Q: how do you make an Old Fashioned cocktail?

The basic formula: 5 dashes Angostura bitters in the bottom of a rocks glass + 2.5 oz bourbon + 1Tbsp simple syrup. Add ice, a maraschino cherry, and squeeze a bit of orange rind over the top. If you are interested in some additional tips and tricks, read on.

I looked at a lot of recipes and consulted a lot of bourbon recommendations, and focused on following the advice that a) made it relatively easy to make, and b) isn't too expensive. My sweet spot for purchasing "good" alcohol is $40-$50, though I do also buy in bulk at The Store (whose brand starts with a K and ends in Signature) and am usually pretty happy with the result. I do not receive promotional compensation for my recommendations, but if you click on the links below and end up buying the product, I will earn a commission.

A good old fashioned relies pretty heavily on good bourbon, but even with just-decent bourbon you can use a recipe that enhances the components that appeal to you. There is a sweet component and a spicy component, as well as an aromatic enhancement. Sound complicated? Well, that's why I'm writing about it! I found it fun to experiment. 😎

BOURBON: I am no bourbon expert, but Bulleit and Buffalo Trace are really good. Michtel's small batch is a little pricier but excellent. I will likely buy Four Roses next. Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite you want to recommend.

SWEET: the usual recommendation is simple syrup. I use plain stevia drops (keto diet!), honey syrup, and recently hit on a lovely combo using Mike's Hot Honey. Use Mike's to make your honey syrup by heating 1:1 mix of water and honey over medium heat, let cool and refrigerate once ready. Maraschino cherries are optional but fun.

SPICY: Angostura Bitters are the gold standard to add a unique spiciness to any cocktail, and it's a key component of an old fashioned. Angostura also makes an orange-flavored version, which may figure in to your recipe, as you'll see in a minute. I have also put in a little Fireball whisky, and syrup made from Mike's depending how I'm feelin'.

AROMATIC: another classic component of an old fashioned is orange peel. While I love adding a spritz of orange oil to the finished drink, it's a pain in the axe unless you constantly have fresh oranges you can afford to eat or throw away once you get a little peel from it. YMMV. My secret: a little bit of orange extract is almost as good and a lot easier to deal with. And of course the orange flavored bitters are an option as well.

I continue to refine my recipe, but also like playing around with the ingredients and trying new components. Good luck, and cheers --

Q: Can I use midi versions of copyrighted songs on my youtube videos?

The answer is no. It doesn't have anything to do with copyright law, and everything to do with the Terms of Service you agree to when you sign up to upload videos.

Q: How do you make cheap waxed string?

I saw lots of info about beeswax, melting, soaking, blah blah blah. I ended up taking a beeswax candle, clamping it gently in my bench vise, and drawing a shoestring back and forth around the candle. Got lots of good wax embedded in the fibers, then rubbed it back and forth around the smooth part of the metal handle of the vise to work it in. Worked like a charm.

Q: Will Google Glass work with my iPhone?

Updating many years later: obviously this question is moot. Wearable screens are still hit or miss in the tech market, and I may write more or add a post about it when I see what Apple does with it in the next couple years! 

Original answer: Apparently Google Glass will work with iPhones, according to this article. The first thing I wondered was: will the Google Glass companion app let you control Glass silently, so the user can avoid looking like an idiot when they need to be quiet but want to use their hot new technology? Can the headset be told NOT to accept voice commands in certain situations? Is it really smart enough to not listen to other people talking to it, so as to avoid pranksters?

I guess I have more questions than answers on this one.

Q: What are the tiny flies in my potting soil?

and how do I deal with them?

Turns out these are what are known as fungus gnats. I have them in my potted plants in the house, occasionally; turns out they thrive in an environment where there is plenty of moisture, such as an overwatered houseplant. The larvae live in the soil and feed on fungi and plant roots, and the adults swarm around the surface until they get a chance to breed again. 

The solution is pretty simple: don't water your plants so much. Also don't let them stand in water in a pot that's not draining or drying out. I had a new plant that was the focus of the latest infestation, so I stopped watering it until the soil had dried down from the surface about an inch or two. I also put the plant outside briefly each day, coming back 5 or 10 minutes later to blow away some of the adult insects from the surface and take the plant back inside real quick before they could find the soil again.

There are insecticides for these bugs but the best thing to do is really just let the topsoil dry out. You can also put a layer of sand on the top of the soil (keeps the larvae under the sand, and the adults out of the soil), but who's got room in their indoor plants for a couple of inches of sand? Not me.

edit 2021: I have also used "sticky stakes" to trap the gnats that do end up in the house, and they are very effective combined with the methods listed above.

