Some Background

This e-mail exchange via Blackberries explains more or less how and why this quest started:

May 21 Mary to Barbara:
I'm in a cop bar on Third and 19. I'll let you know how it rates. I'm
probably the first person to ever order a cosmo here


May 21 Barbara to Mary:
they might give you a summons...

May 21 Mary to Barbara:
It was a 10. Actually, a 9.5--I have to take a fraction of a point off
for presentation, which consisted of a twist of lemon instead of a
wedge of lime. But the drink itself was very well made, quite
delicious.

(I wrote you a much longer email that seems to have totally vanished.
Or at least I have no record of it. But I'm not going to rewrite all
in case you did get it. Just more cosmo talk and cop talk.)


May 22 Barbara to Mary:
I never got the long e mail-
perhaps you should write a book.. "searching through the cosmos"
do tell...

May 22 Mary to Barbara:
I LOVE that idea, mostly because that is a great title! Actually, I
suppose if I had to rank the reasons why I love the idea, the clever
title would come after the fact that writing the book would require a
LOT of research. It's an article more than a book, I would say. And
the hook might be that I'm a middle-aged person very late to the "Sex and the City" party, which is true---I never saw it until it was on channel 11--and I'm very late to the cosmo party--also true, I never had one until I had one at your house not that long ago. It could be an article for More (you know that magazine for old broads like us?).
Another hook could be that as many women get older, they can't drink wine anymore. This isn't true of me (yet), but I have at least five friends I can think of, some of whom are younger than I though still in the More age group, who have given up wine for cocktails.

Barbara, you're on to something. I think we have a mission.