Thanks to those M.A.S.S. members who came out tonight to help celebrate the 200th Birthday of Charles Darwin. The turnout was a little light (probably due, in part, to the late notice), but we had a good time anyway. The excuses given by some for not attending (ranging from children's recitals to studying for an organic chemistry exam) were all good and would have been approved by Charles himself.
We had a fun discussion on whether or not an interbreeding population of non-microscopic organisms could ever diverge into two distinct species. A potential scenario or two were suggested, but since none of the attendees were willing to claim expertise in the subject, the topic went unresolved.
We then migrated to the pool table and were eventually down to just Dan, Nick, and I plugging our quarters into the table playing "Survival of the Fittest" (aka "Cutthroat"). About that time a group of people sat down at a table near us and told the server they wanted to invent a drink named "The Beagle" in honor of Charles Darwin's Birthday. I searched for and quickly found an inopportune moment to butt into their conversation and ask if I heard right (which I did).
We ended up talking a few times and it turns out that one of them is actually a member of the M.A.S.S. Facebook group (Amy, I think?). I suggested their drink should actually be named "The HMS Beagle" which they didn't object to, and we talked more about the drink's evolutionary history.
Apparently, it's original form was part Captain Morgan's Rum, and part Liquid Ice. However, like any good drink honoring the discoverer of Natural Selection, it immedietly began to mutate and evolve. The particular mutation I tried included pinapple juice (very sweet, but good). The final verdict, as I understood, was that the drink's base pair is Captain Morgan's and Liquid Ice, but should then be selectively bred with other concoctions to fit your particular taste.
Maybe on November 24th (the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On The Origin of Species") we'll discover a Blue Footed Booby drink. I hear that it makes the drinker amusingly clumsy yet fills men with an overwhelming desire to do elaborate dances involving stomping their feet, looking at the sky, stretching their arms out, and flaunting their feet to the nearest female. Women who partake of the drink are said to find this behavior highly arousing..., or so I hear.
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