This month, our most popular cocktails were layered. You gravitated toward unexpected pairings (like elderflower liqueur and Chicago's infamous dare shot), subrecipes that are worth the extra effort  (like habanero shrub) and a multi-step milk punch. Perhaps it's the new year energy that we're channeling into cocktail projects or a backlash to the glut of December Martinis and eggnogs? Whatever the reason, kudos for trying something new this month. Here are the recipes you loved most in January.

Recently, I was meeting with a Hungarian winemaker when his importer, Eric Danch of Danch & Granger, casually mentioned something that made me nearly spit out my kékfrankos.

In March 2024, the Strengthening Organic Enforcement (SOE) rules, set by the USDA, declared that importers—that's right, the firms that typically handle sales and logistics, not just the winemakers—also need to be certified organic in order for the wines to retain the label. According to a spokesperson from the USDA, the regulations are an effort to "better protect organic businesses and consumers" and "keep fraud out of the market." This is a major shift, especially for a landscape in which organic wine has only recently made inroads with the average consumer.

In less than a generation, wines labeled as organic have blossomed from a health-food-store afterthought to a meaningful force shaping how we drink, discuss and buy our favorite bottles. And these new rules threaten to undo all of that progress. 

Strengthening the veracity of organic labeling sounds like a win for those concerned with how their wines are made. But, more than a year after the change went into effect, several small importers of European wine describe a bureaucratic reality that borders on the absurd. Some say the rules feel more about forms and fees than any actual fraud prevention. The overarching concern, according to Jenny Lefcourt of Jenny & François Selections, is that "it works against organic labeling and it works against the diversity of wines available in the marketplace."

Now, if a U.S. importer has not gained organic certification, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will only allow it to enter the U.S. as a "conventionally" produced product or require re-exportation. Violations can trigger penalties that range from substantial fines to suspension.

"It's a bit of a backwards loop currently," says Olivia Taibi, operations manager of Zev Rovine Selections. Taibi handles logistics for the importer and is intimately familiar with the labyrinth of newfound requirements. Among them is an hourslong in-office audit, during which importers are responsible for reimbursing the officer's expenses. Taibi says the process, which is repeated annually, takes 1-2 months and costs around $3,000. Maddie Perez, who works at Quality Certification Services, says these fees are based on annual sales of organic product, and inspection fees typically range from $800 to $1,300. For Taibi, it feels as though their small office staff has been asked to assume the responsibility for regulatory oversight. 

Importers must now also provide proof that their goods have not been commingled with nonorganic products. This is a salient fraud concern with commodities like rice, but for a sealed container that has already been certified organic? "Sometimes you have mixed boxes, three bottles of this, four of that. You have to explain all of it," says Granger.

Welcome to Pre Shift's series, How I Got My Job, where we ask hospitality pros from all corners of the industry how they got here and what their role is really like. 

This week, we're chatting with Jamaar Julal, director of fermentation at Honeysuckle. Eater describes the Philadelphia restaurant as the city's "best living room" filled with "talented people eager to tell you about their meticulous, inventive, risky, unconventional work." Julal, a self-taught expert on kombucha, koji, and more, is one of those people. What started as a DIY operation—he would make kombucha in his studio apartment and hand-deliver it, on bike, to customers around town—landed him in an unorthodox career path, with a title usually reserved for chefs at behemoths like Noma. Read on to see how he got here.

This is an excerpt from the newsletter. Subscribe to Pre Shift to get more interviews like this in your inbox. 

Pre Shift: How did you get into fermentation?
Jamaar Julal: I was attending The Restaurant School in West Philadelphia for a degree in restaurant management. I debated for a long time whether I would switch to the culinary program, but I decided against it because of the hours and the lifestyle.

I started my kombucha company, JamBrü Ferments, back in 2018 when I was a student. Kombucha came into my life because an old coworker of mine brought a home brewed batch into work. I had been wanting to try to make it, too; I didn't know much about fermentation at the time, so it seemed intimidating. But I tried it, and it was really good. That kind of gave me the confidence to try to make it myself. I made a bunch of batches at home, and I was posting it on my Instagram story, just sharing the process with my friends. I started to give kombucha away, then I started selling it out of my apartment. I'd bike it around Philadelphia. 

In 2020, the Philly Inquirer wrote an article about the kombucha business. From then on, it just took on a life of its own. I went from going door to door to selling wholesale to about 20 to 25 restaurants and markets in Philadelphia. After that article came out, I had to move my operation out of my apartment into a kitchen space I rented out. I started brewing professionally, and it just kept growing. 

Kombucha and fermentation was sort of my means of finding myself in the in-between of things—between culinary and front-of-house—because I enjoy aspects of both. I love to find myself between those spaces. Funnily enough, moving to Honeysuckle, I'm doing exactly that. I had that realization maybe six months ago, like, Oh, I really set myself up with exactly what I was trying to do in the first place, before even realizing it. It all came back full circle. Now I'm a director of fermentation, which is pretty cool.

