Thursday, February 24, 2005
Via Todd Mormon's Monkeytime by way of Ed Cone comes Pop the Cap, a lobby group trying to remove the North Carolina legal limit on the alcohol content of beer (6%). I didn't realize that there are only 5 states (including NC) that still cap the content of beers and ales so low. You may find this hard to believe given my negative view of MADD and of any drinking age over 19, but my initial reaction was not favorable. Sure wine has a higher alcohol content and liquor certainly does, but in general people don't drink beer the same way they drink a nice glass of Saintsbury Garnet. I had visions of my misspent youth ordering up and slamming down Carlsburg Elephant Malts at He's Not Here convinced that they had about 12% alcohol content and, well, it wasn't pretty. I understand the stated intent of the group - to be able to bring in or brew locally specialty beers like barleywines and scotch ales and given the price that they'd be likely to command, I doubt you'd have too many Sigma Nus slamming down a couple of sixers of Russian Imperial Stout like they were Old Swilwaukee Lite. So it's probably an okay thing to do - I just want to make sure people are made fully aware during the transition period.
This all reminded me of many conversations (both drunken and undrunken) over the years about the alcohol content laws of various states. Back in the day (that usually means somewhere between 1978 and 1985 when I say that), North Carolina's drinking age was 18 for beer and unfortified wine, but 21 for fortified wine and liquor - I always thought that was very odd (and boy, I just couldn't wait 'til I turned 21 so I run down to the Kwikee Mart to plop down my buck 98 for that bottle of Mad Dog - not). There were a few states (Ohio?) that were reportedly still only selling 3.2 beer and despite having once had a license to sell beer in the state of North Carolina in my name, I still had to place a call to the NC State Alcohol Board in order to convince a coworker that North Carolina wasn't a 3.2 state.
So go for it, guys - I'm all for freedom and good beer. And I don't like the company, being that the only other four states with a 6% cap are Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Bamalama - that's more than just a little embarrassing...
Got notification earlier this week that I've been accepted into the Orange County Artist Guild's Spring Show this year - so now I've got to actually get my act together. The show is Saturday, April 30 at East Chapel Hill High School - it's in the afternoon, I'll post the hours later. I'm really not sure what I've gotten myself into. Other than the website and a couple of years showing a couple of my photos at the Carolina Club members' art show, I've never put my work out there for people to see. I most certainly have never sat there while people looked through my stuff. I have no problem doing it for other people's work - I actually enjoy that! But this is different and strange and I frankly don't know what to expect. But I'm committed now so I've got some work to do printing, matting and framing enough stuff for the show. So if you get to the end of April and you realize that you haven't gotten your Mom anything yet for Mother's Day, come see me!
Posted by Tony @ 10:05:00 pm |
Monday, February 21, 2005
Running mix today was oddly and surprisingly lush - didn't plan it that way, but sometimes things just happen.
Then lushtime was officially over...
Heard before I went out that Hunter S. Thompson apparently took his own life last night. Like most guys my age, I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail while in college (the same way we all read No One Gets Out Of Here Alive). Most of us weren't foolish enough to try to emulate the good doctor (although I did know a couple of unfortunates that gave it the old college try) but he was always a hell of a read. I was pretty disappointed this morning - I generally come down on the side of being anti-suicide anyway, but whatever your feelings are about it, offing yourself messily in a situation where your spouse or your kid is the most likely person to find you is decidedly not cool.
