Quafftide
Yeah I voted for this one too.
It’s time for a drink!
The poll has spoken, and so QUAFFTIDE it is! Last week was a special collaboration, and so this week I’ve gotten to the vocab word you all voted for (and you really all of you pretty much did). This is another archaic word relating to drinking, and it basically means “Time for a drink!”* Which is ironic, because I’m doing something I call Moist March this year.
*Or, “Hurry up, Harry, come on– We’re going ‘round the pub!”
It’s Quafftide! Let’s Popinate!
Remember how Popination began as a vocab word? And then it exploded into this whole series on Mondays? Well that’s by popular demand, I’ll have you know. But I’m not complaining—it’s always nice to have a writing prompt, and now I’ve got one for each of my 3 posts per week. Makes the flow flow better. And of course each vocab word post does devolve (evolve? morph?) into yet another unhinged personal essay or stream-of-my-weird-consciousness Musing anyway, right?
However! I also want to know why people in the 16th-17th centuries had such awesome drinking-related words! Can we bring all of these back, please? …well I guess I’m doing my part to make Popinate more active, if I think about it. But still! And let’s agree: quafftide is simple. And it is beautiful in its simplicity:
Quafftide = It’s Happy Hour Somewhere
Today it’s March 1st, though, and like I said, I’m embarking on a Mostly Dry March (what I’m calling Moist March). So there will be limited quafftides for me this month, as pretty much every day in February (especially my birthday) was filled with quafftides pretty much every day. The exceptions to the dry rule? There are only two (or maybe three, but we’ll see):
March 2
I’ve been cast in a guest spot in a friend’s burlesque show at a place called Liquor Pie, and I can’t resist having a drink at a place that’s named that. Plus, drinking lightly and performing for me go hand in hand, which I’ve written about before. To wit:
Hey, I’m not the first excellent writer to work whilst imbibing. And I’m certainly not the first excellent actor to “think while I drink.” (Yojimbo) It’s all in the balance, though—too little and I’m too tightly wound, my voice shallow, my breath not up to the snuff of one of Shakespeare’s greatest Fools. Too much, and the opposite happens: I’m too sloppy in the brain to conquer the complex language, and my singing voice goes flat. But, as you’ve read about here before, I come from a rich tradition of acting and drinking, and it has normally been, when done mindfully and correctly, good medicine. [from Well80 (Popination Nation)]
March 17
It’s St. Paddy’s Day. Nuff said.
Maybe one more?
That…actually that might be it. I’m going to give myself a little bit of a loose rein the week of the 18th, most likely, depending on what Spring break and that week off of work does for my partner and me, travel-wise, etc. Another wet alternative maaaaay be later in the month on my next podcast recording day, because. Well. Sober Outrider just isn’t done. It would ruin the whole premise. But! That is pretty much it, though. It’s going to feel great, and I do like my Heineken 0s at my ‘local’, as well as Slattery’s Guinness 0, so. I’ll be in good taste for any dry quafftides (or I guess popinations) I indulge in.
As I engage with Moist March, I’m planning on doing my little yoga/Pilates/sword cut living room workout each day, which will add to the whole bettering my health business. It’s the perfect little workout that can easily be done on my living room floor on my extra-squishy mat, but even though it’s wee, it’s a good and effective bit of anaerobic exercise. It consists of the following (in case you’d like to join me):
Pilates Fantastic 4
Hundreds
Leg lifts
Leg circles ( I do both single-leg and double-leg circles)
Rolling like a ball
In between these I’ll often do yoga bridges, that one Pilates hip opener movement, and the keyhole stretch.
Yoga Seated sequence
Figure 4 stretch
Stretch to pigeon
Lord of the fishes
Cow face and eagle combination
Both sides, natch
Yoga kneeling sequence to stand
cat/cow stretch
(plank)<--if I’m feeling ambitious
Downward dog
Forward fold
Kidney stretch
Reverse swan dive to mountain
Classical Japanese katana work
100 cuts OR
9-cut sequence starting from 5 different opening kamae
Usually for 100 cuts I’ll use a shinai, and for the 9-cut sequences I’ll use my real katana or one of my lightsaber bokken.
Look these up if you don’t know know what they are. Or, hey, maybe I should record myself on my old dusty YouTube channel, Yoga For Misanthropes, which I’ve sorely neglected since lockdown. Hm. What do you think, should I?
It seems as though the 0-proof beer thing is really taking off strongly in UK pub culture, more than here, though we are getting a little bit better. I wonder why? Maybe it’s because pubs and pub culture (and popinating and quafftide) are so ancient a practice there; maybe it’s the younger drinking age? Maybe it’s that they often like their beer much less strong than we do to begin with, so it’s not as much of a stretch? Not sure. But if the Moon Under Water saith true, it’s a pretty common practice to do ‘naught point 5’ or 0-proof drinks, just so the pub experience doesn’t diminish. That’s my plan, by the way—I’ll have enough Popinations Past and Moist March exceptions to write about for the next few Mondays, too, so don’t worry. And cheers!
FUN FACT: I was a very busy yoga/Pilates (as well as a gymnastics and martial arts) instructor in the late aughts into the early 20-tens. I had handfuls of students in each gym/dojo that would take my courses regularly and faithfully. The Gunbarrel Athletic Club students were super loyal—I got that gig because my husband at the time worked there and suggested they call me when their normal PiYo instructor was a no-show one day. I waltzed in and taught what became such a popular class that the manager had me instructor-certify in Sport Yoga just in case anyone questioned her hiring of me. That group of around 20 loyal followers were devastated when I quit a couple years later and gave them nowhere to follow me to.