politics

On the Matter of the National Popular Vote

Posted on by Will Cox

I’m on Mrs. Clinton’s e-mail list because I haven’t unsubscribed yet. Today, the list sent me an e-mail about bills currently in the New York legislature to change how the State allocates its Electors. The bills under consideration in New York are A-489 and S-1820.

I don’t think their plea for me to contact my legislators had the result they intended.

New York is generally ignored during presidential campaigns because the results are too predictable. Why should the candidate of any party bother to stop here when it’s obvious that one of the candidates will win by a landslide?

New York is not the only State with this problem. Any State which allocates all of its Electors to the person winning a simple majority of the vote, and then proceeds to vote consistently for one party over another, loses influence. That State is now safe, reliable, the old girlfriend you turn to for brief satisfaction when the one you lust after pushes you away. Sure, she’s good for a screw, but who really cares what she thinks?

While I would like to see changes in how New York State allocates its Electors, I do not support the proposal to give our Electors to the candidate which wins a majority of the national popular vote in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (What? Puerto Rico and the Territories still don’t count? And you call yourself a democrat!) This particular effort is an attempt to ensure that the person who wins the Presidency is the person preferred by the majority of all voters, but didn’t gain much traction until the supposed wrong done to Mr. Albert Gore in 2000. Because the problem was obviously the system, and not our impatience.*

If we ignore historical curiousities that restricted the electorate, and assume that the voters expressed the Will of the People, it’s rare that the winner of the popular choice has lost the Presidency. There have been 56 elections under the present system. Of those 56, 4 were not won by the winner of the popular vote.** That’s only 7.14%.

I would prefer, instead, that New York allocate its Electors proportionately, rather than in the winner-take-all manner that it does now. And I would like for New York to use the so-called instant run-off ballot, which would allow voters to rank several candidates according to their preferences.

Continue reading →

economics

Whose Benefit?

Posted on by Will Cox

The medical benefit plan I have requires payment of a certain sum before it begins paying a high percentage of the cost of prescriptions. This sum is called the deductible; it’s a sum uncovered by the insurance, deducted from the total expenses before consideration of payment. The policy term is one year, so the value resets every year.

The other day I had to purchase a prescribed drug. The pharmacy had a simple question for me: Did I want them to bill through the insurance company, or did I want to pay cash? If they billed through the insurance company, then the cost of the prescription would be applied to the deductible amount. If I paid cash, then the insurance company, not knowing of the cost, would not apply it to the deductible. One supposes that there’s a third option: to pay cash and then report the expense to the insurer.

This question came up because of a difference in the prices between the two methods: $300 more to bill the expense through the insurance company.

No, thank you. I’ll pay cash.

drink

Bloody Mary is the … Girl I Love

Posted on by Will Cox

Happy 3rd Birthday, No. 2 Son! Soon we’ll have the family over for a party in your honor, and they’ll be drinking some stuff you can’t, yet.

It must be my upbringing, but when I think of the Bloody Mary, I don’t think of the drink: I think of South Pacific.

So, what shall we have? Shall it be the recipe from Harry’s New York Bar in Paris? The one given by Ernest Hemingway? Some fancy concoction from the Employees Only cookbook? Or a variation using their common base: vodka, tomato, and citrus?

Harry’s Bloody Mary

In shaker or directly in large tumbler: ice, 6 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce, 3 dashes of Tabasco, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, juice of ½ lemon, 2 ounces of vodka, fill remainder of glass with top-quality tomato juice, and above all no celery salt. — Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails

