And Just Like That

And just like that – 2021 is coming to an end. Whew. And Sex and the City has returned – rebooted and renamed And Just Like That.

I won’t be snarky and give you my assessment of this new version of Sex and the City, but I am enjoying revisiting and falling in love again with the gorgeous song that concluded the 2008 movie of Sex and the City.

It’s New Year’s Eve and Carrie Bradshaw is dashing through the snow and cold (in her fancy fur coat and Chanel boots) to Miranda’s house so that neither will be alone at the strike of midnight – and we see all of the other SATC characters celebrating the approach of the New Year in their own special ways.

The scenes are fascinating – but it’s the music that makes it. Mairi Campbell, a Scottish singer, sings a version of “Auld Lang Syne” that is breathtakingly beautiful…so much lovelier than our standard version of the song.

Of course, hearing that song makes me think of old acquaintances (and in Andy’s Corner, Andy, upon hearing that song, has questions about it). Speaking of old (auld?) acquaintances, Janet, a special friend from college and my roomie during our 1st year out of college when we lived in Upland, California, just sent me a recipe from her Aunt Mable, whom I was lucky enough to meet when she visited us in Colorado Springs in 1966.

When I asked Janet why her aunt had put (“Sh!”) beside the “HBR”, she asked Mable’s daughter, Ann, who recalled that their home state of Oklahoma had not ended prohibition until 1959, even though the U.S. had ended it in 1933! Ann wrote, “Mab certainly wouldn’t have wanted people to think she was pushing booze since it wasn’t legal in Oklahoma, so she put her finger to her lips and said, ‘shhhh.'” 

And Ann continues, “I just finished using the recipe to ward off the chill of a dark and dreary early evening at my good house!“

So – just like that – we’re ready to toast to a new (and surely better) year – with Aunt Mable’s Hot Buttered Rum. It’s legal now…even in Oklahoma.

Here’s to old and new acquaintances – and to 2022!