The WAY to WOW Shows
Cocktails & New Years Day
January 1, 2026
Automatically generated from YouTube captions; names and wording may contain errors.

[0:02] Who [music] are you? And where are you going? And [music] where are you going? What do you want? Hello. Not sure why the uh bumper is not working, but anyway, good evening or good afternoon. Good evening. I'm Kevin Bell. I'm your host and this is we're at Jiggers's Place uh

[0:39] for the first episode of 2026. It's New Year's Day and uh so we're, you know, kicking things off. You can maybe already, for those of you who are regular watchers of the show, you can already tell there's something a little bit different. Normally, I show up in a bow tie and vest for this show. And I decided that [clears throat] I'm going to dress things up a little bit differently. So, uh, [clears throat] you know, I I got some uh some new clothes from a wonderful uh store called

[1:15] 11T. Uh all of their clothes are handmade in Italy and uh I've gotten to know some of the people there uh Emily and Michelle and Arthur and uh so sometimes I just drop by to chat with them and uh and and and just kind of enjoy an hour of great conversation. Um but the the clothes there are are just beautiful. Um there's they're very very comfortable. Um, and they're uh I I think they look rather smart. So, uh, you know, for from for now, uh, starting

[1:53] this year at at Jiggers's place, uh, rather than having more of a businessoriented attire, I'm going to have more of a kind of afterwork attire. U, but I'll still be wearing a tie. [laughter] So, for those of you who remember the episode um, this past year on why men should wear a tie. So, uh, welcome to Jiggers's Place, and I hope that you had a wonderful holidays, that you had a happy Christmas, and that you were able to spend time with family and friends,

[2:28] and that uh, this this new year 2026 is off to a good start. I um exchanged messages with a fairly long-term friend of mine, someone I met when I was in the Navy who's unfortunately been very sick uh the last several years. And he told me that his um holiday miracle was he's been waiting for kidneys so he could do a kidney transplant. and um a donor has been identified and so surgery is set

[3:04] for next month. So, you know, uh thank thank God, thank goodness uh that my friend Zach uh has has had that that uh happen in his life. And uh you know, perhaps you've experienced uh something of a similar nature or maybe not quite so dramatic. Uh but uh um I I I I wish you uh only only the best. Good health and prosperity is my typical greeting uh for uh the secular new year. So uh so our first cocktail I I toyed with the

[3:40] idea of dispensing with the cocktail for today u because last night um I I spent New Year's Eve alone. Uh, I won't tell you why because I want to keep things upbeat. Um, but I had some champagne with dinner and I've got part of the bottle of champagne left in my refrigerator. And uh, look, you know me and champagne, right? We have we have a very close relationship. So, uh, but I thought, no, no, no. You know, this is this is cocktails. And so, the cocktail that I came up with for, uh, today's show is called Lessons in a Glass. Uh

[4:18] I'm actually going to spend uh this uh New Year's Day uh and kind of a special edition of the of Jiggers's Place looking back on the shows from last year and talking a little bit about what they mean and and and how we might um use the different things we've talked we talked about in 2025 as we go forward into 2026. So this is a rye based cocktail. I have my uh carffe here. This is actually

[4:53] bullet rye. I decant it into this uh very lovely uh decanter. I actually keep this in my library so that if I'm uh in my library reading and I want to have a little tipple u my favorite everyday ride is is there. Um, and then let's see. Next, I've got some feno cherry. This is Teepe Palamino Fenino. This one, this happens to be kosher. There's lots of great cherries out there. Um, the recipe, if you're if you're on my email list, you get the recipes. It calls for Amaro Montenegro. Uh, I don't have any

[5:31] Amaro Anontenegro in my bar despite having a pretty broad range of bitter liquors. So, I'm going to use I I think this is pronounced um uh Beckarov Roofka. Beckarovka. This is a Czech bitters bitter liquor. [snorts] Um you know, did a little research and found that this is uh you know, fairly similar to a Montenegro bitters. Um I have another one from Czechoslovakia. I have one from Croatia. You know, I toyed with those different ones, but anyway, I I got this when I was in Israel. This is a kosher version.

