Chapter one of Mark Schrad’s new book opens with a gut-wrenching episode of state brutality. It’s 1859 in Spassk, Russia, and the tsar himself has dispatched the military to put down a protest of rebellious serfs. Gen. Yegor Petrovich Tolstoy responds ruthlessly, ordering imprisonment, court-martial, hourslong beatings, running of the gantlet, forced labor, and exile to Siberia for the noncompliant. This violent abuse of serfs in the Russian empire is not surprising, but for modern readers, the motivation for their protest likely is. The act of civil disobedience that brought the wrath of the state upon them was their refusal to drink alcohol.
The incident is smartly chosen by Schrad, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University, to startle readers out of their preconceptions about Prohibition. In Smashing the Liquor Machine: A Global History of Prohibition, he seeks to change the way we think about temperance movements by recognizing that they were neither exclusively American nor only the work of rural, white, busybody Protestants. Schrad reveals temperance as a global phenomenon and attempts to reclaim Prohibition, for better or worse, as a fundamentally progressive cause.
Now that the fights over smoking bans have been won and given way to debates over harm reduction, I find that advocates of the latter don’t much like to talk about the former. They’d rather focus on the present and the deep divide in tobacco control between those who support harm reduction and those who pursue a more prohibitionist approach. But this divide didn’t arise by chance; it’s the inheritance of decades in which the field tolerated the publication of bad science, punishment of dissent, and stigmatization of the very people it supposedly sought to help, so long as doing so advanced its political aims. Unfortunately, those strategies were wildly successful. Thus today, when smokers and vapers desperately need someone to defend their liberties, their allies are unequipped to offer effective support.
It should be obvious that this is an irrational way to regulate vaping given that the relevant comparison is to lethally dangerous cigarettes, which remain widely available and essentially unchanged after 12 years of FDA regulation. Yet because the anti-smoking lobby has spent years encouraging moral panic about vaping and decades denigrating the rights of tobacco and nicotine consumers to make their own decisions, the pointless prohibition of a wide swath of far safer nicotine products will likely proceed without much protest from anyone but the small minority of vapers themselves.
If you’ve been smoking cigars for a couple decades, chances are you’ve noticed that finding a place to light up is increasingly difficult. The first statewide smoking ban in bars arrived in California in 1998, and the trend has accelerated ever since. Twenty-eight states now have comprehensive indoor smoking bans on the books. So do more than a thousand American cities and counties. Want to smoke on an outdoor patio instead? There are more than 500 places that restrict that, too. What’s a leisurely cigar smoker to do? We don’t have the technology to travel back in time, but we do have the next best thing: a vacation to Tampa, Florida, where the atavistic pleasures of cigar culture live on.
Here’s my annual list of the best books I read in the past year. A few themes that stand out are concern about threats to liberalism and democracy, ambivalence about social media and alcohol, and interest in the Nordic region. As always, this post is about books I read during the previous year, not the year in which they were published.
Children of Ash and Elm, Neil Price — Price’s history of the Vikings is vivid and beautifully written, smartly forgoing a strictly chronological ordering of events for conceptual chapters exploring the mindsets and experiences of Viking life: spirit, gender, death, freedom, and much more. Highly recommended.
Smashing the Liquor Machine, Mark Schrad — I’m planning to write more about this soon, but for now I’ll just say that this history recasting prohibition as a progressive cause is one of the best books I read all year (and that’s coming from a libertarian cocktail enthusiast). Schrad coincidentally has a piece in the Atlantic today summarizing the thesis, but get the book.
The Fabric of Civilization, Virginia Postrel — Virginia is one of the writers whose books I’ll pick up regardless of topic; her interdisciplinary look at the history and innovation of textiles is fascinating throughout.
Sustaining Democracy, Robert Talisse — Talisse’s Overdoing Democracy made my list last year and the two books are best read as a pair. I may write more about these too, but for now I’ll say that I find his diagnosis of people’s increasing tendencies toward polarization and political “mega-identities” as threats to democracy more and more convincing.
The Constitution of Knowledge, Jonathan Rauch — Thoughtful analysis of the liberal epistemic order, particularly insightful with regard to attacks from the Trump era right.
Twitter and Tear Gas, Zeynep Tufekci — The Portland protests, January 6 insurrection, and some personal projects put Zeynep’s book on technology and protest movements on my radar. Insightful on the uses of social media and the unintended consequences of attempting to control it.
Love and Trouble, Claire Dederer — This arrived in my stack a few years ago but I didn’t pick it up until recently. Sharp, funny, biting, sexy, a fantastic midlife memoir.
