Crypto Pigs, LinkedIn for Prison, and the Spinners

Pig butchering, batching cocktails, and the Spinners.

Law

My Lightfoot colleagues Brandon Essig and Mary Parrish McCracken recently published in Law360: Pig Butchering: The Scam That Exploits Crypto Confusion:

It starts with a seemingly ordinary but unsolicited text message or direct message from an unknown number or user. Maybe the sender has an attractive profile picture, and perhaps they demonstrate some pleasant, good-natured confusion at the phone number mix-up. But alarming trends tell us that, in all likelihood, it is not an accident but the genesis of a dangerous — and effective — online scam.

Cocktails

Batched Martinis

Martini writer Bernard DeVoto insisted that each martini be made individually, but I am a fan of batching. Pouring a see-through from an iced bottle is not only easier when entertaining but gives the drink a silky, viscous quality. Here is a fascinating look by cocktails writer Robert Simonson at batching that involves a . . . jewelry cleaner: This Martini Costs $22. Here’s Exactly Why:

There’s no chance a patron will mistake the Hawksmoor’s Martini as anything other than a denizen of the deep freeze. It fairly smokes when it arrives, like a car warming up on an icy morning. 

The Hawksmoor Martini’s journey to subzero takes it through several appliances. The first doesn’t affect the temperature, but it’s so weird that it merits more than a mention. It’s a jewelry cleaner, a metal contraption about the size of a small Yeti cooler. Batched Martinis, vacuum-sealed in bags, are “zapped” inside for 45 minutes. 

“The best analogy is it’s like lasagna,” said Hubbard. “Lasagna always tastes better the next day. And it’s kind of like that. It would be a great Martini before [this process].” But the jewelry cleaner “just rounds it out and makes it a better drink. It basically shakes all the molecules and homogenizes it.”

The Ferroviaro

From Punch, the story of a popular Argentine drink: Meet the Ferroviaro, Argentina’s Iconic Cantina Staple:

It’s 7:30 on the dot on a chilly Tuesday night and the muchacho is still setting up tables on the sidewalk. It’s early at El Boliche de Roberto, a 130-year-old bar in the Almagro neighborhood of Buenos Aires. For as long as anyone can remember, Roberto’s has hosted tango bands every night of the week. The regulars won’t begin to crowd the tables and mess around on the piano in the back for another two hours. Julián emerges from the street and begins to prepare our requested Ferroviario, a fernet and red vermouth spritz found in cantinas across the country. 

I have made a Ferroviario at home. Easy, but it has a fernet bite that the vermouth cuts only a bit.

Drinks I Have Been Drinking

There is a Tennessee theme to the drinks below, but that perhaps that is appropriate. For Crimson Tide fans, after all, it is Tennessee hate-week:

Career and Meaning

Here is a full-send use of LinkedIn by Ryan Salame, former FTX digital markets executive, before he began serving a 90-month sentence:

White Collar Wire likely over-quotes Scott Fitzgerald, but consider this observation from Letters of Note:

Music

Finally, The Spinners “live” in 1976 with “Wake Up Susan”: