0:02 Who are you and where are you going? What do you want? Hello and welcome to Triggers's place. Don't know what happened to the introduction, but anyway, uh here we are on uh let's see what is today. Today is December 18th, uh, 2025 and, uh, forgot to turn the lights on
0:37 again. Excuse me one second. There we go. It's It's almost winter here in California and it's almost dark outside and I forget that I have to put on the additional lights. So, uh, thank you for joining me here at Jigger's Play, Jiggers's Place for a cocktail and smoo as I say. And, uh, this afternoon evening, uh, I'm going to be talking about Poor Richard's almanac. And if you know anything about poor Richard, you know that that is uh
1:14 actually in actuality uh Benjamin Franklin, one of the great founding fathers uh of the United States of America. So I'm going to talk a little bit about him as well. Uh, and in honor of Benjamin Franklin and his uh his his work uh poor Richard's Almanac, I'm going to make something that I've called humor and wisdom. Uh, and that pretty much sums up Benjamin Franklin. So, this is a bourbon-based cocktail. And I'm going to be using as the bourbon uh
1:51 Hotel Tango Reserve Bourbon. uh this has a little bit of a story behind it. So uh in 2019 in December of 2019, so almost exactly six years ago, it could have been exactly six years ago now that I think about it. Uh I was taking a trip through the last uh three states that I had never visited. So, I flew into Iowa and spent uh about a day and a half there. And then from there, I drove to
2:26 Chicago, uh which is a fantastic city. I I spent uh Friday and Saturday I I got in on Friday. I spent Friday and Saturday in Chicago. Uh saw Saturday night. I saw a great music group called Shaken Not Stirred. I think that's the name of it. They were a a men's ac cappella singing group that had met at the I believe it was the University of Indiana. They were superb. After that, I went to a piano bar uh in
3:03 in Chicago called the Redhead Piano Bar. It was jam-packed and there was a fellow playing the piano and everybody was singing songs, singing along to the songs he was playing. Great, great time. So from there I went to Indianapolis, Indiana, which was the second to last state I had to visit. And throughout the trip, I looked for uh uh craft distillers uh that I could visit. And lo and behold in Indianapolis, Indiana, in addition to the Indianapolis Raceway,
3:40 there was Hotel Tango. And they made a number of spirits, including this bourbon. It was Hotel Tango was started by a Marine Corps veteran and his wife. And Hotel Tango is actually that's the military alphabet, HT. And I I believe the wife's name was was Holly or something like that. I don't remember the husband's name, but his name starts with a T. Hence where they got Hotel Tango. And I decided to walk to the distillery. There was a
4:15 distillery, but there was also a a bar and restaurant there. So I decided to walk there. And I'd gotten about, I don't know, 100 yards or so from my hotel, and it started to snow. Uh, fortunately I met someone along the way who knew who knew where Hotel Tango was and we walked together and he pointed me across the street and I walked in and it was almost deserted uh because it was snowing and people just weren't going out which which was lucky for me because I sat at the bar for the next I think it was three hours and the bartender just let me taste various things and you know a few people wandered in here and there and we talked
4:51 and whatever. It was a lovely lovely evening. one of the most enjoyable ones of my life. And so in in honor of the six sixy year anniversary of that trip, I decided to pull out the Hotel Tango Bourbon. You can see that it's uh over halfway gone. I try and, you know, husband my various spirits. Um but this one's not going to last too much longer, I fear. So in addition to that, I'm going to use maple syrup. This is uh um Aderandac 100% pure uh maple syrup. Um the Aderandac has been bottling maple
5:27 syrup since 1940. Can you imagine? Uh and then let's see what else is there. Um some lemon juice. I forgot to get a fresh lemon, so I'm going to be using my uh my little lemon juice in a bottle here. And some ginger lure. This is Barrow's intense ginger lure. It's quite lovely. Um, and then some aromatic bitters. I'm going to use Angusura. And then I'm going to top it off with a little bit of um smoked sea salt. I just coincidentally happened to see this in a store that I was in um last week and and
6:04 I grabbed here and here I designed a cocktail earlier this week and and it was there. This is Maldin's established in 1882. If you watch this at all, you know I love stuff that's made a long time ago. And then with a little orange twist. So, we're going to start out with 2 oz of bourbon. Okay. And let me struggle there. See, I found it first time. There you go. That must be a good element, right? We'll get 2 oz of bourbon
6:41 and we'll put it in the mixing glass. And then from there, we've got a half ounce of maple maple syrup. You might notice maple is such a great great flavor. My favorite doughnut is maple ice donut. more. You know, I love chocolate, but there's just something about maple. Maple and chocolate really are, you know, that's a
7:17 great great combination. Okay. And then a half ounce of lemon juice. Oops. Open this. There we go. Okay. that in there. And then quarter ounce of the uh ginger lure.