How Magicians Think, Joshua Jay — 52 short essays on magic, each framed as an answer to a question magicians are often asked or ask amongst themselves. There’s little discussion of specific methods here, as one would expect in a book for a lay audience, but if you’re interested in magic at an abstract level I think you’ll enjoy this.
How Iceland Changed the World, Egill Bjarnason — Very fun, journalistic take on Iceland’s history and the nation’s often surprising role in world affairs.
My Father Left Me Ireland, Michael Brendan Dougherty — I bought this when it came out for my Irish grandmother, who loved it, but didn’t pick it up myself until an unexpected trip to Ireland this fall. I often disagree with Michael politically, but I appreciate knowing where he’s coming from, and the man can write.
Pandemics, Christian W. McMillen — Part of Oxford’s “very short introduction” series, 121 pages on the history of pandemics. From 2016 but obviously relevant! “For very often history is forgotten or rediscovered only when we confront contemporary epidemics and pandemics, and thus patterns from the past are repeated thoughtlessly.”
Drink?, David Nutt — Nutt makes a case for approaching alcohol less as an inevitable feature of the social landscape and more as a drug to be used (or not used) responsibly. Recommended for background on the health effects of alcohol and for how to drink more mindfully.
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum — I’ve just begun to browse this mammoth 800-page beast, but I’d remiss not to mention it. It’s going to be an incredibly valuable resource if you’re interested in the subject. You’ll also find a few entries from me in here, on aquavit, Batavia-arrack, Scandinavia, and Indonesia.
Brief notes on fiction: I didn’t read a ton of fiction this year, in part because I tend to read novels more when traveling or on vacation, both of which were still cut back considerably from pre-COVID levels. I started the year with the last three books of Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, which were perfect for becoming engrossed in during an isolated post-break-up, pre-vaccine winter. I coincidentally began Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? before leaving for Ireland, and loved her stylistic adventures and portrait of millennial anxiety. Frank Herbert’s Dune never grabbed me in the past, despite enthusiasm for epic sci-fi, but I gave it another try in anticipation of the movie and can’t imagine why I didn’t love it before; I couldn’t put it down this time around. I enjoyed Dune Messiah too, but will likely end my reading in the series there absent a compelling case for continuing further. Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, a story of a kind-natured AI seeking to understand the complexities of human loss and growth, is the novel that will stay with me most.
Have recommendations for me to read in the coming year? Leave them in the comments!
Whoa, I’ve fallen behind on keeping this site updated. Here’s a round-up of what I’ve been writing for the past few months…
Most recently, my latest Substack features an essay on how my sense of what to emphasize and whom to ally with in politics has changed during the Trump years. It’s been well-received by other thoughtful libertarians alarmed by the anti-democratic tendencies taking hold on the right:
Personally, this isn’t a renunciation of the libertarian label so much as it is a change in emphasis. Emphasizing a libertarian identity as a contrast to mainstream Democrats and Republicans makes sense when the worst that can happen is ending up with someone like Barack Obama or Mitt Romney as president. Right now it feels more important to emphasize the longer, wider tradition of liberalism relative to the narrower libertarian movement, even though I situate my own views within both of them. For now, I’m putting liberalism first.
While defending bodily autonomy and personal choice in many other contexts, much of the progressive left has adopted an insufferably illiberal prudishness when it comes to tobacco. Their attitude brings to mind judge Robert Bork’s defense of laws forbidding sexual behaviors: “Knowledge that an activity is taking place is a harm to those who find it profoundly immoral.”
Ban advocates gloss over these concerns by emphasizing that the law would be enforced against sellers, not consumers, of menthol cigarettes. But big tobacco companies have too much on the line to defy the FDA; illicit markets for menthol cigarettes would most likely be run by people within the communities the ban is intended to protect.
Did you hear about the big new study on vaping and COVID-19? If you didn’t, that’s not surprising. The study didn’t find any association between the two—that is, it found no evidence suggesting that people who vape are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease. Research that leads to null results rarely gets much coverage in the media. In this instance, however, it upends the flood of stories throughout the pandemic that reported that vapers are at greater risk.
That’s hotter than has ever been recorded in Atlanta or Houston, cities where buildings are designed for that kind of heat. The handful of Portland bars and restaurants with air conditioning up to the task would have been rewarded with booming business on these days if not for one thing: the state’s COVID restrictions, due to expire today, were still limiting their indoor spaces to half capacity. Few industries have been as hard hit by rigid and often-nonsensical pandemic policies over the last year as the service sector. This week’s failure to adjust at a time when it might have helped both businesses and patrons is just one more blow to the state’s struggling bar and restaurant scene.