Was that your goal? Did you envision yourself working at a restaurant?
Honeysuckle was another organic thing. I was sort of brought into the Honeysuckle realm in shifts, every time I met with [owners Cybille St.Aude-Tate and Omar Tate]. First, they offered to sell my kombucha at the shop. Another time, they were doing a residency at Blue Hill Farm, and they asked me to produce a dehydrated strawberry powder [made from SCOBY] to be incorporated into the dessert course. Then they asked me to join the team. They were like, "We want you to ferment for us, with us." I was not expecting that. I was really honored and surprised.

I asked what the position was. They were like, "You can name it." The only name I knew of was "director of fermentation" at Noma and other large, very established restaurants. I was like, "Well that's the only thing I can think of. Sure, I'll be the director of fermentation." That was late 2021, and I've been there ever since.

Because this is such a new kind of position, how did you learn and train for it?
When I first started with kombucha, it was mainly "YouTube University." I started watching a bunch of videos about the process, SCOBY, recipes. I ordered a starter kit on Amazon for a gallon of kombucha and a recipe book. Eventually, I got it down pat. I treat it very similarly to when I was in culinary school. I'm a visual and hands-on learner, so videos were my biggest help. 

Fermentation wasn't necessarily something that was taught in school. In my mind, I had thought of "fermentation" as this bubble that floats around beverages, but I had no idea about koji. Reading up about a mold ferment, that sounded crazy to me. I got a book called Koji Alchemy, which had diagrams that helped me set up a home incubator in my studio apartment at the time. I started working at Honeysuckle, and I just kept practicing and expanding. 

More recently, I've had the opportunity to train at different breweries [and] fermentation spaces and ask questions. I'm really lucky to be in the position I'm in with the network I have. Now, I know people who are established in this industry, who know what they're doing, and I'm able to speak with them. Also, a few months ago, I got to train in Niigata, Japan, for a sake program. It was a life-changing experience.

Thanks in part to a simple Manhattan variation and an underrated disco drink, the notion that Scotch should only be enjoyed neat is waning. The whisky figures into a small but mighty canon of classic cocktails, with a growing number of modern drinks now also calling on the spirit. And it's not just strong, stirred drinks that lean on the whisky: Scotch has established itself as a versatile ingredient in tropical highballs, swizzles and even fluffy, dessert-like fizzes. Here are some of our favorite ways to mix with Scotch, beyond the Rob Roy.

There are several iconic cocktails—from the Bobby Burns to the Singapore Sling to the Vieux Carré—that call on Bénédictine. But despite the cocktail revival's best efforts, there are dozens more that have remained in obscurity. Shawn Lickliter, owner of the newly opened Vandell in LA's Los Feliz neighborhood, is perhaps the perfect practitioner to steward long-lost drinks made with the liqueur back into the spotlight. 

A devotee of the ingredient's "honeyed leather notes" since working with vintage expressions of it years ago at the now-shuttered Manzke, Lickliter has been enamored with Bénédictine for nearly a decade. He first encountered it at Normandie Club, where bartenders Alex Day and Devon Tarby were making the Poet's Dream, a stirred cocktail, based on the Café Royal Cocktail Book (1937). That version of the recipe features a 2:1 ratio of dry gin to dry vermouth, supported by small amounts of Bénédictine and orange bitters. (Another version of the Poet's Dream, made with an equal-parts ratio, appeared right around the same time in Gale & Marco's The How and When, published in New Orleans.) Lickliter loved the drink, and he has carried it with him through various jobs ever since, tweaking it many times over to find his optimal spec. Now, at Vandell, his latest Poet's Dream is a thoughtful, layered take on the one that he first met all those years ago.

To build his ideal recipe, he started with the gin. Though Fords is the standard at Vandell, Lickliter found that this drink shone ever more brightly with No. 3 Gin, a London dry from England's oldest wine merchants, the Berry Brothers, which Lickliter describes as "super clean." The gin keeps the non-juniper botanicals to a minimum, while offering a touch of grapefruit.

There's a wildcard ingredient in this drink: pisco. "Gin can be a bully sometimes when you're adding in a liqueur like Bénédictine," he says. By splitting the base spirit, "you're kind of backing down the juniper, but you're also lifting the Bénédictine." The pisco he uses is Capurro Quebranta, a smooth, herbal expression that brings notes of stone fruit and pear.

At the very back of Babe's, a queer-owned women's sports bar that opened in Chicago last year, hangs an old-school scoreboard above a set of metal bleachers. It's hard not to imagine someone reliving (a much gayer version of) some stereotypical high school gymnasium makeout session while sitting there. Trophies line the walls, along with a sizable number of TVs streaming women's gymnastics, a UConn women's basketball game, and All Women's Sports Network (AWSN), the Whoopi Goldberg-cofounded sports network.

