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'Old Men' get nod as AP's movie of 2007Hollywood Movies, Videos, Gossip, Reviews, News
1. 'No Country for Old Men' — With weird hair and businesslike savagery, Javier Bardem could teach Hannibal Lecter a thing or three about pitiless bloodletting. Bardem as a killer, Tommy Lee Jones as a wayworn lawman and Josh Brolin as a good old boy who stumbles on a fortune in drug money are one of the great triumvirates of modern film. Aided by cinematographer Roger Deakins' desolate landscapes, Joel and Ethan Coen bring Cormac McCarthy's Texas crime saga to life with all the regional authenticity they applied to their Minnesota tale 'Fargo.'

The classic martini was stirred, "so as not to bruise the gin."

W. Somerset Maugham declared that "martinis should always be stirred, not shaken, so that the molecules lie sensuously one on top of the other,"

James Bond from the Albert R. Broccoli films ordered his "shaken, not stirred", a drink properly called a Bradford (Embury 1948, p. 101)

(while in the original Ian Fleming novels they were in fact ordered as "stirred not shaken").

The concept of "bruising the gin" as a result of shaking a martini is an oft-debated topic. The term comes from an older argument over whether or not to bruise the mint in preparing a Mint Julep.

A shaken martini is different from stirred for a few reasons. The shaking action breaks up the ice and adds more water, slightly weakening the drink but also altering the taste. Some would say the shaken martini has a "more rounded" taste. Others, usually citing obscure scientific studies, say that shaking causes more of a certain class of molecules (aldehydes) to bond with oxygen, resulting in a "sharper" taste.

Shaking also adds tiny air bubbles, which can lead to a cloudy drink instead of a clear one. If the drink is used as an aperitif, to cleanse the mouth before eating, the tiny air bubbles restrict the gin (or vodka) from reaching all tastebuds.

This is why purists would claim that a martini should always be stirred. Some martini devotees believe the vermouth is more evenly distributed by shaking, which can alter the flavor and texture of the beverage as well. In some places, a shaken martini is referred to as a "martini James Bond" or a "007."

In a scientific study, researchers with the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, Canada, determined in 1999 that a shaken martini is demonstrably more healthy than a stirred one. Antioxidants are known to promote health, particularly by reducing the incidence of such age-related diseases as cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts. Antioxidant properties are possessed by alcoholic beverages in general, including martinis; but in carefully controlled tests, the researchers determined that a shaken martini has significantly higher antioxidant properties than a stirred one. As they humorously concluded in publishing their results in the British Medical Journal, "007's profound state of health may be due, at least in part, to compliant bartenders."