7:52 So there we go. Just a just a little bit more than a scooch as they say. Okay. And I think it's two dashes of the aromatic bitters. One, two. Okay, now we're going to take a bar spoon. We're going to mix this. I don't know what happened to my ice. Kind of didn't want to cube up, but it got all bunched up. So, that's how it goes sometimes, you
8:28 know. U. So, we're going to ice this down. We're going to let the flavors mix together. We're going to let some of the ice melt. The water opens up the flavors. If you can see on the outside of the mixing glass, you can see that it's uh getting nice and frosty. This time here might remind you of Frosty the Cinnamon, right? I always watch that when I was a kid growing up. Okay, I think we got that. There we go. And we're going to strain this
9:04 into a uh highball, I think. Yeah, rocks glass, otherwise known as a highball. It's got a nice consistency because of the um because of the uh um maple syrup. It's It's a little more viscous than uh it might be uh than it would be if it, you know, didn't have that in it. Okay, we're going to top it off with a pinch of this uh
9:39 smoked sea salt. You know, I I I was always one not to use too much salt, but you know, the fact of the matter is salt I think stimulates our taste buds. And so whatever we're tasting, it tastes better with a little bit of salt in it because the salt, like I said, awakens our taste buds. Okay. And then just going to kind of express some of the oils from the orange peel. Drop that on top.
10:16 And let's give this a try. Wow. Very tasty and great for uh the holiday time of year. Okay, I'll see you over on the sofa.
11:05 So, here we are. I have my sphere. So, on each one of my couches, I have one of these spherical pillows. There's something very comforting about them. I can't tell you what it is. I don't know. But uh anyway, so this is the last uh Jiggers's place for 2025 and uh so it's good to be together. Um I want to start by thanking you for for
11:43 joining me on these little journeys. If you've seen any of my other shows, you know that they're all uh business and finance oriented. They're I hope I hope not, you know, serious in the sense of uh you know, that kind of serious, but you know, they're they're dealing with uh uh I don't want to say more important topics because I don't think that's true. I think relationships and values and understanding ourselves are are all
12:19 critical. Um but you know because we have to make a living. Finances and business take up uh a lot of our our time. And so it's nice to be able to spend this time with you and and relax and um not feel the pressure of, you know, kind of the work a day world and such. So uh on to poor Richard's Almanac. So I I I don't recall exactly when I got this. Uh I I'm
12:54 sure it was in some gift shop. Uh this was this is is supposedly uh like a a recreation of poor Richard's al almanac. Um I I don't I don't think it's particularly accurate in that it doesn't have any of the things. It doesn't have all the things that that poor Richard's almanac had. So if you've ever seen an almanac, it has things like weather and and you know other kinds of information in it. This is really just a book of uh Benjamin Franklin's aphorisms, but you
13:31 know, it's kind of fun and it's it's nicer, I think, to read uh Benjamin Franklin's uh wit and wisdom. Uh that's what I should have called the cocktail, shouldn't I? Wit and wisdom, not humor and wisdom. Oh well. Anyway, uh but it's it's, you know, it's nicer to have it in book form. Um I I think then uh you know they have to go online or whatever. So I want to tell you uh a little bit about Benjamin Franklin. Pardon me.