According to an NBC News report, the number of women's sports bars in the United States was set to quadruple in 2025. Portland's The Sports Bra, founded by Jenny Nguyen in 2022, kickstarted the genre; in 2024, the bar announced its plans to franchise. According to Babe's co-founder Nora McConnell-Johnson, the cohort that laid the blueprint tend to have smaller spaces, and lean more restaurant than bar. "Younger millennials are starting to open their bars now, and I think that's going to be a fascinating second wave," she says. "[They're] showing what it looks like to be a women's sports bar, but with a vibe." Those vibes often mean a more modern aesthetic, elevated cocktails, and an undeniably queer energy. 

In 2019, alarms signaling the perilous decline of lesbian bars in America reached a fever pitch. At its lowest point, the nationwide lesbian bar tally had reportedly dwindled to just 15. The culprits were familiar to any form of queer decay: gentrification, the wage gap, sexist financiers, the rise of dating apps. And while the COVID-19 pandemic spurned anxious reports wondering how these spaces could possibly survive yet another blow, something surprising happened in the aftermath instead. Lesbian bars started springing up (and sometimes, sadly, closing right back down) with a renewed vigor.

Right before my visit to Babe's, two other queer-owned women's sports bars opened in Brooklyn in the same week: Athena Keke's in Clinton Hill and Blazers in Williamsburg. While both establishments identify as women's sports bars first and foremost, "if someone calls us a queer bar, we don't correct them, because we love our community and we want this to be a space for them," says Chandler Robertson, one of Blazers' trio of co-founders who met on Hinge. 

Many of these bars rely on queer-coded details to telegraph that it's a welcoming space, like a photo of The L Word cast from the infamous basketball episode that hangs in the entryway at Athena Keke's. Blazer's, meanwhile, displays a pride flag behind the bar.

"Women's sports is a site of lesbian culture and gathering," says McConnell-Johnson, "and also, women's sports is greater than that, too."

The Manhattan, one of the great drinks of the late 19th century, has a steady history as a perennial favorite. Drawing on a three-ingredient template consisting of two parts whiskey, one part sweet vermouth and bitters, it's no surprise that the highly malleable drink has inspired a number of modern spinoffs. From a Chartreuse-infused take to a Manhattan highball, here are some of our favorites.

After trying recipes from top bartenders across the country, this one came out on top.

Today, a cocktail bar menu rarely feels complete without at least one clear cocktail. In the past decade, centrifuges may have simplified the task of clarification, but separating milk solids from the liquid (aka making milk punch) is no modern-day invention—it dates back to the 1700s. The versatile technique means that practically any cocktail can go clear—including nonalcoholic drinks. Here's how to do it at home.

For most bartenders, the preferred at-home technique calls for gently heating milk over the stove before straining out the solids that form as the water content evaporates. Matt Piacentini, from the Up & Up in New York City, points out that many drinks made this way fall under the "wintry end of the spectrum" (see: the London Fog-inspired Fog Lights Milk Punch), but recipes on all sides of the flavor wheel can benefit from the milk punch treatment. His Disco Volante, for example, is built on a foundation of Aperol and gin, reading more like a bracing aperitif with an added textural boost.

New York bartender Will Wyatt, meanwhile, follows a heatless technique akin to the first milk punches of the 18th century. He combines milk and lime juice and lets the mix sit until it curdles on its own, then he strains out the curds. This is the method used in his rum-based Sex Panther, a twist on the Cuba Libre. Eric Simmons, bar lead at Ginger's in Dallas, takes a similar approach in his play on the New York Sour, the Diamond Noir, where the entire drink is filtered through heavy cream.

Also forgoing the stovetop method, Ryan Chetiyawardana, owner of the Lyan family of bars, uses yogurt whey (the watery result of straining full-fat yogurt) for a fast track to added richness in his Whey Punch. This method is quicker, and, Chetiyawardana says, "it still manages to get the silkiness you want to drink."

While milk punch typically needs an acid to curdle the milk, Daniel Villa, bartender at Supperland in Charlotte, North Carolina, created an alternative method to clarify any drink using rehydrated powdered milk—no citrus juice necessary. That means drinks like a Vieux Carré can be clarified without lime or lemon, and with an added benefit: Milk powder can be toasted before rehydrating, resulting in a cocktail that tastes "simultaneously milk-punched and brown-butter fat-washed," according to Villa.

