In a season of festive days and celebrations, December 12 is certainly one of my favorites.

Among other things it’s the anniversary of the birth of one Francis Albert Sinatra, high priest of classy and cool.

It was many years ago that I began celebrating the Sinatra compleanno with a glass of his signature beverage: the sour mash whiskey produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, known as… Jack Daniel’s.

Before the world was overrun by girly cocktails and macchiatos with skim milk there was Jack Daniel’s.

Every once in a while you should have one to remind you what a real drink tastes like.

Some years after I began this tradition I began paring it with another. Perhaps related or perhaps unrelated as an amusing gag I started reading Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory” on December 12, accompanied by the aforementioned beverage. I call it “Jack and Capote.” On the literary side it’s perhaps my favorite short story of all time, and I’ve been reading it every year at Christmastime since before I was allowed to pair it with a grownup beverage.

Tonight it’ll be Jack Daniel’s.

Like Sinatra.