Early Dismissal

Paper Title: Graff Zivin, Joshua and Seunghoon Lee “Where There’s Smoke: Stochastic Caregiving Shocks and

Mothers’ Labor Market Outcomes” NBER WP #35264.

Cocktail Pairing: Early Dismissal

This paper shows that wildfire smoke disrupts school-based childcare through school closures and student absenteeism, generating caregiving shocks that accumulate into lasting labor market consequences for mothers. Early Dismissal is a riff on the martini: the iconic end-of-workday drink, at least in the mid-century office imagination that still shadows our ideas about professional life. Suze adds a lean, bitter edge to the drink’s otherwise orderly structure. The smoked ice cube supplies the interruption itself: as it melts, smoke gradually enters the cocktail, changing it sip by sip. The effect is cumulative rather than catastrophic, mirroring the paper’s central finding that repeated smoke-driven caregiving disruptions can erode labor market attachment even when formal childcare and schooling remain nominally available. Early Dismissal is dry, bracing, and quietly unsettled, with bright botanical notes and a smoky bitterness that builds as the ice melts.

Recipe: Early Dismissal

• 2.0oz Gin

• 0.25oz Dry Vermouth

• 0.25oz Suze

• 2 dashes grapefruit bitters

• 2 dashes Saline Solution

• Garnish: Grapefruit Peel

1. Stir all ingredients (except garnish) with ice in mixing glass until well chilled.

2. Strain over lightly smoked ice cube into a lowball glass.

3. Express a grapefruit peel over the drink and garnish.

Additional Instructions: Lightly Smoked Ice Cube

1. Add 2 drops of liquid hickory smoke to a large ice cube mold.

2. Fill with water and freeze completely.