It’s a prank Chicagoans pull on out-of-towners. They’ll take you to an old-school dive and order something called “Malört,” boasting “You can only get this in Chicago.” The stone-faced bartender pours you a yellow-green shot. Your friend watches you expectantly. You raise the glass and taste—

“Pepper, then basement,” some report. “A baby aspirin wrapped in grapefruit, bound with rubber bands and soaked in cheap gin,” say others. Or even the flavor of “tonight’s the night you fight your dad.” Its terrible taste is kind of the point. Comedian John Hodgman would pass around a bottle of Malört at his live shows, inviting/daring audience members to take a swig (I was at one of those shows!). Malört suits Chicago’s reputation for cussedness—a perverse badge of civic pride.

Why do I bring this up? Well, I occasionally review books for the Wall Street Journal, and they assigned me to write a review of journalist Josh Noel’s history Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit. I really enjoyed it, concluding that “this quirky, enlightening, unexpectedly poignant book isn’t only for aficionados of the offbeat Chicago liquor, but fans of stubborn underdogs everywhere.” You can read the complete review here.

(By the way, I drank some Malört again when I was writing that review, and it’s not as godawful as it used to be. Had I grown hardier with age? No, Malört is just made by a different distiller nowadays, and apparently they’ve tweaked it so that it’s more tolerable. Too bad, in a way.)

In other news, last weekend I spoke on a bunch of panels about Bride of the Tornado and my other books at Indiana Comic Con in Indianapolis. I figured it was time for me to haul my old tornado costume out of the basement! Here I am with Elphaba from Wicked, which seemed appropriate:

I was on a bunch of fun panels, including a fun raucous debate-style smackdown thing called “Battle Of The Tropes.” It’s the brainchild of Literary Hypewoman, aka Stephanie Carr. She moderated the debate; Alana Kay and I were on one team, and Lexi Ryan and Jade Young were on the other team. It was a hoot!

I actually met Literary Hypewoman at the Chicago Entertainment and Comics Expo (C2E2) last year, and she and I did an interview. I had forgotten to post about it! Stephanie writes, “This might be the weirdest interview I’ve ever done, but considering the author wrote the weirdest book I’ve read, it fits.” You be the judge!

I had been invited to do a presentation about David Lynch at the Indianapolis Comic Con, too, but when I arrived in the room, there was no screen! This was too bad, because naturally my presentation involved a lot of clips from his movies and of course Twin Peaks. There were only about fifteen people in the room anyway, so it wasn’t such a big deal, and anyway there’s lots of other things to do at a Comic Con. If you’re curious, I wrote up some of my thoughts of David Lynch here.

I’ve arranged my schedule this year so that I get to take a little bit of a breather from the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival screenings, but I’m looking forward to the next one in Rochester on April 5. See you there!