Category: Comedies

Classic Films · Comedies

What a Way to Go!

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Image credit: What a Way to Go!

It’s so comforting when you find an instant-favorite classic film because it proves that no matter how many things you’ve seen, there will always be gems waiting to be discovered. Such was the feeling I got from watching the 1964 Shirley MacLaine dark comedy What a Way to Go! (Disc/Download), a movie that had me asking: where has this been all my life??? If you long to live in a pink world and watch nothing but “Lush Budgett” productions, this is the flick for you.

Starring MacLaine as a widow four-times over, and Dick Van Dyke, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, and Gene Kelly as the husbands who find success as well as comically tragic deaths after falling for her, What a Way to Go! is a perfect illustration of the old phrase, “Behind every great man is an even better woman.” All Louisa wants is a simple life in the country with a man who will put their relationship first. Unfortunately, she happens to have great ideas that spur these paupers into action, turning them all into selfish, foolhardy multi-millionaires. Her bank account grows with each reading of the will, until she’s left distraught and alone with nothing but a closet full of Edith Head gowns and a garish pink mansion to keep her company. And by garish, I of course mean ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. The cast is outrageously perfect, from the sweet Van Dyke, to Newman playing a sexy bearded artist, to Mitchum as the charming CEO with a fabulous private jet, to a tap-dancing Gene Kelly. Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finer collection of male specimens. I hope Shirley had as great a time making this one as I did watching it!

If you want an excuse to drink a pink cocktail, and you’ve seen both Barbie and Barb and Star approximately 1,000,000 times already, then here’s another one to add to the rosé oeuvre. Note: I’m using the seasonal Hendrick’s Flora Adora in this, which has distinct notes of rosewater. If using regular gin and you want that flavor, add a few drops into the shaker. While watching What a Way to Go!, I recommend drinking this Flaming Lips cocktail.

Flaming Lips

1 ½ oz Hendrick’s Flora Adora Gin

1 oz Raspberry Orange (or Blood Orange) juice

½ oz Orange Liqueur

1 oz Lemon Juice

¾ oz Coconut Cream

2 oz Sparkling Rosé

Dried orange slice (garnish)

Combine gin, orange liqueur, orange juice, lemon juice, and coconut cream in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled and blended, then double strain into a coupe glass. Top with Sparkling Rosé and garnish with a dried orange slice.

With all this talk of the cast, I haven’t even gotten to the best part of the movie: the costumes. With a budget fit for Hollywood royalty, Ms. Head obviously went nuts. Pink chinchilla coats! Backless dresses! Mod bikinis! Gowns dripping with diamonds! Louisa may have wanted a simple life, but I prefer her nuzzling Robert Mitchum in an oversized champagne coupe wearing nothing but an Elvira wig. This is pure cinema. This is: Lush Budgett. Cheers!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Classic Films · Comedies

Pulp Fiction

LizLocke3 Comments
Image credit: Pulp Fiction, 1994

This week marks my official return to the Turner Classic Movies festival in Hollywood, and to say I’m beyond excited would be an understatement. Four days of sitting in a movie theater, phone turned off, notifications silenced, while watching classic films = my ideal vacation. Alas, because I’m incapable of turning down a Doris Day screening, I’ll miss the big opening night gala for Pulp Fiction (Disc/Download), a movie I guess we’re calling a classic now, which I guess in turn makes me also a classic.  If I can’t see it at the festival, the next best thing is watching at home with a cocktail.

I remember when Pulp Fiction was first released and everyone lost their minds over the triumphant return of Travolta, a twisting Uma Thurman, and a Royale with cheese. Quentin Tarantino’s script was hailed as a masterpiece, and the indie film scene was suddenly on fire. I still have mixed feelings about the film overall, but I can appreciate it for heralding in a new era of the auteur. Tarantino would go on to make (in my opinion) better films like Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, but nevertheless, Pulp Fiction proved that his was a unique voice and we’d all better sit down and listen to whatever story he wanted to tell. This particular story meanders to a lot of places (a diner, drug dens, a cheesy Hollywood restaurant, a pawn shop dungeon, multiple bathrooms, etc.), but it all comes together by the end. That’s what I appreciate most about the movie—not the individual chapters, but how they fit together as a whole.

