May 5. 2026

Moonlight

I was inspired this week by a little patch of moonlight on the bedroom floor. I especially noticed that after a few hours it had moved almost out of sight. This led me to one of my mother’s (she’d be 120 years old today) favorite songs, “Moonlight Cocktail”.

“Couple of jiggers of moonlight, add a star

Throw in the blue of a June night and one guitar

Mix in a couple of dreamers and there you are

Lovers hail the moonlight cocktail,”

Thirty years ago, Miami freshmen had to take a writing test to place them for Freshman English, a requirement for all freshmen, and one of the prompts included the word “jigger.” Problem. Many of the kids didn;t know what a “jigger” was. So now I wonder if incoming students are still so naive and would be confounded at a “jigger.” Would they associate it with a jiggly jello shot? Or is it related to “Higgly Piggly”?

I’m not even sure we have cocktail parties anymore, where you juggle a cigarette, a potentially lethal drink, eat finger foods (using that third hand) while offering scintillating conversation on deeply important topics.

Joe Biden would know what “I’ll be jiggered” means. And that’s no malarky.