Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Three Beautiful Things 12-08-20: Basketball - Briefly, Val and Bourbon Renewal, Bill Davie Performs and Reads Donald Hall Prose

 1. I watched parts or all of three college basketball games today. It almost hurt I wanted so badly for Creighton to defeat Kansas, but thanks to some failures at the free throw line (and one miss with barely a second left to play), Creighton lost to the Jayhawks, 73-72. 

I was eager to watch Iowa play North Carolina since the powerful Iowa team will play Gonzaga on December 19th (unless the season is suspended or one of the teams has virus problems). Iowa has a strong core of returning players, some mind-boggling sharpshooters from beyond the arc, and the muscular, tireless Luka Garza at center. North Carolina could not, in the long run, contain both Garza inside and Iowa's firepower from outside and Iowa won this game, 93-80.  

If the Gonzaga/Iowa game is, indeed, played, it will be a fascinating matchup. Both teams are powerful on offense and Gonzaga will be stoutly challenged to defend Luka Garza inside. He's strong, agile, relentless, experienced, and versatile. In short, a tall (pardon the pun) order. 

Because it was on during Bill Davie's concert tonight, I hardly watched the older, more talented Illinois Fighting Illini dispatch the Duke Blue Devils, 83-68. 

2. I already wrote on this blog that on Monday, I received a most generous and tasty care package from Val Sanford. But I'm going to write it again. The box included Plantation's Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum, Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey,  Jacquin's Creme de Cassis (Black Currant liqueur), and Peach Bitters.

Val sent me this box so that I could make myself a cocktail called Bourbon Renewal, a cocktail Dave Veldhuizen introduced to her and that she loves.  Until I actually got down to mixing it tonight, I thought the drink included all of the booze she sent me, but I was wrong. Val sent me the rum to sip over ice on its own. The Bourbon Renewal blends bourbon, Creme de Cassis, Peach Bitters, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and simple syrup. 

So, during halftime of one of today's games, I made a small batch of simple syrup and then, around 6:30, I got out my cocktail shaker, put some ice it it, and mixed together 2 oz of bourbon, 1 oz of lemon juice, .5 oz of Creme de Cassis, and .5 oz of simple syrup. The recipe calls for a dash of bitters, but I am not that subtle of a guy and I shook out three or four dashes. I shook this mixture and poured it into a old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice and garnished it with a lemon slice.

It's an awesome cocktail with just the right layers of sweet and sour. The subtle brown sugary taste of the bourbon plus the raisiny sweetness of the Creme de Cassis and the small amount of simple syrup is offset beautifully by the lemon juice and the bitters. I almost got greedy about halfway through Bill's concert and mixed myself a second, but, instead, I freshened the ice in my glass and enjoyed a short pour of the Siggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum. Whoa! Loved it!

Both the fifth of rum and the fifth of bourbon have a bunch of writing about the liquor on the bottle label. Soon, I will sit down and read these labels and find out more about these exquisite liquors Val sent me. 

3. Bill Davie presented Tree House Concert #32 this evening, live on Facebook, from his Christmas lights lit studio in suburban Seattle. Bill had wondered if he would be able to play more than about a half an hour tonight because of physical pain he's experiencing. He overcame the pain and the concert lasted twice that long. His music selections were spot on, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes surreal. Instead of reading poetry tonight, Bill read the elegant, elegiac prose of Donald Hall, heartfelt passages from two of Hall's books: String Too Short to be Saved and A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety. The Donald Hall selections ranged from a story Hall recalls from his youth when he attended the 75th wedding anniversary of a couple -- the man is 100 years old, the woman 92 (I think) and the young Donald Hall comes to find out that the husband no longer knows the name of his wife to the indignities Donald Hall suffered as it became too dangerous for him to drive a car any longer.

A sidenote: I've been yearning for a particular kind of prose to read. I plan to order, and own again, Brenda Peterson's collection of essays, Living by Water; I plan to buy Aimee Nezhukumatathil's recent book of essays, World of Wonders; lately, I've been thinking a lot about Carolyn Bly's collection of essays, Letters from the Country (until I gave it away, I loved this book); and, now, thanks to Bill's prose reading tonight, I plan to purchase prose and essays by Donald Hall. What Bill read tonight fits perfectly into the kind of writing I've been thinking a lot about over the last couple of months. 

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