Jun 18, 2008
1. Very Promising New Wine BlogArthur Przebinda had been known for his Red Wine Buzz web site, but it’s his new blog, "Wine Sooth", that I’m taken with. Arthur’s first posts are smart, opinionated and well-informed, a deadly combination. It strikes me as the kind of wine blog that could gain a wide audience if the pace of posts is kept up. As an aside, Arthur was published in the LA Times today with his response to Joel Stein’s disastrous…
Jun 4, 2008
Fuck!! I can not begin to explain how angry, upset and bitter I’m made by the news that Richard Cartiere has died. At 51, Rich was among the top true wine journalists in America, and a friend who never failed in always being honest, forthright, and filled with conviction. I didn’t know of his condition. He never mentioned it in our regular and many conversations. I spoke with him only a few days ago about playing Golf and promising not…
May 23, 2008
The Compendium. It is one of my favorite things. A stash all things, or at least most thing, or a large selection of things on a particular subject. Dictionaries of all sorts and encyclopedia fall into this category and both items have always intrigued me. I got through "S" of the Encyclopedia Britannica when I was 13, but was interrupted by the sudden appearance of girls. I lost interest in a variety of things at that point, not the least…
May 21, 2008
I spent three years in Humboldt County, that (way) Northern California county best know for its world class dope. (I have a good story about Humboldt dope that comes toward the end of this post). I was there in the mid 1980s studying History at Humboldt State University. It was where I lived when I discovered my passion for wine. Yet the entire time I never once tasted a wine from Humboldt County. Now, it seems, there are enough local…
May 12, 2008
My golf coach recently confirmed what I think I already knew: "Tom, you’ve got to get out of your head." Translation: my proclivity to live in my head and to think too much interrupts my need to execute really well a body-driven activity on the golf course. Thinking about my coach’s advice with regard to golfing, I realized that I’m going to have to work very hard to accommodate him, because I’ve always found much more pleasure in intellectualizing what…