Milk punch doesn't require actual milk—but there are a few extra steps to take with a nondairy approach. Deepali Gupta served a coconut milk-clarified Piña Colada at Sidecar in New Delhi. He says the relatively low fat content in coconut milk means that clarifying with it yields a lower-volume drink. The bar sometimes adds coconut oil to the milk in order to increase the fat. Ezza Rose, bar consultant and educator behind Good Spirits PDX, has had success using extra-thick soy milk (she likes Pacific Foods Ultra Soy). She notes that nondairy clarification tends to take longer—"it's time-consuming; set aside a weekend"—and requires some experimentation to get the right ratios and consistencies. At Los Angeles' Night on Earth, meanwhile, head bartender Wes Meyn says including an ingredient with tannins helps "break" fats and proteins in the bar's coconut milk-based punch, a clarified take on the Swampwater called the Swamp Thing. 

For a faster alternative, Giancarlo Quiroz Jesus, head bartender at 53AD in Brooklyn, New York, adds lactic acid solution to silken tofu to speed up the process for his Always Disco. And Meyn, at Night on Earth, uses a technique learned from fellow L.A. bartender Austin Hennelly: By clarifying in a wider, shallower, slotted hotel pan, he increases the surface area, which makes larger curds and accelerates the process.

You probably won't be using liquid nitrogen at home, but if you do find yourself with some behind the bar, consider a technique from Ankush Gamre, head mixologist at Masque in Mumbai. "While effective, [traditional] methods [of clarifying a cocktail] can affect flavor, aroma and alcohol strength," says Gamre. "They also introduce dairy into the drink, which doesn't work for everyone. We wanted a cleaner, more precise way to clarify cocktails without using milk or additives." His method involves pouring liquid nitrogen over the ingredients (bourbon, sweet vermouth, pureed pineapple, melon tea, honey and a mix of acid powders, in their case) and allowing them to freeze. He puts the now-frozen mix into a large fine strainer lined with filter paper, then collects the clarified liquid. "Alcohol freezes at a much lower temperature than ingredients like fruit, citrus or sugar," he says. "By rapidly freezing the cocktail using liquid nitrogen, we're able to lock in flavour while separating unwanted solids. As the frozen mixture slowly melts, the clarified liquid is released, resulting in a drink that's clear, smooth and subtly expressive." To see the trick in action, check out how New York's Overstory makes their own version of nitro-frozen milk punch.

A final technique takes the milk punch approach and applies it only to a particular spirit, rather than an entire cocktail. Where clarifying a drink as a whole can soften the acidity of fresh citrus and tropical juices, using a milk-washed spirit instead imparts richness without stripping away that bright flavor. This step, writes Punch contributor and drink expert Jack Schramm, "can take just about any shaken drink to the next level."

"I'm actually Irish, born and raised," says Jen Murphy, owner-operator of the new Manhattan bar Banshee. "I learned a long time ago you actually have to specify that."

Murphy, a veteran of the East Village bar scene, moved to the U.S. in 2014. It didn't take long to notice that Irish American pride ran deep enough for people to comfortably declare themselves Irish, even many generations removed—but also that the manifestations of Irish culture in the States weren't always aligned with her experience back home. Take the pub: Growing up in a small town in Ireland, she says, it was a place to bring the kids, to celebrate first communions and attend wakes, often with a grocer, gas station, or even funeral home attached. The ubiquitous American "Irish bars," on the other hand, have "become their own beast… that kind of Disney-Irish Times Square thing." 

With Banshee, she wanted to show New Yorkers something different. "We're so good at adapting, immigrating and then just giving the people whatever they want," Murphy says. "But I have more 'notions,' I think, as some Irish people would say." 

Murphy's is one of a clutch of new Irish-led bars and restaurants that have started playing with the pub form in recent years—whether that means embracing cocktails, bringing on ambitious chefs, incorporating unexpected influences or just making a point to subvert expectations. At Banshee, that looks like a surprising signature pairing of Guinness and oysters—an old-school combination in Irish seaside towns, with echoes of New York's Martini-and-oysters culture—and a space decorated with work by artist friends from the East Village scene. At The Harp, opened a few months ago in Washington, D.C., you can enjoy a traditional music session over pan-fried monkfish with chanterelles and an "Irish Boulevardier." At McGonagle's, a year-old pub in Boston, the kitchen is helmed by chef Aidan Mc Gee, who once worked under Heston Blumenthal.    

It's perhaps a ripe moment for an Irish pub-aissance, with Irish stars increasingly spangling U.S. bookshelves, movie theaters, and playlists—just look at the 2024 New York magazine package exploring "how the Irish came to rule pop culture." Another cultural ambassador that everyone's swooning over: Guinness. Thanks to shrewd marketing (and TikTokers challenging us all to "split the G"), on-trade sales are booming, and you'll find the stout on draft and in cocktails at all kinds of trendy spots. Irish drinking culture is about much more than just Guinness, of course—but amid this groundswell of interest and appreciation, U.S. audiences just might be ready to broaden their idea of what an Irish bar can be.

