The BELTO accompaniment - the Bloody Mary

Ah, the Bloody Mary.  The only drink that one can say actually has food value, and one of the few morning drinks.  Morning drinking is controversial - most consider it solely a habit of poor alcoholics, usually homeless ones.  Such activity (morning drinking) is met with much social approbation, with the exception of special occasions - perhaps before a noon wedding, or more commonly at a ladies' summer brunch, in which the ladies wear bright pastel dresses with big flowers, and sometimes even large straw hats.  A ladies' brunch would offer such fare as delicate thin little sandwiches ("tea sandwiches") on white bread with no crust, cut into fourths, and teensy little pastries  (certainly the BELTO would never be allowed at a ladies' brunch).  Mimosas and Bloody Marys may also be offered at a ladies brunch, and as we know that the type of ladies who go to ladies brunches are the ones that ultimately determine what is to be socially frowned upon or not, these two drinks have become the classically accepted breakfast drinks.  (The sailor's shot of rum or bourbon is highly frowned upon by ladies who go to ladies' brunches, even if it is noon and the sun has long since passed over the yardarm).

However, and surprisingly (sit down for this), morning drinking was historically quite common, especially when clean water and refrigeration were widely unavailable.  It was not a whole bottle of whiskey drunk, but perhaps a breakfast mug of ale or wine, whose fermented state ensured deadly bacteria were absent.  Still today in many European countries, the tradition of drinking wine during the day is common, accepted, and considered a perfectly healthy habit (it is so plentiful and cheap and good there, after all).  Even the admired Winston Churchill, leader, hero, and savior of England during WWII, drank his whiskey before noon, and was onto champagne by one, and defeated Hitler at the same time.  And it is legendarily attributed to Churchill that when Bessie Braddock told him at a social function "Winston, you are drunk," he easily shot back, "Bessie, my dear, you are ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be ugly."

Only in modern ages in America has the morning drink become inappropriate (especially among Southern Baptists, for whom any kind of drinking, and for that matter, cards and dancing (just too much fun of any kind), is not only socially inappropriate but will actually send you to eternal damnation).  The exceptions are the beforementioned ladies' brunches, and also, on airplanes where not only are time zones unclear (it's 5 PM somewhere after all, perhaps where you are going to or coming from), but also where one is surrounded by strangers - who cannot report your drinking to well-meaning relatives and "friends" who may then feel nosily compelled to nag you, or worse, organize a clearly co-dependent "intervention" and ruin an otherwise perfectly good afternoon.

Of the two accepted morning drinks, the Mimosa, half champagne and half orange juice, is light and refreshing.  Its morning sister, the Bloody Mary, is the opposite - a full meal in and of itself.  Competing stories are attributed to its origins - some involving a New York bar in Paris frequented by literary and Hollywood expatriates such as Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Rita Hayworth and Humphrey Bogart - but most agree, it was invented to help alleviate the overindulgence of the night before - a hangover cure, of the "hair of the dog" variety.  (I personally prefer to avoid the hangover, whose lot of pain and time in pain often exceeds the lot and time of enjoyment of the night before, and so the sum total of pleasure (of the night before and the morning after) then becomes a negative one...).  So I drink the Bloody Mary simply because it is delicious, is one of those rarely accepted morning drinks, and goes well with the BELTO, a morning sandwich (though the BELTO, and for that matter, the Bloody Mary, are just as delicious any time of day, not just morning).

One caveat - morning drinking usually has a negative effect on one's productivity for the rest of the day, so unless it's a holiday or celebration, it's best to wait until work is done, or rather, until the sun is over the yardarm.  The brunch ladies would approve.

Next post:  Making and drinking the Bloody Mary.