Photo: Claire LowerHappy hour with 3 ingredientsHappy hour with 3 ingredientsThe weekly beverage column with super simple but delicious libations.

We are so happy to have popsicles. Not only are they delicious, they also offer a break from the stifling heat and make you feel comfortable a fantastic base for Frosé. But alcohol is unfriendly for ice crystals to form, and it takes at least two pops to make one of those trendy pink slushies. But you don’t have to do a muddy one; A popsicle can do wonderful things to a cocktail when it is melted.

A pop made primarily of fruit puree, fruit juice and sugar offers an excellent combination of cocktail ingredients that cool down on taste. I like the Outshine brand but any popsicle with a similar list of ingredients will do (fruit flavored) palette would be absolutely outstanding). Pick your favorite flavor and mix this pop with a dash of alcohol and some lemon juice. Pour it over ice. There: You have just made a fruity, fun, summery cocktail.

I haven’t tried all possible variations – how could I? – but it’s kind of a plug and play method the jam jar cocktail. They provide the alcohol and a little acidity, and the popsicle provides the sugar, body, and modifying fruit flavor. Vodka goes with just about any popsicle flavor, but it’s fun to get smart with your flavor matching. My personal favorite is a mix of cachaça, an Outshine mango-flavored popsicle, and lime juice. To prepare this sunny treat you will need:

• 1 1/2 ounces cachaça
• 1 Outshine popsicle with mango flavor
• 1/2 ounce lime juice

Scrape the popsicle off the stick into a blender or cup wide enough to hold the head of a hand blender. Add the alcohol and lime and mix until the popsicle has just melted. Pour into a lowball glass and fill the remaining space with ice. Garnish with a popsicle (for a bit moody) then drink and repeat with another brandy and popsicle until you’re (tragically) out of popsicles.

Photo: Art Pictures (Shutterstock)

Even if you think you have the grammar under control, you may not realize how easy it is to inadvertently venture into a lexical area that would upset your first year English teacher. Certainly, in my college days, I had a few teaching assistants who dealt with the passive voice.

Bright red markings underlined heaps of my prose, with an uppercase warning indicating that if I only used the active voice when writing papers, my reasoning would become clearer. At this point, I hadn’t figured out what the passive voice was. Unfortunately, I had to learn that the passive voice is loathed by some selected grammar snobs. (Neither of them likely enjoyed the previous two paragraphs.)

Here’s what you need to know about passive voice and active voice so you can avoid the kind of typographical errors I made in college but definitely never will.

First: active voice

To understand the passive voice, we must first dive into the most commonly used active voice. Basically the active voice Is used when the subject of a sentence performs the actions indicated by a verb.

G / O Media can receive a commission

As the Harvard historian Mariel Wolfson points out American Journal Experts, “[a]At the most basic level, the active voice emphasizes the person or agent performing an action, briefly the actor. ‘“

Basically, the active voice is a much more commonly used grammatical structure in which the subject of a sentence is clearly defined.

If you want an example of the active voice, consider the following:

“The boy really loved soccer.”

Yes, it’s that simple. The active voice doesn’t leave much room for confusion. As Purdue University’s online writing lab explained::

Using an active voice for most of your sentences will make your meaning clear to readers and prevent the sentences from becoming too complicated or wordy.

Purdue’s definition goes into what most writing teachers are trying to convey when teaching you to write. Using the active voice is straightforward and easy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the passive voice must be avoided at all costs.

What is the passive voice?

The passive voice turns the active sentence structure upside down. It’s an upside-down way of describing things, as the University of North Carolina’s Writing Center at Chapel Hill explains:

A passive construction is when you make the object of an action the object of a sentence. That is, whoever or whatever is taking the action is not the grammatical subject of the sentence.

In other words, the verb obscures what the subject of the sentence is doing. An example of a sentence in the passive voice:

“The ball was kicked by the boy.”

If you were to write this in an active voice, you would simply go with “The boy kicked the ball,” a sentence that clearly describes that the subject of the sentence – the boy – kicked the ball.

Typically, passive speech construction requires the use of more words than the active voice. As a result, your point of view is more likely to be covered up – and your readers confused –with the passive voice.

Is the use of passive language ever appropriate?