That’s the topic of my newest column for Exponents, the online magazine of the Center for New Liberalism:
On Saturday, a group of 40-60 anti-vaccine protesters temporarily shut down a vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The disruption lasted for only about an hour, but the protesters were rightfully condemned for the outrageous presumption to stand between vulnerable people and the lifesaving drug they’d lined up to receive.
Meanwhile, there’s another group blocking access to vaccines far more effectively. Its delays last for months, take place on a national scale, and are far more damaging, potentially costing tens of thousands of lives. That group? The Food and Drug Administration.
Americans have protested all kinds of restrictions during the pandemic, from polite requests to wear masks to substantial social distancing restrictions that have contributed to the closure of tens of thousands of businesses. Yet one of the most consequential limitations on our freedom has sparked virtually no public protest at all: the denial of access to vaccines that can finally bring life back to normal, including one that has already been authorized for use in Europe and injected into millions of arms in the United Kingdom. When the FDA delays the authorization of vaccines, most of us just passively accept that we have to wait.
The COVID-19 pandemic had barely taken hold in the United States when principled libertarianism was reported to be among the early fatalities. “There are no libertarians in a pandemic,” Atlantic writer Derek Thompson quipped on Twitter on March 3. […]
But that doesn’t mean libertarians haven’t made valuable contributions to the discourse surrounding COVID. The “no libertarians in a pandemic” line was soon taken up by libertarians themselves as a sardonic response to numerous instances of government failure. In fact, libertarian criticism of the regulatory state has been frequently vindicated. Libertarians have developed ideas for how to compensate those affected by business closures, take better advantage of testing, and develop and distribute vaccines more rapidly. Libertarians can also rightly condemn some of the worst actors in the pandemic, from anti-maskers violating private property rights to the prison system’s oversight of the nation’s largest outbreaks.
There are libertarians in a pandemic, and it turns out they have some good ideas and insightful critiques.
According to the COVID vaccine tracker maintained by Bloomberg, Oregon has administered only about a quarter of its vaccine inventory. That puts us near the very bottom of the country, ahead of only four other states. This week, the Oregonian also reported that one of Oregon’s health providers had allowed twenty-seven of those doses to go to waste because it was unable to find eligible healthcare workers to receive them. Twenty-seven doses is a tiny fraction of the state’s allocation, but every expired vaccine that goes into the trash instead of someone’s arm is a potential policy failure, so I was curious about how this happened and whether it’s likely to occur in the future.
And yesterday for Reason, I wrote about a legally dubious proposal from Oregon’s vaccine advisory committee to allocate vaccines explicitly by race:
The committee appears poised to prioritize allocation based on race, perhaps even ahead of those with chronic medical conditions. The Oregonian reports that when some members suggested prioritizing residents with relevant health conditions, a committee member representing a Native American group alleged that the committee was “dealing with our own conditioning of white supremacy as it is showing up in our decision making.” Black, indigenous, and other people of color (often abbreviated “BIPOC”) made the committee’s tentative list, with their priority vis-a-vis Oregonians at risk from chronic medical conditions to be determined later.
Also for Reason, I have a follow-up to my article on the FDA’s surprise fees on distilleries that produced hand sanitizer. That story went ridiculously viral, which thankfully brought about a happy ending: the agency was forced to reverse itself within a day.
Lastly, a reminder that you can receive regular updates and cocktail recipes from me in my Substack newsletter. It’s free and comes out semi-regularly. The latest revisits the Sloe Gin Fizz, legally permitted for the first time ever in Portland, Oregon, in a pitcher to go.
I feel like I should have read more books this year, given that I spent most of it underemployed and stuck at home. Then again, I typically do much of my reading in coffee shops and airplanes, neither of which I’ve had occasion to spend time in for the past nine months. I also wrote another book, which is rather time-consuming. Below is my annual post of books that stood out for me in 2020. (That’s when I read them, not necessarily when they were published.)
The Narrow Corridor, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson — If there was an apt year for diving deep into the relationship of liberty and state capacity, it was certainly this one. Recommended for its wide-ranging exploration of state and society, economic development, and the fragility of liberalism.
Apollo’s Arrow, Nicholas Christakis — An impressively good book to get out in such a short period of time, providing a broad overview of this strange pandemic year and situating it in historical context.
