Here's a concept

Fran Magazine: Issue #171

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Live, from New York

On Friday, March 27, I’ll be moderating the Q&A for the 7pm showing of Caroline Golum’s Revelations of Divine Love with Caroline and her amazing star, Tessa Strain. Tickets are available here! I had the chance to see the film last summer, but this is the official New York release and I’ll be seeing it for the first time on the big screen which — famously? nothing better. Revelations of Divine Love is the story of Julian of Norwich, the first woman who ever wrote a book. Caroline has made a gorgeous movie, dense in color and mystery and love, and Tessa gives a dazzling performance as a woman both wise beyond her years and ever-learning/yearning. It’s gonna be a fun night. See you there?

May book club announcement is coming this week

Why not!? We all need something to look forward to right now, and thinking about what we’ll be reading in five weeks seems like a nice way to look ahead into the future.

An interesting idea you may want to consider

Spring is here. Aries season is here. The weather is getting marginally warmer in New York. We’re on our second (?) false start to spring¹, which might as well be the real start. Whenever the temperatures and daylight hours start to creep up, I start to crave one of the great beverages in our world:

The michelada

I have a very distinct memory of going to see my brother in Tulsa and then flying back to Chicago over President’s Day weekend. I got back early in the day on Monday and we were having one of those false spring days, so a bunch of us went to the Parsons in Logan Square² to sit outside in their backyard. Yes, everyone wore coats, but it was fifty degrees and the sun was out. Little is better than that, especially in February in Chicago. I got a michelada, which felt eating a fresh vegetable, and it was heaven on earht.

Occasionally I meet people who have never had a michelada. This is crazy to me, because they are kind of everywhere, but that’s fine. A michelada is a Mexican beverage (typically) made with a Mexican lager with clamato juice and ice plus some other stuff (Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, fish sauce, tajin, lime, whatever) with a salt and/or tajin rim. They are easy to make at home and require no actual skill. As someone who likes to have clamato juice around the house anyway³, this is one of the easiest things to make. I am not a big drinker — alcohol, generally, is a migraine trigger — but I do like to indulge in the odd dinnertime michelada if all the ingredients are there and Phil feels like making them.⁴

My reason for liking the michelada is mostly obvious: it is tasty. There is another reason, one that is slightly more shameful if not simply bizarre, which is that the michelada as a beverage, allows me to do something that I want to and like doing so much but otherwise would not socially acceptable in public or private:

Drink beer with a straw

Listen, I know how this sounds.⁵ I would not be so insane or stupid as to try to order a can of beer at a bar and ask for a straw, let alone reach across the bar to grab a little well drink mixer straw. I know as well as anyone that this is simply not done. Not every michelada is served with a straw, but depending on the amount of ice in the drink and the establishment, they’re often in the mix. Occasionally you get the candied tamarind-dipped straw — one of the world’s greatest inventions. If I’m drinking a michelada at home, however, there is a 100% chance of a glass straw sticking out of that drink.

I know for environmental reasons straws are inventions non grata but I think a straw is a brilliant thing in part because you can determine how and when you actually want to be using it.

Diet Coke without a straw? Utilitarian, necessary, being consumed without joy.

Diet Coke with a straw? Luxury, slow, relaxation. Sipping = pleasure = yay

The placement of the straw in the michelada allows you to continue to stir the different weighted ingredients as they start to drift to the bottom of the glass or incorporate any beer that gets added in later. Its purpose feels clear. You can’t just stick a straw into a pint or bottle or can of beer and be normal out in the world. But — it could be fun. Sipping a beer — straw-wise — this could be more relaxing than we know.

A brief perusal of Reddit and the horrible Google search AI suggests that drinking beer with a straw is bad because there are different levels (?) and aromas to the beverage.

i actually don’t think the straw would make me drink the beer faster but i am built different

If I am drinking a beer these days, I am almost never drinking a “nice” beer. My days of being able to consume and enjoy those are basically over, which is fine. I am either drinking a lager or whatever the cheap can is at the bar or liquor store, therefore the idea of “ruining” the beer feels pretty impossible to me. Beer = the ceiling of how good it can be when you’re trying to save money is basically low. Adding or subtracting a straw is probably not going to disrupt quality in any meaningful way. It will just look weird, which is kind of how I look already.

Will you see me out and about this summer drinking a michelada with a straw? Certainly. I’ll be stirring and sipping and generally enjoying the sensation of drinking beer and clamato juice out of a tube. Will you see me out and about this summer drinking a beer with a straw? Probably not. But maybe.

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What are you drinking as the weather warms up? I also have a thing of the Island Punch Spindrifts — those are amazing.

1. Lows go back into the 30s early in the week… sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

2. memba her?

3. shoutout spironolactone-induced low sodium

4. I can make them too, fwiw, but how nice is it to have a beverage handed to you… is this not the appeal of “going to a bar”?

5. It sounds bad.