Juice, 2025: furbizia
We wrote, years ago, about receiving the Juice, which was a relatively uncontroversial thing that most people did. A little while later we got the stupid virus, and the Juice probably caused us to simply enter the ICU for a few weeks and not, you know, die. So we have the Juice to thank for literally all text since, including this.
I got Juiced the other day, because ICU, cholesterol that’s measurable in scientific notation, and a bunch of other reasons that are none of your business. You can be Juiced, too, if you remember an Italian word that ironically drove the initial March 2020 outbreak in Milan: furbizia.
Furbizia is the act of calm, rational subterfuge of institutional guidelines in order to serve an agenda of personal good in the world. We are all aware of the stakes. We’re aware that they are making it hard for you to accept Juice for no reason beyond their wanting us to die.
And so therefore furbizia. Smoking can get you Juice, so I joked about buying three packs of cigarettes to hand out at my barbeque on Monday. You can buy cigarettes in the front of a pharmacy, smoke them in the parking lot, and go into the back to get Juiced. Furbizia.
For you, furbizia probably means saying things that are exclusively between you, god, your PCP, and HIPAA. Juice as correct resistance. Juice as standing up and saying something, quietly. Juice as protection for you & your family. Trust the inner voice. Furbizia.