Ice, ice baby
As the world's population grows unabated, the next major crisis will surely be water. But to listen to DPaul, you'd think it was ice.
For him, a drink without ice is not only unpalatable but unfathomable. When we prepare for parties, while I fret over whether there's enough food or booze, he invariably questions whether there's enough ice. No fan of hot beverages, he only acquired the taste for espresso while on our first trip to Italy, and even then only because there was no ice-cold Coke at the ready when the rest of us would have our morning shot or stop for a little pick-me-up in the afternoon. He's even been known to slide the occasional cube into a glass of red wine to take the temperature down a skosh.
I have always attributed this to his Southern heritage, imagining him reaching for sweating glasses of sweet tea whilst baking under the Kentuckian sun. In fact, his mother recounts growing up in Kentucky, receiving a chunk of ice from the ice delivery man (as in, for the ice box), and that being the best treat one could hope for.
Myself, I managed to inherit the Italian propensity for room-temperature beverages and, with the sole exception of sugary soft drinks (which I seldom drink), prefer no ice at all. So it took my some time to cave in to DPaul's desire for an ice machine. (Our fridge, while capable of making ice, is positioned far from any water source.) Ultimately he chose an Emerson ice maker, which now sits in our laundry room, cranking out batch after batch of adorable thimbles of ice. Crisis averted.
This ice bucket is one of the items I retrieved when we went back to clean out my father's house. I remember it from my grandparents' house; my aunt thinks it may have been a wedding gift to them. But more than just a charming example of mid-century modern home décor accessories, its form truly meets function. After a cocktail event last year, we opened it the following morning, realizing we had forgotten to empty it -- yet we still found most of the ice perfectly intact. They just don't make 'em like they used to anymore.
Related:
Serious Eats rounds up some interesting ice shapes.
YumSugar loves on some slick ice buckets.
Are you an ice snob?