It’s beginning to look a lot like the economy is gasping and struggling. But you already knew that. All the bars and restaurants are closed in many places. All the workers are staying home. All the workers who are able to. I’ve been wondering how much of the economy is driven by consumer spending alone, and apparently it’s 70%. The economy appears to me, a person of little math skill and more verbal ability, like a house of cards, like shifting sands, like there is no foundation. Congress seems set to pass a consumer relief package to prop up the economy. I am happy that people will get help. I am happy that rents and prescriptions will be covered. I am happy that kids will be able to eat. I fully support this relief package. But are we putting a frame behind a corpse and propping it up while it continues to decay? Time will tell.
The stock market is falling. Working people have no idea how they will make rent. The stores are out of food and toilet paper. The occupier of the Oval Office has finally decided to say that this is not a hoax. The pandemic is real and serious, according to the White House. But it’s too late. The number of lab verified infections worldwide has surpassed 200,000 yet in the US there are multitudes untested, perhaps as many as 10 per every positive US test. The number of lab confirmed cases is over 6200 today. Even I can do that math. And we are still on the upward slope.
Meanwhile, San Franciscans are rollerblading and strolling on the Embarcadero, and spring breakers are crowding Florida beaches. The fact that the so-called President trivialized and politicized this pandemic early on has led to a large cohort of people not only refusing to take it seriously, but flaunting their defiance of CDC recommendations and boasting about their patriotism. It’s the opposite of caring for your neighbor. But they’re having fun.
Here in rural Idaho it’s starting to look like spring. I cleared the leaves from the iris rhizomes and the primroses yesterday. I did yoga, I ran, and we took a walk together in the evening. Husband is doing outside chores like grocery shopping. Youngest daughter is planning to self-isolate at the cabin for two weeks as her Americorps position at the Grand Canyon comes to a premature close. It is a time of disappointment and uncertainty. If only we could pull together and mitigate the damage. Do something positive for someone today. Call and check on a friend or relative. Bring groceries to someone shut in. Connect with another human.
The Corpse Reviver No. 2 is a classic cocktail flavored with absinthe (licorice) sweet and bitter orange, bitter quinine and lemon. I don’t have the classic Lillet Blanc in my liquor stash, but I have plenty of gin and absinthe (I smuggled a bottle of Le Perroquet home from Paris when it was still illegal in the US). I have combined the flavors in a way that you might have in your home to create a similar cocktail that is less specialized. Don’t be afraid of the absinthe. The flavor is subtle, and the overall effect is refreshing.
For two:
1 cup of lemon San Pellegrino or lemon juice and sugar in soda water to taste
1 cup of tonic water
2 tsp absinthe
2 ounces of gin
2 ounces of orange liqueur such as Grand Marnier, Cointreau or a less expensive substitute
Put a teaspoon of absinthe in each of two chilled old fashioned glasses and swirl it around to coat the sides. Stir the gin and orange liqueur together with ice to chill and strain into each glass. Combine the carbonated beverages and pour over the liquors, stirring to mix. Garnish with a twist of lemon.
Toast to your neighbors and pledge to do something positive each day.
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