The WAY to WOW Shows
Cocktails & Vanity Fair
November 5, 2026
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:02] [music] Who are you and where are you going? [music] What do you want? [music]

[2:06] >> [sighs]

[2:39] >> Let's unmute so we can hear what's going Huh. So, [laughter] it's been a wild week. So, I'm I'm glad to be with you here. And today I'm going to be talking about One moment. There we go. No, it's still making noise. Okay. Well,

[3:16] There we go. So, today I'm going to be talking about um one of the great 19th century novels of Vanity Fair.

[3:26] >> [snorts]

[3:26] >> And uh coincidentally I was at a business networking event uh yesterday evening and uh I I met someone there a lovely uh um woman who uh studied uh Greek ancient Greek literature. Um and I don't often meet people who who want to talk about great books. Uh so it was really a treat. So, uh I don't know I don't know if Jennifer is watching, but but uh uh it was it was

[4:02] great uh talking books with you uh yesterday, Jennifer. And uh we're going to we're going to do that today. Um in in uh hopefully not a vain attempt to uh convince you that uh that that books that are 150 200 years old are well worth our attention or maybe even older than that. So, in honor of uh today's um show, I'm going to make a cocktail called the Fair Exchange. Um and this is

[4:37] uh I think a little bit of an unusual cocktail because it's um going to start out with some brandy. I'm going to use a Marquee Dem Exo Cognac, extra old cognac. And I'm going to use a little teal pepe feno cherry. And the orange lucure I'm going to be using is my favorite quantro. Uh so we've got uh French and Spanish going here. I've got some fresh lemon juice and some simple syrup. So let's get going with this cocktail. So, we're

[5:12] going to start out with an ounce and a half of uh cognac, of course, is is it's just a type of brandy. It's brandy that's made in uh the cognac region of France. Going to do an ounce and a half of that. There we go. Going to have to get myself another bottle of this pretty soon. And then 3/4 of an ounce of the to Pepe

[5:48] um feno cherry. By the way, I've got ice in the shaker as as you might have guessed. And then uh let's see. Um a half ounce of the uh orange lure, the quantro. Go. Quantro always smells so good. Always makes me think of Casablanca

[6:24] because uh one of the characters goes to the bar and orders a quantro. Okay. And then last, some fresh um lemon juice. or not last, actually next. And then last, um, a/4 ounce of simple syrup. I'm just going to put kind of a squeeze in in there. I'm going to measure it out. [snorts] Okay. And we'll cap this up. And we're going to shake. And as I note,

[7:02] every time we're shaking, not just to mix the ingredients and to cool them down, but also to melt some of the ice because a little bit of water brings out the flavors. These are more delicate than whiskey or or vodka and such. So, don't have to do it quite as long. 12 to 15 seconds. That was probably about that. And I know the recipe says to use a coupe. I'm gonna use a Nickonora glass uh just because uh um frankly I felt like it.

[7:40] Okay, there we go. And I've got a nice uh piece of orange peel here. This approximately 1 by 2 in. I'm going to express a little bit of the oils out of it and drop that right in there. Here we go. Ah, very nice. You know, it's [snorts] late fall getting on toward Well, I guess we're not even halfway to winter, but it's

[8:15] it's it's in the fall here. You would think it would be cold, but uh in a couple of days, it's going to be almost 90 here in Los Angeles. So, a cool cool cocktail is nice. Okay, I'll meet you over on the sofa.

[9:02] Okay, so here we are back on the sofa with my spherical pillow. Kind of goes with what I'm wearing. I have my 11T duds on. And uh so this is Vanity Fair. This is at least the copy I have. Um [snorts] you you can see it's a big book and you might be thinking h I don't want to read such a long book. There is something really wonderful about reading a long book. It becomes a friend. You really feel like you get to know people. Um I

[9:38] don't want to scare you but this book is I think over 700 pages. Yeah 7 54 pages. So, um, but you know, it's big tight. So, it, [snorts] you know, like a lot of, uh, 19th century literature, it does take a little bit to kind of get into it, but once you get into it, it reads very fast. Um, so, um, Vanity Fair is set in England,

[10:16] >> [snorts]

[10:16] >> um, as is a lot of the great 19th century literature, and [snorts] it's really about, um, two young women, uh, Becky and Amelia. Um, Becky is uh um not born to wealth and she strives to live um at least a a semi-aristocratic life, you know, the life of the wellto-do in England

[10:55] [snorts] and Amelia and and and and Becky kind of represents the upand cominging which was which was an issue in [snorts] England as England was industrializing. Um people who previously could not have afforded uh to be in the upper class could now afford to be so.

[11:22] >> [snorts]

[11:22] >> um you're seeing uh kind of the predecessor period, if you will, uh to Downtown Abbey. Um and uh and so um such social climbing while certainly common here in the United States where a lot if not most of one's social standing comes from how well one is doing financially. In England

[11:58] that was not the case. Um, [snorts] I can't I can't say if it's Well, I think it's still really not the case in England, although probably um more so today than 150 years ago. [snorts] Uh and it was um for people who strived to better their lives, [snorts] it was to say the least difficult. And you know, we're we're pretty used to

[12:34] social mobility here in the United States. Um but there are a lot of societies where such things uh don't exist [snorts] and u that's true still largely true in England, South America um perhaps less so in Japan. Other countries have a different kind of stratification. So [snorts] in China and Russia um the um societal hierarchy has to do with

[13:12] uh belonging to the ruling party. That's of course not unusual in a lot of countries. And the book Vanity Fair is is really a study in contrasts. So, uh, the life that Becky wants to leave versus the life she leads, [snorts] the personality and character traits of Becky versus those of Amelia. Uh,

[13:49] and I think [snorts] what's best about this book is we can see parts of ourselves reflected in the characters and in some ways I think even in the events. Um while we live very different lives than people did in the you know late 19th century still there's many commonalities um between

[14:24] between uh human beings and um we're not nearly as different as our for our we're not nearly as uh yeah different from our forebears as as we might think we are. And and so um it's it's useful to involve oneself in a character study, which is essentially what Vanity Fair is,

[15:01] um as a way to better understand ourselves and other people.

