Stephen Green of VodkaPundit is widely hailed as the inventor of drunk-blogging -- i.e., live-blogging an event while under the influence. I had the opportunity during the 2008 Democratic National Convention to actually
watch the master at work, and attest that the man can, as the late poet
Ronnie Van Zant once said, "drink enough whiskey to float a battleship around."
I've never tried drunk-blogging myself, at least not on purpose, although there may have been occasions -- including
Election Night at the Hotel Saranac -- when the
deadline pressure required me to
self-medicate to counteract the effects of my massive coffee intake.
All of that, however, is prelude to a discussion of
booze-blogging, which is blogging about booze. Given that this site is the originator of
Rule 5 Sunday -- the weekly babe-blogging roundup -- you might suppose that the natural booze-and-broads pairing would replicate itself on the 'sphere. Yet until this morning, I didn't even know there was such a thing as booze-blogging.
Then I got an e-mail from
Doug Winship of the Pegu Blog, who informed me that
he found "How to Get a Million Hits" inspirational. Doug wanted to pass along the news that, just as political bloggers are encroaching on the Old Media's turf, so it is that
booze-bloggers are exposing booze bias among the snobs:
Unless you spend a lot of time in wine chat rooms, you may have missed the recent controversies involving critic Robert Parker. The short version: Parker's publication, the Wine Advocate, was found to be violating its own strictures against freebies and fraternizing with wine importers, and a contributor he hired gave a high rating to a wine based on a sample that seemed to bear little resemblance to what was available on retail shelves. The back-to-back scandals . . . came to light via several wine Web sites, including Parker's own online discussion board. The Internet angle is actually the most significant aspect of this story, for it underscores how profoundly technology is changing the relationship between wine critics and consumers -- the relationship between you and me.
Personally, I avoid wine just like I avoid whiskey (ever since Jack Daniel and I had a bad night at Ralph and Millie's Christmas party a few years ago). Above all, however, I avoid
snobbery.
Beer snobs get on my nerves. It pains me to see these poseurs pestering a bartender in quest of some obscure imported premium ale -- dark as sin, with the flavor and texture of a peat bog -- just so their friends won't see them drinking a Bud.
The Internet revolutionizes everything it touches, from poker to politics to porn. The 'Net has also apparently revolutionized snobbery, enabling status-seekers to go online and find highfalutin stuff with which to impress their peers -- including
pricey call girls. But a
whore is a
whore is a
whore, and a beer is a beer is a beer, and all these Veblenian status-displays don't change the basic facts.
Fortunately,
Doug Winship appears to strive against such bibulous pretensiousness, although he hasn't gotten down in the gutter with
Valu-Rite vodka, the favorite swill of
hobo-killers.
You've got to admire the populism of a guy who
writes about drinking at Disney World. No cork-sniffing epicurean would admit such a thing, lest he be shunned by sommeliers.
Happy New Year! Roll Tide! Hit the Tip Jar!