[6:06] of uh of Becca Roofka. And then let's see, next is some maple syrup. I think I used this a couple of weeks ago. This is just this is pure maple syrup um at a Randac uh family farms that uh that were founded in 1940. And then several uh several um bidters. Um, this is Ela Makulleiki bitters by Bitterman's. Uh, Bitterman's is my favorite bids. They have all kinds

[6:42] of different ones. A total of three, six, nine, 11, and four. 15. I've got 15 different BM's bidters. I think I have all of them. Um, aside from the fact that they're kosher, which is nice for me. Um they have just all kinds of different uh expressions and and they're fun fun to sort of experiment with. So we're going to use some Elma tiki bitters uh from Bitterman's and also some W I think it's pronounced wakalato mole uh bitters and then uh a little

[7:18] just a dash of orange bitters. This is Stirrings blood orange uh bitters. For my money, this is the best uh orange bters out [clears throat] there. Okay, so I went ahead and pre- poured 2 ounces of rye. So, we're going to put this in a mixing glass. We already have ice in there. And then next, we want a/2 ounce of feno cherry. [snorts] And uh let's see. Yeah, here we go. Okay. So, there's our cherry and a just

[7:56] a quarter ounce of the bitters. And if you get the recipes, there's there's usually an explanation as to what the cocktail is about, why the different, you know, um, ingredients are there. So, I'm not going to go into that here. And then a third ounce of uh maple syrup, I think it is. Yeah. Okay. Let's see.

[8:35] And now the various bitters. So we're going to do two dashes of the Elma. One, two, and one dash of the uh Wako mole.

[9:10] I think in retrospect maybe I should have shook those up, but uh well, but you know, you live and you learn. And then just a dash of the orange bitters. The stirrings blood orange bitters. Okay, now we're going to stir this for about 25 to 30 seconds. You see in the recipe there, and uh I always mention this in case there's somebody new watching. We stir it not just to mix the ingredients, but to melt some of the ice. Uh the melting ice opens up the various flavors. So, we're we're mixing

[9:47] we're chilling it down and we're also opening up the flavors. And if you can see the mixing glass, you can see it's nice and frosty on the outside. It's got kind of a lovely golden color. Um, that's due to the uh the rye and um and the maple syrup. And that's probably about that's [snorts] probably about uh 25 to 30 seconds. And we've got our strainer. Okay. And we've got our double rocks glass courtesy in this case of Juniper Square. Juniper Square. It's a

[10:24] investment software uh company. And there we go. And I'm going to garnish it with some charred rosemary. I'm just going to kind of slip that in there. It'll over time the the alcohol will leech out some of the flavor of the rosemary. And there you go. Isn't that beautiful with the little rosemary sprig in there? Lots of layers in there because of all

[11:00] the different flavors. And as you sip it, you smell the rosemary, which is very, very nice. Okay, I will see you over on the couch.

[11:38] So, here we are. [laughter] It's the, like I said before, the first day of 2026. I got my my spherical pillow to sit on my lap and uh so it's nice to be with you. It's nice to start uh the new year with you [snorts] and uh you know, ex experience some of this together. So, [clears throat] you know, last year was um the second season of Jiggers's Place, but it was

[12:13] the first full season. I started I started the show kind of midseason [snorts] in uh 2023 and uh it was originally was just kind of a lark. Uh so the original way to wow show I would convert my living room in which I'm sitting right now uh into a what amounted to a TV studio and we would shoot multiple episodes uh in in one day. So anywhere from four to eight episodes um the first iteration of the show it was a 30 minute show and I

[12:49] [snorts] had two I did two guest segments for each show. Uh, and um, what I found was, oh, and then, uh, I for each guest, I had also a guest bartender who created a cocktail themed to the topic uh, about about which I was going to be speaking with my guest. So, we had some absolutely amazing cocktails by some very uh, creative bartenders. Uh most of them came courtesy of a uh a bar

[13:28] that I used to frequent called uh Lost Property. Um I think unfortunately it closed as a result of um of the pandemic. Uh but but in any event um Jiggers's place was a way to bring back the kind of the gestalt of the original way to wow shows. So, uh it it was impractical to bring in a full crew and and and and do the very uh uh you know, I think the original show we had a crew

[14:04] of about eight or nine people. Uh it was a lot of fun. I got to work with my longtime producing partner and our longtime director producing partner Rick and and our longtime uh director of photography, Steve. And then we had some uh younger, newer people who were a part of the groups. Um and uh like I said, it was it was just it was a lot of fun. Uh but you know, it was it was impractical. And so that's why I changed this format in order to continue the show after a hiatus in uh 2021.

