the cop down on skillman and la vista

 I took my troubles down to Madam Ruth

You know, that gypsy with the gold-capped tooth

She's got a pad down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine

Selling little bottles of Love Potion No. 9

 

I told her that I was a flop with chicks

I've been this way since nineteen fifty-six

She looked at my palm and she made a magic sign

She said, "What you need is Love Potion No. 9" 

She bent down and turned around and gave me a wink

She said "I'm gonna make it up right here in the sink"

It smelled like turpentine, it looked like India ink

I held my nose, I closed my eyes, I took a drink

 

I didn't know if it was day or night

I started kissing everything in sight

But when I kissed the cop down on Thirty-Fourth and Vine

He broke my little bottle of Love Potion No. 9

It took quite a while to clear our refrigerator shelves of the remaining jars of Chocolate Kahlua Sauce I'd made for a breast cancer fundraiser last fall.  Seventy-two jars total!

Recent requests have me at it once again, selling a few half-pints for the holidays.  One went to Jon, the drummer of the MMQ.  He's got a big sweet tooth.  Or maybe just a big heart...

I brought the jar to a pre-Thanksgiving Saturday night gig when the quartet was playing at The Wine Therapist in Lakewood.  At just after eight, there was a cop sitting on a stool outside the Tex-Mex place which shares an intersection with the wine bar.  The officer looked like a jovial guy and the spot's not known to be rowdy so Spoke and I remained curious about him as we entered the bar to hear some jazz and meet Darren, a recent acquaintance of my sister and a newcomer to Dallas. 

Two sets later and well into a nice bottle of Monte Antico, I ducked out to the car for the sauce.  The cop was still outside Matt's, looking rather bored by then and to me, looking like someone who just needed a little -- you guessed it -- chocolate! 

Turned out Darren isn't a big fan so I took what was to have been his jar and I marched right up and offered it to the policeman.  His eyes lit up and he gave me a wide smile as he took the jar, so I lingered, telling him all the delicious things he could do with the sauce, saving the best suggestion for last which is to chill a ripe pear until it is very cold, slice it, then drizzle the fruit with this dark and rich Kahlua sauce.

Some people believe chocolate to be an aphrodisiac.  I'm not so sure about that but there on the corner, walking back into the club, I knew, potion or not, I had spread a little love.






Love Potion No. 9
Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller 1959
(markmckenziequartet.com)