Friday, January 16 2009

Politics, Wine, Bowling and Kindergarten

That's how I chill, that's how I roll

While I don't think of myself automatically as a generous guy, I do like to share wine with other people. In fact, I rarely drink anything special when I'm alone–can you imagine hoarding your wine and rubbing your hands with greedy glee over the cork?

Excellent . . . vintage

Me neither. There's an absolute limit to the amount of wine you can drink before it negatively affects you, but there's no limit to how much you can talk about it with others. Good, solid discussion and even the occasional complete disagreement are integral to learning about wine and finding out what other people think.

That's why I was so freaked out to learn that in addition to being a championship bowler, Richard M. Nixon was a wine hog. In his blog last week, Eric Asimov detailed Nixon's habits as a host

Nonetheless, secretly reserving a wine for oneself while serving something else to the guests violates numerous rules of etiquette. Not that it's uncommon. The most famous such anecdote comes from "The Final Days'' by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, in which Richard Nixon is depicted entertaining Congressmen on the Presidential yacht Sequoia, serving them a modest Bordeaux with their dinner of tenderloin while the stewards poured Nixon Margaux 1966, the bottle wrapped in a napkin to conceal the label. Tricky, Dick!

Okay, I'm with Dr. Thompson on Nixon's character, but this is entirely beyond the pale. While I have in the past chosen not to expose some guests to the depths of my cellar, if I judged they wouldn't appreciate it as much as something less challenging, I would never make them drink one thing while I had another. If there's one thing I remember from Kindergarten (other than the deliciousness of library paste) it's that you should share with others.

What did you call this Dick? A Roofie-colada?

This got me to wondering what other politicians drank, and how it synced up with their personalities. President Bush has forsaken alcohol, so no traction there. Much adieu was made of Barack Obama's choice of displaying a bottle of Kendall Jackson wine in a photo of his kitchen, but while wine industry pundits were joyously proclaiming him 'the wine president', he showed his true colours a little more clearly on the campaign trail

Chug a lug! Chug a lug!

Looks more like a beer man to me. Not that I begrudge him a pint, as I'm fond of the wine of the country myself. But he doesn't appear to be dedicated to the grape.

I tried rather hard to find out what our Canadian leaders drank. Zip--apparently they are as clean, and as boring as the driven snow, and while the leaders of the loyal opposition are eager as can be to 'share' with each other, Prime Minister harper seems content to keep things for himself.

Oddly enough I could also not find out anything about their bowling habits, which I find very suspicious. I don't trust a man who doesn't bowl--you can't taste life until you know the exhilirating crack of crisp ballwork and flying pins, and the low rolling agony of a trip down the gutter. Even Nixon understood this and knew how to throw rocks. And then I dug up this:

Wait, is he bowling from the left?

How about that. Congratulations PEBO, and long may you roll.

Posted by Tim AT 10:52PM

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