[14:40] and uh and so but I always miss the cocktails and and the kind of atmosphere that created and so that's what what brought Jiggers's place back. And the other thing about the original Way to Wow show was it didn't focus solely on uh financial and professional matters. It really it focused on all of the all three of the three pillars of attainment. all nine of the realms within them. And and and and so uh

[15:16] Jiggers's place is where we can talk about uh the other eight realms [laughter] that I don't talk about in my other three shows. So, um, Trust and Estates Weekly, Business Lessons from the Military, and People Making Money are all dealing with, as as their names state, uh, different aspects of of business and professional matters. And so, so here we don't talk about all those things. We talk about books, relationships, values,

[15:51] uh, and you'll see a few other things. And so, that's why I wanted to do this kind of retrospective. I love the smell of rosemary. [snorts] Um, so I uh I went through all the episodes that I did last year [snorts] and I I created a list. You can see it here.

[16:26] And I then I I realized they could be grouped into essentially four groups. So one has to do with uh how we conduct ourselves um how we dress our our our likes and dislikes those kind of things. The second one has the second cate category has to do with uh our our societal our connections society. So kind of the things outside of us.

[17:04] They're they tend to be more broadly valuesoriented uh as opposed to the first category which is personal values. And then there's the this uh third category which is on books. And then there's a fourth category that is admittedly short [laughter] or doesn't only has three items in it. And it has to do with just just things that uh I I I thought it would be fun uh to uh discuss with you. Uh, and so I'm

[17:41] going to cover those last because uh because those are the most fun. Okay, so [snorts] uh so I started out last year um cocktails in the new year talking about the three keys to living a physically healthy life. Sleep, diet, and exercise. So if we can be reasonably self-disciplined about getting good sleep, eating well, and exercising periodically, uh we'll live a pretty healthy life,

[18:17] right? And the thing is, I'm not a I'm not a big fan of making New Year's resolutions. Uh what I am a big fan of is returning to sort of basic principles, simple disciplines that will make our lives better. Okay? And they typically don't require, you know, an expensive gym membership or a big uh revolution in our life. It's really

[18:52] about just developing some very simple habits in our in our day-to-day life and then building on those habits, right? So, one dietary habit might be instead of eating uh you know processed foods every day, maybe we restrict it to only uh four or five days a week. So maybe we don't eat processed foods on the weekends because we're not having to work hopefully and so we have more time to be, you know, preparing our meals,

[19:28] that kind of thing. That's the kind of sort of return to discipline that I think is is best for New Year's. Okay. And then talked about uh cocktail. I I'm going to leave off the cocktail parts. Everyone starts with cocktails, right? So I talked about relationships and my central theme there was the most important thing in a relationship is the relationship itself. While good communication in a relationship it can help can help keep the

[20:03] relationship in good shape. It is the relationship itself on which we have to focus. Okay. So good communication will not overcome a conflict in core values. It may help define it and and help us understand that's what's going on, but rarely is it going to overcome it because we typically don't change our core values. Next, I talked about etiquette and the the core idea of etiquette. It's

[20:40] not about a whole bunch of rules. It's about how we make life more enjoyable for the people with whom we interact. That's the essence of etiquette. Okay. Now, I talked about language inflation where we use words, they become overused. So whether it's awesome or crisis, those I think were the two um biggest examples I gave.