Hemingway’s Bloody Mary

To make a pitcher of Bloody Marys (any smaller amount is worthless) take a good sized pitcher and put in it as big a lump of ice as it will hold. (This is to prevent too rapid melting and watering of our product.) Mix a pint of good russian vodka and an equal amount of chilled tomato juice. Add a table spoon full of Worcester Sauce. Lea and Perrins is usual but can use A1 or any good beef-steak sauce. Stirr. (with two rs) Then add a jigger of fresh squeezed lime juice. Stirr. Then add small amounts of celery salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper. Keep on stirring and taste it to see how it is doing. If you get it too powerful weaken with more tomato juice. If it lacks authority add more vodka. Some people like more lime than others. For combatting a really terrific hangover increase the amount of Worcester sauce – but don’t lose the lovely color. Keep drinking it yourself to see how it is doing. I introduced this drink to Hong Kong in 1941 and believe it did more than any other single factor except perhaps the Japanese Army to precipitate the fall of that Crown Colony. After you get the hang of it you can mix it so it will taste as though it had absolutely no alcohol of any kind in it and a glass of it will still have as much kick as a really good big martini. Whole trick is to keep it very cold and not let the ice water it down. — Ernest Hemingway – Selected Letters, 1917-1961, from a letter to Bernard Peyton, April 5, 1947

Bloddy [sic] Mary

The name is intentionally misspelled because I seem to be unable to type two O’s in a row. In the jargon of my trade, it’s a Blod^Hody Mary.

Last night I dreamt that my grandfather on my mother’s side was about to reveal his secret recipe for a Bloody Mary, and then I woke. It would be a secret because, as far as I know, he did not drink. The recipe that follows is closer to Hemingway’s than to his.

Chill a pitcher, then fill halfway full with ice. Cut two whole tomatoes into large pieces, then puree. This should make approximately a pint of tomato juice. Add to the pitcher. Add one pint of vodka. Stir. Add 1 3/4 oz. lemon juice. Stir. Add 1 tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce. Stir. Add 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper. Stir. Add 1/2 tsp. salt. Stir. Grind fresh pepper over the pitcher, about five turns of the grinder. Stir. Wait for your guests.

Serve in a rocks glass, or a highball if you have it. Garnish with fresh pepper and a lemon wedge.

drink

Spirits of Any Kind

Posted on by Will Cox

Now that I have more than two bitters in the house, let us try something.

A cocktail is spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters. How about an Old-Fashioned with gin?

Gin, the Old-Fashioned Way

  • cube of sugar
  • splash of water
  • 3 dashes grapefruit bitters
  • 2 oz. gin

Build in an old-fashioned glass. Soak the sugar cube with the bitters and muddle with water. Add a cube of ice or two, then the gin. Stir and enjoy.

drink

What Fashion of Gimlet Might This Be?

Posted on by Will Cox

Having acquired an essential ingredient in the Deadrise, I find myself without another: the cucumber. Well, there’s nothing to it then but to make the necessary sacrifice and drink the result anyway.

Oh, this is good. This is very good. (And without the cucumber it does not give me gas!)

In the back of Speakeasy (Ten Speed Press, 2010) there is a recipe for lime cordial.

As I also do not have Kaffir lime leaves, this prompted the substitution given below.

Untitled

  • .75 oz. lime juice
  • .75 oz. agave syrup
  • 1.5 oz. Hendrick’s Gin
  • 2 dashes Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters

In a mixing glass, stir well to combine the lime juice and agave syrup. Add the gin and bitters, then shake with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

drink/family

Harvest Punch

Posted on by Will Cox

We typically host Christmas Day dinner at our house, after my brother-in-law and his wife host the Feast of the Seven Fishes at his. Christmas Day is a more subdued affair, with fewer guests, and more flexibility in the menu. This year we had turkey, and this year I thought I’d serve a punch.

Finding a punch recipe was harder than I thought it would be. There are so many options, and so many of the options require liqueurs and other ingredients that I don’t yet have in my cabinet. Some I considered were Philadelphia Fish House Punch, Garrick Club Punch, Planter’s Punch, Chatham Artillery Punch, and those in this month’s issue of Imbibe Magazine. I settled on this Harvest Punch from Mutineer Magazine. The picture is pretty.