My favorite scene takes place at Jack Rabbit Slim’s, a restaurant populated by 1950s entertainer impersonators. John Travolta and Uma Thurman drink a milk shake, enter a dance contest, and trade some punchy dialogue over cigarettes and steak . Sure, Uma does cocaine in the bathroom, but it’s all fairly wholesome. While watching Pulp Fiction, I recommend drinking this Martin & Lewis Milk Punch (with a twist!)

Martin & Lewis Milk Punch (with a twist!)

1 oz Half-and-Half

1 oz Bourbon

½ oz Orange Liqueur

½ oz Honey Syrup (1:1 ration honey to water)

1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

3-4 dashes Orange bitters

Pinch of Pumpkin Pie Spice (garnish)

Orange twist (garnish)

Combine Half-and-Half, Bourbon, Orange Liqueur, honey syrup, vanilla extract, and bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until well chilled. Place a large ice sphere or cube in a glass and strain in the drink. Garnish with orange twist and a pinch of pumpkin pie spice.

This drink references a lot of things in the script (the “Five-dollar Shake”, the twist contest, Honey-bunny and Pumpkin), and the sweetness is almost ironic when you hold it up to the film’s major plot points. Maybe that’s why I like the Jack Rabbit Slim’s scene so much—it’s a nice rest stop on the road to depravity. Or, maybe I just like watching John Travolta shake those hips. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Please Don’t Eat the Daisies

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Image credit: Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, 1960

In the wake of last week’s Ishtar revelation, I’ve been thinking more about professional criticism and its impact on the arts. I’m also two-thirds of the way through my Doris Day complete filmography watch, and happily, these two things converge with Doris’s follow-up film to Pillow Talk, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies (Disc/Download).

Starring David Niven as a New York theater critic and Doris Day as his long-suffering wife (boy does she suffer…), this film is part social satire and part retro HGTV makeover show. As Niv takes a slow trip on the “downalator” toward negativity and pithy quips in his column, Doris is left to raise their four rambunctious sons- one of whom she keeps in a literal cage (not that I blame her). She is also tasked with smoothing over disagreements between critic/playwrights, moving the household from the city to the suburbs, renovating a mansion that looks like a former residence of The Munsters, looking the other way when a floozy actress tries to seduce her husband, putting on a charity play for her new town, and doing it all while looking like Doris-freaking-Day. Perfectly tailored outfits, perfect hair, perfect makeup, and perfect hats. Always, the hats. When her husband admonishes her for calling herself a housewife, saying she’s so much more than that, she replies, “So is every other housewife.”  Even her dialogue is perfect. Part of me wishes she’d just leave the husband, leave the kids, and run off with the local non-binary veterinarian.

This is a great movie to watch with a cocktail because there are plenty of Sardi’s scenes, plenty of cocktail parties, and plenty of times when I want to throw a drink at David Niven. While watching Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, I recommend drinking this Gin Daisy.

Gin Daisy

2 oz Gin

¾ oz Cointreau

¾ oz Lemon Juice

¼ oz Grenadine

Splash of Soda Water

Lemon twist and fresh mint (garnish)

Combine gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, and grenadine in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Top with a splash of soda water, and stir gently to combine. Garnish with a lemon twist, fresh mint, and a daisy (optional).

Eventually, Niv realizes he’s being an ass both in his column and in his personal life and goes crawling back home, where Doris is waiting with open arms. I will say, as much as I have my reservations about this couple on paper, on film the pairing is electric. The two actors have terrific chemistry, and it’s a joy to see Doris in a sexier role than she’d typically played before her breakthrough in Pillow Talk. Although the critical mass at the time gave this film a tepid response, this modern critic enjoyed it more than I expected to. I’d even go so far as to call it a “Hooten Holler”-in’ good time (see, you can still make jokes and be nice). Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies

Ishtar

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Image Credit: Ishtar, 1987

One of the great mysteries of our world is how some films get universally maligned (or even worse, ignored), while others are lauded to the ends of the earth. I’ll never understand how most of the “Best Picture” winners of the past twenty years made it to the Dolby stage, just as I’ll never understand how Ishtar (Download) is often regarded as one of the biggest movie disasters of all time. If my post has a rallying cry, it is this: JUSTICE FOR ISHTAR!!!!

