Scotch

Wildcrafted Apothecary: Emily Ho , L.A. Food Swap-organizer and contributor to Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn , and herbalist Rebecca Altman of King's Road Apothecary are teaming up to teach a series of classes on medicinal foods using locally foraged plants and herbs. The Wildcrafted Apothecary 's first class, Elderflower Essentials, will be held May 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. The class costs $85 per person and includes foraging local elderflowers, tasting teas and tinctures, making elixirs and take-home packets with recipes, and an herbal guide.

Wildcrafted Apothecary: Emily Ho , L.A. Food Swap-organizer and contributor to Apartment Therapy's The Kitchn , and herbalist Rebecca Altman of King's Road Apothecary are teaming up to teach a series of classes on medicinal foods using locally foraged plants and herbs. The Wildcrafted Apothecary 's first class, Elderflower Essentials, will be held May 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. The class costs $85 per person and includes foraging local elderflowers, tasting teas and tinctures, making elixirs and take-home packets with recipes, and an herbal guide.

A bottle of 81-year-old Scotch sold for $54,000 at New York's first liquor auction since Prohibition. An anonymous collector bought the pricey potable Saturday at Christie's sale of wines and spirits. The bottle was distilled at Macallan in Scotland in 1926, bottled in 1986 and rebottled in 2002. Prohibition ended in 1933, but New York state did not allow auctions of spirits until this year.

In an accident at a Chivas Brothers bottling plant in Dumbarton, Scotland, workers flushed thousands of gallons of Scotch whiskey down the drain, the smell of it so strong that sewage workers reported the incident, the BBC reports . Workers who had intended to drain waste water unintentionally dumped the Scotch instead. The Epoch Times says it was 6,000 gallons of "high-quality, top-dollar Scotch. " The spirit was released to the local water treatment plant. In a statement Chivas Brothers said that the Tuesday accident at the plant, which employs 600 workers, is under investigation.

You may think you know single-malt Scotch -- it's Glenlivet and Macallan and Laphroaig and all that. Maybe you're even into some obscure ones: Dalwhinnie, Edradour, Allt-a-Bhainne, Bruichladdich. What makes them single malts is that they're unblended whiskies, products of single distilleries. But if all you know are the versions bottled by the distilleries themselves, you know only part of the story. There's an alternate universe of Scotch: the independent bottlers.

EVENTS Celebrate the humble grape at the 7th Annual L.A. WineFest. Choose tastes from more than 500 different wines, spirits and beers; nosh on gourmet food truck fare; and listen to live music. Classes on wine, beer and Scotch food pairings will also be conducted. Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sat. Noon to 5 p.m. Sun. $75. http://www.lawinefest.com.

Celebrate the birthday of Scotland's favorite son on Wednesday, also known as Burns Day, after the 18th century Romantic poet Robert Burns. Known for his lilting lyricism, storied love affairs and fondness for haggis, Burns also enjoyed a good glass of Scotch. To pay tribute, downtown whisky bar Seven Grand is offering that day a special concoction called the Bobby Burns. A perfectly metered mix of Scotch, sweet vermouth and Benedictine, this cocktail will have you singing "Auld Lang Syne" in no time.

Sept. 22, 1921: Mrs. Clara B. Brenner told Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge J.W. Summerfield that she wanted to divorce John F. Brenner on the grounds of cruelty. "My husband went 18 years without smiling," she told the court, according to The Times. "He crabbed all the time and even when he drank liquor he appeared to get grouchier than ever." Mrs. Brenner's story ran in The Times under the headline, "Booze Fails as Smile Coaxer."

The year being half over, it's time for me to add up my errors so far, and see whether I am within my quota of only two a year. I have already been accused of making several more than two, but, as you will see, my critics are as often wrong as I am. For example, reader William B. (Pink) Pinkerton of Pico Rivera chides me for defending my use of ken in a Scrabble game as a "Scotch word" meaning know .

Manufacturers of distilled spirits are in the midst of an extensive media campaign intended to slow the continuing sales slide of their category--battered over the last several years by growing consumer preferences for lighter-alcohol beverages such as sparkling wines, coolers and imported beers. "Liquor--Good Spirits, Good Sense" is the banner under which the industry hopes to help reacquaint consumers with the likes of gin, bourbon and Scotch.

