Author: Don Warrington

The Joys of Bitter Lemon

Don Warrington The Palm Beach Experience 2 Comments

I grew up in a family of serious drinkers, which goes back a long way, as my grandfather’s involvement in this should attest.  That meant that we had a stocked bar in the house (it wasn’t a “wet bar” in the sense that it had a sink, but it was stocked all the same.)  At the same time I was an accomplished snacker, and an opportunistic one at that.  Maraschino cherries and stuffed green olives that were ostensibly intended for my mother’s gin martinis (this was before the vodka ones became de rigeur) ended up going “down the hatch” of the youngest inhabitant of the house, save the cat.

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A drawing from the archives of Vulcan Iron Works, which combined the engineering activities of the employees on the job with their activities after hours. It’s worth noting that the first office Vulcan had in West Palm Beach was adjacent to a bar.

To wash all of this down, I turned to yet another thing that was stocked in the bar: Schweppes’ Bitter Lemon and, sometimes, Bitter Orange.  Bitter Lemon/Orange was basically tonic water (which includes quinine) with the suitable citrus drink. It was stiff stuff for the “Pepsi Generation” but I drank it anyway and liked it.

In recent times I’ve always wondered what happened to these interesting soft drinks.  Research on the internet showed that Schweppes certainly still makes them but doesn’t distribute them in the US; inhabitants of the UK, Singapore and Australia still were able to enjoy this, but evidently Americans’ obsession with things being sweet killed it in this country.

The advent of COVID-19 and the fracas over hydroxychloroquine–and its relationship to quinine, which the British used to dampen the effects of malaria–got me thinking again about this stuff.  Why not?  So my wife and I got to mixing things and, with some help from my country club, got things rolling there and at home.

There are elaborate recipes out there to make it, some involving things like lavender, others adding sugar or other sweeteners.  For me the latter kills the whole appeal, and in any case most tonic water we get here (we usually get it at Publix, from its Florida roots the drinkers’ choice for grocery stores) is sweetened, as it comes in either regular or diet forms.  With orange I’ve been ordering 3:1 tonic water:orange juice; with lemon concentrate you don’t even need that much.  It’s definitely a face slapper but that’s the appeal, especially for someone who listed his favourite coffee as Sumatra.

It’s also possible to use other fruit drinks.  We actually started with cranberry juice, which isn’t bad, and we’ve also tried lime juice, and that’s in some ways better than lemon.  We have a friend from Guatemala who’s going to try apple juice, and that should be interesting.

And what of COVID?  I think the whole stink over hydroxychloroquine is proof as to how unscientific (and corrupt) our culture has become.  Setting aside the mercenary power of Big Pharma, everything in this debate–masks, face shields, social distancing, you name it–has been presented as “preventing” the spread of COVID-19.  But, as I explain to my Foundations students, finding that kind of deterministic absolute is impossible.  We’ve always “played the odds” with what we do in the material world.  (The other side is different.)  My wife and I have done our part with the masks, social distancing and “hiding out” (the appropriate TN term for sheltering in place,) and it’s paid off.  But things we can do to help things along, some nutritional, some like this–can’t hurt and may make the difference.

In any case I’m having a blast in these troubled times.  Cheers!

On His Level

Don Warrington Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Buff. Behind him is the sliding glass door where he met disaster.

Readers of this blog have seen the antics of our Applehead Siamese Cat, Buff, who in his day braved both photographers and the high seas.  Shortly after we left Palm Beach for Boynton Beach he taught us yet another important life lesson, and as usual he did it the hard way.

Florida living has some unique benefits.  One of those is those screened in porches (screened to keep the mosquitoes out) with access from the house through sliding glass doors.  The climate makes sitting out on them a delight.  We didn’t have them in our house in Palm Beach but we certainly did in Boynton Beach.

We bought the house new, so my mother (recovering from back surgery) had to decorate it.  One of the things you do with sliding glass doors is to purchase these “peel and stick” appliqués and put them about eye level so people won’t run into the door.  (The alternative is to keep the door so dirty no one can miss them, but…)  She did this, but she didn’t take into account everyone in the house.

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Looking back through the same door. An appliqué can barely be seen on the left edge of the photo.

Buff had the delightful habit of running through the house, making a thundering herd kind of noise (this is amazing for animals known for their stealth.)  His vision, as is common with Applehead Siamese cats, wasn’t the best, so he didn’t always know where he was going.  One night we were sitting around listening to the thundering herd when we heard an unsatisfying thump on the sliding glass door.  It seems that Buff, not seeing or caring about the door, had careened into it.  He staggered away; he wasn’t himself for several days thereafter.

This incident made its point, so my mother got yet another set of appliqués and put them towards the bottom of the door so Buff could see them before he had another wreck.

In communicating a message to someone, it’s important to deliver it in a way that they can understand and benefit from it.  It’s called sometimes “getting down on their level.”  That’s what we had to do for poor Buff; appliqués placed high up didn’t do him much good.

When God wanted to redeem people from their sins and make them into the children he intended them to be in the first place, he himself — he did not send someone or something else — came down to be on our level, in Jesus Christ his Son:

Though the divine nature was his from the beginning, yet he did not look upon equality with God as above all things to be clung to, But impoverished himself by taking the nature of a servant and becoming like men; He appeared among us as a man, and still further humbled himself by submitting even to death–to death on a cross! (Phil 2:6-8)

Jesus, in the days of his earthly life, offered prayers and supplications, with earnest cries and with tears, to him who was able to save him from death; and he was heard because of his devout submission. (Hebrews 5:7)

Some religions tell us that it was not worthy that God come down and live with us, as his Son or otherwise.  But the truth remains: the best way to make an alliance between God and people is for God himself to come down on our level, where we could not only behold his glory (John 1:14) but that he could both share and transcend our condition and make a way for us from this life into eternity.

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All New Testament quotations taken from the Positive Infinity New Testament.

Flexible Meshing Enables Accurate CFD for Nuclear Reactor Rod Bundles — Another Fine Mesh

Don Warrington Quote Fluid Mechanics, Mathematics Leave a comment

Accurate fluid flow modeling of nuclear reactor rod bundles is essential and extremely challenging with exacting standards for the mesh to deal with the geometric complexity and near-wall physics. The tightly packed rods with wrapped wires, mainly used in liquid metal cooled systems, that contact the rods provide a challenging geometry into which well-defined boundary […]

via Flexible Meshing Enables Accurate CFD for Nuclear Reactor Rod Bundles — Another Fine Mesh

The Physics of River Prediction

Don Warrington Fluid Mechanics, Marine Leave a comment

From here, beginning follows:

Rivers support life and fuel civilization. They provide water for drinking, irrigate food crops, and help build everything from cars to computers. Their waters drive hydroelectric turbines that generate clean energy. Rivers have even supported nuclear physics developments that changed the course of a war: The hydroelectric complexes of the Columbia Basin Project and the Tennessee Valley Authority enabled energy-intensive uranium and plutonium refinement for the Manhattan Project.

Rivers have always been crucial transportation pathways. The exploration, settlement, and economic development of the Americas depended acutely on river navigation. The Danube serves as a trade route in Europe, much as it did for the Romans 2000 years ago, and today it carries commercial freight across the continent….