[21:15] Creating the habit of using words that actually mean what it is we want to say will help us communicate better rather than letting us letting ourselves fall prey to an inflated language that typically is designed to upset other people without really giving them any opportunity to do anything about it. Okay. Then I tal I also talked about behaving like a man and I think this is

[21:50] important for both men and women because I think women have lost out uh as as men have lost uh the cure the central uh the the central aspect of what makes a man which is not power or dominance. It's the pursuit of virtue. So, if you're a single woman uh looking for a husband, I encourage you to look

[22:27] for a man who whose life is devoted to the pursuit of of virtue. Okay? Don't look for a virtuous man because any man who would self-proclaim himself to be virtuous is not [laughter] okay. But a man who strives to improve all aspects of himself and in particular the way in which he interacts with other people. He's a keeper. and men. This is

[23:02] the concept, the value to which we need to rededicate our lives, the pursuit of virtue. And [snorts] then I talked about ties, which I mentioned already. Uh and uh you know uh a a wearing a tie is connecting ourselves as as men connecting ourselves to uh at this point several centuries of manhood. It's a way to decorate ourselves that is

[23:38] largely male centered. Okay. And it also says something about our willingness to restrain ourselves that we put on a tie around our neck is perhaps metaphoric of the need for us to discipline ourselves. Then I talked about responsibilities, rights and entitlements. Now by the way this might be better placed in the second category of societal responsibilities. I kind of

[24:15] play with that. In the end we need to take individual responsibility for how we conduct ourselves how how we behave in society but that's an individual thing. Okay. without taking without taking responsibility seriously, rights don't mean a whole lot because the accretion of rights then comes at the expense of others

[24:50] and and then I we we I talked about entitlements as well which are neither responsibilities nor rights. they are something that's expanded significantly in our uh society. And then last in this category, I talked about Peter Peter Male's wonderful book, Acquired Taste. So I had a long conversation, pardon me, with one of my clients uh day before yesterday, I believe it was, or maybe it was yesterday, I don't remember now.

[25:26] >> [snorts]

[25:26] >> And we we talked at least for part of the conversation about how to enjoy life. And I told them I'm going to send them a copy of Acquired Taste because you know we used to talk about having good taste. It was someone who had a sense of beauty, a sense of how to deport oneself in a way that made that focused on

[26:02] other people's well-being more than one's own. Someone who has, you know, who knows etiquette and has good manners, right? and and and it would it would be wonderful us to return to this idea of working to acquire good taste. So and and uh um Peter Male's books uh Peter Male is best known for his first book uh which was a huge bestseller

[26:37] called the year in provence. Peter Male was an Englishman who with his wife moved to the south of France and that his first book was about uh that move and then he continued to write books about uh France and and other other sort of related subjects. So the key to his book is that uh rather than indulging in novelty which where you know whatever whatever is novel wears off and then on to the next thing that's novel uh cultivate

[27:15] a taste for timeless things. Okay. Like champagne, truffles, caviar, just to use the gust uh gastronomic examples. [snorts] Okay, so that was the first category. In the second category, which is our sort of looking out into society. So, I did a a show on jury duty uh not long after I I didn't I actually ended up not serving on the jury, but I went to to what's called the voadier, which is the jury selection process. It was quite

[27:51] fascinating uh and and in some ways disappointing because the vast majority of people were trying to get out of having to serve on jury duty. And I looked at it the opposite way which is in our republic uh we have certain responsibilities really in this case duties as citizens of our republic and one of them is to serve on a jury. And so I was absolutely willing to serve. Uh but unfortunately

[28:28] it was a sophisticated business matter and one of the parties did not want anybody who had knowledge of how sophisticated business matters work. They all all of us who who were you know very you know sort of deep into business we all got excused by that same lawyer. So uh so I didn't get to serve but that's okay. And then I talked about renewing societal institutions. So, I I think there's a rather broad feeling in society today that our institutions have let us down. And it's I I think it's not without Oops. It's not without uh good

[29:05] reason. Oh, I dropped my coaster. Have I showed you my coaster before? So, this is made from teakwood that was part of the deck of the USS Missouri, which was uh a battleship that was sunk uh in in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7th, 1941. So, I have uh I got several of these uh coasters to uh remember that tragic day. [clears throat] This is one of the best cocktails I've

[29:41] I've had on the show. I If you haven't, if you're not getting the recipes, um you know, I encourage you to uh to join my email list so you get them. Um but also the cocktail recipes are in the show notes after an episode posts on YouTube. So, wow. Try this one out. Okay. Uh so uh we I I think the tendency is for us to feel that institutionals institutions fail us and that is partly true.

