Ideas that never became blog posts

When it comes to writing posts for this blog, I am ruthless. About half the posts I write never get past the draft phase. The posts die for many reasons. They wander off, without a point or theme – which is important for me – or I didn't like how they turn out and shelf them indefinitely. 

Whether the death is slow or quick, there's usually a kernel of an idea that brought about the draft phase in the first place. That idea that drove the dead posts often remain in my head, waiting to come out.

Here are a few ideas that did not die with their post, but still wait to come out.

Politics

During my stay in Hungary, an EU commission accused the Hungarian government of eroding its democratic institutions, there was a national election, and the prime minister called for an “illiberal state” based on Russia or Turkey. Lots of juicy stuff to write about.

Hungary never had genuine democratic institutions until the 1990s. Before that it was dictators, kings, and emperors. It takes time for democracy to take root and grow. Right now, this government is pursuing a nationalist agenda in spite of the economic and political consequences. It is not tragic. It is a part of a process every country goes through as they build a civil society. The real tragedy would be the day the Hungarian people quit seeking and defending their own democratic institutions. Happily that isn't happening.

There is a lot to say and, as a non-Hungarian speaker, I always felt I was never get the full story. As a guy with a political science degree, it always stuck in my craw that I couldn’t clearly elucidate even one political post about Hungary. Maybe some distance will help in the coming months.

No normal jeans

I only had a few weeks to wrap up the loose ends of my life in Toronto before I set off for Budapest. Buying new blue jeans did not make the list at the time, but if I could do things over again I would have brought a couple of pairs.

This isn’t the Cold War. Blue jeans are as common in the old East Bloc as they are in the West. All the jeans here happen to be very tight. I looked in several malls for a decent pair. These weren’t baggy pants with 30-inch openings I was looking for, just jeans that are a little looser in the legs, crouch, and ass. Not a big deal, or you would think.

The search got so desperate that I even asked a friend from Canada who was coming to visit to get a pair for me. He got hit by a car on the shopping trip, so I got no jeans and he got a trip to the ER (he’s fine... now).

My search eventually ended at a skate store in a Budapest, where I bought the baggiest pair I could find. How baggy were they? My sister laughed at them when she was visiting, saying I looked weird in skinny jeans.

Fröccs

A while back, I wrote about Hungary as an incredible wine country and my utter lack of any wine knowledge. After spending two summers visiting the beaches, bars, and patios of Budapest and Lake Balaton, I have a new wrinkle to add to that.

It’s fröccs, the ultimate spending-a-day-drinking-on-a-patio drink. Fröccs is wine and carbonated water. Admittedly, I’m no wine snob, so I won't gasp at mixing water with wine. I’ve also mixed carbonated water with whiskey for years -- Whiskey Pop! These sorts of drinks are bubbly and tasty, but also keep you hydrated enough to avoid the brutal hangovers that are the norm when you’re over 30.

The trick is ordering a fröccs with the desired wine to water ratio. This way, you stay hydrated as you drink away the afternoon, evening, night, and possibly morning.

Marshall's Lazy Guide to Froccs.