Inspired by the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road movies of the 1940s, Elaine May’s update on the classic concept features Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as a pair of Simon & Garfunkel wannabes who agree to perform at a Marrakesh hotel. The two stars have amazing chemistry together, and when I tell you there were tears of laughter streaming down my face as they performed their terrible lounge act, complete with bongo drums and electric keyboard, it is not an exaggeration. These actors are hilarious, but it’s May’s direction and keen eye in the editing room that makes them hilarious. As evidenced in her debut film A New Leaf (another favorite of mine), she knows the exact moment to cut for perfect comedic effect. I’m ready to follow these guys wherever their musical journey leads, even into a confusing Middle Eastern conflict I still don’t fully understand. The thing is, you don’t need to. All you need to do is give in to the experience of watching Warren Beatty wrestle a blind camel through the desert as Dustin Hoffman is circled by buzzards. The fact that he’s wearing Ralph Macchio’s wardrobe castoffs from The Karate Kid truly completes the picture. Like Ishtar itself, this movie is a state of mind.

For some reason, I spent most of my life thinking this film was three hours long and exclusively shot in the Sahara desert. Maybe I thought it was a Lawrence of Arabia spoof? At any rate, I’m happy to report the desert scenes only comprise a fraction of this under-two-hours gem, though they still make me a little hot and uncomfortable. Lyle Rogers may not be able to handle his bourbon, but I sure can. This week, cool off with a Moroccan Mint Julep.

Moroccan Mint Julep

2 oz Bourbon

½ oz Cardamom Clove Syrup

Fresh Mint

Crushed Ice

Muddle 8-9 leaves of mint in the bottom of a shaker with the cardamom syrup. Add bourbon and crushed ice. Stir to combine. Top with more crushed ice and a sprig of fresh mint.

There are probably a lot of reasons this film got panned on its initial release, most of them leading back to misogyny. When a woman has the audacity to demand time and money to make her vision a reality, it often doesn’t go over well in Hollywood. There are many other things that happened during this film’s production, however before you go down that particular rabbit hole of Wikipedia, watch Ishtar. Form your own opinion. But remember: honest and popular don’t go hand-in-hand. Cheers!

Classic Films · Comedies · Uncategorized

The Palm Beach Story

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Palm Beach Story, 1942

What’s smitten, kittens? This week I’m writing to you from the Treasure Coast of Florida, where the Lilly Pulitzer is abundant and the cocktails are strong. Of course I had to revisit the Preston Sturges classic The Palm Beach Story (Disc/Download) prior to my trip down here, though thankfully, my transportation did not include a Pullman train car with the Ale & Quail club. I also did not step on any millionaires, alas.

Starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as Tom and Gerry Jeffers, the unhappily married couple at the center of this screwball comedy, The Palm Beach Story is the type of zany movie that makes you wonder if Sturges was just making it up as he went along. There are characters that, while memorable, seem to go nowhere, as well as a crazy intro involving twins, a kidnapping, and a wedding. Keep in mind, this is all in the first 60 seconds! My suggestion- make your cocktail before the opening credits and settle in, knowing not everything will make sense, but everything will be funny. This is the kind of film that gets better and better with each viewing, and one I appreciate for its plethora of scene stealers. From the deaf “Wienie King” to the sarcastic and horny Princess Centimillia, to the unfortunate bartender forced to dodge bullets and saltines, there is literally nobody on this screen who isn’t interesting to watch.

In terms of cocktails, I will spare you the “Prairie Oyster” Colbert drinks on the train because I’m not not exactly one for raw egg yolks and Worcestershire. Instead, join me in imbibing a classic Palm Beach cocktail, which will definitely appeal to the Negroni lovers out there.

Palm Beach

2 1/2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Sweet Red Vermouth

1 oz Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

Maraschino cherry and dried citrus wedge (for garnish)

Combine gin, vermouth, and grapefruit juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cherry and dried citrus wedge.

If 2020-2022 was my Billy Wilder period, then 2023-2024 is fast becoming my Preston Sturges era. I can’t get enough of his imaginative plots, the social commentary, and all that brilliant dialogue. This isn’t the first Sturges film on Cinema Sips, and it won’t be the last. But Snoodles, it might just be the craziest. Cheers!