[30:18] Institutions do fail us but we also fail institutions. So as citizens of our republic, we have a responsibility to see to it that our institutions are upheld and that can be a lot of work. Now we can't all be responsible for upholding all institutions. uh but I think each of us should should choose one or two in which we're going to be involved and

[30:55] act in that institution in [snorts] the way that we would have the institution viewed uh by you know by people in general. So uh when I say institutions there's I I I mean that fairly broadly. So I don't mean institution in the sense of you know a particular house of worship for example uh uh although that's probably how we would impact the institution of religion for example but we've got religion

[31:30] government uh business um charitable institutions there there are others out there and so uh I think it behooves each of us to be involved in a couple of them. So for example, for me, I'm I'm involved in in in business. I I have my own company. Um, and my focus when I'm doing business is [snorts] to handle situations

[32:06] in a way that I feel brings credit to business as an institution. So, treating people with decency. Um, not engaging in dishonesty. um uh uh you know complying with you know laws etc etc. So uh I I work within my business I work to create an atmosphere where people

[32:43] feel like they're they're involved in something valuable. Okay. So that's that's one institution that I seek to uh uphold in in in its best context. And then I also uh uh so I'm the um chairman of the board of a small nonprofit and the same thing there. So I look to you know in my role as kind of the the the person who is overseeing things at a very high level see to it that whatever

[33:21] the organization is doing is is credible is valuable. We're not wasting donors resources. uh the people who come in contact with the organization uh they they um get something out of it that is very worthwhile. Okay. So institutions then I talked about um biblical commandments right so the commandments endure uh be because they describe and they deal with human nature as it is not as we might

[33:57] wish it to be. Right? There's a saying about if wishing and hoping were I don't know whatever it is, right? It's all good and well, but human nature hasn't changed for millennia. And that's I think one of the true values of understanding biblical morality is biblical is is it's dealing with human nature as it is from a timeless perspective. And [snorts] then finally in this category I talked about just the broad category of duty. To whom do we have why is duty important? To whom do

[34:34] we have duty? How should we exercise it? And and I think this is I mean this is important for both men and women but in particular for men who who agree with me that the essential male uh aspect is the pursuit of virtue. So duty is in many ways the action side of that pursuit. Okay. So if something is our duty then we do it. If it's annoying

[35:12] or painful or takes time okay so it does but since it's our duty we do it. All right, the third category is great books. And I think this is actually uh the longest category. Uh 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. So I did 11 shows out of 26 or 20 25 or

[35:50] 26. So almost half of them were on great books. And that's by design. I think that for us to read and understand uh the great works of the western canon is to understand the foundation on which our civilization rests. And it is to teach us a great deal about human nature, about values, about how to effectively interact with other people, and how to keep our minds active, uh get enjoyment

[36:27] from something other than, you know, scrolling our phones and that sort of thing. So, uh, the books the books that I covered, I'm I'm just going to kind of run through them. Uh so Ivanho the great adventure novel by Sir Walter Scott. Um so CI that one of its themes civilization advances when honor restrains power not when power replaces honor. It's a wonderful book. Oh my gosh. And the movie is is terrific too. Okay. Uh the Federalist Papers which talks about why the original 13 states

[37:02] of the United States should should ratify the constitution. Uh so I think the central I I love this central idea by by the way I I did use uh my assistant chat GPT to come up with some of these notes and chat GPT came up with this and I I think it's brilliant. Not that chat GPT is sentient because it's not. Uh but liberty survives through structures that assume human weakness. that is the undergirling of our republic

