An “old fashioned” is a fabulous cocktail. The official origin of the drink is still heavily debated. While the Waldorf-Astoria in New York by way of the Pendennis Club, a private social club in Louisville, KY has been crested as the birthplace of the cocktail as we know it today, the publication of Modern American Drinks, by George Kappeler, in 1895 mentions the recipe for the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail that Simonson describes as the evolutionary link between the whiskey cocktail and Old-Fashioned as we know it.

I will admit to being “old fashioned.” I believe in courtesy and a balance of personal preference with societal conformance.

Recently in Toppers, a world-class restaurant in Nantucket’s Wauwinet Inn, some people had on jackets (once a must) but most had on “resort casual,” shirts and slacks for men, summer dresses for women. One woman, dressed in that manner, came in with a man who had on shorts, a polo shirt, and flip-flops. You might say he was an individualist. Or you might say he was a slob. What did this nicely dressed woman think when he showed up that night?

I hold open doors for people when I’m slightly ahead of them. I open the car door for women. If I’m wearing a hat I take it off in a restaurant or in a meeting or in the theater.

I don’t “work my phone” at meals with others, nor do I tell stories loudly enough for people to hear me who are driving by.

I’m adept at yawning without making a noise like an oncoming tornado, and I say God Bless You when someone sneezes. No one has accused me of violating the separation of church and state as yet.