Comedies

Six Days, Seven Nights

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Six Days, Seven Nights, 1998

By the time this post goes live, I will (hopefully) be sitting on Waikiki Beach with a Mai Tai in my hand. Sadly, I can’t take all my readers with me, but I can tell you which tropical adventure romance you should watch with a tiki cocktail. Six Days, Seven Nights (Disc/Download) is certainly a product of the 1990s, but even twenty-five years on, it’s still a fun little cinema vacation.

Starring Anne Heche as a busy magazine editor whose boyfriend (David Schwimmer, still playing Ross Geller) surprises her with a Polynesian island vacation, and Harrison Ford as the sexy curmudgeon pilot who flies her into a lightning storm, Six Days, Seven Nights is your basic rom-com with nipples. Lots of nipples. All I can say is, poor Anne must have been very cold on this shoot, and/or the costume designer must have had an aversion to bras. I’d kind of forgotten that the nineties were full of thin spaghetti-strap nightgowns masquerading as dresses, but this movie brings it all back. Harrison Ford did his best to warm her up after they crashed on a deserted island, barbecuing peacocks and doing an extremely obvious From Here to Eternity kiss along the shoreline, but even in sweltering jungle heat, the high beams were on.

Eventually, all good island romances must face a great challenge, and this one comes at the hands of Danny Trejo and his band of murderous pirates. Anne and Harrison didn’t have a way to radio for help, and her flip phone was useless, but we can pretend they sent out a distress signal with this Morse Code-inspired tiki cocktail, 3 Dots and a Dash.

3 Dots and a Dash

1 ½ oz Rhum Agricole

½ oz Aged Rum

¼ oz Velvet Falernum

¼ oz Allspice Dram

½ oz Honey Syrup

½ oz Lime Juice

½ oz Orange Juice

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Maraschino cherries and pineapple leaf (garnish)

Add first eight ingredients to a cocktail shaker and shake with crushed ice. Pour entire contents into a tiki mug or glass, and top with more crushed ice. Garnish with a three maraschino cherries and a pineapple leaf.

Although this code actually means V for Victory, I think it still applies here. After all, our heroic pilot and equally capable Dazzle magazine editor were victorious over the pirates, and the dull relationships they left back home. That certainly calls for a toast, preferably one with a little umbrella. Cheers!

Comedies

Moonstruck

LizLocke2 Comments
Image credit: Moonstruck, 1987

As a writer, I try to give the people what they want. And if social media is any indication, the people want Moonstruck (Disc/Download). A movie I’ve always enjoyed, it wasn’t until a recent rewatch that I understood the power of this romantic comedy. You want positive feedback? Announce that you’re watching Moonstruck and wait for all the people to chime in to say how much they looooove Moonstruck. And they will chime in because this movie is just that delightful.

Starring Cher as a widowed Brooklyn bookkeeper who lives with her Italian-American family and is suddenly juggling the affections of two brothers, Moonstruck succeeds because of two things:

  1. The fantastic script by John Patrick Shanley
  2. Nicolas Cage

All of the actors in this are brilliant, but Cage has the most difficult role. He has to be angry, slightly unhinged, sporting a wooden hand, yet somehow sexy enough for a smart, mature woman like Cher’s character Loretta to give him the time of day. Sexy enough for the audience to give him the time of day. Spoiler: he’s all that and then some. This guy is a wounded wolf who wears his vulnerability on his sleeve, particularly when Loretta graces him with her presence at the opera. The moment she removes her coat and he thanks her for taking the time to look nice for their date, I absolutely swoon. If your partner doesn’t acknowledge you and look at you the way Ronny looks at Loretta, you’re with the wrong person.

Because Loretta comes from a big Italian family, food and wine are the backbone of so many Moonstruck scenes. For a celebratory occasion, only a little bubbly will do. I love a good spritz, particularly one that uses the Italian liqueur Amaro. You could try the Sicilian variety Averna in honor of Ronny and Johnny’s “dying” mother, or you could go authentic Brooklyn by picking up a bottle of Forthave Spirits Marseille Amaro. Either way, you’re in for a treat. While watching Moonstruck, I recommend drinking a “That’s Amaro!”

That’s Amaro!

