AHREFS analysis of over 28 billion keywords on Google reveals that the most searched question of 2024 was “What to watch.” I cannot be sure if I’ve typed this query into my computer, but there is something existentially depressing about asking the internet, or the interwebs (as Boomer dads are required to call it) — an endless trove of answers about everything from how to cook baked Alaska to how to hotwire a car — what you should zone out to. Really, asking the thing that numbed your brain what to numb your brain with feels like going to your local dispensary and demanding a lobotomy. Perhaps we’ve gone too far in the wrong direction.
In many ways, the internet is my employer. Like any boss, I accept and take issue with the authority it has on my life. Plenty of research demonstrates how the internet (and smartphones and social media) hijack the brain’s reward system by triggering a dopamine release in response to feedback from a world that is not exactly real. This is not a revelatory idea but a well-documented one. But this constant stimulation has also smoothed our brains so much that we don’t even know how to enjoy our downtime. We have to ask the algorithm what to watch.
While resolutions are not exactly our thing (more on that later), allow us to propose a simple one for 2025: The next time you feel like Googling “what to watch,” text a friend to ask that. Not only will that put some authority back in the hands of the humans in your life, but it could spark an interesting conversation or even plans to hang out in real life. Remember that kind of thing? It’s like a reality show, but you’re in it and not flipping tables… hopefully.
Either way, you might feel some lines form in your head again, like a boy’s haircut from BoRics in the 90s.
Cross-Fade: What Happens if I Put a Little Booze in My Weed Mocktail?
Cannabis can be a great middle ground between alcohol and raw dogging social interactions with a pure mocktail. For New Year’s Eve and other occasions, we like keeping CQ’s Old Fashioned Lemonade Shots in our pack pockets because it contains 100mg of concentrated weed.
Even if you are a seasoned cannabis consumer, taking the entire shot before the ball drops may make you wonder if Ryan Seacrest is haunted. Instead, add a cap full of CQ lemonade (about 5mg) to bubbly water and save the rest for later or for a pal. Depending on your mocktail setup and options, muddle a little mint and add fresh lemon for extra flavor. Either way, experts agree that the best and safest way to consume edibles is to “start low and go slow.”
Cannabis cocktails are not only for those who abstain from alcohol; they are for everybody. That means a lot of people are going to be either alternating cannabis beverages with alcoholic ones or spiking them with a little tequila.
The CQ brand does not encourage mixing cannabis with alcohol, and generally speaking, combining cannabis and alcohol intensifies the effects of both. Still, the effects of cannabis beverages can be easier to manage than edibles because you don’t have to wait as long for the high to kick in. So, as long as you don’t sip too fast, theoretically, this can be a more controllable way to cross-fade at a party (our words, not theirs). Like with most theories, have a backup plan in case the effects play out differently — at a minimum, the overhead for a surging Uber and a friend to make sure you get home.
🟦CQ Old Fashioned Lemonade Shot, 100mg (one cap-full per drink or 5mg), with seltzer water, fresh lemon, and muddled mint
◆CQ Old Fashioned Lemonade Shot, 100mg (one cap-full per drink) with seltzer water, fresh lemon, muddled mint, a shot of Tequila Herradura, and a contingency plan
Stop Making Resolutions a Punishment
Let’s be honest. Skipping dessert feels bad. So does dragging ass to a gym you don’t like. So does saving instead of going on vacation. There is a futility built into these self-imposed restrictions. In a New Year’s resolution, we are both the jailer and the prisoner. Maybe this is why, according to Pew, 70% of Americans did not make resolutions this year. These people seem to realize that it’s time to give up, or at least give up giving up things.
This doesn’t necessarily mean we have to throw an annual self-improvement check out the window. Pew also found that among those who do make resolutions, the most common category they fell into by far is health and fitness. Given this, why not give ourselves epic shit to look forward to instead?
According to a study published in “Frontiers of Psychology,” having something fun to look forward to helps activate our brain circuitry and improves mental well-being and focus. Using this logic, we’re far better off making resolutions like “Hike part of the Appalachian Trail” or “Learn how to surf.” These kinds of resolutions will incorporate more physical activity in your life, if that’s your goal. We are also fans of fun being a goal in and of itself in a resolution. Some of our favorite past ones have been “ride a horse to a waterfall” and “get a new tattoo.”
Just try not to get a tattoo of a horse at a waterfall, unless that is truly what makes you happy.
Don’t Make Lemons Into Lemonade… Make Lemon Pigs
If you have a few lemons lying around after your cannabis cocktails, consider carving two pointy ears, shoving two cloves in it for eyes, toothpicks for legs, curling up some foil for the tail, and putting a shiny penny in it’s mouth. Then you don’t just have a budding fruit fly situation. You have a lucky lemon pig.
Although the tradition of the lemon pig dates back to the late 19th century, these it citrus swines only caught on relatively recently. On New Year’s Eve 2017, back when it was called Twitter (shakes fist at the sky), Anna Pallai, author of 70s Dinner Party: The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly of Retro Food, tweeted a picture from a 1971 book on entertaining from an aluminum foil company (thus the tail).
Unlike some viral tweets that vanish, the lemon pig has gained more popularity in recent years, and Pallai is less than surprised. “I never go out on New Year’s Eve,” she told Atlas Obscura, “and clearly a lot of other people would prefer to stay home and carve lemons than go to an overpriced bar.”
The downside of the lemon pig is keeping it past the point of rotting in the name of good luck. But little about the tradition suggests that you must keep a moldy lemon year-round or that you cannot Menudo a fresh hog in there when the time is right. Given that an issue of Good Housekeeping from September 1902 mentions lemon pigs as a fun craft and grunter of a drink garnish, there is nothing even tying them to New Year’s exclusively.
That means you can turn lemons into whatever makes you smile year-round, even if that means finding a secondary use for cloves. We recommend making a spicy simple syrup for warm winter mock and cocktails.
Never Show Up Empty-Handed: The Best Gift is the Cleanest
At Hooky, we’re not big on “rules.” But if there is one commandment we have to insist on, it’s “Thou shall not show up empty-handed.” Barring pregnancy and sobriety, booze is always a solid host and hostess gift. But if it makes them sick the next day, you had better combine that Fireball with a McDonald’s gift card.
Or you can cut out the hangover altogether by giving them a clean bottle of Avaline Wine, made with organic grapes and free of unnecessary additives that compound wine hangovers. We treated ourselves to a bottle of their $35 Prosecco, available in most major grocery stores, and can confirm it was delicious and hangover-free. However, studies indicate that hangover symptoms are relative to the individual.
If you’ve wondered what Cameron Diaz has been up to since gracing our screens, she’s taken up an arguably underrated celebrity cause. As the co-founder of Avaline, she’s made wine easier to drink without consequence, and to that, we toast her.
Forecast: The Rose Bowl – Oregon vs. Ohio State 1/1/25 1:00pm PT/4pm ET/Seattle Seahawks @ LA Rams 1/5/25 1:25pm PT/4:25pm ET/Gold is at 2,618.80 an oz/ Bitcoin is at 92,388.60