[37:39] and the constitution that was written um by the the brilliant men who wrote it. Okay. Then next I talked about the some of the great three of the great 19th century novelists Jane Austin, George Elliot and uh Thomas Hardy. And um and one of the ideas manners reveals uh morality and often small choices shape destinies more than grand declarations. And indeed that if if you read any of those author's great works, whether it's uh North Anger Abbey, which is which is

[38:16] one of Jane Austin's lesser known uh works, but but one of my favorites or um The Mill on the Floss by George Elliott or Tess of the Dubervilles uh by Hardy. I think you will see it's really the small things that really drive the stories. Okay, I talked about Mark Twain. Uh, so if you're not an afficionado of great books, Mark Twain is your road in. I don't know, you know, in my day when you went to junior high,

[38:52] high school, we read books like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, they were cons Huckleberry Finn in particular was considered one of the greatest books ever written by an American author. Uh, so Mark Twain had an ability to use humor to make truth accessible. And that's one of the reasons why I love Mark Twain. I think I've read all of his books except for one. I I I I still have to read Innocence Abroad. It's it's sitting on my uh little table in my uh bedroom

[39:28] waiting waiting to be read this year. Okay. And then this is not of course a book, but I talked about the 36 dramatic situations. And just to give you an idea, if one of the I think fun things about reading uh fiction is to see the many many different ways that the same essential plot can be to told and retold and retold. Um, I talked about the red badge of courage, Stephven Crane's

[40:05] amazing short book set in the American Civil War. And uh, again, one of the central ideas there is courage is not the absence of fear, but it's the decision not to fall prey to fear. So that was an early lesson that I had to learn. Okay. Then I talked about the elements of style uh which is both a great book. Uh it's written by uh well the the current

[40:40] edition I think is written by and white uh was the original author trying to remember his first name. White is Evie White, the great author and poet. And it really makes the case that that clear writing is evidence of clear thinking and sloppy language oftentimes also hides uh sloppy ideas. I talked about the outstanding sort of existentialist play waiting for GDAU. Uh

[41:15] meaning doesn't arrive, it's created by how we wait and what we do while we're waiting. Um I I I'm hoping this year to get an opportunity to see Waiting for GDAU on the stage. Uh it it's it's an amazing play to read and uh I hope I get to see it uh like I said on the stage. Then I talked about Asup's fables, some of which you probably uh have read as as a children or maybe you read them to your children as an adult. There are simple stories that endure because they have core moral principles uh built into

[41:53] them like the the tortoise and the hair and the the [snorts] uh fox and the sour grapes. These are wonderful wonderful stories. so so valuable for children because they're they're very memorable um and they're a way of in inculcating our values without clubbing someone over the head. And then finally, uh I this was the show I think just two weeks ago. I talked about poor Richard's Almanac uh Benjamin Franklin's uh wonderful uh contribution to early American uh

[42:29] knowledge and and [snorts] while you know the the sections about weather and that kind of stuff obviously don't mean anything now the interspersing of ideas that were uh that were conveyed humorously is really what is enduring about poor Richard's al poor Richard's almanac and you'll notice that I'm obviously a big fan of this idea of

[43:04] conveying ideas especially important ideas through humor through charm through uh even enjoyable uh plays like Waiting for GDAU. So uh that's not to that's not to say um I want to be you know propagandistic in that sense but uh the way we present people with ideas I think is as important as the ideas themselves. So that's category number

[43:41] three great books. And then the fourth category, like I said, is kind of the miscellaneous category, but it has a bit of a literary, fun, entertainment. I don't know. I I didn't know what to call the category, so I just called it fun. So, I talked about uh film noir. Uh one of my great great loves uh um in uh I think it was early December. Um, my longtime producing partner, who I mentioned, uh, earlier in the show, Rick and I, uh, got

[44:17] to go to a wonderful theater down in Elsagundo called the Oldtime Music Hall, and we saw Kiss Kiss Me Deadly, I believe it was, uh, on the big screen. There's while I'll watch you know film noir on a small computer screen on a big computer screen there is nothing like seeing it in a in a movie theater with an audience on a big screen. Uh and uh you know film noir reminds us that uh moral compromise

