Perhaps because Americans were pre-occupied with getting in their last digs at the enemies with slurs of “Fascist!” and “Communist!”, we didn’t hear this last election a refrain we normally hear from thoughtful citizens on Election Day: “Why is it held on a Tuesday and not a weekend?” This is a good question. You’d have a higher turn out and more orderly precinct voting. I’ve always agreed that Election Day should be on the weekend. But the real argument I’ve…

Gendered words such as “feminine” and “masculine” have come under some pretty severe criticism as wine descriptors in recent years. In nearly every example of a commentator discussing such terms, the conclusion has been that they are, in today’s world, inappropriate for describing wine. These condemnations—and they have been condemnations—are misplaced, rely on a misunderstanding of the utility of gendered wine descriptions, confuse gender expression for gender identity and, when they lead us to jettison the words from our wine…

Maybe you have noticed. It’s getting a little tense out there. Say what you will about the wine industry. It’s elitist! It’s systemically racist. It’s behind the curve technologically. It is regulated through archaic laws. One thing you must also say about the wine industry is that it is extraordinarily congenial. Yet this congeniality specific to wine, be it due to the nature of the product or to the folks it attracts to the industry, is being stressed and stretched,…