Mar 28, 2024
This is an intergalactic emergency! Buzz Lightyear
I could devote several months’ worth of essays to the question of how and why America became so divided and how and why we lost the stomach for maintaining the global paradise we so painfully created and maintained for so long. But what’s the use? It is what it is. Better simply to accept the fact of America’s abandonment of its role of World Cop and to take a look at what comes next. read more »
Mar 21, 2024
Because of YOU, the future of this entire universe is in jeopardy! Buzz Lightyear read more »
Mar 14, 2024
To infinity – and beyond! Buzz Lightyear
With thanks to Buzz Lightyear, let’s take a look, first, at the astonishing world America created after World War II, and then we’ll watch as that world crumbles and re-forms into the dystopian future we are hurtling toward. read more »
Mar 6, 2024
I sometimes write about investment matters or geopolitical issues, but mostly these essays are pieces of fluff designed to entertain or, I hope, amuse my readers. But this series will end on a sad – even a tragic – note. read more »
Feb 29, 2024
Hot buttered rum
Since temperatures are plunging as I write this series, I cheerfully pass on to you TOCSC’s recipe for hot buttered rum: mix one cup of softened, salted butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon nutmeg. This will keep in the refrigerator for a long time. When your fingers are turning blue from the cold, remove the blend from the fridge, mix 1 teaspoon of it with 2 ounces of dark rum and add hot water to taste. read more »
Feb 22, 2024
In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in water there is bacteria. Benjamin Franklin, supposedly. Except the first recorded use of the word “bacteria” occurred in 1864 and Franklin died in 1790. read more »
Feb 15, 2024
I had so much fun reading The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (TOCSC) that I could continue writing about it for months. But don’t worry, I won’t. read more »
Feb 8, 2024
Tennessee whiskey
Back in 1981 two songwriters, Dean Dillon and Linda Hargrove, were sitting in the Bluebird Café in Nashville drinking a lot of Tennessee whiskey. Dillon told Hargrove he had an idea for a song about the whiskey and so, at four a.m., they headed off to Hargrove’s place and wrote “Tennessee Whiskey,” a terrific song read more »
Feb 1, 2024
Fern bars
When I first reached legal drinking age most bars were designed to be patronized by men – that is, by people who couldn’t care less what the places looked like. As a result, most bars looked and smelled terrible. (But I quickly got used to it.) read more »
Jan 25, 2024
Vodka
Vodka is unlike other forms of alcohol in that there is no justifiable excuse for drinking it … you might as well inject vodka into your bloodstream. Russian writer Viktor Yerofeyev read more »