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Earlier on Thursday, I heard one of our editors call out to the newsroom, Shamrock shakes are back!
I was immediately awash in slurpy, sugary memories.
There I am, 7 years old, sitting shotgun in my mom's Pontiac sedan. Nearly two decades ago, it was Shamrock Shake season then, too, and we made our dutiful pilgrimage to the McDonald's drivethru when she got off work.
For someone who wasn't raised in a religious household, the seasonal beverage — first introduced in 1970 — was one of my first introductions into seasonal ritual. While snow was still on the ground in the Rockford, Illinois, of my childhood, the minty green drink was a harbinger of spring, a promise that the winter would one day depart.
Now I live in New York and make a living by reporting and writing. At my editor's call, I realized that I hadn't had a shamrock shake in years.
This had to be corrected.
At lunch, I checked in the nearest McDonald's to see if they had the shake.
They did.
So this afternoon, I ventured out to a Manhattan McDonald's with my colleague Jacqui Kenyon — who had never had a Shamrock Shake before! — in pursuit of the shake.
We sauntered up to the counter and asked for two shakes. The woman at the register asked her colleagues if they had the Shamrock Shake yet. They did. And I knew because I checked. Jacqui, sensing the sacredness of the moment, offered to pay the $3.19 for my medium.
I accepted.
We waited with bated breath, relating tales of St. Patrick's Days of yore.
After a few minutes, like two Irish-American angels, the shakes arrived, complete with whipped cream and cherry on top.
We walked out, jabbed straws into cups.
Then: dairy deliverance.
My inner 7-year-old was satisfied.
"It's so good!" Jacqui exclaimed, "like a minty Dairy Queen."
Yes.
For every spring, the Shamrock Shake is king.
Correction: The sedan was a Pontiac, not a Buick.
Drake Baer Editor-at-Large Drake Baer is Insider's first editor-at-large, working across the newsroom to help produce ambitious journalism. For two and a half years before that, Baer served as deputy editor, overseeing a team of 20+ reporters and editors who cover the future of work, real estate, and small business. The fast-paced team was behind some of Insider's major packages in the last few years, including a state-by-state look into unemployment during the first year of the pandemic and in-depth profiles of "niche famous" characters such as real estate media tycoon Brandon Turner and HR icon Johnny C Taylor. They shed new light on big names, like Joe Biden, America's imperfect leader. He also cultivated thesis-oriented ideas journalism, whether it be on why "'diversity' and 'inclusion' are the emptiest words in corporate America" or why it's actually a horrible time to buy a house. (No, really, it is.) Before editing, his byline as a reporter was on the masthead for Fast Company and New York Magazine, covering the many intersections of social science, business, and economics. Baer has interviewed some our time's leading minds, including philanthropist Bill Gates, FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver, NBA champion and investor Steph Curry, "growth mindset" psychologist Carol Dweck, the rapper Q-Tip, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, and the man who gave a name to "disruptive innovation," the late Clay Christensen. Baer has published two books, the most recent being Perception: How Our Bodies Shape Our Minds, with Dennis Proffitt. In 2014, New York Times bestselling author and Wharton professor Adam Grant highlighted his first book, Everything Connects, as one of the 12 business books to read that year. He has been featured as a speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival, presented at TedX Princeton, and moderated many panels. Fun facts? He's meditated every day for over a decade, except for the days he hasn't. He circumnavigated the globe before turning 25. He loves and can advocate for just about every food except grapefruit. And at 35, he is just now learning to draw. Read more Read lessncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufony4tNhmqqGZnae8pLeMrJ%2Bao5WoeqK%2BxGaeq52RqXpzfJBuZGs%3D