top of page
Search

Straight from the bog

Wednesday 6/7/23

Each day I drink a third of a bottle of cranberry juice from Trader Joe's. This is the cranberry juice that is undiluted and unsweetened. I like the new label--it's rather Pop Art, but Pop Art as done through a 1970s lens.


There is no slogan for this cranberry juice, but if I was assigned to author one, it would either be "The cranberry juice that's straight from the bog!" or "The juice that means business!"


Think I'm overstating the smack-you-inside-the-mouth potency of this cranberry juice, do you? Grab a bottle sometime and you tell me if this juice straight from the bog doesn't mean business.


I have a thing for intense liquids. The Dunkin' Donuts Midnight blend--black--is another. I will even stand there and wait for the two minutes it takes to be brewed, which I won't do for anything else.


I spend as little of my life as possible being waited on or finessing some drink order. My aim is to transact in the shortest amount of time possible. (It's a separate matter, but being waited on makes me uncomfortable. It's one reason why even if I had a life or when I do I would have very little interest in eating in a restaurant.)


When I drink that Midnight blend I know it is doing something healthy to me. I think it kills germs on the inside. It feels that way, anyhow. And if there is plaque in any arteries, the plaque succumbs to the mighty Midnight blend and is carried off.


I'm not saying this should be the slogan for the Midnight blend, but if it was "Arterial plaque doesn't stand a chance!" I would read that and nod knowingly and drink.


The Midnight blend itself is the color of that soot that Donner puts on Rudolph's nose in the Christmas special because he's ashamed of his son and wants to dupe Santa who of course catches on and lashes out at both son and father. The adults aren't very nice in that special, love it though I do.


My youngest niece, who is three, is a weird little person. She has a very pirate-like energy. I find this pretty cool. Very few qualities in life are as important as energy. It animates everything good.


The other day I heard her burbling invective in the background. Happy invective, one might say, but she changes with alacrity and will throw hands just like that, before once again returning to sweetness and light.


I'm someone who has policies. With some things. It is useful to have policies in place, if they are wise and not limiting. That means one will answer to a pre-established standard that was created for good reason. One can never go wrong with that topic in question, because one is adhering to the policy.


If later someone says, "He did this and that and it was so awful"--and even if you don't remember the specific interaction with that person--I always do--you instantly know that you didn't do it because you know you never violated your official policy on that particular matter. Then you can do what you need to do, reprisal-wise.



Comments


Commenting has been turned off.
bottom of page