Comments on: Prohibition, Puritanism, NYC harvest, remembrances — sipped & spit

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:35:35 +0000

The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, has a class called “the idea of wine” and the professor, Mike Veseth writes a great blog called the Wine Economist. (http://wineeconomist.com/) that is great.
I, of course, went to the cross town rival (Pacific Lutheran and 20 years ago…) and we had no wine classes…

By: Bill @ Dial a bottle Calgary

Bill @ Dial a bottle Calgary — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 12:20:03 +0000

How far do the roots of insecurity go before policy-makers actually think of prohibition…?
Thank God the pictures come in sepia today.

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:10:39 +0000

Hi Bill, Yes the Okrent book is good and I’m glad it found a broad audience–for a book. TV has a much larger reach (even PBS) so I for one am looking forward to seeing what Burns does with the material.

It is interesting that while the book jacket touts the PBS series, the Burns page does not cite the book as a key source of material.

http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/upcoming/

By: Dr. Vino

Dr. Vino — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 16:07:49 +0000

Hi Wolfshield, True that the 21-year-old age limit would restrict the class to mostly seniors. But as Prof. Brattsten’s class demonstrates with 200 people vying for the 50 slots, there’s still no lack of demand.

While some parents might object to paying liberal arts rates for a course, I still think there’s something to be said for making it available to these young drinkers. Also, to your point about enhancing employment prospects, certainly a wine course on the transcript would not likely generate employer interest. But if the other items on a job applicant’s CV got them in the door, what they learned in a wine class might just impress during a lunch interview. Americans of all ages are getting into wine, which can be approached from many perspectives and what’s in the glass is just one of them.

By: bill marsano

bill marsano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:14:57 +0000

I forgot to add that I recommend reading the book imnstead of watching the TV series. Burns will probably turn this into his usual simpering pap.

By: bill marsano

bill marsano — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:14:13 +0000

Dan Okrent’s ‘Last Call’ is infinitely superior to any other book on American Prohibition since J.C. Furnas’s ‘Life and Times of the Great Demon Rum.’ It’s beautifully written–Okrent is a long-time prose master on the order of John McPhee–and his book is funny, scary and instructive on this exercise is good intentions gone far, far awry by setting off the greatest crime wave in American history.

By: Wolfshield

Wolfshield — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 13:31:16 +0000

> Why aren’t there more undergraduate wine classes?

The short answer is that most college undergrads are under 21.

The more important answer is that colleges already have too many trivial courses which do nothing to enhance employment chances and in fact diminish their academic reputations.