[15:13] >> [snorts]

[15:15] >> I I um I have a very uh good and close friend who um doesn't um read fiction. And I think that's a shame because through characters that don't exist, we can explore values, morals, traits that and and responses to them that I think would be more difficult

[15:52] when dealing with real people. or people who actually lived. [snorts] So [clears throat] it's it's very easy to to hate uh evil people that have actually existed, people who killed and maimed,

[16:19] >> [snorts]

[16:20] >> etc. Uh it's it's harder to well I'm I'm going to I'm going to actually I'm going to blay that uh that thought. [snorts] um authors can help us ha help us in our emotional responses to characters and so uh but I think that it's it's in a way fictional characters

[16:56] are more accessible because while the author creates them we interpret them. So they come alive within our own consciousness and that's important that interpretive filter that we exercise in examining a fictional character

[17:31] helps us relate to react [snorts] against in essence the fictional character in a way that's meaningful for us and there's no repercussions because the person doesn't actually exist. So, you know, if we're examining the character of a family member or a friend or someone we know, you know, in in in in our neighborhood or society or whatever. Um, there there are repercussions to

[18:09] that. Um, but not so with fictional characters like like Becky and Amelia. So, let's see. Let me see what else I wanted to say about this.

[18:24] >> [clears throat]

[18:32] >> Yeah. [snorts] Okay. So, um, yeah, one of the things I, yeah, I forgot to mention is Vanity Fair has a subtitle. It's called A Novel Without a Hero. And that's that's an interesting way to uh, designate a book. So

[19:08] just because there is no hero in the book [snorts] doesn't mean that there aren't distinctions in morality and goodness in proper and improper behavior. In that sense vanity fair is much more like real life. [snorts] While sometimes people act in a her in in a heroic fashion

[19:44] in real life there aren't heroes. Heroism is something expressed or done in a typically discrete period of time. But it's in some ways a moment within that person's life and a life that's filled with a lot of mundane behaviors. Um probably some not so great or heroic

[20:22] behaviors. And so I think we we we have a tendency to idolize heroes, but [snorts] real people are not heroes. So Hercules maybe is a hero, but that's because we know him only in the construct of what's written about him. But a human being is not a hero. A human being may do

[20:57] something heroic. And that doesn't mean that all human beings are bad. [snorts] Um or that only in moments of heroism are human beings valuable. I think what it means is that uh [clears throat] we we need to see people as they truly are. So this is particularly true with celebrities. So

[21:33] that someone is a fine athlete, an excellent actor or actress. [snorts] I mean those those are you know wonderful things um but they do not necessarily make a person good let alone heroic. Okay. And and so we need to distinguish among the aspects, traits, behaviors of a person.

[22:08] And in in the in the end, each of us is a summation of of all of those. Um but it's very hard for another person to make that summation. And I would argue it's not really our business to make the summation. Our business is to build relationships with other people, to recognize their virtues and their faults, to support them in their virtues, and to strive to get close enough to

[22:46] them that they will help us or that they will accept our help in minimizing the negative impact of their faults. And in in I think at least in some ways vanity fair is a discussion of that process. [snorts] And so that there is no hero in Vanity Fair really doesn't matter.

[23:24] It is indeed how life is. And it's good for us to experience life in a fictional setting as a way of learning how to better navigate life re actual real life. And so I I unqualifiedly recommend to you uh Vanity Fair. Uh this edition Oh, wow. This edition was published in 1991. Wow. It's uh

[24:01] 35 years old. Holy cow. I was a much younger guy when I got this book. Um there's, you know, there's there's I'm sure if you go on Amazon, uh you will find uh lots of good. In fact, I'll have my my new uh AI assistant, Effie, um put a um an affiliate link in the show notes uh to this episode so you can click through and if you want to get a copy of the book and read it. Um, you know, as we head into the fall and winter and especially in those places of the

[24:37] country that get cold, um, it's nice to sit by the fireplace of an evening and pick up a a friend that we can spend a lot of time with. And um, you know, Vanity Fair is not a book that you're going to read in one sitting. It's a book that you'll read probably over a couple of weeks, maybe a month. And I think at the end you'll you'll be a little bit sad that you're not going to know or you're not going to spend more time

[25:13] with the characters. I know that's one of the reasons I most enjoy uh 19th century literature. Um, it keeps us company and we are a society filled with loneliness right now unfortunately. And while the best way to assuage loneliness is to spend time with other people, especially family and friends.

[25:47] >> [snorts]

[25:47] >> We can't always do that, but we can make friends with the great characters of another century. And so I invite you and I encourage you to make friends with Becky and Amelia and have a lovely winter or have a lovely fall or winter. uh getting to know them and getting to know yourself better. So, I I appreciate you joining me. I I

[26:24] especially appreciate you uh you know, hanging through the technical difficulties I had at the beginning of the show. And I look forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. Thank you again for watching. And that just leaves me to sign off and remind you, Marie Darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.