Madden Mischief

A fresh new cocktail has emerged called a MadDoni created by the master word and drink mixer himself, yours truly!  This newly christened drink’s name combines the first half of our family’s surname, the Mad part, coupled with the first name of my late brother, the genius cartoonist Don Madden.

After you taste a MadDoni, you might even find yourself saying “madone,” the Italian contraction of “Madonna Mia” expressing surprise like “Oh my God,” “Good heavens,” or “Wow.”   And you’ll be thinking or saying to your server, “madone, what a delicious drink is this MadDoni!  Bravissimo!”  You might not even be Italian!

My brother Don’s full-page cartoons appeared hilariously every month in Playboy Magazine for 50 years.  Me?  I’m a painter of words, an author whose canvases are books, press releases and one I hope you’re reading now, my blog at www.MaddenMischief.com.  It’s free, but I’ll take tips, thanks to President Trump making them now tax free.  

Don and I are descendants of an artful dad, Bill Madden, a concert violinist sometimes called Bella Madden for his passion for gypsy music. Bella is a Gypsy word for beautiful. And that’s how our dad played his precious violin, beautifully.  After his debut at Carnegie Hall, he then toured the world until settling in Atlantic City, NJ where on weekends, he’d conduct his festival orchestra on Garden Pier and at the uproarious conclusion of Leroy Anderson’s Sleigh Ride, he had me tossing confetti over the orchestra to make it look like it was snowing . . . in summer. 

On weeknights dad and his violin led a captivating quartet of polished musicians in the elegant lobby of The Traymore Hotel and later in the evening in the dining room where I was a busboy sometimes clumsy with dishes who eventually would become an author more careful with words, so far resulting in countless published articles, blogs and books.   

Sometimes my creative impulses like to take a swan dive straight into a refreshing drink I invent, especially at night when my creative juices are flowing more freely.  The MadDoni is my latest delicious cocktail concoction containing my favorite uplifting ingredients: 1 oz Ketel One Vodka; 1 oz Campari; 1 oz Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice.  Optional: add a cherry, or an orange slice or peel depending on how you feel.  But please! Promise me not to go on a freewheeling drive after you’ve enjoyed one!

I created this MadDoni cocktail in part to salute my late artistic brother Don, also to thank Ocean Spray for installing “Safety Cap” on bottles of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice.  Ocean spray doesn’t just quench thirsts deliciously but helps to keep America’s beaches and walkways Safer and Cleaner with less separated plastics as safety cap can stay married to its bottle.  And speaking of caps, you can call my MadDoni the perfect nightcap! But again, pleeeeeeeeeze don’t drink and drive!

Thank you, Ocean Spray!  In a previous blog I announced I was looking for marital counselors who spoke plastic to persuade bottles and caps to stay together, but now your Safety Cap could be a possible mixer fixer to this age-old problem, that is if you unscrew the cap just enough to pour out the luscious cranberry juice without separating Ocean Spray’s Safety Cap completely from the plastic binder on the bottle as in the picture below.  Maybe if more of us drank Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail, this could help reduce the unsightly divorce problem plaguing beaches, parks and walkways across America.  

Right on the bottle, Ocean Spray says: “Purchase this product only if the cap and neckband are intact (married).”  So, now Ocean Spray’s ingenuity may help to not only Make America Great Again but a whole lot cleaner and safer, thanks to Ocean Spray Safety Cap.

President Trump, please consider awarding Ocean Spray a Trump Merit Badge for Safety Cap!

Tom Madden is a perpetual author who keeps writing books and blogs when he’s not writing and rewriting news releases at TransMedia Group, the PR firm he started when he left NBC in New York City where he was vice president and assistant to then CEO, Fred Silverman.  Today, Madden’s resourceful daughter Adrienne Mazzone is the PR firm’s president, and he’s the CEO of the firm now headquartered in Boca Raton, FL.  In case you missed it, here’s the blog distributed last month about the growing discarded plastics problem: Madden Mischief: https://maddenmischief.com/2026/01/14/im-finding-so-many-caps-separated-from-bottles-know-any-marital-counselors-who-speak-plastic/