Baby, It’s Cold Outside

Baby, it’s dumb inside.

Has anyone banned “Dixie”?

Remember:
Libraries celebrate “Banned Book Week” by encouraging EVERYONE to read books that were once banned, like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” or, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” because “it highlights the value of free and open access to information.”

Why shouldn’t we do the same with music?

https://www.npr.org/673770902

Citing the #MeToo movement, and pointing to the line in the song “say, what’s in this drink?,” some radio stations have moved to “ban” the 1949 Academy Award winning song which was featured in the motion picture Neptune’s Daughter, and sung by Ricardo Montalbán and Esther Williams.

Critics decry it as an inference to “slipping a mickey” – an old, colloquial term for a date rape drug – into the woman’s drink.

However, I can’t count the number of times folks have asked me what’s in drinks I’ve made. One of the most notable ones being

Happy Winter Solstice?

Someone recently wrote, “Happy Winter Solstice!”

Winter Solstice occurs every December 21st, and is also known as Yule, Midwinter, the Shortest Day, and Longest Night of the year, and occurs this year (2017) at 11:28 AM ET (10:28 AM CST) Thursday.

I’m not so sure it’s a “happy” event, per se, in as much as it is the deepest, darkest, night of the year.

“Saturn in Capricorn is a very useful placement, denoting one tough individual, but on a macro level, it doesn’t promise much in the way of fruitful change.”

However… that being “said,” it ~does~ mark the end of one timeframe, and establishes a point of a “new beginning.” And that is cause for hope, or rejoicing.

Noiseweek magazine had this to say about it: “If you don’t have access to a Yule log but are still interested in protecting yourself during the solstice, approximate the ritual with a candle (preferably marked with runes) and allow yourself some low-key, restorative indulgences, like working from home, moisturizing, eating some citrus, journaling or hibernating as best you can.”

Perhaps just staying inside, nekkid, and drinking spirituous libations all day will suffice, eh?😂🤔😜😳🤣😎

One astrologer, Neil Spencer, who writes for The (London) Observer, says this year’s solstice is particularly foreboding because of planetary alignment which hasn’t occurred since 1664 – the sun will pass in front of the constellation Capricorn hours after Saturn does also, which will cause both planets to line up for the first time time since 1664 – and for that reason, he says, folks ought practice double caution about starting new endeavors on that day.

Which is a good thing… if one is prone to being nekkid inside and drinking, anyway.🤣🤪

Original Russian Tea Recipe

Holiday season is again upon us, and many folks – particularly Southerners – are familiar with a tasty warm beverage known as “Russian Tea.”

Exactly how and where the recipe developed, and how it came by that name is somewhat unclear, but “the font of all knowledge” – and I sarcastically refer to Wikipedia – cites an article entitled “Russian Tea is Favorite Recipe in the South” by Cecily Brownstone in the November 27, 1976 issue of Kentucky New Era newspaper in Hopkinsville.

Interestingly, the story which is perhaps the newspaper’s most renown is the August 1955 Kelly-Hopkinsville Alien Encounter, which may also be known as “Kelly Green Men Case,” or the “Hopkinsville Goblins Case.” It’s a precursor of sorts to a “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” type story in which five adults and seven children reported to Hopkinsville Police that “little men with big heads and long arms,” presumably alien creatures, were attacking their farm house, and that they’d held them off with gunfire “for nearly four hours.” It all started around 7PM when one of the men went out of the house to get a bucket of water, and lasted until 0330 – that’s 3:30AM.

Who knows? Maybe they’d had too much Russian Tea. Anyway, I don’t think you’ll be doing any hallucinating, or discharging any firearms after drinking this, so it’s pretty tame stuff… unless you start adding Kentucky Bourbon or other liquor to it.

Anyway…

Spiced Tea infusion recipe in Joy of Cooking, p40

However, as seen in the image herein, the

Massive Winter Storm Blasts USA: Satellite pic Feb 01 2011

The original image size is 800×762 pixels, far too large to fit in this space. The photo is linked to the original NOAA source.

The Second Day of Christmas in Dixie – Audio Post

Merry Christmas, everyone!

How to Watch for Black Ice

“Black ice is certainly something to be