The spirits in the recipe are the fine products of Philadelphia Distilling: Bluecoat Gin and Vieux Carré Absinthe Supérieure. Unfortunately, none of the shops around sells Vieux Carré, and the absinthe varieties they do have seem to insist on using artificial food colorings. I should have decided earlier; I could have ordered by mail. Fortunately, a nearby shop does sell Bluecoat Gin.

As a result of the lack of absinthe I substituted Romana Sambuca. The punch lost, I’m sure, some complexity, but I wouldn’t know: I’ve not had absinthe. I also left out the cranberry bitters.

I’ve reduced this to serve the eight adults at our Christmas dinner, and still had a quart left over. This recipe can be prepared in the punch bowl or in a mixing bowl beforehand. I used a mixing bowl. I did find that the cranberry in the punch is quite strong, and mellows substantially if it rests overnight.

Harvest Punch

  • 375 ml Bluecoat Gin
  • 4 oz Romana Sambuca
  • 4 oz lemon juice
  • 8 oz cranberry juice
  • 20 oz apple cider
  • 6 toasted cardamom pods
  • 2 toasted star anise
  • 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
  • 16 oz. sparkling water
  • 5 dashes Fee Brothers Cranberry bitters
  • 5 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Mint sprigs
  • Orange wheels
  • 6 oz. cranberries

Freeze a thin layer of water and cranberries in a bundt pan, filling about a quarter of the pan.

Toast the cardamom pods and star anise over a medium flame. While waiting for them to toast, squeeze the lemons. In a larger mixing bowl, mix the confectioner’s sugar with the lemon juice until dissolved. Add the gin and sambuca, mix until thoroughly combined with the lemon juice and sugar, then add the remaining ingredients, save the sparkling water and the garnish. Stir well.

At this point you may wish to sample the punch to see if needs adjustment. Bear in mind that the punch will be diluted later by sparkling water and ice. I increased the apple cider ration from 16 oz. to 20 oz. to cut the bitterness of the cranberries.

Combine with sparkling water over ice in a punch bowl. Garnish with cranberries, orange wheels, and mint.

drink

Egg Nog

Posted on by Will Cox

Mr. Boston’s Official Bartender’s and Party Guide (64th Edition) (Warner Books, 1994) has this to say on the subject of egg nog.

Eggnog can be made from scratch, but since those recipes use raw eggs, which may carry the risk of salmonella poisoning, only recipes using commercially prepared eggnog are included here.

And so they have a whole section containing recipes which basically consist of “add [spirit] to any old egg nog you find in the store.” The current edition is somewhat better.

I like egg nog, but I find the commercial preparations to be far too thick and sweet for my taste these days. Besides there’s no fun in buying a quart of something and tossing some rum in it. This year, I’ll make my own.

There are two recipes that I’ve had my eye on. One, Bourbon Eggnog from Imbibe Magazine, I haven’t made yet. The other, Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s Egg Nog, I made tonight. While this is the very first egg nog I’ve made from scratch, it’s also the best egg nog I’ve ever tasted.

Mr. Morgenthaler notes that his recipe serves two, so I halved it to serve one. I substituted half and half for the milk and cream because, according to the ingredients list on the half and half I have, it contains “Milk, Cream.”

Egg Nog

  • 1 egg
  • 3 TBsp. granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
  • 1 oz. brandy
  • 1 oz. rum
  • 5 oz. Half and Half

Combine the half and half, brandy, rum, and nutmeg in a measuring glass. Beat the egg in a blender for one minute. Let the blender continue to run, and slowly add sugar. Wait a minute. Add the contents of the measuring glass and blend until combined. Set in the refrigerator to chill and to let the flavors combine. Serve in a coupe, a punch cup, or a old fashioned glass as suits the occasion. Garnish with grated nutmeg. The glass will determine, to an extent, the serving size.

If you’re bad at multiplication, you can also find this recipe in The New York Times, either on-line or in The Essential New York Times Cookbook, as Blender Eggnog.

drink/economics

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Drink Cocktails

Posted on by Will Cox

J. T. Dobbs at American Drink asks,

Is it a coincidence that on the heels of one of the worst economic crises since The Depression, artisan cocktails began making a huge comeback?