14:11 So good. Okay. So got my notes here. So Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. on January 17th, 1706. So he was uh native born to uh what was the colonies at the time. He was the 15th of 17 children. Oh boy, his mother, right? Uh poor woman. He received only two years of formal schooling. And yet
14:48 he was an incredibly uh intelligent and educated man. And that's because he did a tremendous amount of reading. Uh like so many uh especially men of his day, although there were self-educated women as well. Uh he he read pretty much anything he could get his hands on. And you know it's it's it's an interesting change in how in how society uh accords someone the identification of
15:23 self-educated uh these days versus even a hundred years ago. So uh well educated aundred or more years ago didn't necessarily mean that someone had graduated from college or had a lot of formal education. It meant that they they had learned a lot from from books and lectures and that sort of thing. And uh may maybe it's time to think about that again. Um and and think about how
15:58 we educate ourselves and our children in in a different way. Uh Franklin apprenticed as a printer under his brother James. at age 17 he left Boston uh for Philadelphia seeking independence and opportunity. So it's it is interesting to note that by birth uh Benjamin Franklin was a New Englander because Boston, Massachusetts is part of New England. Uh but then he moved to what were at the time called the middle colonies uh Pennsylvania um and uh
16:35 trying to think of the the colony just south of Pennsylvania. Um uh Maryland. Thank you. There you go. Um and um he became a successful printer in Philadelphia um and publisher uh and he eventually owned one of the most profitable printing businesses um in the colonies. In 1932, okay, so he would have been 26 year 26 years old at the time. He began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac under
17:11 the pseudonym Richard Saunders. So why he didn't put his own name on it, I wasn't able to uh find that out. It could be because he was relatively young, although 26 in the 18th century was probably considered older and more mature than 26 would be today. Uh the almanac made him famous for his afor aphorisms, his sayings about thrift and industry and practical wisdom. Um
17:46 and and this was not of course the only thing that he published, but it's it's probably what he's best known for. Um his probably the the book for which he's second best known is his autobiography. um and and is both of these books are really part of the western cannon and uh they're they're on you know the great the Chicago great great books list. Um okay so Franklin helped u so he did many other things including um establishing uh the first public lending library in America. He founded the University of
18:22 Pennsylvania and helped organize America's first volunteer fire company. Uh he conducted groundbreaking experiments with electricity, including his famous experiment with the kite where he tied a key to the tail of the kite and um sort of harnessed lightning proving that lightning was indeed an electrical discharge. So unlike some other stories about the founding fathers, that one is historically accurate. Uh he invented many practical devices including the Franklin stove, uh
18:57 bif focal glasses and the lightning rod. Uh and he believed that his inventions should broadly benefit society. So he never patented them. Um or well at least he most of them he refused to patent. Um he served as the colonial postmaster and he greatly improved the postal system and uh Benjamin Franklin was a key advocate for colonial unity and then for the cause of independence um that led up to the eventual eventual
19:34 breaking with uh the mother country Great Britain. So he helped draft the uh declaration of independence in 1776. in fact was one of five people on the committee that uh drafted the the Declaration of Independence. Um, if we're to take the the um musical 1776 um as being truthful, which it's the license was taken there, but uh um John Adams uh tried to get Benjamin Frank
20:10 Franklin to write the Declaration of Independence because he knew that Franklin was probably the most respected, universally respected man in Congress. and Franklin declined saying I don't write I only write light extania as he put it. Uh you know it makes for a good song in a show. Like I said don't know that that's historically accurate. Um he served as the American ambassador to France and was instrumental in securing loans from the French as well as uh French military support. He was
20:47 quite the rake in France. Uh women loved him. He was extraordinarily charming. Uh and uh he was uh quite the philanderer as well. Um let's see. And then he also helped negotiate the treaty of Paris that ended uh the American Revolution and rec and and under which Great Britain recognized uh her former colonies as the United States of America. Uh Franklin was the oldest delegate at the uh constitutional convention in 1887
21:25 and he died on April 17th, 1790 at uh 84 years of age. He's remembered as a printer, a philosopher, an inventor, a diplomat, and of course a founding father. So that is the story of in a nutshell. Uh that's the story of Benjamin Franklin. Um I've read some short biographies from him. I have the biography of Benjamin Franklin. It was
22:00 written by Walter Isacson. I have to confess I have not read it yet. So um so let's let's talk a little bit now about um Poor Richard's Almanac. So as I mentioned, it was first published in 1732 by Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. Um who was a fictional poor Englishman. Okay. Um he created the uh almanac to to entertain, to inform
22:35 um and to provide sort of practical advice for everyday living. Um and it became one of the most popular publications in the American colonies and was published every year until 1758. So it had a nice uh 26-year run. Uh the almanac contained several uh parts if you will. There were c calendars and astronomical data, sunrise, sunset, those sort of thing, moon phases phases, weather predictions,
23:11 uh practical advice on farming and h household keeping and and business. And and then there were humorous uh pieces and and these afore these aphorisms the sayings to impart uh wisdom and and moral guidance um and um as you'll see when I read you uh some parts of it. So, uh, Benjamin Franklin's sayings, they're
23:46 short, they're they're very piffy, to the point. Uh, and that really is, you know, it it it shows you the the first of all, his style, how he thought about these things. And I think he knew that if he wrote something that was short and piffy, people were more likely to remember it. So among the sayings that you still hear today that come from poor Richard's Almanac are a penny saved is a penny earned
24:21 or penny earned is a penny no yeah yeah penny saved is a penny earned right so uh I I don't think that was exactly how Benjamin Franklin uh worded it that over the years or really the centuries um you know the the wording has been altered uh But it's it's it's amazing to think that what almost 300 years later and you'll see I'll read some other ones and you'll recognize them. Um you know we we still uh have these sayings. They've become part of the American cultural fabric.