It is not always crucial (or comfortable for the reader) to emphasize the main character of a sentence. As Wolfson explains, “there are many examples where we either can’t or don’t want to highlight the actor, especially when it comes to some mysterious element.”

She uses the passive language example to express mysterious developments in which the main actors are often unknown:

• My car was stolen on Sunday evening.

There are some academic contexts where the passive voice is even preferred – for example, academic writing. Often times, when researchers share the results of observations and scientific studies, they want to take responsibility from the researcher and apply it more accurately to the scientific method used.

How George Washington University explains::

Passive voice is useful for pulling the emphasis of the sentence away from the explorer. This applies in particular to the “Method” section in scientific journals. When using passive voice, make sure the performer is obvious or unimportant.

In general, excessive use of passive language can obscure the point you are trying to address. So be wise in how you use it so that you don’t endure it of being stared at an judgmental grammar purist.

Apple these days is all about the three SS: Subscriptions, Services, and Saturation (for its new iMacs, at least). And while you can’t blame the company for trying to diversify its earnings, sometimes it feels like there’s only a lot to buy at Apple – with one recurring monthly payment. However, you should never feel bad about paying for your health, which puts Apple’s Fitness + right in the “Think About It” column.

The disadvantage? You can get the most out of Fitness + if you sweat and exert yourself while wearing an Apple Watch. Indeed, you need one attached to your Apple ID to even sign up for Fitness +. (You can do workouts without wearing one, but you lose the ability to see your health data right on the screen you use for Fitness +.)

This is one of the best built-in integrations for Fitness +, but it does mean more money will go to Cupertino if you don’t already have Apple’s smartwatch. Fortunately, you can usually find great deals on older Apple Watches. You don’t need the latest and greatest equipment to exercise.

That being said, it’s easy to sign up through the regular fitness app on your device for a Fitness + price of $ 10 / month (or $ 80 / year). You even have a month to try it out, or three months if you’ve recently bought an Apple Watch (which slightly eases the financial burden of a new Apple Watch purchase, assuming you signed up anyway). You can share the service with up to five family members to expand everyone’s access to health data or to split costs.

What you can do in Fitness +, the Apple service offers enough workouts to serve almost everyone:

G / O Media can receive a commission

“Mindful Cooldown” sounds absolutely great to me, although I probably won’t burn any of my pandemic weight with such a relaxing routine. Fortunately, you can filter by class type, music type, and / or teacher in the Apple Fitness app. The latter option is especially useful when you find someone you really click with. (To me, this is someone who’s not trying to get me to do squats. I hate squats.)

Photo: Muskoka Stock Photos (Shutterstock)

The COVID-19 pandemic – and concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus – has made some who rely on public transportation rethink how to get around. Even some city dwellers who had never thought of getting a car at least thought about it. However, having your own vehicle can come with a number of challenges – especially if you happened to buy a lemon.

While some cars keep driving for decades, others are nowhere near as reliable and seem to be constantly being repaired. If your vehicle falls into this category, or is just so shabby it looks really shabby, there is a quick photo of it for you Earn a $ 20 Gift Card. Here’s what to know.

The competition

As you’ve probably guessed by now, this gift card giveaway is part of a product promotion. In this case it is the start of Vizzy Lemonade Hard Seltzer (The standout feature is that it contains vitamin C, which can help prevent scurvy while humming). And this is where the lemons (like in the cars) come in.

To enter the Lemons For Lemonade Contest, take a picture of your dilapidated lemon from a vehicle and send it to Vizzy for a chance to win one of 1,000 US $ 20 gift cards. Technically speaking, the price is a pack of lemonade hard seltzer, but it comes in the form of a $ 20 prepaid Mastercard. So you can really use them for anything you want. In addition, one lucky winner will receive $ 25,000 for a new car and a $ 500 gift card.

How to enter

For a chance to win, email a photo of your lemon (in this case your beaten up vehicle, not the fruit) to limonade@vizzyhardseltzer.com along with your name, age, state of residence and an explanation of what makes your car a lemon.

G / O Media can receive a commission

Vizzy will review the entries, and owners of the 1,000 largest lemons will win a $ 20 gift card. The owner of the car, considered the absolute worst of the group, will receive $ 25,000 for a new vehicle and a $ 500 gift card. The competition ends on May 10, 2021 at 11:59:59 PM CT. You can read the rest of the rules Here.