Actually, no, it’s not. It’s typical.

In The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History, David Hackett-Fischer observes that when the going gets tough, the tough get to drinking. Figure 4.24 on page 227 shows a remarkable correspondence between the rate of inflation and consumption of distilled liquor. As Mr. Hackett-Fischer notes in the caption,

[L]iquor consumption and drug use peaked when real incomes were falling rapidly, prices were surging and unemployment was increasing. A comparable surge in drinking (to the highest recorded levels in American history) occurred in similar circumstances during the climactic years of the eighteenth century price revolution. A long decline in alcohol consumption coincided with the Victorian equilibrium.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes data on expenditures on alcoholic beverages, and the Centers for Disease Control do the same for alcohol consumption. Historical data on alcohol consumption is a little harder to locate at the CDC than it is at the OECD. Both data sets lag by a few years.

Expenditures and consumption are not the same things, since price per unit of alcohol varies. Strangely, expenditures are falling, and have been. Consumption in the United States was decreasing from 1983 to 2000, but since 2001 is back on the increase. Since I’ve not noticed the prices dropping, purchasers are likely shifting consumption to cheaper products without reducing overall consumption. This could be either a switch from Dogfish Head to Budweiser, which I doubt, or from beer to distilled liquor, and, thus, cocktails.

drink

A Martini

Posted on by Will Cox

The Martini that most folks know, if they order a Martini in a bar, is between six and nine ounces of chilled vodka or gin, perhaps with the glass washed with vermouth. (Great! Three drinks for the price of one!) And depending on the vermouth being used this is perhaps a reasonable caution. However, it’s not a classic Martini: it’s a glass of [insert spirit here].

A lot of mixing drinks is taste, often opinionated taste. This is fine. One can even be snooty about it if one wants. I’ve found that each of the Martini variations I’ve tried has its own taste, some better than others, and its own rewards, such that the proportion I mix tends toward my preference of the moment. Tonight, to go with the Italian Wedding Soup my wife made, I stirred up a Sweet Martini, using Tanqueray London Dry Gin, Martini & Rossi Rosso, and Angostura Bitters.

Sweet Martini

  • 1 1/2 oz gin
  • 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir in a mixing glass and strain in to a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

The proportion here is 2:1 gin to vermouth. This is slightly less gin than called for in the CocktailDB recipe, but if one uses their scaling tool to adjust from a 4.5 oz. glass to a 4 oz. glass, one arrives at this ratio. I have a 4 oz. glass, but wasn’t considering that; I just like the taste at 2:1. Robert Hess, in the video below, uses 3:1. That’s also fine, if one prefers.

Last time I checked James Bond was an imaginary character. And I’m guessing that you probably stopped listening to imaginary characters in childhood. — Robert Hess

drink

Deadrise

Posted on by Will Cox

Over the summer Legal Sea Foods offered a cocktail they call the Deadrise.

Huh? What’s a deadrise? A fishy kind of zombie?

Nope. The deadrise is the angle between the bottom of a vessel and the horizontal in the transverse plane. The deadrise is also a kind of a boat used in the Chesapeake.

Legal Sea Foods’ Deadrise looks like this, and contains Belvedere vodka, cucumber, lime, and grapefruit bitters. They were quite willing to make a sample, which was tasty, but I asked that they substitute Hendrick’s Gin for the vodka.

Hmm, I thought, this is definitely a drink I want to make at home. But what’s the recipe? I suppose one could experiment, but not I. No, experimentation is for those without elite research skills. Someone, somewhere, had published this recipe, and I would find it.

Someone had: Blast Magazine, in their article “Six Light Drinks to Sip on This Summer” (July 20, 2010). Something about this recipe is not quite right, given these remarks about, and this interview with, their cocktail program manager, Patrick Sullivan. One wonders if it was altered for wider consumption; one must buy Fee’s grapefruit bitters and find out.

