There are general principles underlying many mixed drinks, and understanding them makes making and drinking them a lot more fun. Like those underlying any good explanation, these principles are both structural and historical. This classic cocktails utility hook is perfect for the kitchen or behind the bar.

Forest Service Region 8 Engineer Cleve Ketcham had a good sense of humor, and in 1974, he drew up this detailed cocktail construction chart. As the nation's record-keeper, the National Archives holds in trust the records of all the branches of government, including the Department of Agriculture Forest Service. It seems that when the Forest Service records from 1974 were pulled for storage, Ketcham's joke was in the mix, and someone must have thought that this record was just too good not to be preserved in the National Archives.

Cleve "Red" Ketcham passed away in 2005, but he has since been commemorated in the National Museum of Forest Service HistoryNational Archives Store.