Spillover, David Quammen — This was a re-read for me, but a worthwhile one as we found ourselves in the midst of a zoonotic outbreak of the type predicted in this book in 2012. I revisited it in a blog post back in March.
The Seabird’s Cry, Adam Nicolson — After the long election, I desperately needed a break from politics and picked up this book about seabirds, a lovingly informative look into the lives of ten different species. It’s exceptionally good nature writing.
Something Deeply Hidden, Sean Carroll — This was the first book in a long time that brought back the wonder and excitement of reading speculative physics books like Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe back in high school. This one makes a tantalizing case for the many-worlds hypothesis to explain quantum weirdness.
Weird, Olga Khazan — Speaking of weird, I enjoyed Atlantic writer Olga Khazan’s blend of first-hand reporting on people who turned their weirdness into a superpower and her own recollections of growing up as a Russian outsider in Texas. (As a weird Texan adolescent myself, I could relate .)
Calling Bullshit, Carl Bergstrom and Jevon West — This is a fun and informative book about misleading statistics, bad science, and biased news. The examples and illustrations are smartly chosen and it never gets too technical while remaining a very smart read. As a science journalist without formal statistical training, I appreciated the defense of treating some statistical work as a black box that you don’t necessarily need to know the inner workings of. (Bonus surprise: Finding my friend’s research on workplace wellness programs discussed in the chapter on selection bias.)
Lakota America, Pekka Hämäläinen — I have no excuse for not knowing more about Native American history and read this comprehensive new book on the Lakotas to begin addressing that. Highly recommended.
Overdoing Democracy, Robert Talisse — From one of my undergraduate philosophy professors, Overdoing Democracy contends that part of what ails American democracy is that we’re simply doing too much of it, losing our capacity to relate to each other outside of our political roles. Especially relevant as we can hopefully turn down the temperature post-Trump.
History Has Begun, Bruno Maçães — I just finished this and its mode of analysis is so different from what I’m used to that I don’t quite know what to make of it yet. That said, its discussion of Trump, COVID, and American politics’ venture into unreality is engaging and thought-provoking.
The United States of Cocktails, Brian Bartels — More than a book about cocktails, this love letter to American bar and drinking culture is an especially welcome escape in this year that we’ve all been stuck at home.
Brief notes on fiction: I started the year with Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan’s indescribably weird and gritty Gould’s Book of Fish, set mostly in a fantastical and cruel nineteenth century Australian prison; recommended but I’d suggest The Narrow Road to the Deep Northfirst. Giovanni’s Room was my long overdue introduction to James Baldwin. Jumping on bandwagons, I loved Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend, with the rest of the Neapolitan novels now next on my to-read list. Daniel Mueenuddin’s short story collection In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, set in Pakistan, is excellent. I really liked Emily St. John Mandel’s new book The Glass Hotel, very loosely inspired by Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s Fleishman Is in Trouble is funny, surprising, and brilliantly constructed as its perspective shifts from the titular character to that of the novel’s women.
What should I add to my list for next year? Recommendations welcome!
I thought I was done publishing for the year, but never underestimate the American government’s capacity to surprise. Over at Reason, I have an infuriating story about how distillers who pivoted from spirits to hand sanitizer during the early days of the pandemic are getting hit with unexpected fees of more than $14,000 by the FDA. It looks like this is my most widely-read piece of the year and I didn’t even know I was going to write it when I woke up yesterday. Go check it out!
With temperatures dropping and rain and snow on the horizon, many businesses have been putting up more substantial structures to shelter diners from the elements. These range from simple umbrellas and heaters to massive communal tents, the latter often so thoroughly enclosed as to raise the question of whether they meaningfully count as being outdoors at all. Some cities have issued guidance about how to adapt outdoor dining for cold weather, while for others it’s a free-for-all.
Those of us who love bars and restaurants are thus faced with a dilemma. The seemingly carefree ease of al fresco dining in the summer has been replaced by difficult tradeoffs between comfort and safety. We want to help our favorite places survive the winter, but we’re on our own when it comes to evaluating the risks of various outdoor dining set-ups. Where is one to begin?
The popular perception is that consumers have compensated for lost bar and restaurant sales by purchasing more liquor to drink at home. While there’s some truth to that, aggregate statistics obscure the fact that the gains have not been evenly distributed. Established liquor brands are reaping the benefits of increased retail sales, but craft distillers are getting crushed.
“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”
So goes an old proverb that one could adapt for other things that take time to reach maturity. Eggnog, for example. The best time to make your Christmas eggnog is before Thanksgiving. The second-best time is now.
