Salty Dog Cocktail

The time frame history of this cocktail is as cloudy as the grapefruit juice used to make it, but if you simply mix grapefruit juice and gin, the cocktail is called a "Greyhound;" so, it's certainly no great leap to "Salty Dog" by the addition of salt. "There are claims" that American comedian, actor and overall entertainer George Jessel invented the drink. Jessel is also credited by some as the inventor of the "Bloody Mary." I remember seeing George Jessel on television talk shows in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and if I remember right, he was often called "Georgie." Jessel was outspoken in his condemnation of racism and bigotry, and he ruffled the feathers of people in both political parties at times.  

Ingredients:

2 ounces gin
3 ounces freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (white or pink)
salt
slice/wedge of grapefruit for garnish 

Rub the edge of a tall glass with a piece of grapefruit, then dip the edge of the glass into some salt. Add the gin and grapefruit juice, stir well, then add ice to fill. Fix a small slice of grapefruit to the edge of the glass as a garnish.

WORD HISTORY:
Corner-This word is distantly related to "horn" and "hornet," both words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to "corn" (the word meaning, "tough or hardened area of skin"), a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English from Latin-based French (it is NOT related to "corn," meaning "grain, type of grain and a plant producing such grain"). "Corner" goes back to Indo European "ker(h)," which meant, "horn, head." This gave Latin "cornu," meaning, "horn, pointed end." This then later became "corna" in Latin, which passed into Latin-based French as "corne," also meaning, "horn," but also, "angle, corner," from the notion of "pointed end." This was carried to England either as "cornere," or it became that version in England, and the word was borrowed by English circa 1300, with the meaning, "intersecting point of walls or streets," the main meaning that persists to this day. The verb developed in the late 1300s, initially meaning, "make things converge into a corner," and it wasn't until the early decades of the 1800s that the meaning developed, "force someone or something into a position of virtual hopelessness;" seemingly in American English, and certainly the main meaning of the verb in the U.S. up to this day. By the way, before borrowing "corner," the most common English word for a corner was "hyrne," which meant, "horn" (yes, a previous form of the modern word), but it also meant, "corner;" so, you can see the tie between these distant relatives (through Indo European). In modern times some of the other Germanic languages still use forms of "horn" for corner, while some others use forms of "hook," and German uses "Ecke," which is really the same word as English "edge," only with the harder "ck."