Appreciate the Icy Miracle
In the 1990 film Back to the Future, Part III , Christopher Lloyd’s eccentric inventor Doc Brown is transported to America in the late 19th century, in the Old West, drawn straight from the movies. When Marty returns to rescue him, he discovers that Doc has happily settled in the local community, posing as a kind of blacksmith and creating incredible inventions using the technologies of the time. He shows Marty his workshop, one room filled with a massive steampunk structure built of wood and metal with wheels and gears. He puffs hard as he serves his purpose: to produce one cube of frozen water. “This is a refrigerator!” Marty is surprised. No, you idiot. This is an ice maker .
Refrigeration equipment: an innovation that changed the world, changed the definition of modern life. Ice: a miracle of nature, tamed by humans. The ability to make ice at will – a power that so many people mindlessly use every day – would seem like wild and transformative magic to those who lived 500 years ago, 250 years ago, even 130 years ago. What a delightfully cool time to be alive. My simple Happy Week enjoyment is that I extol the virtues of our cold friends, humble ice cubes. As I explain in the video above, I am familiar with ice in the broadest sense of the word and iced drinks in particular. But in order to get ice, you have to make it (or buy it, I think, but fuck it). And between work, commuting, picking lunch and managing two young children, and owning a small freezer with no space for ice trays, I often forgot to prepare them. I sighed and drank cool tap water. My warm sweet diet soda. My watery cold coffee at room temperature.
But not now. Aldeady no.
The summer pandemic is making me sweat and my portable air conditioner is failing. I need some chilled drinks, baby. We’re talking about iced coffee, iced tea, Thai iced tea and more, you can discover for yourself by clicking the little arrow above. And remember, as Mr. Freese once said: “In this universe there is only one absolute … everything freezes!” This is … probably not true .