These are some of the items I get the most use of throughout the year. If you’re shopping for someone who’s into cocktails, coffee, cooking, travel, or apparel, you might find something of interest. (NB: If you purchase from Amazon links, I’ll get a referral.)
Bull in China Stirred Cocktail Set — I tested hundreds of cocktail recipes this year for my next book and every stirred cocktail was made in a Bull in China mixing glass. Bull in China is a Portland brand recently relaunched by my friend Matan Steinfeld, selling stylish professional gear to working bars and enthusiastic consumers. Their entire selection is worth checking out, but I particularly like this stirred cocktail set that provides everything you need to make quality stirred drinks like Manhattans, Martinis, and Negronis. It comes with their excellent mixing glass, a jigger with measurements ranging from 1/4 oz to 2 oz, a spiral spoon, and a Hawthorne strainer. Matan has also kindly offered a discount code to readers of this blog. Get $15 off the whole set with code “LIQUIDITYPREF” at checkout, now through December 17.
Chocolate bitters — I wrote a few months ago about my love for chocolate bitters. They’re extremely useful and they’re my go-to addition to a bitters line-up after the big three of Angostura, orange, and Peychaud’s. There are lots of good ones out there, but a couple available online that I recommend are Scrappy’s from Seattle and Pitch Dark from the Portland Bitters Project.
Metal Aeropress filter — Metal Aeropress filters are designed for making coffee, but that’s rarely how I use them. (I prefer the clean profile of a paper filter with that brewing method). So why include these here? I’ve found them to very handy when I need to strain things out of spirits or bitters that are too small to be caught by a fine mesh strainer. When a cork disintegrates in your bottle or a spice infusion kicks off a bunch of sediment, a quick pass through one of these in an Aeropress will take care of it.
Lewis bag and ice mallet — Do you really need a specialized bag and hammer for smashing ice? Probably not, but if you’re anything like me you’ll end up using them far more often than you expect to once you finally bring a set home. A handful of cocktails are just better when they’re served on finely crushed ice, and smashing it yourself is both easy and a form of stress relief. Bull in China makes an extremely attractive and well-made set, but for lower budgets there are less sexy options that still get the job done.
Gammel Dansk — This obscure Danish spirit is hard to find, having just recently been re-imported to the United States, but it’s a great gift for anyone who likes bitter spirits like Fernet-Branca or Campari. It’s intensely bitter without the offsetting sweetness typical of Italian amari, taking it to a different level of challenge drink that’s highly enjoyable for those who like that sort of thing. In Denmark it’s associated with morning coffee and outdoor hikes. (Disclosure: I formerly worked for the company that produces this.)
Temperature-controlled kettle — What do you get for a coffee lover who already has a good brewer, grinder, and scale? There’s a decent chance they could still benefit from a better kettle. A few years ago, I upgraded my basic electric kettle to one that has digital temperature control. A typical kettle takes water to a boil, but you generally want a lower temperature for brewing coffee or tea, so you end up having to guess at a time for the water to cool slightly. Being able to simply set the temperature you want is a worthwhile step up, and if you brew with a pour over method you’ll appreciate the gooseneck spout. (I’ve yet to try the specific model linked here, as I’m currently replacing my old Bonavita that began malfunctioning after a couple years of use, but reviews are very positive.)
Manual coffee grinder — After suffering through too many miserable hotel coffees while traveling for work, I finally invested in a travel coffee set-up. On the road I pack one of these little manual grinders. Is it as consistent as my home grinder? No. Is it kind of annoying to grind by hand? Definitely. But the purpose of this isn’t to make a perfect cup, it’s to brew coffee that’s heads and tails above what you find in most hotels. An added bonus of this model is that it’s designed to fit snugly within the chamber of an Aeropress, minimizing the space it takes up in your luggage. (The other components of my travel set are a compact scale and an electric heating coil.)
Coffee from Proud Mary — I got to know Proud Mary from their amazing cafes in Melbourne. A few years ago they expanded to the United States with a new roastery in Portland, where they consistently make some of my favorite coffees in the city. I particularly like their “wild” coffees made with less common processing methods to bring out unusual flavors, such as their current “Full Noise” offering, but anything you order from them is bound to be good.
