Donald Trump has staked his claim near the White House, anyway. His new hotel, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, has opened at 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, the very street Trump’s been trying to move to all year. The hotel features Benjamin’s Bar and Lounge, where if you’re not in the mood for the $100 cocktail filled with caviar — astonishingly not called the “America Great Again” — you can sip on a cocktail called the “Silence Dogood.” The name is just too wonderful to ignore in a campaign season when most Americans wish politicians would give more of each: silence, and doing good.
The name comes from Benjamin Franklin’s pen name. As a precocious teenager, Franklin submitted stories which were published in the New England Courant. Franklin signed them Mrs. Silence Dogood in an effort to disguise their true authorship from his brother James, who owned the paper. Yes, that’s right — in order to be successful in publishing (in 1722) Ben Franklin pretended to be a woman. The Silence Dogood offered by Trump’s joint is a mix of cognac, lime juice, sugary syrup and bitters. Whether the latter ingredients also remind you of the campaign depends on your mood.