24:57 Uh so um okay so that that that kind of gives you its background. Um okay and Let's see. Um, so some of his best ones include early to bed and early to rise make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, right? Um, you've probably heard that. And God helps them who helps themselves. That was also uh one of his sayings. So those those are probably the the three that
25:32 I've mentioned are probably his best known. Um, what I want to do, I I went through um my copy of Poor Richard's Almanac and I I picked out um some ones that I thought were particularly uh apt or or they resonated with me for various reasons. So, I'm going to read some of these to you uh to give you a a real good flavor of Poor Richard's Almanac. So um with the old almanac and the old year leave thy old
26:09 vices though ever so dear. So the thing about an almanac of course is that at the end of the year you essentially discard it and you buy a new one for the coming year, right? And uh so that's what we should do with our bad habits. Um, the next one, fish and visitors stink after 3 days. Now, I don't know. I find that fish stinks in less than three days. Um, uh, visitors maybe sometime they can stay for four, but uh, but that that's pretty much it. So, okay.
26:47 Um, he that would live in peace and at ease must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees. Right. I think that uh that's very good advice. Just because we think it doesn't mean we need to say it. All right, next. So, this is a little bit longer. He had these They weren't really
27:22 sayings. They're they're more like ultrashort stories, I guess. Okay. A lawyer being sick and extreme ill was moved by his friends to make his will, which soon he did gave all the wealth he had to frantic persons, lunatic and mad, that they might see with I'm sorry, and to his friends this reason did reveal that they might see with equity he deal
27:58 from mad men's hands. I did my wealth receive. Therefore, that wealth to madman's hands I leave. Now, I deal with lawyers quite often uh in my work and I see very often uh what lawyers are asked to do by people other than me. And it is interesting how often
28:34 I think people are carried away by greed, jealousy uh to a crazy degree uh and and they demand that the lawyer get them justice. And so it it it really strikes me that uh this part about here from mad men's hands I did my wealth receive therefore that wealth to madman's hands I leave. I I I think you know that's I I suspect
29:09 that a lot of attorneys uh think that. Okay, here's another one. And and by the way, this one you'll recognize um in in an altered form, I suspect. Tart words make no friends. A spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. Right? It's been shortened over the years to um you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. But this is the original text of that saying.
29:46 Uh this is another one I've unfortunately uh seen uh too often. Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools that have not wit enough to be honest. Ouch. uh that that is a uh pretty tough uh judgment, but I think unfortunately it's often times true. Uh those of you who are regular watchers of this show uh will understand why I'm reading this
30:22 one. Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others. There you go. There is much difference between imitating a good man and counterfeiting him. You know, I think one of the great parts uh about these sayings is the lessons are often it they could be construed to be quite
30:57 harsh, but because of the way Benjamin Franklin uh serves them up with with humor, they go down more easily. Okay. Clean your finger before you point at my spots. So true, right? So true. He that has not got a wife is not yet a complete man. And uh again, if you if you're a regular watcher of the show, you'll you know why
31:32 I uh chose that one. I just have a few more here I want to share with you. Many would live by their wits but break for want of stock. I I have to say I just love that. Again, it's it's it's so it's it's so digging and yet it does it in such a humorous way. Though modesty is a virtue, bashfulness is a vice.
32:08 I think that's so beautiful and and I think there is a tendency to conflate the the two. Uh but to be modest in in dress, in the way we speak, in the tone of our voice, in how we interact with other people, all of those are are beautiful ways for us to conduct ourselves. The bashfulness to be so self- aacing that we can't engage with other people, uh that that is not a good thing. Um, we're we're
32:44 here to engage with other people. So, this is expressing the same sentiment as one I read just a moment ago. A house without woman and fire light is like a body without soul or spirit. I'm sorry, without soul or sprite. Most most of the times these rhyme. I I'll read it again just you know performs it. A house without woman and fire light is like a body without soul or sprite. Okay.
33:21 And finally, all things are easy to industry, all things difficult to sloth. So, so true. If we're willing to apply ourselves, things become a lot easier. But if all we want to do is be lazy, everything is so so hard. So, you know, as we head toward the end of the year
33:56 and spend time with family, friends, loved ones, colleagues, start making plans for the new year. I think it's good to reflect on the virtues that we hope to embrace, the vices we hope to leave behind, and just give some thought to that. Not a big fan of making New Year's resolutions, frankly.
34:33 But on the other hand, I am a fan of introspection, of creating conditions of satisfaction, and being thoughtful about how to get a little better each day. and cleave more closely to the ideal picture of ourselves
35:13 day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year. So, I'll toast you to 2025. It seemed to have gone by so quickly. And thank you again for joining me at Jiggers's Place. I I I I truly hope that you've enjoy it as much as I do and I look forward to seeing you again in the new year. Marie darling, you are my bell.
35:50 Courage at all times, my friends.