2 oz Amaro

3 oz Prosecco

1 oz Soda Water

Lime Wheel garnish

Build drink over ice, stirring gently to combine. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Watching Moonstruck always makes me feel like I just spent the night having dinner with family. There’s a familiarity to these characters and the way they interact that transcends cultural backgrounds. I may not have grown up in a multi-generational household, and as a child most of my access to fettuccini and manicotti was through Stouffer’s, but the happiness and frustration of being with people who know you better than you know yourself is universal. As is, apparently, our love for this movie. Cheers!

Comedies

Defending Your Life

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Image credit: Defending Your Life, 1991

Picture the concept: you’re dead, BUT you can eat whatever you want without gaining an ounce of weight. You like broccoli? How about smothering it in cheese sauce? Big fan of shrimp? Here’s thirty of them! Pie? We’ve got nine of those—one for every day you’re in purgatory! Defending Your Life (Disc/Download) may be a smart, poignant romantic comedy, but it’s also one of the best foodie films to come out of Hollywood. When you’re planning your Thanksgiving menu this week, be sure to make some room for this Albert Brooks classic (and wear your stretchiest pants).

I remain grateful to The Criterion Collection for introducing me to so many of Brooks’ films this year, and while I love them all, I can’t help but be disappointed that he didn’t make more. This charming, insecure, curly haired man is everything I want in a romantic hero. The chemistry between recently deceased ad exec Daniel (Brooks) and the altruistic woman he meets in the afterlife (Meryl Streep) is off-the-charts sexy, and I wish every onscreen couple would take a lesson in flirting from these two. Daniel has to prove that he’s not going to let fear run his life before he can move on to the next astral plane with Streep, and if he doesn’t, he’ll be sent back to Earth- a miserable place where people only use 3% of their brain (these days, post-pandemic, we may be down to 2%).

Although Daniel is forced to relive difficult moments from his past while “on trial”, this Judgement City waiting room really isn’t too bad. There are bowling alleys and comedy clubs and tons of all-you-can-eat buffets. And did I mention there are no such things as calories? Since this week is Thanksgiving, and this is the only week of the year in which heavy cream is sitting in my fridge, it seems like a good time to go all out with a cocktail. While watching Defending Your Life, I recommend drinking this White Rein-Carnation.

White Rein-Carnation

2oz Vodka

¾ oz Peach Schnapps

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 oz Orange Juice

1 oz Heavy Cream

1 Egg White

1 oz Soda Water

Fresh Mint and Orange Twist (Garnish)

Combine all ingredients except soda water and garnish in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a glass, then pour back into the shaker to “dry shake” without ice for another ten seconds, until frothy. Double strain the mixture into a chilled collins glass, and top with soda water. Garnish with fresh mint and orange twist.

One of my favorite moments is when a waiter asks Daniel if he likes pie, and with the unabashed excitement of a small child, he replies, “I love pie!” I love pie too, but fear of hastening my own death keeps me from having it every day. However, Thanksgiving is the one time of year when you’re supposed to let go of the fear and give into pleasure. Where we can have the pie, and the cheese sauce, and the cocktail with the heavy cream, cholesterol be damned. Tomorrow, the fear will creep back in, but today, we feast. Cheers!

Comedies

The Player

LizLockeLeave a comment
Image credit: The Player, 1992

With the historic 2023 Hollywood writer’s strike thankfully coming to an end, it seems fitting to watch a movie where a screenwriter comes to an “arrangement” with a Hollywood studio exec, and in effect gets the final word. Robert Altman’s The Player (Disc/Download) is a fun satire of the industry, where pitches get made on the fly, stars wander in and out of the frame, and power is fleeting. What did it take to get a movie greenlit in 1992? Apparently, Julia Roberts and a happy ending.

I always love movies and television shows where stars play a version of themselves, and The Player is chock full of cameos from people like Burt Reynolds, Cher, Jack Lemmon, and Buck Henry (just to name a few of the 60+ celebrities parading through, both major and minor). This speaks to the idea that Los Angeles is a “company town”, and even though the Classic Hollywood studio system may be long gone, there’s still a lingering hierarchy in place. Actors are close to the top of the food chain, while screenwriters are unfortunately down at the bottom. Producers and execs? They’re at the very top. Tim Robbins is fantastic as hotshot studio exec Griffin Mill, playing the role with a pitch-perfect note of smarmy insincerity. The plot transitions into a comedic noir when Griffin inadvertently murders a screenwriter he thinks has been sending him death threats (a twist straight out of the classic film posters lining his office walls), and he quickly has to pivot from a man who has everything, to a man who has everything to lose.

