The term "cocktail" in used in many connotations: The LBD (little black cocktail dress); to have a cocktail before dinner, i.e. a combination of alcoholic beverages, often served with olives; a combination of miracle drugs that relieve conditions or cure diseases, as in a "cocktail" of medications; an incendiary device presumably named after Mr. Molotov; an appetizer consisting of fresh shrimp and a catsup-based sauce with horseradish called "shrimp cocktail".
An online etymology search of the word "cocktail" finds conflicting reports as to its origins although all seem to point to an alcoholic basis.
As I was driving home today on my least-favorite but most frequently travel road, I realized that I was experiencing a perfect "cocktail" resulting from converging stimuli. I'd just enjoyed always-lively conversation over lunch with a friend, the weather - while coolish - was strikingly sunny and seemed to make every surface glisten, even the garish disruption of farmland and once-personal property now seized by the state for road construction looked fresher from the sunlight, and my radio-station-of-choice soothed my soul with selections from Felix Mendelssohn and Maurice Ravel. "It doesn't get much better than this!", I thought to myself.
My "cocktail" even softened my usual impatience with slow-poke drivers as I was behind a string of people choosing to drive well under the posted speed limit but the sun and music gave me reason to feel comfortable with pausing a bit and slowing my normal charge-through-to-the-next-thing attitude. Listening to wordless music enabled me to remember threads of the conversation with my friend and I smiled thinking about humorous phrases and thoughts we had shared.
Yes, it was a cocktail with zero calories and no negative alcoholic effects, although this was a cocktail that would have resulted in the most pleasant of hangovers. The hangover effect of warm memories, soothing music, slowed pulse and lowered blood pressure.
Priceless.
Ancora imparo
