There is a slow degradation of society happening that is often head through assertions that today’s youngsters (as in 21, but barely so) are less healthy and less educated than preceding generations. But there is another measurement that should be taken into account and that is their drinking habits.
There is a certain downward spiral that has been happening for the past 60 years. Our grandparents drank brandy from snifters and threw their heads back in laughter while sharing a Tom Collins. They learned how to dance the twist, the jitterbug, and the cha cha. They spent money on dry-cleaning their three-piece suits and stiff dresses to go out and enjoy themselves.
Even our hippie parents wore bell-bottomed jeans, leather boots and butterfly collars and spent time learning some disco moves. And although there was a decline in the drink culture resulting in canned beer and boxed wine, the Harvey Wallbanger with an exotic Italian herbal liqueur became haute couture.
Today’s male bar clientele wear their pants so low that everyone around them is privy to their underpants (and they don’t even wear underwear with interesting prints or fascinating fabric). They wear sunglasses at night. They complete their outfit with baseball caps with the tags still on them and instead of dress shoes they choose footwear more befitting an afternoon tag football game. They order with the contraction “k’geta” without the simple pleasantries of “please’ and “thank you.” None of them have bothered to learn any dance moves and rather think that a three-way dry hump is the way to impress their friends. They drink cheap vodka mixed with artificial sweeteners and inexpensive rum dropped into heavily marketed energy drinks.
As the nation puts more resources into improving our schools and bolstering better lifestyle choices, might we encourage the weekend bar patron to pull up one’s pants, try a Manhattan and use complete sentence? Upon these changes, there is no doubt that America’s potential would skyrocket and we could once again pride ourselves in each generation outliving and out earning those before it.
The Manhattan
.5 ounce of Dolin’s Sweet Vermouth
3.5 ounces of Jefferson Reserve Bourbon
4 splashes Angostura Bitters
Shake with ice and serve up
First printed in The Source Weekly Wednesday, 21 April 2010 - Columbine Quillen I am a mixologist bartender and this is my blog.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
K’geta shot of Everclear with Red Bull?
By the way, that drink is beautiful. It looked like the McDonald’s arches when I glanced at it on FB. Perhaps they would like to add it to their menu.
At a whippersnapperish 22 I’d like to say that I’m holding it down for craft cocktails, and ask if you’re really judging fairly. It seems to me that the mass market of any age is a crowd with poor taste in drink and clothes. Young people are also less likely to have the spending money to get good stuff or the knowledge to know what they actually like.
On a lighter note, you must really like that bourbon. That is the driest Manhattan I’ve seen in a while.