In the bleak gray sea that is winter, citrus serves as a literal bright spot. To make the most of the season, we've collected some of our favorite recipes starring blood orange, grapefruit, pomelo and more for you. But a few tips before you get juicing: Consider whether you'll need to do any acid-adjusting, and if you want to save any spent husks and peels, try a citrus stock. Happy winter citrus season to all who celebrate.

When I was recording the podcast that I wrote about yesterday, Rasa held up a book for me to see during one of the commercial breaks. It was called Forrest Trump: The Half-Wit and Wisdumb of America's Last President and First Fuhrer. Rasa explained the book is by Scott Apel and told me the introduction was hilarious.

The book, which I'd missed when it came out, is attributed to "Tom Asspain," so I wrote to Scott and asked if I could name his as the author. He gave me the go-ahead.

"When the Cheeto Benito was re-elected in 2024, I felt like I had to perform some act of civil disobedience, not that it would do any good. I decided if I could throw a book like that together in a weekend, I'd do it. My writer/editor/publisher persona took over, however, and I insisted it look good and list all the sources, so it took about a week to assemble. I'm happy with it, but it makes zero difference to the state of politics in Amurikkka today.

"I even sent print copies to Colbert, Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, Bill Maher and Jon Stewart (and every Daily Show host), hoping to get some mention or traction, but all I got is...silence. No response from anyone. C'est la merde."

He added, "When I first published it, I was worried that jackbooted Trumpenazi stormtroopers would track me down and shoot me. But seeing as how that's only happening in Minnesota, I guess I can let my guard down a little.

"I just hope Thomas Paine approves of my stealing his name."

The book is on Amazon (just $1 for the Kindle) and on iBooks.

 Art Bell was a popular nighttime radio DJ who hosted the Coast to Coast AM late night radio talk show for many years. In one of his episodes, he interviewed Robert Anton Wilson.

Carl Richardson -- Art's Bell's brother-in-law -- is the host of a current podcast, Midnight Frequency Radio, that functions as kind of a tribute to Bell. And on a recent show, he had Rasa and I on to talk about Robert Anton Wilson. I've put up a YouTube video but you should also be able to find it on many podcasting apps.

The artwork, above, is "The Buzz" by creationtrip. It was posted on X by Lucid Dreams, with this quote from Illuminatus! by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson: "Synchronicity is as universal as gravity. When you start looking you find it everywhere."

I have two Hilaritas podcasts to mention this time.

The newest, above, is with John Zerzan, here's the description: "Hilaritas host Mike Gathers chats with John Zerzan about anarchist Max Stirner, and John's interest in Anarcho-primitivism, in episode 53 of the Hilaritas Podcast."

With the excitement over Maybe Night, I managed to miss December's podcast announcement, but it sounds like an interesting one: "Hilaritas host Mike Gathers chats with Nick Tharcher, publisher at The Original Falcon Press, about his many years in the publishing of occult books, in episode 52 of the Hilaritas Podcast." Listen here.  I liked Tharcher's first appearance on the the podcast, I'll bet this one is good, too. 

Not too late to listen to the November podcast, on Robert Shea, featuring Mike Shea (with me in a supporting role). Mike tells great stories about his father. 

I've linked to the Hilaritas Press podcast pages, but you should be able to find these episodes on your favorite podcasting app. Fifty three episodes and counting, browse them here. 

We are kinda astounded at the popularity of our audio books. We've created audio books for Prometheus Rising, and the three Cosmic Trigger books. Now, you have the opportunity to enjoy an audio book of RAW's Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World. 

Professional voice actor and narrator Zane Acord spent a good part of the last year recording this new audio book. There's a family connection that brought us to Zane. One of the benefits of all the help we get from our RAW Trust Advisors. Click here to see our whole list of Advisors. [Blogger's note: Zane is the son of Gary Acord, a member of the RAW Trust Advisors]. 

Quantum Psychology is one of the more popular titles from RAW. We are always amused by writer John Higgs' comment when asked about his favorite RAW book. He said, 

"O man, favourite RAW book? That's a shifting target. Although it's clearly Cosmic Trigger. But occasionally, Prometheus Rising. When it's not being Cosmic Trigger. Which it always is. Unless it's Quantum Psychology."

Click here for more info and links to purchase the Quantum Psychology Audio Book

British writer James Burt announces a public event:

"I'm performing on February 28th at In a Land Gallery in Hebden Bridge. Also appearing is Rosy Carrick, reading from her new collection; Halifax poet Toria Garbutt; and our friend Lou-Ice, coming from Sweden to perform River love/Ecosexual, which is about "feeling attracted to nature and having sexual or romantic relationships with it". Lou's piece is about being in love with a river, wild-swimming, passion and protecting our world.

"I'll perform a new piece The Haunting of Wuthering Heights, which I am currently working on. It's about a book that's also a haunted house.

"Tickets are £5, which is a bargain. You'll get four performers and Swedish treats. After the show, we'll pack away the gallery then head down the pub.

