Oct 5, 2011
When I heard the news that Steve Jobs, 56 (56!!), had died I was in the process of syncing my Apple iPhone to my Apple iTunes account via my Apple iMac, while uploading Apple Pages, Keynote and Numbers software to my Apple MacBook Pro, and reading Wines & Vines Magazine on my Apple iPad with sounds of Ornette Coleman all around me via my Apple iPod. Upon digesting the news, I made the semi-crass move of checking what my Apple…
Oct 3, 2011
I'm been thinking a lot about Time Travel of late. I've determined that it isn't possible. But a curious mind's best reaction to "it isn't possible" really must be "the next best thing". Having what I like to think of as a curious mind, I got to thinking, maybe old wine is the next best thing to traveling in time. At first glance, this line of reasoning seems promising. Assuming the wine is relatively undisturbed since its bottling, what you…
Oct 3, 2011
It is a truism that to understand where we are, one must understand where we were. For folks who wonder just how the American system of alcohol control and regulation became the protectionist racket it currently is and how wholesaler middlemen in every state came to control which laws and regulations are enacted, you could do much worse than watching Ken Burns' new three part documentary, "Prohibition". The first installment of "Prohibition" aired last night and undertook to explain the…
Sep 28, 2011
A "Blue Law" is a local civil law meant to enforce religious standards and principles. In the United States the most common form of the Blue Law is a legal prohibition on the sale of alcohol on Sunday, the Christian Sabbath. One usually finds such laws in the region of the U.S. called the Bible Belt…like Georgia. On November 8th more than 101 Georgia Municipalities will vote to determine whether to keep in place primarily one type of blue law…
Sep 27, 2011
Wine Country beckons to Bay Areans looking for a nearby getaway as well as wine lovers the world over. But if you are like most visitors to Grapeland, your weekend will have you lined up elbow-to-elbow at well-traveled winery tasting rooms, browsing and buying grape-shaped trinkets and eating at the same fancy Wine Country restaurants as the couple that muscled by you at the bar at the last tasting room you visited that day. The solution is to get off…