{"id":8429,"date":"2014-08-01T13:00:18","date_gmt":"2014-08-01T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"\/nashvillereview\/?p=8429"},"modified":"2015-02-14T14:36:04","modified_gmt":"2015-02-14T20:36:04","slug":"swizzle-sticks-meri-culp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/8429","title":{"rendered":"Swizzle Sticks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The original swizzle sticks were three or five pronged, created in the 1700\u2019s at a rum plantation<br \/>\nin the West Indies. They were used to stir up Bermudian cocktails called Rum Swizzles and were<br \/>\nmade from the branch of an allspice or sassafras plant.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>:<br \/>\nAllspice (<em>the forked)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Know that something small can stir a revolution.<br \/>\nTake, for instance, the forked swizzle stick,<br \/>\nordered up to stem-stir the master\u2019s evening drink,<br \/>\na small branch in a plantation grove, an allspice<br \/>\nlimb, cut, whittled, shaped to a V, a Y, the slave sculptor\u2019s<br \/>\nhands moving quickly, deftly, fashioning points for<br \/>\na summer pink hibiscus petal, a Bermuda olive, cocktailed<br \/>\nfor a high priced drink, the splintered servitude of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg,<br \/>\nalmost sweet, yet deceiving in its swirl, carried by the breeze, by the hands<br \/>\nof rising up; deliverance will come in that motion, in the slow stirring<br \/>\nof golden rum, island lime, sugar cane juice,<br \/>\nthe straight baton of swizzle, the odd-numbered prongs, by threes, by fives,<br \/>\ninsurgency, urgency, marching into the night,<br \/>\nthe spice trees shaking loose big peppercorns, feeling the circling of something small.<\/p>\n<p>Sassafras (<em>the firestarter<\/em>)<\/p>\n<p>Realize that something small can start a fire.<br \/>\nInvoke the sassafras swizzle stick; its crossroaded prongs<br \/>\nlead to healing or fire,<br \/>\nsweet oil balm or big house blaze.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s all in the silenced spirit of choices,<br \/>\nhow the restrained give voices to sticks,<br \/>\nrub them to release calm mornings or sparked nights,<br \/>\nmake their commands of how to stir,<br \/>\nhow to crisscross sassafras surprise into an iron-fisted glass,<br \/>\nopen the wounds of wild mint juleps, ignite the quick start of freed tongues,<br \/>\nvoices beyond the wraparound porch, orange and licking,<br \/>\nspreading beyond the trees, lined in branches cut,<br \/>\ndiscarded limbs shaped to sticks,<br \/>\nturned to turning, spinning deliverance, hands to the sky.<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"\/nashvillereview\/archives\/8216\">Meri Culp<\/a><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The original swizzle sticks were three or five pronged, created in the 1700\u2019s at a rum plantation in the West Indies. They were used to stir up Bermudian cocktails called Rum Swizzles and were made from the branch of an allspice or sassafras plant. : Allspice (the forked) Know that something small can stir a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-2bX","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8429"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10175,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8429\/revisions\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}