EVENTS Celebrate the humble grape at the 7th Annual L.A. WineFest. Choose tastes from more than 500 different wines, spirits and beers; nosh on gourmet food truck fare; and listen to live music. Classes on wine, beer and Scotch food pairings will also be conducted. Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sat. Noon to 5 p.m. Sun. $75. http://www.lawinefest.com.

Celebrate the birthday of Scotland's favorite son on Wednesday, also known as Burns Day, after the 18th century Romantic poet Robert Burns. Known for his lilting lyricism, storied love affairs and fondness for haggis, Burns also enjoyed a good glass of Scotch. To pay tribute, downtown whisky bar Seven Grand is offering that day a special concoction called the Bobby Burns. A perfectly metered mix of Scotch, sweet vermouth and Benedictine, this cocktail will have you singing "Auld Lang Syne" in no time.

At 10:30 on an achingly beautiful Tuesday morning, the Enabler walked into an unassuming bar in Glendale called Neat. The furious weekend rains had fled, draining the sky of gray and leaving in its place the ice cold blue of Veronica Lake's eyes. It was whiskey weather, and the Enabler craved a warming snort. Neat was not usually open at such an early hour, but its owner — the wisecracking mixologist and cocktail consultant Aidan Demarest — had agreed to meet the Enabler to talk about his new bar and show off his more than 300 bottles of carefully curated spirits, which he serves straight up (called "neat" by liquor lovers)

EVENTS Connoisseurs of Scotland's most revered export are invited to an evening featuring more than 100 rare whiskeys at the Single Malt & Scotch Whisky Extravaganza. The event includes a dinner buffet and a selection of premium imported cigars. Knowledgeable representatives from each participating distillery will be on hand to answer questions. Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, 1700 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica. 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday. $135. (800) 990-1991. http://www.singlemaltextravaganza.

Squeezed by a continuing budget crisis, Los Angeles officials scaled back city services over the past year, reducing library hours, laying off child-care workers and taking steps to turn over several public parking garages to private companies. Yet there's one area where the city suddenly appears determined to branch out, even in a grim economy: golf carts. After trying for seven years to award a new contract for a golf cart concession at the city's seven 18-hole courses, officials with the Department of Recreation and Parks have decided they are capable of renting out the electric vehicles themselves.

I came to Scotland in search of the Loch Ness Monster and found a ghost instead. Of course, I also sampled a lot of Scotch, which might lead some to think my vision was impaired. To those naysayers, I say, "Chill." My camera recorded the event. At least I think it did. But let me start at the beginning. Scotland has always appealed to me. Its wild places — its mountains, moors, lochs and islands — speak to my Scotch-Irish heritage. I'd love to take a month off and hike the high mountains and walk the deep green glens of the Highlands, then cap that off with a month of island hopping, sailing to as many of the Scotland's windswept isles — there are more than 700 — as possible.

When it comes to hot restaurants in Las Vegas , Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris is one of the hottest. Diners may not see Chef Ramsay but they could see Christina Wilson, who won a year's contract as the steakhouse's head chef for her first-place finish on Season 10 of  “ Hell's Kitchen .” In honor of her victory over 18 other competitors, the restaurant is now serving what it calls the Hell's Kitchen Limited Edition Tasting Menu....

TONATICO, Mexico - Armando Guadarrama was navigating his taxi through the narrow streets of this central Mexico pueblo on a recent Saturday morning, some 2,000 miles from the Beltway. But like many here, Guadarrama was up-to-the-minute with the immigration reform push that is the talk of Washington. When he spoke of its odds, the 40-year-old could sound like a hard-bitten D.C. veteran, grumbling over a scotch at the Old Ebbitt Grill. He sniffed incredulously at President Obama's statement, a day earlier, that he was "absolutely convinced" that reforms would pass this year.

In an unexpected finding that could have applications in medicine and elsewhere, UCLA researchers have found that unspooling a simple roll of Scotch tape produces X-rays -- enough to produce clear images of their fingers. The discovery could eventually lead to, among other things, compact X-ray sources that could be used for treating cancer, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

A bottle of 81-year-old Scotch sold for $54,000 at New York's first liquor auction since Prohibition. An anonymous collector bought the pricey potable Saturday at Christie's sale of wines and spirits. The bottle was distilled at Macallan in Scotland in 1926, bottled in 1986 and rebottled in 2002. Prohibition ended in 1933, but New York state did not allow auctions of spirits until this year.