[44:52] rarely announces itself. It comes in the dark foggy night and she whispers to us. Right? That's the fem fatal, right? And we don't even see her coming. And then I also talked about Downtown Abbey. Uh perhaps my favorite uh television show of all time. I it's certainly up there with friends and uh yeah those those are probably the the well friends uh Hogan's

[45:28] Heroes. Yeah, Friends and Downtown Abbey. Those are the the three shows that uh when I you know I just watch them over and over again. So what I like most about Downtown Abbey is first of all how it presents relationships, relationships of power and [snorts] servitude. uh relationships of

[46:03] um of need, relationships of uh desire, um how it pre how it presents accountability, forgiveness, so many aspects [snorts] and uh I mean the acting of course is brilliant, the writing is is also extraordinary. It's a beautiful beautiful show uh set in the English countryside. The costumes are beautiful, the language is

[46:38] beautiful. Uh and uh the way the show was on for gosh, I want to say eight seasons, I think. Um, watching the characters grow I is is one of my favorite parts of of Downtown Abbey. And then finally, I talked about Greek dramas. So, this could have fit into the into the great books category because most of the Greek dramas that are extant are part of the western cannon. Uh

[47:14] however in this case I wanted to emphasize seeing Greek dramas in a theater if you get enough opportunities to see I don't know the Traanian women agam Agame agamemnon uh uh lyisteria uh any of the whether it's uh sophos sophocles whether it's Escilis who I think in the episode I called a skylus. I think it can be either way. Uh Uripides,

[47:50] if you get an opportunity to see one of their plays performed, go. That's all I can tell you. uh the essential nature of Greek drama is very impactful and it's so different from the elaborate productions that are so much of what goes what passes for theater these days whether it's shows like the Lion King or you know whatever the you know the current uh I think you know

[48:27] Wicked or whatever these you know, these musicals have, you know, large budget budgets, high production value, etc. And and that's fine. I mean, you know, there's a place for spect for spectacle. Uh but u last month, um I went and saw the nutcrack twice, only see it once. Uh it was it the LA Ballet does a a great job. And uh uh I saw it at Royce Hall at UCLA, a matinea and it was lovely. There were a lot of parents there with with children,

[49:03] small children who sat in wrapped attention watching what what were what was wonderful dancing and very very simple sets and props, very minimalist. That's one of the aspects of ballet that I like is it's not particularly elaborate in most cases. Uh but I, you know, I had a a business associate uh who I found out loves the nut wanted to badly to see the Nutcracker and so uh I I took her to see it uh actually uh last Saturday night uh

[49:41] at the Dolby, which is an amazing theater in Hollywood on Hollywood Boulevard. and Highland. Uh and in and in this performance there was a live orchestra to enhance it and it was the same simple presentation uh but the live music added an element to it that wasn't there when I saw it the first time and it was mostly an adult audience that was very very appreciative uh of of the quality of the performance and and So, you know, ballet

[50:19] in a way is is a again it's a simpler form of performance and Greek drama is perhaps even a little simpler than that. And yet when you strip away so much of the production, the sets and the all the the elaborate costumes and all that kind of stuff, you get down to the essential nature of in in the case of uh of of Greek uh dramas, uh you get down to the essential nature of of why going to the theater is such a

[50:55] wonderful experience, and that is that the performers ers have an opportunity to convey a message to us that will give us food for thought and hopefully make our lives better. And uh by coincidence uh that is why I do Jigger's place. I hope to give you some ideas, some food for thought that in the end will make your life better. So, welcome to 2026. If you're a new viewer of Jiggers's

[51:32] Place, welcome to Jiggers's Place. And I I hope I will see you again in the coming weeks and months. If you have thoughts, questions, comments, criticisms, uh all of my social media links will be in the show notes after this episode posts on YouTube. feel free to be in touch. If you have an idea for a show that you'd like to see me do, hey, let me know. Um, you know, always always open to to uh great ideas. And uh so

[52:07] thank you so much for joining me, sharing a a small piece of your New Year's Day with me. Looking forward to being with you in this year and wishing you a new year of good health and prosperity. Signing off as I always do. Marie Darling, you're my bell. Courage at all times, my friends.