Hot Toddy

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Having been sick for five days and struggling to sleep with an exhausting cough, I made my first hot toddy last night. How a man so fond of whiskey has gone this long without trying such a thing is a mystery. Coughing so hard it hurt, I got up, and while walking (and coughing) downstairs, asked my phone for a hot toddy recipe:

  • 2 Tbsps bourbon
  • 1 Tbsp mild honey
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup boiling-hot water

I heated the kettle, measured bourbon, honey, and lemon juice, then poured not hot water into the mug. Not hot enough water. The whole thing was cool by my first sip and the honey was still a bit congealed. Oh well. It only worked about as well as hot tea or cold water but tasted better. Lying in bed, waiting for sleep, dreading the cough's return, I revised the recipe:

  • 4 Tbsp bourbon
  • 1/2 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp lemon juice
  • Water just off a rolling boil to fill my small mug

Microwaving bourbon sounds like a crime but maybe I can steam it over the kettle somehow. I'll work on that. Got to do something about this cough.

A comment on the website suggested a simpler approach:

I substituted bourbon for the lemon and honey. I also substituted bourbon for the hot water. Fantastic! Would make again.

I respect that minimalist approach but would add a cube of ice and call it the near-perfect hot toddy.

At work today, a colleague suggested the following version:

  • 1 shot Fireball
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1 tea bag (lemon ginger, lemon ginger turmeric, or whatever)
  • 1 wedge of lemon
  • Water to top off the mug
  • 1 Halls Cough Drop added at the end

She suggested I get comfy, sip, enjoy, and pass out. I very well might.

The Urge To Share

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I read someone saying that social media isn't a plague, that it's bad, but not that bad and there are some positive uses for it. I've thought about that and come to this: social media is a cesspool from which plagues come. Sure, cesspools are useful, but I'm not going to live in one. I'm with Jaron Lanier on this. I just feel that Facebook, Twitter, and all the rest are bad for us.

It's like sugar which tastes good but is poison in the amounts at which I consume it. I'd lead a better life without sugar, but it's tough to quit. You're still on social media because you're hooked, right?

If Facebook, Twitter, or whatever make your life better, then go ahead. If you use them because your friends are all on them, okay, whatever. If you use them despite feeling that they are a cancer on society, well then I've got nothing for you.

I'm thinking about social media also because I've been doing things differently in my life and it's the sort of thing I'd have posted on Twitter or Facebook. Hey, look at me! Be grateful I can no longer share that way.

What about this blog? Isn't it just like social media?

There are differences that feel important. One, I'm not providing free content for some large corporation's profit. Two, people must choose to come and read. Three, commenting takes more work. Four, I'm not much invested in growing my "following." I used to worry about the numbers, but I don't any more. If someone gets something out of this blog, good. I get plenty out of it. I mean, I'm learning how to write.

I can't think of a single lasting thing I learned on social media except that it made me deeply unhappy and is designed to do so. It made me mean. I'm not sure I'm willing to offer Zuckerberg and Dorsey any gratitude for that lesson.

I still have the hard-wired urge to share. That urge is fine unless it comes out of a sense of jealousy or insecurity and so long as that urge isn't satisfied too easily.

Anything I want to share here, I draft usually in pen or on the typewriter. If it still seems worth sharing, I type it on the computer. I consider again if it's worth sharing. I revise to make it ten- or twenty-percent shorter. By then I've made the decision and copy it from my favorite online writing tool into my web-host's software, give it one last look, and publish. The process gives me time to ask, am I sharing something worth someone's while? My answer may be different than yours. That's fine. You choose to stay with me or not.

I don't have any algorithm here. It's just you and me. Social media platform algorithms prey upon our weaknesses because strong users are lousy customers and these folks want suckers, billions of them. As for this, no money has changed hands, no advertisers have had their say, and you're free to go at any time.

I just wanted to share that.

The social-network-internet of today is best understood when you hold in your mind the image of a faceless person scrolling down a screen endlessly for all of eternity, but yet for whom satisfaction never comes. –Rebecca Toh

State Of Syracuse Weather

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Syracuse's mayor presented the State Of The City last night. It was a good show. The speech was held up on the hill with windows overlooking the city. The lights dimmed and the blinds slowly rose revealing the world outside. The plan was for us to see Syracuse's nighttime skyline in panoramic vista. Instead we greeted a wall of white snow.

The mayor could have complained or joked about terrible weather. That's what I'm used to hearing. But he didn't complain and that's a lot of why I voted for and support him. He said it was like we were in a snow globe. Beautiful. He embraced the weather and referred to us as "the titans of winter." Oh, I like that.

At XO Taco prior to the speech, I wrote the following in my notebook:

I'm starting a pro-snow campaign in Syracuse to change the mood. I'm not expecting this to be the mayor's primary initiative. Some things I have to do myself.

If I were mayor, I'd gather the weather reporters and media executives to present the case for changing the talk around the weather, setting a new tone. It's not a conflict of interest like choosing sides in a political race. Just present the weather in a fairer light.

Celebrating the weather will lift the city's mood. We live in winter sometimes from late October until the first days of May. We get a lot of snow. This morning it's nine degrees with a fresh layer of snow and some ice. We can say it's too damn cold or declare that it is nine degrees and people are still out walking, driving, shoveling, beginning their days. We can cheer the DPW for making all the roads safe. We can celebrate a sky that is eggshell blue and bright with sunshine. It really is a beautiful day in our neighborhood.

This reminds me of the push a few years ago in North Dakota to drop North from the state's name. Ridiculous, right? But North sounds and feels colder. South Dakota is in no way tropical, but it sounds more inviting than North Dakota. Dropping North might seem foolish, but it would have a positive effect on the feel of the place. And the feel of something is often much more important than we care to admit.

Here in Syracuse, we don't have to change our name, just shift the tone from being snow victims to becoming snow titans. We can show gratitude for the chance to talk with neighbors as we shovel, to brush off a colleague's car as we wait for ours to warm after work, to come in from the cold and be offered a mug of coffee. We can marvel at how inches, sometimes feet of snow fall, yet the day goes on as if it were spring with cleared roads, open businesses, and a thriving city.

If we hear, see, and read reports celebrating winter, we can begin accepting it. Acceptance is a step toward happiness and happiness is powerful stuff.

I'm pro-snow, pro-winter, and bet your chilly ass I'm pro-Syracuse, the city of winter's titans.