Q: How do you make a cosmopolitan cocktail?

A: Recipes vary, but aside from the different brand names involved, the basic formula is:

• 1 oz. vodka
• 1/2 oz. triple sec
• 1/4 oz. lime juice
• 1/4 oz. cranberry juice
• Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass
• Garnish with lime or lemon wedge or twist

This makes a pretty strong drink, considering that three quarters of it is alcohol. It is delicious, especially if you start with ice cold vodka, but it was a little unpalatable to the wife. After some experimenting I came up with the following modification. We call it a cosmo fizz. I have seen a few other "cosmo fizz" recipes out there but they all use sparkling wine for the fizz. In addition to the above, add:

• 1/4 oz. pomegranate juice
• 1/2 oz. lime flavored sparkling water (note: do not use sweetened sparkling water, that stuff is gross. The brand we use is La Croix)

We have pretty large cocktail glasses, so this amount waters down the alcohol just enough for the lightweights among us.

Q: What is tuck pointing?

A: It's a masonry term, and it's actually tuckpointing, one word. It's a style of low-cost brickwork developed in the late Victorian age in England, specifically to mimic much more expensive rubbed-brick masonry. Rubbed-brick was a method of cutting bricks to precise smooth faces and using a small amount of mortar between bricks, making a very small, very sharp looking line. Tuckpointing imitates this look by using two colors of mortar, one of which matches the bricks themselves almost exactly, and another (usually white) that draws a fine line between the bricks in order to create the illusion of much tighter spacing.

Apparently the term has come to mean reapplying mortar or making repairs to chimneys, mainly in the US and Canada.

Q: What's a good free Lion-compatible alternative to iView Multimedia?

A: As far as I can tell, there really isn't one. iView Multimedia was my go-to photo catalog and viewing application for years, but since I upgraded to Mac OSX Lion (10.7), I can't use it any more. The program has been acquired a couple of times since the first time I bought it, and the current incarnation is not even really a photo catalog program any more. The old page for iView Media Pro does not allow you to download the upgrade, the "Previous version" links don't work either, and the available free "Catalog Reader" does not seem to work under Lion. It acts as if it is going to start but then does not. Perhaps after a restart. I'll update this post if I discover that it eventually works.

The alternatives are scanty. I have always hated iPhoto for the way it assumes you want a certain workflow. It copies your photos into the Pictures directory by default unless you change it in the preferences, and even if you turn that off, it still makes a bunch of thumbnail versions. I have thousands of photos. I don't need a copy of each one sitting somewhere else, no matter how small. The rest of its interface is counterintuitive as well. I just don't like it.

I do like Xee for it's clean interface, but it does not compile a catalog from a directory and all of it's subdirectories. It just allows you to look at the photos in the current directory, which is basically a glorified version of the Cover Flow view in the Finder. Not enough. Most other decent solutions cost money, so they are not under consideration here. If you have any suggestions, let me know in the comments!

Q: Where are my photos in iCloud Photo Stream?

The reason I ask is: when I am sitting at a foreign computer (not one of "my" devices), I want to pull up a browser and see my photos. Apparently iCloud doesn't offer that service -- what you get is a way for all of your devices to see all the same photos, but nowhere else. Google's Picasa has the opposite problem: it hosts your photos online, but is tough to manage and sync from iDevices. There are apps that will help: Piconhand comes to mind. However, it would be nice if iCloud could just go that one extra step and allow web-based photo management.

Q: what do you use to lubricate rubber?

A: This is not what it sounds like! My son is in the Cub Scouts as a Webelos 1, and they were having a Space Derby rocket race. In the instructions it says to use rubber lubricant on the rubber bands for the rocket propeller, but not WHAT to use as lubricant. I looked up a couple of tips and tricks online, and I found that people recommend silicone more than anything. I just happened to have pure silicone from when I needed some to lubricate my treadmill walking belt, so I put some in a Ziploc bag and soaked the rubber bands in it. A couple of hours later I took them out, wiped off the excess, and installed them in his rocket. It definitely worked -- I was able to wind his propeller over 200 times. His rocket went so fast it rammed the other end of the racecourse (35 ft) and broke off the plastic hanger adaptor. Only one of the other kids' rockets made it that far, and guess why? I loaned him the other two lubricated rubber bands from our set.

By the way, don't use petroleum-based products like Vaseline or WD-40 since they break down the petroleum-based rubber bands, and make sure you stretch your rubber bands before putting them in the silicone. Keep in mind that some spray silicone uses petroleum-based stuff in it along with the propellant, so it's not ideal. Just pure liquid silicone is the best. Good luck!