As Moss would say, “Did you see that ludicrous display last night?” I figure we could all use a drink after that. Something tasty, maybe a bit exotic, well, not actually exotic, but something with a faux nostalgic feeling for a bygone era when travel was an adventure and you could still actually do it. When a trip to Europe passed from New York through Newfoundland to the Azores and on to Lisbon, landing in the water in one of those amazing planes of yesteryear, with crystal in the dining room and sleeper berths. So, join me now as we stand and make the Pan American Clipper.
We are taking out all the stops today. Going hell-bent for leather and riding off into a cultural reference sunset. This drink has everything. Well, not everything, but it has got a lot of stuff and it is topical. People love topical things. So we are gonna work around National Coffee Day, biblical quotes, The Big Lebowski, the second most famous Thor and even the impending great debate. How are we going to fit that all in to one drink? Well, if you want to find out, won’t you please join me as we stand and make Donnie’s Element.
It’s rainy and yucky and full of ennui today with more of the same in the forecast, but that is no reason to not have a drink. It does make choosing a little more challenging. Part of me wants to go tropical or tiki, part of me wants to do something scotch heavy and autumnal and part of me wants to skip the whole thing and curl up with a good book. However, duty calls, so I am going for a riff on an old friend adapted for a dreary fall day. Won’t you please join me now as we stand and make, The Final Ward.
They say that good things come to those who wait. It’s not true, but they say it. I don’t think waiting is enough, you’ve got to get some work in there somewhere. So maybe the lesson is you’ve got to have patience. This is a drink two weeks in the making and it has tried my patience most days along the way. So, jump in the wayback machine and get started a couple of weeks ago to join me now as we stand and make the Elote Old-Fashioned.
The season is winding down at the farmers market. Fewer tomatoes, more sweet potatoes. That’s the nature of things, circle of life and all that. Pretty sure that it’s all covered in the most overplayed track in Ecclesiastes. Still there is bounty left, so we grabbed some end of season cucumbers and harvested some mint from our own garden for an end of summer cocktail. Please join me now as we stand and make, The Botanist.
Magic is wonderful. It can make us believe in possibilities, in a world that we have only glimpsed. A lot of the time, we know it is only a trick, that we are being fooled, but there is a certain pleasure in a little lighthearted deception. Oscar Wilde said that “The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived,” and magic, when it is done well, fits that bill. It is a funny thing, just how much we enjoy having the wool pulled over our eyes, so to speak. All entertainment relies on the willing suspension of disbelief. That wonderful ability to set your rational mind to the side for a bit and believe that heroes can fly or that we could create harmony on a planetary level before heading out into the stars to boldly go where no one has gone before. Magic takes another deeper level of disbelief. We know someone is trying to fool us and we are watching carefully to see how they are going to trick us, how they are going to appear to do that which we know is impossible and they usually succeed. Through years of practice and the careful application of science they are able to fool us, often using very simple tools. So let’s take a look at deception and a couple of the original tools of the trade. Won’t you join me now as we stand and make, Smoke and Mirrors.
We are all chasing something. Maybe it is the right house or job or partner. Maybe it’s that perfect lyric, the hook that makes the song. Maybe it is finally getting the smoke ring just right in your brisket. There are lots of things worth chasing. Honestly, most of us are chasing lots of things at the same time. While we are working at the next big thing on the career path, we are also seeking out that rare tiki mug or a Corgi Batmobile, while reading Kierkegaard to broaden our understanding of leaps of faith, as we strive to be better partners, parents and children in a world where the rules keep changing so quickly that may have given up on trying to understand and just cling to symbols as some sort of anchor in the storm. There is a lot going on out there and it drives me to distraction some days, that is one of my coping mechanisms, finding something to focus on that helps me close out the things that keep me awake at night. Daily chases and long term quests help with that. Today’s drink is another step on a long term quest, a puzzle that has been in the back of my mind for a couple of years now. If there are those among you who also yearn for knowledge, who feel the call to discern that which is hidden, I ask that you join with me now, as we stand and make, The Traveling Banana.
One of the hardest things to do in life is to sustain anything. We’ve been going on for a while now and it is sometimes tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hard to keep on keeping on, but what are you going to do, give up? That’s not really an option. The world doesn’t change because we are tired of it and wishing just burns up stars. So let’s make a drink and forget for a few moments that things are pretty weird right now and not the fun kind of weird. Won’t you please join me now as we stand and make the Gypsy Queen.
I’ve made a lot of questionable decisions in my life. I’m not proud of a lot of them, but I’ve survived them so far. I am ashamed about a few, most of them I just view with a sort of bemused indifference and some; some I look at with a twinge of regret, tempered by nostalgia and even a bit of longing, if I am honest. We do lots of dumb stuff when we don’t know any better. Some would argue that the only way we ever learn better is by making dumb mistakes. I do believe that would should work hard to never make the same mistake twice, that we should learn from them, but I also understand that they are inevitable. As the sign by my office door says, “Let’s make better mistakes tomorrow.” So, with a backward glance at the mistakes of yesteryear, won’t you please join me as we stand and make, Coffee & Cigarettes.
We’ve made it to the last day of summer 2020. The year that just keeps on giving, or is it taking away? Some times it is hard to tell. They say you should make hay while the sun is shining. I guess that means you should take advantage of good times to store up things for the bad times to come. In my experience, actually making hay, usually involves a lot of looking to the horizon, watching for the storm clouds which seem to come, inevitably, once you get the hay on the ground. Well, I don’t have hay, but I do have lavender, so I guess I’ll make soothing beverages while the lavender is plenty. Won’t you join me now as we stand and make the aptly named, Aromatherapy.