Deadrise

Ingredients

  • 3 slices of cucumber (with skin)
  • 1.5 oz lime cordial
  • 1 pinch of Kosher salt
  • 1.5 oz Belvedere Vodka
  • 2 dashes Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters

Method

Muddle cucumbers, lime cordial and salt in a mixing glass.
Add vodka, bitters and ice.
Top with a metal tin shaker and shake hard; strain into a martini glass.

Made today, the following were muddled, shaken, and strained as above.

  • 3 slices of cucumber (with skin)
  • 0.75 oz lime juice
  • 0.75 oz agave syrup
  • 1 pinch of Kosher salt
  • 1.5 oz Hendrick’s Gin
  • 2 dashes Fee Brothers grapefruit bitters

Now that’s a remarkably close approximation of the drink I had at Legal’s.

drink

The Cosmopolitan

Posted on by Will Cox

Girlfriend, I present for your classy enjoyment the Cosmopolitan.

Or, rather, a variation thereof since I don’t stock citrus vodka.

The Cosmopolitan

  • 1 1/2 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. triple sec
  • 1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
  • 1/4 oz. cranberry juice
  • 1 lime wedge, for garnish

Shake well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with flair.

This recipe differs quite a bit both from the self-styled Perfect Cosmopolitan and the Cosmopolitan mixed by Robert Hess (video below). It’s derived from the recipe at the CocktailDB, which is from The Joy of Mixology, by Gary Regan. Why? Because I happened to read it first.

About the cranberry juice, I did not use Ocean Spray cranberry juice cocktail. It’s sweetened, and I’m not much for the sweeteners. One might use instead the juice from those fresh cranberries just bought to make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving. I used a store-bought 100% cranberry juice: Nature’s Promise Cranberry juice from Stop & Shop.

General

On Plagiarism and Linkage

Posted on by Will Cox

I’m disturbed by what seems to be the very common practices on today’s Internet of copying another’s work without acknowledging the source, of quotations without attribution, and of quotations pretending to be one’s original work. I suppose this could be, to some extent, ignorance of polite behavior; in some cases, however, it appears to be out-right theft: inserting someone else’s work in one’s website in order to grab advertising revenue without effort. Some folks — ahem, Gawker — tread a very thin line here, and offer no value to the original author other than the barest mention of a link, while the world thinks that they arrived at some insight on their own.

Is one of these websites the original recipe? Did the same person post twice, forgetting to use a byline at one of the sites? Or is SeriousEats a thief?

  1. Food52: Potato Leek au Gratin
  2. Serious Eats: Potato Leek au Gratin

This behavior should be discouraged, and, if culpability can be determined, punished to the extent possible. I’m not overly concerned with copyright enforcement here, except as a means to an end, but with polite society, and so think shame and disgrace are just as important.

In cases where I suspect plagiarism, I will link with a rel="nofollow" attribute and an asterisk. In cases where I think one is the original, I’ll link to it instead of the first result on Google. One day, perhaps, the plagiarist will not rank as high, and the original author will get some respect.

drink

Honey Lime Toddy

Posted on by Will Cox

We are fresh out of lemons, so I made a hot toddy this afternoon using my standard recipe but substituting lime for the lemon.

Honey Lime Toddy

  • 1 oz. honey
  • 1 oz. lime juice
  • 1 oz. bourbon
  • 6 oz. boiling water

Build in a mug. Stir the honey, lemon, and whiskey and a splash of hot water together until the honey is completely dissolved, then add the remaining water and stir again.

drink

Cinzano and Lime

Posted on by Will Cox

Cinzano’s site is all Flash, and next to useless. They did, once the craplet loaded, have some worthwhile suggestions about what to do with this bottle of Cinzano Extra Dry.

Cinzano suggested drinking their extra dry vermouth with lime.