With so many Hollywood locations used in the filming of this, it shocked me that The Ivy wasn’t one of them. Growing up in the ’90s, I thought this restaurant behind the white picket fence was where all the big deals happened. At least, that’s what People magazine led me to believe! Altman may have skipped it, but that doesn’t mean we have to. While watching The Player, I recommend drinking The Ivy Gimlet.

The Ivy Gimlet

3 oz Vodka

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

6-8 fresh mint leaves

Lime Wheel

Prepare glass by rubbing a lime wheel around the rim, then dip in sugar. Fill with crushed ice, then set aside. In a metal shaker, muddle mint with lime juice and simple syrup. Add vodka and a few ice cubes, and shake until chilled. Pour entire contents of shaker into prepared glass. Garnish with lime wheel and more fresh mint.

When Griffin says at one point, “I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process,” one wonders if today’s execs saw this film as a roadmap to where the industry might be headed next. As ludicrous as some of these pitches in The Player are, I’d give anything to see these types of original movies on offer at the local cineplex. Without existing IP, how does anything get greenlit now? The sad fact is, most of the time, it doesn’t. Movies: now, more than ever… a repackaging of something you’ve already seen before.

Classic Films · Comedies

It Happened to Jane

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Image credit: It Happened to Jane, 1959

In times of uncertainty, I often ask myself—What Would Doris Do? Brought low by the summer doldrums, I recently embarked on a complete Doris Day re-watch, starting with Romance on the High Seas, ending with With Six You Get Eggroll, and covering everything in between. The hope is that her smile will make me smile. Maybe seeing her pluck and tenacity in the workplace will get me back to work. After the publication of my novel Follow the Sun, I’ve been at loose ends, not sure where I go from here. I climbed the mountain, came back down, and… now what? I just start over from scratch? Climb another mountain? Climb every mountain?

In this week’s pick It Happened to Jane (Disc/Download), Doris does just that. Her husband has died, leaving her with two small children and a lobster business to run. She has her best friend Jack Lemmon on hand to lend support, but he’s too scared to admit he harbors romantic feelings for her, and she’s too busy trying to restart her life to see what’s been right in front of her all along.  There’s a great David & Goliath storyline as Lemmon and Day battle the big bad railroad tycoon (Ernie Kovacs) whose budget cuts have resulted in a train full of rotten lobsters, and in our current era of workers facing off against greedy CEOs, the plot feels quite contemporary. As usual, Doris triumphs with her signature mix of talent, strength, and vulnerability, making us believe that everything’s going to be okay in the end. That’s why her movies and her star persona endure—because we’re all looking for that brand of hope. If she can make it through the Warner Brothers years, with terrible parts in terrible movies (ahem, Tea for Two), to get to It Happened to Jane and Pillow Talk, maybe I can make it through this weird time of having a published book on the shelf (admittedly, a book not many have heard of), coupled with a tremendous amount of anxiety about whether there will be a second one someday. If Doris Day can find love with Jack Lemmon and save her lobster business, maybe I can pull myself out of bed and write something bigger than a blog post.

Speaking of Jack Lemmon, I’m very grateful that his last name lends itself so well to citrus cocktail puns. Plus, I can always count on him to lift my spirits in much the same way Doris does. However bad my day is, however many lemons the universe has served up, Jack can turn it around. Well, Jack Lemmon and a cocktail. While watching It Happened to Jane, I recommend drinking this Lemmon-Drop.

Lemmon-Drop

2 oz Luxardo Limoncello

2 oz Vodka

1 oz Simple Syrup

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Lemon twist for garnish

Combine limoncello, vodka, simple syrup, and lemon juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

By my calculations, I’ll be done with the Doris Day re-watch around January 2024. Hopefully by then, I’ll have absorbed her wisdom and possess a clearer idea about where I’m headed next. Maybe I’ll begin to view starting over as an exciting thing instead of a scary thing. Lord knows, Doris had to do it plenty of times both in her personal life and on the screen. In the end, she was okay. She had a great life full of laughter and dogs and bicycle rides through Beverly Hills. Those early Warner Brothers films were merely a blip in her autobiography. So for now I’ll just say, “Que sera, sera.” What will be, will be.