his smirnov vodka? or do you have any clue as to what that would have been like? >> well, you know, i have been asked that question a lot. and as i said i'm not a big drinker, so it's a little bit hard for me to tell. but initially my understanding was that they were making smirnov vodka the way that they always had made it, there were some 300 recipes that survived the revolution and were taken to western europe. but when i put the question to biagio, they didn't really quite make it clear so i'm not sure. some of the recipes though, some of the flavored vodka and things smirnov deftly made during his time. he actually would have done really well in the current world because he was a fanatic about fresh and local and natural. he used to have herbs and fruit cardigan from the countryside. literally, wagonload's brought into his factory in moscow. and that was how he infused his vodkas. he never used essences or artificial flavorings of any kind. those were only introduced later. >> can you talk about th

of smirnov vodka. she talks about his rise from a lower class family to being one of the wealthy businessmen in russia. kepler's books in california hosted the event. it is 35 minutes. >> i'm thrilled to be here at kepler's, i love this bookstore. it is a wonderful institution. so the king of vodka. i get asked more than anything else what i wrote this book. and is actually every good question for people who know me well. and the research that was required for this book was absolutely immense and it was mostly in 19 in early 20th-century archives in russia, i live here and i don't speak a word of russian so that was my first problem. secondly, the book really follows the story of russia itself in 1910 and early 20th-century russia from the crimean war to emancipation to industrialization to all of the labor strikes, the fall of the czars and, of course, the russian revolution and i had never studied russian history, another problem for me. as you probably figure out by now if you have taken some of the

still the russian smirnov and, in fact, had not been made in russia for many decades. so it had a lot of aspects to it and ended up changing the label someone and some other things to clarify that point. >> linda himelsein is the former legal affairs editor and silicon valley bureau chief for business week. she is also work for the "washington journal", legal times and the san francisco reader. kepler's books in menlo park, california hosted the event. for more information visit kepler's.com. the brecht forum held a benefit and celebration of the 40th anniversary publication of noam chomsky first political book, "american power and the new mandarins". event took place at the riverside church in new york city, and lasts an hour and half. >> it is such a great honor to be here tonight to make this interjection. as we're standing here i was thinking that 14 years ago it was 1995, it was november. there was a forum on globalization that was taking place here at riverside and it was there that i've heard the announcement that nine activists had been executed in nigeria. in