What the Dude Drinks Now

 

A White Russian: a mixture of Vodka, Kaluha, and Cream, popularized by "The Big Lebowski."

Thanks to Vivian Swift (blog post here), this meme started me thinking about a number of things. In case you aren't a fan of the Coen Brothers cult favorite "The Big Lebowski," here's a summary of where this meme is coming from:

"Whatever days in history surrounded the creation of the White Russian of the 1960s, they are obscured by March 6, 1998, the day directors Joel and Ethan Coen unleashed a disheveled, disarranged, and ruggedly disembodied Jeff Bridges upon the world in their film The Big Lebowski. Bridges’ character, known cosmically as “The Dude,” is snapped from his daily routine of day-drinking and night-bowling when he is thrust into a plot of kidnapping and mystery as the result of mistaken identity. The road is not without its tolls, but waiting at the end is liquid sustenance of vodka, Kahlua, and cream, and so The Dude abides." (source)

The war isn't funny at all. Maybe memes like this are an unwarranted distraction from contemplating the horror and immorality of the Russian attacks on Ukraine. Tanks, soldiers, rockets, bombs, artillery and other instruments of war are intentionally targeting civilians, particularly children: unthinkable. Over three million people are now homeless refugees in other countries, over 6 million internally displaced, many dead, and cities turned to rubble. Finding effective ways to donate money to help the Ukrainian victims is challenging, both mentally and emotionally. 

Human suffering on this scale is unbearable to contemplate. Humor, however, is a way to deal with too much reality, and I think we all seek good memes like this to keep going in the face of tragedy. Maybe humor can ease the fear of a wider war employing unconventional chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, but still leave us some energy to do what we can. 

Besides the memes, many responses to Russian brutality involve symbolic actions like dumping vodka down the drain because it used to be a Russian product (but isn't any more) or renaming drinks that actually never had anything to do with Russia. In fact, actual bars are renaming the cocktails called the White Russian and the Black Russian. According to the Washington Post: "In many places, the Moscow Mule is now the Kyiv Mule. In at least one bar, it’s the Snake Island Mule, a reference to the Ukrainian territory where border guards made a defiant last stand against invading troops. ... Symbolism, particularly when it comes to food and drink — key ways that we express our identities — can be powerful."

Contemplating the unthinkable damage: Zhytomyr, Ukraine.
After 32 days of war, the destruction is horrifying. (Source: The Guardian)  

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Blog post by mae sander for maefood dot blogspot dot com. © 2022.