Portland, Oregon, and sloe gin fizz
Whew, what a month! A lot of has happened since I last sent one of these, and we have a whole new impeachment trial to look forward to. In the meantime, I have a big new piece up at Arc Digital on how libertarian ideas can improve our pandemic response. Libertarianism was much maligned in the early days of COVID, with Atlantic writer Derek Thompson’s line “there are no libertarians in a pandemic” becoming a popular refrain on Twitter (although it’s not clear that Derek himself meant it all that seriously). I argue that the past year has vindicated libertarian critiques of the regulatory state and the criminal justice system, and explore the cases for at-home rapid antigen tests, vaccine reciprocity with the UK, alternative dosing strategies, and markets for vaccinations. Read it here.
Unfortunately, Oregon is among the worst-performing states in the US on vaccinations. I have a short post on Medium about how the state’s strict guidelines are likely to lead to doses being thrown in the trash, as has already happened at least once.
When I sent out the previous newsletter on Christmas Eve, I thought I was done publishing for 2020. As it turned out, I found one more story to write on December 30 and it was the most popular thing I wrote all year. In brief, the FDA had unexpectedly notified craft distillers who had made hand sanitizer that they suddenly owed more than $14,000 in fees for the privilege of doing so. I covered the issue for Reason, not expecting a story about FDA regulations coming out during the holidays to get much attention. In fact, it went ridiculously viral, with people all over the political map upset at how the agency was penalizing small businesses that stepped up to do a good deed.
The good news? The coverage prompted a late-night meeting at Health and Human Services, and within a day they smacked down the new FDA rules and exempted emergency sanitizer producers from these unexpected fees. As someone who writes about destructive government regulations rather frequently, typically to no effect, this was a gratifying change of pace!
Lastly, on my blog I have my annual post about the best books I read in 2020.
Recommended reading
A few suggestions related to topics I covered in my Arc Digital piece: Arpit Gupta on cognitive biases that have undermined COVID responses; Matt Yglesias with a longer look at human challenge trials; Tim Harford on the rapidly changing evaluation of first-doses-first; and Angela Rasmussen and Ilan Schwartz with an argument against the strategy.
Read Martin Gurri on “post-journalism” and the evolution of the New York Times’ editorial and reporting culture over the past four years, with discussion of its Trump coverage and the 1619 Project.
Conor Friedersdorf writes about America’s “shadow death row,” the secret kill lists of people targeted by drones with no legal recourse.
Eli Dourado on the technologies that could transform the 2020s.
Mexico City’s once thriving dining scene is suffering due to the combination of reduced demand, indoor and outdoor dining restrictions, and lack of financial support. Los Angeles Times reporter Kate Linthicum looks into the challenges, including updates from one the best restaurants I’ve ever visited, the wonderful Nicos.
Take a break from politics and the pandemic with this expedition to survey seabirds on remote Alaskan islands with stunning photography in Hakai.
Social distancing
To listen: I’m digging the new EP from Widowspeak, Honeychurch, especially their dreamy cover of Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet.”
To cook: I’d heard great things about the Sichuan sauces from Fly by Jing, so I finally picked up their chili crisp and zhong sauce. They’re both really good, but it’s the latter that stands out as worthy of putting on top of just about everything. Unsurprisingly, I started out with pizza, slathering a pie with zhong sauce, mozzarella, Chinese sausage, and scallions. It’s also delicious dressing up a simple egg and rice, and I’m sure I’ll be finding lots more uses for it.
To drink: Way back in 2004, Loretta Lynn and Jack White sang in “Portland, Oregon”:
Well, sloe gin fizz works mighty fast
When you drink it by the pitcher and not by the glass, uh huh, uh huh
Hey bartender, before you close
Pour us one more drink and a pitcher to go
It’s a great song, but this drink order was hardly advisable, especially given the quality of sloe gin you’d have found in early 2000s Portland. And a pitcher to go? Definitely not legal, though maybe Jack and Loretta could persuade a bartender to make it happen.
Seventeen years later, this order makes a lot more sense. We can buy real sloe gin now. And cocktails to-go, improbably, are legal, albeit with the purchase of a substantial food item. Today the only unrealistic line in the song is the part about being “in a booth in the corner with the lights down low.” Indoor drinking? Not anytime soon, sorry.
This struck me as occasion enough to revisit the Sloe Gin Fizz, a drink unfairly maligned by association with the overly sweet artificial sloe gins that took up space on the bottom shelves of American liquor stores in the dark ages of mixology. Quality sloe gin infused with actual sloe berries returned to the United States in 2008 thanks to Plymouth and now there are a variety of good sloe gins on the market.
A typical recipe calls for sloe gin, lemon, egg white, and soda. Many modern takes cut the sloe gin with dry gin; even though sloe gin isn’t as sweet as some other liqueurs, I’m on board with this idea.
Alas, egg white cocktails would not be my pick for serving by the pitcher or taking to-go. This is a drink you want to consume one at a time right after mixing it. Try this version:
1 1/4 oz sloe gin
3/4 oz gin
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz rich simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water)
1 egg white
soda
Combine all but the soda and shake without ice to aerate the egg white. Add ice and shake again. Pour a few ounces of soda into a glass, preferably a small fizz glass chilled in the freezer. Strain the cocktail into the soda, producing a soft, fluffy head, and serve right away.
A couple side notes: What does the Sloe Gin Fizz have to do with Portland anyway? The Willamette Week looked into the question a few years ago and came up with a few speculative guesses, none of them conclusive. And if this post persuades you to buy a bottle of sloe gin, you can find another cocktail to make with it in my November 10 newsletter.
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If you enjoy this newsletter, whether you read it for the articles or just for the cocktails at the bottom, consider forwarding it on to someone you know who might like it, too.
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