Cinzano Extra Dry with Muddled Lime, Sugar, and Ginger Ale

Ingredients

  • 3 parts Cinzano Extra Dry
  • 1/2 fresh lime, cut in cubes
  • 3 parts ginger ale
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • Crushed ice

Preparation

Muddle the lime in a highball glass and add sugar and crushed ice. Add Cinzano Extra Dry and ginger ale. Stir.

Cinzano Extra Dry with Lime

Ingredients

  • 1 part Cinzano Extra Dry
  • 1 part fresh lime juice
  • 1 part soda water

Preparation

Stir the above together in a rocks glass.

I used 1 lime, 3 tsp. sugar, 3 oz. of Cinzano, and 3 oz. of soda water.

economics/family

Replacing the Oxygen Sensor on a 2002 Honda CR-V

Posted on by Will Cox

In order to pass the New York State vehicle inspection, all emissions control components must work. For example, if the oxygen sensors fail, they must be replaced. If you ever need to replace an oxygen sensor, these instructions from the CR-V Owner’s Club help.

I bought the DENSO part 2349005 {#36531PLE003} OE-TYPE OXYGEN SENSOR from Rock Auto, after pricing the same part elsewhere. Denso is the original equipment manufacturer, so this is the same part you’ll get from Honda, for $150 to $300 less. The Honda dealer who read the code from the on-board computer wanted an arm and a leg for the part, $450, plus another $80 to change it.

However, the sensor was in so tight, and I was unable to get any leverage on it, that I ended up taking it to a shop just to get the old one removed. The mechanic there had it out, and replaced, in a jiffy, for only $25.

economics

Google Travel

Posted on by Will Cox

Apparently Google wants to purchase a travel data company, but the existing flight comparison websites don’t want them to. I can see why they wouldn’t: they’re all slow, unusable masses of advertisements for unwanted products that make it faster for me to call a travel agent when I want to plan a trip for a family of six. (And, yeah, I know the fire code says the hotel can only put four in a room. That simply means I won’t stay at that hotel.) Hell, it’s even faster for me to call an agent than it is to book directly through Disney.

Part of the problem with the current players is that their customers are the hotels, airlines and advertisers, not the purchasers of the product they’re selling. If they don’t think they can stand the competition, perhaps they should look at improving their product.

By the way, does anyone still use MapQuest?

drink/food

Things to do with Vermouth

Posted on by Will Cox

I have a rather large bottle of Cinzano Extra Dry Vermouth in my refrigerator. One might ask why I have such a large bottle. That’s easily explained: it was the smallest vermouth sold at the store I visited the day I purchased vermouth. Why am I looking for small bottles of vermouth? Mainly because I use it slowly, and I do wish to avoid spoilage. The Cinzano has a much stronger flavor than the Noilly Prat vermouth I normally use, and so is being consumed even more slowly.

How else, other than a martini, would one use that extra liter of vermouth?

A friend from work recommended using it in potato soup. That’s a thought: cook with it. Does anyone have some recipe suggestions?

drink

Honeycrisp Apple

Posted on by Will Cox

The recipe below is from Gotham Bar & Grill, by way of Tuthilltown Spirits. I substituted Harvest Spirits’s Core Vodka and Cornelius Applejack instead of Tuthilltown’s Heart of the Hudson vodka and Busnel Calvados.

I don’t need a quart of spiced syrup, and so adjusted the recipe a bit.

  • 1 c. simple syrup
  • 4 cloves
  • a pinch of fennel seed
  • 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 cinnamon stick

Honeycrisp Apple Cocktail

Recipe courtesy of Gotham Bar & Grill

  • 1.5 oz. Heart of the Hudson apple vodka
  • 0.75 oz. Busnel Calvados
  • 0.5 oz. spiced simple syrup (recipe follows)
  • 0.5 oz. fresh lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an apple chip.

  • 1 qt simple syrup
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 7 whole cloves
  • 1 whole piece star anise
  • 1 whole piece nutmeg, crushed

Add spices to simple syrup. Bring to a boil and remove from heat. Let steep for 30 minutes. Strain spices from syrup through cheesecloth. Refrigerate syrup.