Louisiana recently recognized the Sazerac — a mix of rye whiskey, bitters, absinthe and lemon — as the official cocktail of the City of New Orleans. Hearing this got me thinking: What makes a particular drink the beverage of an area? (Notably not the official drink of the Big Easy: The hurricane.)

So I’m gonna put it out there: What would be the ideal cocktail for Oak Lawn/Cedar Springs/Uptown? It can be preexisting or you can make it up. What about it? What cocktail identifies us best?

On the DMN’s Guidelive.com page, there’s an AP story about tonight’s Daytime Emmy Awards with the headline, “Daytime Emmys to mimic Golden Globes” — which I took to mean the actors and screenwriters were boycotting and the “ceremony” would be a lame press conference. After all, that’s what happened at the Golden Globes this year.

Nope. They just meant attendees would be sitting around tables instead of theater seats facing the same direction. Wow. Radical. And not nearly as interesting as what I had imagined. 

When I asked my hubbie what he liked and didn’t like about “The Happening,” writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest supernatural thriller, he mentioned one thing that bothered him: Late in the film, when a small girl sitting at a dinner table reaches for a cookie, the home’s  owner, Mrs. Jones, slaps her on the hand and tells her not to take what’s not hers without permission. This irked him. “I’d have slapped her right back — no one has a right to do that to someone else’s child,” he said.

I couldn’t disagree more — my own grandmother would have done the same to me. In my mind, Mrs. Jones hadn’t crossed the line; the girl’s parents had failed to do their job in teaching her manners.

We went back and forth on this, but one thing we agreed on: Approve or not, when Betty Buckley (who plays Mrs. Jones) goes psycho on your ass, you feel like backing off.

I should know. I was sitting three feet from her when she did it to me. Details after the jump.

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Paul J. Williams, he of the shaved legs and left-buttoning blouses, is busier’n a bee in honey season. In addition to starring in “The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode” at the Rose Room (extended, at least, until July 12) and helping write the Turtle Creek Chorale’s new show, he’s appearing on “The Frank DeCaro Show” on Sirius satellite radio tomorrow (that’s Wednesday). He’ll be on around  11:15 a.m., so if you have the service, don’t miss it.

In Friday’s edition, Paul J. Williams, who stars as Mrs. Garrett in “The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode” inside the Rose Room, wondered whether Uptown Players’ subscribers — and the Station 4 clientele — would take to having a full-length play performed there. Turns out it the answer is “yes.” Word is in the show will be extended beyond its scheduled June 29 closing date, although details still need to be worked out.

Read a full review of the show on Friday. 

This in from Ireland: The Dallas Diablos Rugby Football squad was stopped in the quarter-finals of the Bingham Cup, taking place in Dublin this week. But the team is optimistic, sending word that games will resume in the fall (in Dallas), and they’d even light to bring the Bingham Cup to Dallas in 2010.

When the Dallas Theater Center announced its 2008-09 season earlier this spring, it left off the name of one show — the last one, which it described only as “an enchanting new family musical based on a Newbery Award-winning novel” that is “a heartwarming story which will delight the entire family” written by “a composer and lyricist who currently have a hit musical running on Broadway.” We’ve waited for artistic director Kevin Moriarty to finalize the release. And waited. And waited. But so far, nothing. Well, wait no more — we’ve figured it out logically. Find out what it is — and how we worked through it — after the jump. 

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On last night’s “Top Chef” season 4 finale, sweet-natured Stephanie bested arrogant Richard and squeaked by abrasive Lisa to win the title.

I was glad Stephanie won. Of the remaining contestants, she was the one I felt was talented and seemed like a nice person. And I was even more glad that Lisa lost; her scorched-earth approach to her competitors, annoying narcissism (she chewed out the other two for not congratulating her fast enough when she came in third the week before) and questionable culinary choices made her seem undeserving.

On the other hand, this marks the third time in four seasons of the show that the GLBT contestant — Tiffani, Dale, now Lisa — came in second. To be fair, Dale lost to bisexual chef Hung, but what are the chances that the gays make it so far… and then fail to pull it off at the end?

Ah, well. Being gay doesn’t make you likeable — or good at your job. Just ask Larry Craig. 

I just finished the 8-disc version of queer scribe Augusten Burroughs’ newest audiobook, “A Wolf at the Table” (Macmillan Audio, $29.95).Fans of his memoir “Running With Scissors” and its eccentric cast of characters should be forewarned, like Dallas Voice book reviewer J.S. Hall already did: This tale — about Burroughs’ dad and the abuse he inflicted on Augusten — is painful. Sometimes it’s just a horror story.Anyway, for the audio version, Burroughs didn’t just read the text. Some parts are augmented with foley-artist soundtracking. He also plucked some of his favorite musicians to add songs, making the audiobook a “modern sound” project. Check ’em out.

Lesiban twin Tegan Quin (her sister Sara and I have an interesting history) wrote “His Song”

Performer-poet and Patti Smith made “The Only One.”

My favorite tracks are Sea Wolf’s “Song of the Magpie”

and Ingrid Michaelson’s “Spare Change”

Big D keeps pumping out adult video studs. Some stay in Texas. Others head to Los Angeles — like Marc Williams and Jordan Vaughn.

The following link IS SO NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
Williams and Vaughn were buddies before they became porn stars. And they’ve previously hooked up in front of the cameras. But they’ve released another online session, “Buddies First Time — Naked at the Gym.”

But be prepared to bust out your credit card: $72 gets you a year’s access on Mightymen.com