Archive for the ‘Culture and Wine’ Category
South Carolina recently became the last state to repeal its ban on alcohol service on statewide election days. I wonder if allowing drinking in North Carolina now before and after elections will change the character of elections and electoral politics in that state…..? No, I don’t wonder. It will have no impact whatsoever because. like most blue laws that are still in place today, it serves no purpose to begin with. Originally bans on drink service on election days were…
I want to recommend W. Blake Gray’s article at WineSearcher.com entitled, “Does the French Laundry Have the World’s Highest Corkage Fee. In it Blake explores the $150 Corkage Fee charged at The French Laundry, as well as at Per Se. It’s a good article that shines some light on the wide variation in corkage fees across restaurants and asks us to consider both the purpose and the value behind corkage fee. I’m quoted in the article calling the corkage fee…
We haven’t heard much recently of the idea of lowering the drinking age in the U.S. back to 18. It occasionally comes up. Instead we tend to hear proposals along the lines of lowering the Blood Alcohol limit for drunk driving. I’ve long been a proponent of lowering the drinking age back to 18, if only because that would remove a glaring hypocrisy: The 18-year-old can vote, kill in warfare, drive and be convicted of a crime as an adult…
In 1998 Jordan Belfort was indicted and convicted of money laundering and securities fraud. He stole, bilked and defrauded more than $200 million from thousands of Americans. He cheated. He was a con man. He ripped people off. He spent two years in prison and was ordered to pay back more than $100 million to those he ripped off. Of course he never has done that. In fact, he was paid $1.7 million for two books and the movie rights…
One of my pet peeves is the characterization of dedicated wine lovers as alternatively “assholes”, “jerks”, “pretentious” or, of course, “snobs”. It’s probably truth that this perception of wine lovers began and continued as a result of that rare breed of people who take the opportunity to show off their wine vocabulary and knowledge in front of people who don’t care about wine and likely for the purpose of pumping up their own self-esteem. And while these people deserve ridicule,…