Pizza pans from Lloyd — If you’ve followed my recent writing, you know I’ve been obsessed with making pizza this year. There are a ton of gifts you could give a pizza-loving friend or family member, from a baking steel to an outdoor oven, but perhaps the most affordable and easiest is a pan from Lloyd Pans, a small company based in the Pacific Northwest. Pizza makers swear by them, especially the 10 x 14-inch Detroit pizza pan [Amazon; Lloyd]. I’ve also been getting a lot of use out of their 7-inch personal pan, which is great for cooking solo. The pans deliver a great crust yet they release easily and clean up with hardly any effort. If you want to ease into making better pizza at home, there’s no better way to do it.
Tortilla press — Making fresh tortillas is worth the effort. I’m not saying you need to nixtamalize corn from scratch, but if you can find fresh masa (such as from Three Sisters in Oregon, or from your local tortilleria), you can make tortillas that are far better than what you buy at the store with just a little bit of practice. You can get a cast iron press for under $40. Do it. You won’t go back.
Sichuan ingredients from Mala Market — I cook Sichuan food more than anything else at home, and ingredients from Mala Market are a complete gamechanger. This small importer in Nashville brings in hard-to-find ingredients that are far better than what you typically find in US stores. If you’ve never had a really high-quality Sichuan peppercorn, theirs will blow your mind. Their Pixian chili bean paste, flakes for making chili oil, and sesame paste also find frequent use in my kitchen. And if you want to splurge, their Zhongba soy sauce has incredible depth of flavor that makes it excellent for finishing dishes. (Out of stock items are expected to arrive soon.)
Atheist shoes — I picked up a pair of boots from this quirky Berlin shoe brand on my first trip to the city years ago, and they’re still looking great with a little weathering and a more than a few cocktails spilled onto them. I love everything about them, from the soft leather to the unusual design and unique sole. One note: If you need lots of padding and support in the soles, these may not be the best fit for you, although I personally find them comfortable to wear all day. They come in a few styles and a wide range of colors, the Das Petrol shown here being my favorite.
Thursday boots— For everyday wear, Thursday Boots have become my go-to, practically living in their “Captain” boot (on days when I leave the apartment, anyway). They’re not cheap, but they’re more affordable than similar leather boots, and after more than a year of frequent wear they’re still in great shape and very comfortable.
Far Afield “Porter” shirt jacket — I had to include at least one corduroy item. As fall arrived this year, I picked up this corduroy shirt jacket from Far Afield in the UK. It’s casual, comes in multiple colors, and is the perfect weight for slightly chilly weather. And did I mention it’s corduroy?
Thousands bike helmet — I spent most of my life biking without a helmet (I know, I know) until a friend finally shamed me into buying one a couple years ago. The problem is that most helmets are rather ugly. Helmets from Thousands are an exception, and now I wear one without even thinking about it. The magnetic fastener and pop-out hole for securing to your bike lock are both smart additions to the design. [Thousands; Amazon.]
Weekenders sunglasses — I lose or scratch my sunglasses too often to spend a lot of money on them. These glasses from Huckberry strike the perfect compromise between price and style. They look good, they’re comfortable, and at just $35 you won’t feel too bad when you inevitably leave them somewhere.
Topo Commuter briefcase — This rugged laptop bag from Topo Designs in Denver traveled all around the country with me, back when travel was a thing. It’s got ample padding for your computer, room for books and other items, and a convenient zippered compartment up front. One of my favorite things about it is that it easily converts from a messenger-style bag to a backpack, so that you can switch it up to whichever is most practical in a given situation. (Available in multiple colors, but this green one is currently on a very good sale.)
My latest piece for Inside Hook examines the increasingly sheltered outdoor structures restaurants and bars are putting up as the weather gets colder:
With temperatures dropping and rain and snow on the horizon, many businesses have been putting up more substantial structures to shelter diners from the elements. These range from simple umbrellas and heaters to massive communal tents, the latter often so thoroughly enclosed as to raise the question of whether they meaningfully count as being outdoors at all. Some cities have issued guidance about how to adapt outdoor dining for cold weather, while for others it’s a free-for-all.
Those of us who love bars and restaurants are thus faced with a dilemma. The seemingly carefree ease of al fresco dining in the summer has been replaced by difficult tradeoffs between comfort and safety. We want to help our favorite places survive the winter, but we’re on our own when it comes to evaluating the risks of various outdoor dining set-ups. Where is one to begin?
Jacob Grier writes about public policy, lifestyle, and books in Portland, Oregon. His own books are The New Prohibition, Raising the Bar (with Brett Adams), The Rediscovery of Tobacco, and Cocktails on Tap. He has written for a wide spectrum of publications, including Slate, Reason, The Atlantic, The Washington Examiner, Inside Hook, Imbibe, and many others.
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