Drinking with Dear Wendy: Black Irish
The world is on fire, the plague is upon us, and many of us are about to see our lives get disrupted in lots of big and small ways, but St. Patrick’s Day is next week and people still have their vices, so I made up a new cocktail. It’s called a Black Irish and it’s only three ingredients: Guinness; Jamison; and Mr. Black, which you may recall from my viral (it wasn’t viral) Martini Espresso video. It’s super easy to make, very delicious, and full of caffeine, striking the perfect balance of taking the edge off while also putting a little fuel in your engine. It got me through the dark days of last week when my gal Warren was annihilated in the primaries, and it’ll get me through the dark days ahead when my kids inevitably have school canceled for who knows how long while the coronavirus continues its global spread. These are crazy times; this drink can help a little.
Here’s how to make it:
6 ounces of Guinness
3/4 ounce of Jamison
1 ounce of Mr. Black coffee liqueur
Add ingredients to a glass, stir, and enjoy!
* Cameo by Drew, enjoying an Car Bomb.
Sounds yummy!
I can’t believe the chaos, panic, and disorder this silly Corona nonsense is causing. It’s Y2K all over again. So much hype.
?
Maybe you’ll get it and finally get your wish to leave this world. That would be hilariously ironic, right?
It’d certainly solve the unsolvable. But nothing in my life is ever that clean or neat. Instead… I just lose out on two long awaited international vacations. Sigh…
Better to lose out on a couple of trips than lose a couple of loved ones, as people will do if others don’t get on board with modifying their lives for a little while.
Which part of the “corona nonsense” is silly, Mark? The part where there’s no cure? The part where there’s no vaccine? The part where cases are doubling every few days all over the world? The part where experts agree, and current data suggests, it is likely much more deadly than influenza (for which we have vaccines)? The part where many Americans are uninsured and don’t have paid sick days so will resist getting care and missing work, thereby exposing countless others to the virus? The part where 18 residents in a single nursing home on Seattle have died from the virus, suggesting the fatality rate for older and immune-compromised individuals is VERY high? Which part is silliest, Mark?
Maybe the part where hospitals will be totally overwhelmed and doctors dead on their feet and can’t see their families and maybe no one able to get the care they need, like what’s happening in Italy right now. So silly!
If you’re a functioning adult you got trip insurance and can change your plans. Or do you even need to? Unless you’re going to Italy, China, Japan, Iran, Korea, you can still travel if you’re young and healthy. My husband is going to Europe today. He’s going to sanitize and elbow-bump and be responsible.
To your point about people not being able to stay home, Wendy, someone at work told me the other day they had just seen a guy leaning against the wall coughing and blood was coming up. Like, he had coughed himself raw and was at work. He was some kind of service worker, maybe by the loading dock, I’m not sure.
Also, I’m a contractor. My company is putting work on pause right now because of what the markets are doing. That could cut my hours (and thus my pay). I do have some sick time, and the ability to work remote, but many people don’t have that.
The part where so far a whopping 31 people have died in the US. Meanwhile In 2017 — the best more multi-source numbers I could find — just shy of 40,000 died from gun violence. FORTY THOUSAND. This pretty much happens year after year. And for this — suddenly, the entire world has gone crazy? Okay, whatever.
It’s also ridiculous how inept our government has been at handling this entire thing. We literally spend trillions on bombs we’ll NEVER use, and yet have no response system in place for this? When pandemics happen fairly routinely?
So far, he biggest factor in the virus’ spread has been sheer incompetence.
Those 31 people died within a very short time of the virus being introduced here, so obviously many many more will die as it spreads.
And 18 of them were from the same nursing home – a nursing home that I think had around 90 residents. This is serious, not silly.
From CNBC today (link below) :
“ Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court, said he expects 70 million to 150 million people in the United States will become infected with COVID-19, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing two sources.”
And: “Infectious disease experts say the virus so far appears to be deadlier and more contagious than the seasonal flu, with many experts and U.S. health officials saying the mortality rate is likely somewhere around 1%, making it at least 10 times as lethal as the flu.”
Me: from everything I’ve read – and I’ve read a lot in the last two weeks – the 1% mortality rate is a conservative estimate. But even so, a 1% mortality rate for the estimated 70 million cases is 700,000.
We need to make serious changes right now to slow this down.
Link: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2020/03/11/up-to-150-million-americans-are-expected-to-contract-the-coronavirus-congressional-doctor-says.html
I’m fairly certain my work office is going to be closing any day now. We had a meeting Friday to talk procedure if we needed to close and it was moved to today.
All non-essential work travel has already been canceled.
countries where healthcare for all has been begrudged will suffer the worst- I’m not just having a pop at America here either- in the UK people have repeatedly voted in a Tory government which has repeatedly starved our NHS, (with aspirations to privatise,) and this is going to show and I hope they are ashamed of themselves.