Stream of Consciousness

Episode 1 – The Idiot Box

The holiday season is upon us. For many that will include the time honored tradition of relaxing in front of the television, watching old favorite movies or catching up on the latest shows. The format has changed dramatically since the early days of the cathode ray tube, with massive flat panels vying for eyeball attention with relatively tiny laptops and handheld devices (formerly known as phones). The fascinating history of the television, and how it changed social interaction, is worth recalling in the era of social media, which simply continues the trend started in the early nineteen forties.

Idiot Box by Tyler Williams

Transmitted images were being explored by scientists and inventors in the early twentieth century, in the US and Russia, with mixed results, but in 1927, 21 year old American inventor Philo Taylor Farnsworth (who grew up in a house with no electricity) successfully demonstrated the first functional electronic television. It worked by scanning an image with a beam of electrons which were then coded into radio waves. The receiving screen would then transform the code back into the image. The story relates that the first image ever transmitted in this way was a simple line ----- soon followed wisely by a dollar sign $ symbol.

Early television was extremely primitive, broadcasting brief news updates, baseball games, and dramas, all based on prior radio programs. Things really started to take off after World War II, with shows like Howdy Doody in 1947, leading to the “golden age” in the fifties. Color broadcasting started in 1964, when the vast majority of all television was limited to the three major networks – ABC, NBC and CBS. In the sixties a steady rise in “community antenna television” (CATV) allowed access to many more local options, and the beginnings of cable TV. HBO was established in 1975. By the late nineties, approximately 98% of US households owned a television. In the mid-2000’s new technology allowed television broadcasts to be compressed into telecom bandwidth, allowing for live “streaming”, and another major change to the platform which may well see the end of traditional television broadcasting.

We are celebrating our collective love of the TV with a limited series on the B&B Network. Unlike your favorite shows and much to the disappointment of anyone younger than 30, you can’t binge read the entire season all at once, but will have to wait patiently for the release of each new episode. The series starts in Rolla, Missouri, where woodworker Tyler Williams crafts his handmade puzzles in his home workshop. He describes his adventure with his brand, Beard’s Woodshop Company, in this way: “I’ve always been a wood worker and decided to put my skills into building puzzle boxes. Tables and bedroom furniture was my specialty until one day I decided to venture further into more complex puzzles. All puzzles are made custom to order, no mass production here. That way all puzzles have their own unique look and style. I have been doing these puzzles for little over 2 years now, and always working on new puzzles to publish. Some work out, some don't. All feedback and compliments are welcome.”

I enjoy Tyler’s creations, which have gotten more complex and refined over time. He uses beautiful, colorful hardwoods mixed with metal components, and enjoys making a variety of shapes, sizes, and interesting themes in his puzzle boxes. Since I love a good story, I can appreciate a box with a good theme. His puzzles are typically not the hardest, but feature many hidden steps and sometimes have encrypted aspects incorporated into the adventure. I like all types of boxes, and can appreciate actually being able to solve one sometimes!

Now let’s tune in to the first episode in this nostalgic holiday series with the snarky Idiot Box, which did take me longer than expected to fine tune due to a few well implemented tricks and a clever sequential discovery finale. The setting is a top of the line old TV, which is hard to adjust due to its missing antennae. If only we could find them, and improve the picture. From Tyler: “As a kid, I didn’t watch much tv. I would spend alot of my time outdoors and help my father do blacksmith work. The idea of idiot box came from the thought of vintage memorabilia. I really like the look and mechanics of antique things. With an older tv having plenty of knobs or moving internal parts, it was easier to come up with different mechanisms. With the final goal in mind, I always work backwards when creating a puzzle. Hiding one antenna and [planning something for the other]. After a little bit of trial and error, I had a working prototype. There are two variations out there. The first run had one more tool to complete the solve but had an error in that design. It could be solved without that tool. I then slightly changed the tools and the next variation was made. There have been multiple different wood combo’s throughout. Red, purple, black, and white were the most common.”

Tyler occasionally makes additional runs of his puzzles, often in new wood combinations or using new details such as laser engravings. One such Idiot Box he made came with wavy zigzags across the screen, a nice touch for a TV with missing antennae. Tyler has gotten perhaps the best feedback about this puzzle compared to any other he has made to date. Perhaps the network will pick it up for a third season. The vintage look of this modern puzzle box is perfect for a retro vintage modern TV show. I’m going to settle in with this Idiot Box and see if I can catch up on the final season of Mad Men.

Mad Men OId Fashioned

Fans of the show will no doubt recognize what cocktail is required to pay proper homage and fully immerse oneself in the experience. Protagonist Don Draper preferred an alpha male appropriate Old Fashioned, and the show writers did a good job placing the version he drinks in time with that era. The Old Fashioned has gone through many changes in the course of its long career as the grandfather of all cocktails, beginning way back in the late 1700s when whiskey was mixed with aromatic bitters and served up with no ice. Over time bartenders “improved” the whiskey cocktail with lemon twists and dashes of liqueur, so purists had to order what they wanted as an “old fashioned” whiskey cocktail. Time is all relative, and this would have been back in the mid 1800s. After Prohibition (and likely during, to mask the flavor of bootlegged whiskey), Old Fashioneds were served with muddled fruit, maraschino cherries, oranges, sometimes even pineapple, and topped off with soda water.

this will make you Mad

We see Don Draper make a period appropriate version in season 3, episode 3, My Old Kentucky Home. He jumps behind the empty bar and helps himself. Unable to find bourbon, he uses rye (an excellent but interesting choice for an episode named for Kentucky). Into the Old Fashioned heavy bottomed rocks glasses go the sugar cubes, followed by a healthy dose of Angostura bitters, a maraschino cherry and an orange wedge, which get muddled up with the sugar and bitters. The whiskey is stirred with lots of ice separately, then added to the glasses ice and all. It’s a perfectly executed drink, what would now be considered an old fashioned Old Fashioned (unless you live in Wisconsin). Thanks to the cocktail renaissance in the late nineties, the more original 1800s version has come back, sans muddled fruit, and with much better bourbon. Cheers!

Idiot proof pair

Mad Men Old Fashioned

2 oz rye

1-2 sugar cubes

maraschino cherry

orange wedge

Angostura bitters

ice

Place sugar cubes in a rocks glass and soak with bitters. Add orange and cherry and muddle in the glass. Stir whiskey with ice to chill in a separate glass, then pour everything into the rocks glass. Garnish with a crisp tailored suit and alpha attitude.

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