"Full details and ticket booking on the In a Land Website."

From James' latest newsletter. 

The Wetwired podcast had Chapel Perilous author Prop Anon/Gabriel Kennedy as a guest for a podcast on the Illuminatus! trilogy. Listen here. 

See the website for Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson for other interviews and podcasts, including an interview with Grant Morrison.

In a previous post, I referred to Scott Adams as "my Ezra Pound," noting that I wasn't on board with many things he said or did but that I remained a big fan of Dilbert up until Adams' death. That post in turn linked back to an earlier one, about an excellent Robert Anton Wilson essay about Ezra Pound. 

The blogger Scott Alexander has now weighed in with a long piece on why he loved Adams, and the ways in which Adams went off the rails.  And today, that was followed up with highlights of the comments about the piece, with Scott Alexander's replies. 

The video and the game link are via RAW Semantics on Bluesky. 

I have already done a blog post on Hellenistic Philosophy by John Sellars.  As I mentioned earlier, it focuses on three main philosophical schools of the period: Skepticism (which sheds light on RAW, himself a philosophical skeptic), Stoicism (currently having a moment) and Epicureanism (a philosophy I am very interested in).

RAW had many interests and a complex philosophy which can't be summed up in a few words, but it is also fair to observe that he was simultaneously interested in currents of Western philosophy but also knew a lot about Eastern philosophies and religions, including Buddhism. As I finished Hellenistic Philosophy, I noticed a nice bonus: A brief but fascinating appendix,  "Looking East," which explores contacts between Greek philosophers and their counterparts in India.

I had  known that the Greek skeptic philosopher Pyrrho had traveled with Alexander the Great's army and reached India (there's a book about this, Greek Buddha by Christopher Beckwith, that I've been meaning to read, as I'm a Beckwith fan), and Sellars mentions the book, and many others that also sound very interesting.

Sellars is careful and cautious, and he isn't convinced that Indian philosophy influenced Greek philosophy in a substantive way, but he also shows there were more contacts between the two groups than one might think.

He mentions, for example, that Ashoka, the famous  Indian Buddhist ruler, "send Buddhist envoys to the land of the 'Yonas' (from 'Ionians,' i.e. Greeks), and it goes on to name the Mediterranean rulers to whom they were sent. Some of these envoys were themselves Greeks who had embraced Buddhism. Indeed, the inscription not only says  that these envoys were sent, but also claims that these areas were successfully conquered by Dharma, Buddhist teaching. In exchange, some of these Hellenistic kings, notably Ptolemy II of Egypt, sent envoys to India. Some have claimed that Buddhist communities developed in the Mediterranean world, with a text by Philo describing an unusual and otherwise unknown monastic community cited as evidence. Others have claimed to have found  Buddhist gravestones in Alexandria." There are other possible encounters cited.

All of this seems fascinating to me, and Sellars names plenty of other books to explore. 

Circling back to RAW, Sellars' book toward the end has this quote from Sextus Empiricus, a famous Skeptic philosopher: "Skeptics are philanthropic and wish to cure by argument, as far as they can, the conceit and rashness of the Dogmatists." 

John Higgs' latest book is about David Lynch.

As I mentioned recently, John Higgs has announced that his Substack will have a paid tier that includes substantial essays and an annual book. There will still be a free newsletter devoted largely to his latest books.

The newsletters with the substantial essays are known as "New Moon Letters," and John has just issued "New Moon Letter 1." As John is still trying to get the news out about his new offering, that first issue is free for everyone to read in full.  John's essay is about the modern counterculture, and how it can function as an alternative to the online world. See also Ted Gioia's recent "state of the culture" newsletter. 

Adam Gorightly's book, Saucers, Spooks and Kooks, is now a documentary movie, out Jan. 22. Trailer is above. Preorder here.  And there is a Substack newsletter. 

"The film explores how disinformation helped fuel the UFO mythos, and how that fog continues to cloud what we think we know about UAP."

It sounds like the book, which I liked. See my writeup for the book. 

Adam of course also is an important historian of Discordianism. See his official website. 

I've written a bit about Dan Robinson lately, both about the Jukebox Musical album, his official soundtrack album for Tales of Illuminatus No. 2, and an overview of him and his band, the Headies.  He wrote to me announce his new Danny and Darlings solo album, Goddamned Wonderful.

"Just released a new project as Danny and the Darlings.  It's something I had been working on for awhile, and wasn't sure when I was going to release it. But with the recent escalation of fascist violence against those living in America, I thought the time was now.  This is an anti-fascist punk rock opera.  40 minutes of protest music, all recorded in my bedroom.

"It's a story about a regular dude who's abducted by aliens and is imbued with god-like powers  of unlimited love and all the perks therein.  His message of hope catches on and he eventually gets the attention of the tyrannical right-wing power structure who aim to take out our hero, in the most biblical way possible."

