Lots of gems of self-medication here:

It was a similar scene a century ago when Spanish flu ravaged the globe and the panicked masses turned to alcohol – as well as onions and opium – to ward off the disease. In her book Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History, academic Catharine Arnold reports sales of whisky, a popular home remedy for colds and flu, soared during the outbreak. And in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, “One brave soul… recommended 14 straight gins in quick succession as a cure for Spanish flu.”

Others took a more sophisticated tack. London’s Savoy Hotel reputedly created the modern version of the corpse reviver during the pandemic. Versions of the cocktail had been recorded since the mid-19th century, but The Savoy wrote the definitive recipe using Cognac, Calvados apple brandy and sweet vermouth. Simply stir over ice, strain into a chilled glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel (umbrella optional). The name referenced its powers as a hangover tonic rather than anything flu related, but corpse reviver proved a darkly apt title for the times. The Savoy Cocktail Book published in 1930 recommends its consumption before 11am “or whenever steam or energy is needed”.

The gin cure is sure to never go bad.

"The small plane arced over a blue lagoon near the Caribbean Sea, flying low above a family in a boat on Tuesday afternoon. As they clapped, it released a pink cloud into the sky.

“Girl! Girl!” a man aboard the boat yelled in Spanish, celebrating the dramatic results of the elaborate gender-reveal stunt for a new baby in the family. “It’s a girl!”

Seconds later, the family’s video shows, the small aircraft plummeted into the 
Nichupté Lagoon, a body of water off the east coast of Cancún, as the family and their guests watched in disbelief.

Both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the crash, authorities later confirmed to local media.

The crash is the latest incident of a gender-reveal celebration that turned fatal. In recent years, a practice that became popular following a 2008 parenting blog post has sparked multiple wildfires, led to several deaths in explosions and caused at least one other plane crash."

I’ve seen a lot of beautiful things in my life. I’ve been in the Sagrada Familia and The Louvre. I’ve seen Vienna and I’ve seen Bangkok. I’ve been at Copan and I’ve been at Ayutthaya. I’ve been in the deserts of New Mexico and I’ve been in the deserts of Bolivia. I’ve walked through Times Square at 3 AM on January 1 after a New Year’s Eve Drive By Truckers show and I’ve seen the last show Chet Atkins ever played. I’ve seen grizzly bears and moose. I’ve seen poison dart frogs and I’ve seen orangutans feeding. I’ve see the resplendent quetzal and I’ve climbed a mountain in Bolivia to view a waterfall where Andean condors from 100 miles or more around come to bathe. I’ve seen the food stalls of Oaxaca and I’ve seen the food stalls of Singapore. Even today, I saw a pair of bald eagles fishing. But I’ve never in my entire life seen something as beautiful as what is in Richmond right now, which I visited this morning.

Seeing the Lee statue right now is incredibly powerful and beautiful. Just an amazing time and place. And I am sure all the super rich whites who live on Monument Avenue are just thrilled…..The Davis and Stuart states are already gone. I don’t know what the plans are for the Lee statue at this time, but I assume it is coming down soon. Insulting the statue through direct action though, this is something to see.

This video is three minutes and nine seconds of pure precision — welcome to the world of Japanese wood joinery. Carpenter Dylan Iwakuni wordlessly demonstrates taking two or more pieces of wood and (improbably, impossibly) making them one. Seriously, I am gobsmacked at how exactly these bits of wood fit together.

If you enjoyed that, you may want to check out another of Iwakuni’s videos, Making the “Impossible Joint”.

(via colossal & the kid should see this)