Author: Joey deVilla

The old-school version:

The new-school version:

Let make this new year a great one.

Click the photo to see it (and that super-festive background) at full size.

Never mind what side of the gun debate you’re on for just a moment — the important thing about this gift is that it’s proof that they have truly accepted me into the fold. And isn’t that the True Spirit of Christmas?

The gift reminds me of this Saturday Night Live skit:

Anitra and I have booked a last-minute flight to Toronto, just because the opportunity and some good flight tickets came up. Let me know if you’d like to catch up! We arrive late Boxing Day afternoon, and return to Tampa late New Year’s Day afternoon.

Cue the slow heavy metal music! Click the photo to see it at full size.

Have a safe and merry Christmas, everyone!

From left to right: Joey deVilla, Lyssa Adkins, Alistair Cockburn, Anitra Pavka.

On Monday, Anitra and I were at the Copper Shaker in downtown St. Pete to attend the Agile Social and celebrate the birthday of computer scientist Alistair Coburn, agile coach, and co-signer of the Agile Manifesto. I ended up playing some accordion for the party, and you can read more about it on my tech blog, Global Nerdy.

The Copper Shaker has a great cocktail menu…

…and one of the cocktails I had was the Smokestack (on the menu pictured above, it’s midway through the right column). It’s a Boulevardier-like whiskey cocktail made of WhistlePig rye, maple syrup, Peychaud’s bitters, a maraschino cherry, and maple smoke. The process of adding smoke to a drink made for some great photos, which appear below.

The bartender took out a maple plank and a blowtorch, a sure sign that interesting things were about to happen:

As you might expect, doing this creates maple smoke, which the bartender quickly captured in a glass:

The tricky part is quickly flipping the smoke-filled glass over and then pouring the drink into it. The bartender did this masterfully, in one smooth motion:

The end result was a smooth, smoky glass of joy:

The Copper Shaker is located in downtown St. Petersburg at 169 1st Avenue North, between 1st and 2nd streets. You can find out more about them on their website.

Here’s the dirty little secret of “identity politics”:

👏🏻 All 👏🏼 politics 👏🏽 is 👏🏾 identity 👏🏿 politics. In the end, it’s about people, and who are we but what we do and what we are? When Paul Ryan uses the term identity politics are actually saying “These people do not share my skin color or ancestry, and therefore don’t count.”

Read more about Paul Ryan’s cognitive dissonance here:

• Paul Ryan decries tribalism, identity politics ahead of midterms
• Ryan pushes for thousands of Irish visas before leaving office: “House Speaker Paul Ryan is leaving Congress with a grateful nod to his Irish ancestors.”

And before you state that I’m genetically or ethnically incapable of being able to relate to Paul Ryan’s ancestry, you might want to read this.