It’s Friday. Looking for something to switch up your weekend, or to give you an excuse to relax a little? That’s what the Weekend Reset is for. Each week contributor Tim Johnstone pulls together five things to get your weekend started. Could be something to read or watch, something to eat or listen to, or even something to do. Enjoy the weekend fellas.
APPRECIATE: The bond between two comedic geniuses.
You need to start here.
This is a great story about the friendship between legendary comedians/film makers Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner. These guys have been best pals for 70 years and it is absolutely bonkers to me that 93 year old Brooks makes the drive through Los Angeles traffic to 97 year old Reiner’s home every day for “free food” and conversation. It provides some insight into both men. Once you’ve read that, see one of Brook’s famous movies. I am a fan of just about everything he has done. While this is one of my favorites, you can’t go wrong with Young Frankenstein, which is a legit classic. Our culture has gone through a sea change since this movie was released so please don’t @ me. Thanks to Joe for passing this article along.
LEARN: The history of this particular day on the calendar.
Happy Leap Day fellas. What you see above is not specifically about Leap Day but representative of the spirit of the day. Yeeeeeeah. Go with that. Like I said, I’m not getting in front of a camera but I did learn some things about this calendar oddity that were new to me. Like, that there is a Leap Day cocktail (see below). And that this whole leap day thing has been happening for forever. Like, as long as we’ve tried to organize our lives, be it by the sun or the moon or whatever. I also learned that marriage proposals play a big part in some Leap Day activities, with a twist.
TOAST: Uh, you guys, Leap Day has its own cocktail.
Yes. I realize that the video above is for a song called “Jump” and it’s there because I couldn’t find a video showing how to make a Leap Day Cocktail and, well, I’m in radio for a reason. So, you can rock out to this classic bit of American pop-culture while learning how to make this early 20th Century drink. Thanks to an American named Henry Craddock who poured drinks at the Savoy Hotel in London in the 1920’s. I know about this because it was one of the facts in the item above, AKA “Jump Around.”
1 dash lemon juice
2/3 gin
1/6 Grand Marnier
1/6 sweet vermouth
Simply shake, pour into a glass and garnish with a lemon peel. Salut!
PLAY: Because of course there is a Leap Day video game!
I think my favorite thing about this is that our hero pretty much just propels his way by passing gas? Wait, oh, that’s not what that is? My bad. This seems a little more intense than the game I recommended last week (hello Snidewalk!) so it might be beyond my skill sets (this is pretty much my comfort zone). It looks like it’s a hoot. If you want to see the game in action, here is a clip of real game action and here is another. I’m going to admit right here that I would be turning the volume down A LOT when playing. Here’s the link to the iOS app.
LISTEN: Because there are A LOT of songs for this weekend.
This week’s Reset is for my favorite leap day person Forest. Happy Birthday pal.
Tim Johnstone is Dappered’s music correspondent as well as our resident gatherer of all things interwebs related. He’s pretty sure about some of the things most of the time, but totally clueless about everything else all the time.