Good Thursday morning.
I haven’t been a steady drinker for well over a decade now. I largely stopped consuming alcohol for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that as I aged, I just couldn’t recover fast enough to engage in the other activities in my life.
There are times, though, when I miss drinking. Alcohol is a social lubricant, and around this time of year that’s an awful lot of lubricating going on.
I admittedly have not done nearly enough research into the growing “mocktail” phenomenon, or the adaptogen phenomenon. I guess I’m a little old school. If I’m not going to drink an actual alcoholic beverage then I’d rather just stick to seltzer – maybe, if I’m feeling crazy, with some cranberry juice and a hint of lime – or even just water.
When I did drink, I liked a glass of wine with dinner – a habit a picked up while living in France – or a cocktail. I was never big into beer. Too heavy and filling for my liking. When in the cocktail department, I had some seasonal preferences. Winter was for whisky drinks (a rye Old Fashioned was a favorite), and summer was for gin and tonics or some version of the old standby, a screwdriver.
The “recipe”, if something that only includes two ingredients could be called that, for a screwdriver is very simple: Orange juice and vodka served over ice.
The ratio is about 6 fluid ounces of the former to 1.5 ounces of the second. Since there’s not a lot of room for error or improvement here, the rule of thumb is to use the highest quality raw materials possible (think fresh-squeezed juice and top shelf vodka) in order to elevate the drink to the greatest extent possible.
In the U.K., a screwdriver is simply a “vodka and orange,” which makes a heck of a lot more sense to me. The origins of the weird name are a little murky, but the drink first popped up during WW II in Turkey and China when thirsty Americans reportedly mixed neutral tasting alcohol with orange juice.
The name “screwdriver” appeared in the 1940s in Ankara, Turkey and slightly later in Istanbul. Legend has it that the drink makers lacked a spoon to stir the concoction and, driven to desperation, used a screwdriver instead. Another story claims that U.S. auto workers – or maybe oil rig workers? – prepped for their morning shifts by mixing vodka in their breakfast juice and stirring the drink with a screwdriver.
Whatever you call it, and whatever you use to stir it, the screwdriver is a classic, though for some reason it doesn’t appear on any lists of the top most popular cocktails that I could find. Too simple, maybe?
If you do want to spice things up a bit, there are apparently a number of screwdriver variations.
If you make your screwdriver with sloe gin and Southern Comfort instead of vodka, the resulting beverage is either a “slow comfortable screw” or a “sloe comfortable screw” (for accuracy, I guess?) Add Galliano, a brand of sweet herbal liqueur produced in Italy, to the aforementioned mix and you get a “slow/sloe comfortable screw up against the wall.”
There’s also a version known as the “Anita Bryant cocktail,” which is made with apple juice instead of vodka and has a culturally significant historical backstory all its own, related to the LGBT rights movement and a well-time orange juice boycott.
The virgin version of a screwdriver is just club soda or seltzer and orange juice, which is something I basically grew up drinking (it’s a standard practice in many U.S. Jewish households to mix juice with seltzer, as far as I can tell).
For some reason unbeknownst to me – especially since I consider a screwdriver more of a warm weather drink – today is National Screwdriver Day. I certainly do not recommend starting your day with an alcoholic beverage, but maybe you’ve already started your holiday vacation early? If so, orange juice is wonderful for brunch.
It’s going to be on the chilly side again today, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 30s. But then we’re heading for a rebound over the next several days, warming up into the 50s event! Balmy!
In the headlines…
House Republicans formally authorized their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, taking their most significant step toward impeaching the president. The House voted along party lines by a vote of 221-212 to green light the inquiry.
Republicans are pushing forward with a formal investigation even though their yearlong scrutiny of the president and his family has turned up no proof of high crimes or misdemeanors.
Hunter Biden pulled off a surprise appearance at the Capitol yesterday morning with the help of a fellow California resident: Eric Swalwell.
Hunter Biden defied a‘ congressional subpoena to appear privately for a deposition before Republican investigators who have been digging into his business dealings. He insisted he would only testify in public.
His decision not to comply with the subpoena paves the way for Republicans to pursue proceedings to hold him in contempt of Congress. The GOP leaders of the Oversight and Judiciary Committees quickly said they will initiate a contempt effort.
The president’s son arrived outside the Senate to deliver a brief statement, and slammed GOP lawmakers for targeting him and his father in their nearly yearlong probe.
President Biden met with the families of Americans believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas during the terrorist organization’s Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel.
Worried family members, who haven’t heard from the prisoners in months, appealed to both local lawmakers and Biden, saying that for many the clock is ticking with no definitive word on whether the missing men, women and children are dead or alive.
The administration is “completely committed” to getting the hostages home, one relative said after meeting Biden.
The Biden administration is again holding up the licenses for selling more than 20,000 U.S.-made rifles to Israel over concerns about attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
The three cases of firearms, which include M4 and M16 rifles, have been awaiting the administration’s mandated notification to Congress for more than a month.
Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down a freeway in Los Angeles yesterday. They called for a ceasefire in Gaza and blocked traffic for about an hour.
Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged in their final policy decision of 2023 and forecast that they will cut borrowing costs three times in the coming year, a sign that the central bank is shifting toward the next phase in its fight against rapid inflation.
With the inflation rate easing and the economy holding in, policymakers on the Federal Open Market Committee voted unanimously to keep the benchmark overnight borrowing rate in a targeted range between 5.25%-5.5%.
“Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated,” the Fed said in a statement. “Tighter financial and credit conditions for households and businesses are likely to weigh on economic activity, hiring, and inflation.”