Available on Bandcamp. 

See also Ted Gioia's recent "state of the culture" essay, which argues that Bandcamp is part of "the new counterculture." 

"Substack, Patreon, and Bandcamp give artists around 90% of revenues and total creative control. And other indie channels are in development with similar plans to support creators," he wrote. 

"It seems advantageous to keep one's mood and spirits up as one navigates through cancer treatment. This can often prove difficult depending how much pain and discomfort the body experiences; harder too when it drags on for months or years. Everyone finds their own tools and methods to handle the possible depression, anxiety, downerness, fear and pain. I have found Aleister Crowley's The Book of the Law  (Liber Al) an excellent, non-chemical way to alleviate and banish debilitating thoughts and emotions."

More here.

The cancer treatment for Oz seems to be going well and he is in my thoughts. 

Scott Adams (Creative Commons photo, source).

Robert Anton Wilson was famously able to see the good in reviled people, notably Ezra Pound; as I blogged last year, one of my favorite pieces in A Non-Euclidian Perspective was an early piece about Pound in which RAW wrote:

"To see Pound as he  is -- a man of genius and goodwill, of folly and rage, of love and integrity and hatred and dishonesty -- is to admit that such contradictions can exist in the human personality. That is not a comfortable thought -- it is especially uncomfortable to those of us who are, like Pound, idealists intent on changing the world -- so we prefer to brush it aside and go on playing our life-myth that the universe is one big Western Movie where the 'good guys' (us) are fighting the 'bad guys' (our enemies.)"

There's another good quote at my link to the previous post. 

I certainly didn't like Adams' politics or many of the things he said (this New York Times obit has a selection) but I always loved "Dilbert" and I even subscribed to the paid service offering a "Dilbert" relaunch, I am here posting a few of my favorites. I thought the strip remained funny and topical right up to the end, perhaps your mileage may differ. I also liked his book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. I haven't gotten around to his book on framing yet. 

A couple of updates on recent blog posts.

My end-of-the-year list of the books I read in 2025 has been updated with links. In many cases, I wrote about a particular book, either here or elsewhere.

Michael Johnson has continued a  series on his Substack newsletter that all RAW fans should take a look at. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post,  it began with  "Robert Anton Wilson on Plant Intelligence, (Part One?".  Now we have, in rapid succession, "Robert Anton Wilson and Plant Intelligence: Evoluationary Views and Speculations Beyond Darwin," and then part three, "RAW's Erotic Panpsychic Cosmotheism." Don't skip the footnotes! 

I did not remember that yesterday was the anniversary of Robert Anton Wilson's death, at age 74, until after I did Sunday's blog post, but other folks remembered. On Bluesky, RAW Semantics, e.g. Brian Dean, posted the above artwork and wrote, "The incomparable Robert Anton Wilson died on this day (11 January) nineteen years ago. More than ever, read his books!"

Also on Bluesky, Klaster Chaosmos posted a thread which included a photo of a shelf of RAW books and a link to RAW's books at Hilaritas Press. 

Nineteen  years! Certainly RAW hasn't been forgotten, but what can we do to bring him more to the attention of the world at large? 

New art from RAW Semantics on Bluesky. Note he is active on Bluesky again. 

Texas A&M bans Plato. 

Bob Weir has died. 

Erich von Däniken has died. 

Tyler Cowen on the best art of the century, so far. 

New movie and book recommendations from Scott Sumner. I really like that guy's blog. 

I have been reading an interesting book that I had my wife give me for Christmas: Hellenistic Philosophy by John Sellars. 

If you aren't familiar with the term, "Hellenistic" doesn't simply mean "Greek." The Hellenistic period is a specific time of ancient history, from the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC) to the death of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. In other words, it covers the time after the heyday of the Greek city state and figures such as Pericles and before the complete Roman takeover of the Mediterranean. The period is when the successors of Alexander ruled a huge swath of territory in southeast Europe, northern Africa and Asia, imposing a Greek speaking elite.

As Sellars explains in his book, the Hellenic period saw the rise of Epicureanism and Stoicism, and a revival and reinvention of skepticism, also known as Pyrrhonism. There were other philosophies active, too, although Sellars concentrates on those three. Plato's Academy kept going during this period, although it went through a skeptical phase, Cynics were active and Aristotle also still attracted scholars. Sellars, if you don't know him, is an expert on ancient Greek philosophy who has written quite a few books. Most are about Stoicism, although he also wrote a good, short book about Epicurean ethics, Fourfold Remedy, which I read last year.

My main motive in wanting to read the book is my strong interest in Epicureanism; I wanted to learn more about the milieu from which it emerged. But the book also offers an outline of Stoicism, which has experienced a recent revival of interest, giving Sellars a market for  his books that goes beyond college students studying philosophy.

