Tag: Brandy

2020 Hindsight

We are officially in the year 2021, but it seems like 2020 will try to stay with us a little longer. From continuing Covid-19 Pandemic infection spikes to the length of time it will likely take to learn the outcome of the Georgia Senate Run-Off Election, and control of the Senate, as well as the threatened Republican Insurrection attempt to overturn the Presidential Election results, the longest year ever doesn’t want to end.

The past year was both never-ending and non-existent at the same time. Much of life was postponed, cancelled, or upended by disease or economic chaos. In the same way that baseball records note the steroid era with an asterisk, history will need to record 2020 with an Asterisk as well. The year that wasn’t also saw a U.S. President who wasn’t, and just like Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, Trump and 2020 will carry an asterisk in the history books.

During this 2020 holdover period of 2021, we’ll see whether this year will carry the stain of 2020 into history. With just over two weeks to go until the Inauguration of President Biden, we remain at the crossroads, hopeful we are heading down the path to better days. As the remnants of 2020 play out over the next week, have an Asterisk cocktail, and keep your fingers crossed that the asterisk stays behind in 2020.

A cocktail from Doug Ford, via Kindred Cocktail, The Asterisk is:

1 oz Brandy

1 oz lemon juice

1 oz Green chartreuse

1 oz maraschino liqueur

Shake, strain into a cocktail glass.

Cheers!

Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy

Forget MAGA, we need MANA, Make America Normal Again. That desire likely accounts for a lot of the support that has gone to Joe Biden. That desire for normalcy was already strong before the Corona Virus, but now with so much of the country shut down to flatten the curve of new cases, such as New jersey’s Go the Fuck Home and Stay There Order from the Governor, the strains of social distancing are really starting to show as people look for an escape.

The biggest strain is coming from Trump’s desire to go golfing. Since the shutdowns and social distancing is interfering with that, he now wants everything to open up again by Easter. The medical community advises that would be disastrous, but the Trump Cult (one-time “pro-life” Republicans) says the deaths of older people is a sacrifice worth an improving stock market as we head toward the election. Trump has the wrong exit strategy. Instead, make an Exit Strategy cocktail, and dream of sitting in the ballpark with an Old Style beer in your hand, the warmth of the sun on your face as you hear the crowd roar as Kris Bryant sends another ball into the Wrigley Field bleachers.

The Exit Strategy comes via Kara Newman’s great book Nightcap, a cocktail from Natasha David at Nitecap in New York. It is:

1.5 oz Amaro Nonino

.75 oz brandy

.25 oz Meletti Amaro

pinch of kosher salt

orange peel for garnish

stir, strain onto a large cube in an Old Fashioned glass

Cheers!