Investors cheered the Federal Reserve’s forecast that it would begin lowering interest rates next year. The news sent stock prices sharply higher and Treasury yields plummeting.
Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden by five points when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is on the 2024 presidential ballot, according to new Reuters/Ipsos polling.
Though Biden won support from 92% of Black voters in the 2020 presidential election, that base could be shrinking ahead of the 2024 race for the White House, according to a new survey.
Top school security and academic officials want the Biden administration to overhaul its response to campus antisemitism and Islamophobia — and the White House appears to be listening.
House lawmakers approved a bipartisan resolution condemning antisemitism on campuses across America — singling out the presidents of Harvard and MIT and Penn over their excuses for violent anti-Jew demonstrations in congressional testimony.
The Education Department announced investigations into six more colleges and universities, adding to a growing list of institutions that the agency is examining over complaints of campus discrimination.
The schools named by the department were Stanford, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of California-San Diego, the University of Washington-Seattle, Rutgers University in New Jersey and Whitman College in Washington State.
A group fighting antisemitism is demanding Columbia University banish Israel-bashing groups Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace once and for all.
Donations to U.S. universities reached $59.5 billion last year, and they come increasingly from a smaller group of wealthy donors. Many of them expect their money to buy a voice in university affairs.
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case that could derail hundreds of Jan. 6 felony prosecutions — and could also deal a blow to special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of Trump.
A federal judge put on hold all of the proceedings in Trump’s trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as his lawyers asked an appeals court to move slowly in considering his claim that he is immune from prosecution in the case.
After 10 weeks, 40 witnesses and bursts of courtroom fireworks, testimony wrapped up yesterday in Trump’s civil business fraud trial. But a verdict is at least a month away.
Justice Arthur F. Engoron used humor to keep the peace in a New York courtroom as lawyers for and against Trump fought. His decisions in the civil fraud trial are already facing scrutiny as the former president counts on an appeal.
Trump can’t point to his time in the White House in an effort to duck a civil defamation lawsuit tied to sexual assault allegations because he waited too long to claim presidential immunity, an appeals court ruled.
A Georgia election worker wiped away tears as she told a federal jury she received a tsunami of messages accusing her of treason, calling her a thug and targeting her with racist abuse after Rudy Giuliani’s false claims she committed election fraud in 2020.
The Supreme Court announced that it would decide on the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, the first major case involving abortion on its docket since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure more than a year ago.
The Biden administration had asked the justices to intervene after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit favored curbing distribution of the drug, mifepristone, appearing skeptical of the FDA’s regulation of the pill in recent years.
Scientists are narrowing in on the fastest-growing COVID-19 variant, learning about the strain that has coincided with a rise in cases as we head into the holidays. The JN.1 variant now accounts for more than one-fifth of all cases, based on estimates from the CDC.
New York GOP Reps. Anthony D’Esposito and Elise Stefanik introduced a resolution rebuking Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul over the Empire State’s so-called Clean Slate Act.
Businesses will now have to alert customers 45 days prior to their automatic subscription renewal or a continuous service charge thanks to a new law signed by Hochul.
Environmental advocates, doctors and organic farmers continued their call for Hochul to sign the Birds and Bees Protection Act, which bans the use of corn, wheat and soybean seeds treated with neonicotinoid pesticides.
The ASPCA commended Hochul for signing S.2163-B into law to protect New York horses from being sold and transported for slaughter.
Hochul once again rejected a top advisory board’s recommendation for the state to embrace setting up facilities for people to use drugs under the supervision of medical staff.
Hochul’s administration this week announced the first round of funding for water and sewer projects that will be partially funded by the $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act of 2022 approved by voters last year.
The city’s largest public-sector union sued Mayor Eric Adams and his administration over looming budget cuts, the latest sign the planned spending reductions are hurting the mayor’s political coalition at a particularly difficult time in Adams’ tenure.
The union, DC 37, which represents 150,000 city employees and nearly 90,000 retirees, described the lawsuit as a “difficult step” on Wednesday and said it’s suing in response to the proposed elimination of the Job Training Participant Program.
The Civilian Complaint Review Board said it is suspending several categories of investigations into police misconduct — including allegations of officers making false statements — due to mandated budget cuts from Adams.
An anonymous donor has temporarily saved the GrowNYC compost collection sites at the city’s greenmarkets after Adams’ budget cuts threatened to shut them down entirely.
The City Council is considering a package of legislation aimed at overhauling regulations for street vendors, including a bill that would prohibit criminal penalties for street vending and a sweeping measure intended to lift the city’s cap on vendor licenses.
Owners of brick-and-mortar businesses, street vendors and government officials were in rare agreement during a City Council hearing yesterday.
A Big Apple “slumlord” has retained his infamous title of being the city’s worst landlord, according to a new report released by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.
Daniel Ohebshalom — also known as Daniel Shalom — had a “staggering” 3,293 open violations this year across over 300 apartments in 15 buildings he owns, Williams said.
Democrats in the Albany County Legislature may vote today on whether the chamber will have a new leader come January. Chairman Andrew Joyce is trying to fend off a challenge by Deputy Chairwoman Wanda Willingham.
A major factor in The College of Saint Rose’s undoing was the assumption that its 2021 enrollment would almost immediately bounce back to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.
Calling it a “poor use of this revenue” Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy has again used his veto pen on a recently adopted $109 million budget that allocated millions of dollars more in federal stimulus money to offset a deficit in the city’s trash collection fund.
Nearly 1,500 soldiers and civilian personnel will be headed to Fort Drum in 2025 as the base has been chosen to house the Army’s second Multi-Domain Task Force along with a site in Wiesbaden, Germany, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer announced.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