But a nice bonus for RAW fans is the focus on skepticism. Robert Anton Wilson had many influences, but in a sense he also was a modern skeptic. His model agnosticism and "maybe logic" was opposed to certainty and ideological dogmatism. 

So it's interesting to read about philosophers  of skepticism and how some of their thoughts seem to prefigure some of RAW's.

Here is one of the passages in the book, in the chapter  on "Knowledge," where Sellars is talking about how Metrodorus interpreted Carneades. (They were two figures in the Academy in this period, when it was going through its skepticism phase.) "On that view, Carneades was thought to have held that a wise person could hold opinions about some things so long as they do not assent to the truth of those opinions." To my ears, this sounds a bit like RAW's saying, "I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions."

If you want to read a book that focuses solely on ancient Greek skepticism, Sellars suggests reading Ancient Skepticism by H. Thorsrud. 

Most of my American readers should be familiar with Tubi, the website/app/TV channel which offers movies and TV shows. The programs are free and supported by commercials. 

Via Reddit's r/Robert Anton Wilson site, I recently learned that Robert Anton Wilson: The "I" in the Triangle, a documentary nearly two hours long, is available now on Tubi. 

The credits list Joseph Matheny as the director and one of the "stars," along with RAW, so I asked Joseph for more information, and he responded with helpful notes, as it his wont:

"That's the I in the Triangle talk I sponsored and had taped in my friend's occult bookshop in 90.  A younger me makes an appearance, doing a whimsical introduction. It is also available for sale on DVD, etc., on my friends' Original Falcon's website, and free to download from places like Archive.org and YouTube. 

"It was a lot of fun, and Bob and I hung out for a few days, and he taught me how to make a martini, using a method and formula he picked up from reading about W.C. Fields. I use that recipe and method to this day. This was before Bo moved to Santa Cruz. He was still living in LA. Of course, he and Arlen would move to Santa Cruz to be close to his kids. 

"Here's some pics of that visit. We're hanging out at Nina Graboi's, (my downstairs neighbor) smoking some hash I had scored."

The Finnegans Wake reading group for 2026 on Reddit has begun. It's handy for people who have never tried a reading group and don't have one physically nearby. I am trying to get caught up, and as the organizers point out, it's not too late to join and get up to speed. (This is one of the two reading groups announced as part of Bobby Campbell's Maybe Night). 

Here is the information and schedule for the readalong. You can also access the schedule directly.  The actual reading group posts are at Finnegans Wake on Reddit. 

Michael Johnson has a major new essay up, "Robert Anton Wilson on Plant Intelligence, (Part One?" which I recommend to everyone who reads this blog. Here is the opening bit:

A poor kid born three years into the Great Depression, near Brooklyn, who contracted polio as a child and was enamored of Weird Tales and mathematics and poetry, you might think Wilson would not be a good candidate to develop a pantheist, vitalist, panpsychist point of view. He was not a hiker (the polio), but in the 1970s in Northern California he and his wife Arlen were very much involved with modern paganism and definitely did magickal rituals in Berkeley and met other pagan artists and intellectuals in the redwoods in Northern California. What was the trajectory? How did he develop this mystical outlook?

Allen Ginsberg in 1979 (Creative Commons photo, more information). 

Allen Ginsberg was born on June 3, 1926, so as Eric Wagner remarked on Facebook, June is the Ginsberg centennial. 

The Wikipedia bio will fill you in on the writer RAW called "our major living American poet," in Coincidance.  

Each year, a new batch of books (and other creative works) enter the public domain. This year works published in 1930 enter the public domain. 

This year, the books that go into the public domain include As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (RAW was a Faulkner fan) and Standard Ebooks already has an edition out.  Here are 20 new books offered by Standard Ebooks, including The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett, The Castle by Franz Kafka and mysteries by Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie. 

———— This is part 2 of a long blog post. The first part is called "Wandering" and this part is "Wondering." No real reason for those names, just playing with words. But mostly these posts are about images. Kawaii. Acrylic on canvas, 24″ x 24″. December, 2025 At one point, I had a nice square […]

The post Wondering first appeared on Rudy's Blog.

I've been hanging around with Barb Ash a lot. I published Sqinks. I painted quite a bit. I'll break my doings into two posts: "Wandering" and "Wondering." Barb is a photographer, as am I, and we enjoy working on pictures together, each using their own camera, but helping each other see. Barb is better at […]

The post Wandering first appeared on Rudy's Blog.

My new novel, and a journal about writing it. Published via my very own indie press,  which is Transreal Books. I raised funds for it on a Kickstarter page…and I have a Sqinks book page.. Towards the end of Novembler, I'll be publishing Sqinks and Sqinks Journal in hardback, paperback, and ebook on all the usual […]

The post Sqinks Novel & Sqinks Journal first appeared on Rudy's Blog.