If you thought that a mixologist was just a fancy term for a bartender, you'd only be partially correct. Most mixologists start off as bartenders, but the terms are not entirely interchangeable according to mixologist Leo DeGroff. The latter is more like a chef, creating new drinks, not just pouring them.

People have been coming up with new drink recipes for hundreds of years, but it is only in recent times that cocktail creation has really grown into an art, using fruits, vegetables and other flavors with the same precision that they are used in cooking. Mixologists often rely on seasonal ingredients, too. The drinks they create are frequently commissioned to be appropriate for particular events, menus and themes. As an example of the way mixologists work, take a look at the three "old west" theme drinks that were recently created for the launch of a new AOL game, Gold Rush. All the drinks use whisky, a classic American spirit, as their foundation, but come out with entirely different flavors.

Space travel is an amazing thing, but it's quite clear that not everything that we have available on Earth can be made available in space. Gravity is one thing that immediately springs to mind, of course, but astronauts have had problems with food, too. Most end up craving coffee, salads and other fresh foods, since their in-flight options can be on the unusual side. To remedy this problem, famous chefs have been recruited to help improve the options for astronauts, working with the foods we know work in space to provide a more varied array of meal options.

Some, however, refuse to give up on the idea that favorites from down here can translate to a zero-gravity environment. Malaysia, for example, is sending its very first astronaut up next year and plans to have him attempt to make the country's national drink, teh tarik, in space. The tea is made by pouring "boiling-hot milky tea swiftly and repeatedly from one vessel held high in one hand into another held low, producing a distinctive layer of froth."

It seems most unlikely that rapid pouring of boiling milk - which relies on gravity to move it in the first place - is going to be successful. And perhaps a country should pick a mission that is less frivolous (and perhaps one more likely to succeed) for their first space flight.

A Belgian man, Philippe Meert , used to have difficulty getting all his cereal in the bowl in the mornings. Like many people, he would simply open the box and rip open a portion of the cereal bag within, causing it to spill out the sides of the box and onto the table as he poured. It's hard to say whether residual sleepiness or sloppy box-opening was the main problem, but Meert wanted something that would make pouring easy (and accurate) for even the laziest breakfaster.

In 2004, Meert came out with a product called the Cerealtop, a plastic pouring spout that is designed to clamp onto a cereal box top and make pours easy-to-control. It adjusts to fit any box size and simply snaps onto the open box. Cerealtop is available online from Europe for about $6, but will be hitting the US market this fall for $3.95. 

Sure, everyone has a method for getting ketchup out of the bottle. Tapping the neck of a Heinz bottle with the base of my palm, right around the "57" has always worked for me. Robert Allgeyer inverts this method, however. Over at Bob's Diner, he has a whole page dedicated to the mechanics of ketchup pouring. According to Bob, it's all about increasing the flow of air into the bottle and giving the ketchup an extra push by tapping the neck of the bottle from underneath. In a footnote, Bob admits that an open palm is actually a little better than a fist. I had the open hand part right, but apparently I was applying my G-forces in the wrong direction.

[Image: Robert Allgeyer]

As Super Bowl Sunday rolls around and some of you get ready to have people over for drinking and snacking, a pre-new-year's-eve post of mine comes to mind. Some of you may remember a recent study from Cornell University professor and "food psychologist" Brian Wansink, where we learned that glass size affects how much people pour. Short, wide glasses resulted in people (even trained bartenders) pouring more liquor than with tall, thin glasses.

Another Wansink-led study last year focused on snacking and bowl size. As you can imagine, people tended to eat lots more, 56 percent more, when they were plucking Chex mix from big bowls rather than small ones. In that study, the extra snacking broke down to 142 calories more per person.

Obviously, if your beer is coming from a can or a bottle, everyone will probably have their own, and if you have a keg, a red plastic cup is probably in order. But, if your guests are mixing drinks, the glass size is good to keep in mind. And, if you've got limited amounts of snackage, small bowls could be in order.