No Sunday Morning Libations For Kure Beach

In a bonehead move Kure Beach has denied Sunday morning alcohol sales. We knew somewhere in North Carolina a governing body would stand on religious principal and the evils of alcohol, but I wouldn’t have suspected it to be a tourist area. It is their prerogative to decide if Sunday morning sales should be allowed to happen, but it is ridiculous to put it in a religious context. Someone should remind them religious organizations meet all the time, not just on Sunday morning. The mayor, Craig Bloszinsky, cited traffic getting worse in town if alcohol sales were to occur beginning at 10am. I guess Craig has realized what I learned long ago, they only put those fish symbols on the back of cars who cannot drive in the first place. I think they have a meeting at church to decide who gets a fish and who doesn’t and they want the highest possible visibility so it goes on the car who drives the worst and is most likely to draw attention to the symbol. I’m kidding of course, but to say it will add to traffic is quite short sighted. People having a bloody with 10am brunch are not apt to get sloshed by noon when the neighborhood churches typically let out. Anyway, I know where I won’t be visiting when planning my next vacation if that is the attitude of Kure Beach. Sounds like they didn’t want visitors there in the first place.

Happy 4th of July!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

NCGA House Alcohol Beverage Control Committee

You know how they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. How about several photos which demonstrate a point. I got to wondering the House ABC Committee and their decision to gut House Bill 500 and why that might have happened. Then I took a few minutes and looked at the campaign contributions they have received from the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers and it paints a picture of pay to play politics. Take a gander at the screen shots below and see if you come to the same conclusion.

It should be noted a few are not in the pocket of the NC Wine & Beer Wholesalers, but it should be obvious a majority of the committee are on Tim Kent’s payroll through campaign contributions.

Bourbon – Columbia, SC

It’s been rare in the past I have highlighted places I believe you should visit and I’ll try to correct that in the future. Last night I found myself in Columbia, SC at a bar named Bourbon and had an experience worth sharing. Most of the time any bar with a name like Bourbon or including Bourbon has very little Bourbon on the shelf when you actually get there. This place is the exception and was truly exceptional. They have a long list of Bourbons, many of which are near impossible to get even on the secondary market. The pricing on some was out of sorts, but there is a cost associated with procuring those fifths so I’m not going to begrudge them for their pricing. Some Bourbons were downright affordable to even be called cheap. You could get a half pour of any of their offerings and their selection was as good if not better than Front Street in Wilmington, NC which I consider the gold standard for Bourbon bars. They have food and it was very good, but the draw here is the bar and the Bourbon. So get in the car, head to Columbia, and thank me later.

Brunch Anyone – S155

On Wednesday Senate Bill 155 was introduced and while I wish it was more encompassing, it is nice someone finally realized there is no reason to wait until noon to have a bloody mary at brunch on Sunday. This bill addresses two things, one of which is the silly rule to only allow alcohol sales at restaurants after noon on Sunday. The second is to allow off-premise free tastings for those holding a distillery permit. Where it falls short is not allowing alcohol sales in retail stores until noon. I’m not saying everyone needs to have a drink at 10am on Sunday, but how about you are heading to lunch with friends and forgot to grab the wine on Saturday before lunch on Sunday. Now you run to the store to quickly pick up a red for the event and are told you need to wait until noon. Why do I need to wait until noon exactly? Because someone feels my ability to purchase alcohol should be based on their religious convictions? That’s a special kind of stupid considering all the various religions and when they have services. Are we to continue to cowtail to the prohibitionists or can we all agree it is 2017 and the chances of someone getting all liquored up and going to church service is not going to change with a change in the laws. This bill is on the right track, but let’s complete the circle and send a message to people like Rev. Mark Creech that his skewed sense of values is not that of the majority of NC.

Finding A Whale At NCABC

I finally made all the information available from NCABC work for me. Recently in Wake County the ABC stores got rid of all the waiting lists. Now all bottles are distributed as evenly as possible to the 24 stores in the county. This was an effort to make the system fair for everyone and while I admire it, it really makes it difficult to find something special. The other day I happened to be checking out the NC Warehouse Stock Status Report and spotted a special item on it in stock. I called Wake County ABC to try and order a case to get ahead of the curve and it was allocated so that was not possible. After asking several questions I determined some of the Wake County stores receive their shipments directly from the NC Warehouse and others from the Wake County warehouse. Of the stores close to me, one is a Monday delivery from the NC Warehouse and the other two are Thursday from Raleigh. It was not possible to tell what Monday the one close to me would get the goodies, nor what Thursday, so that meant checking repeatedly. I was out of town last week, but checked one of the Thursday stores on my return and they had not gotten the item. Knowing this I figured the Monday delivery had not received it earlier in the week. As luck would have it I needed to be out and about on Monday to pick up some items and so I went to the ABC store and walked in just as it opened. They had received the item last week, but received one additional case of three yesterday and I was lucky enough to bring one home.

So it is possible to get any new item at a Wake County ABC location. If you can find a location which is convenient to you and determine their warehouse delivery date and time you could simply stop by near opening time on that day and get anything new. As most of the items are not something I am after I will just keep checking the Warehouse report and once I see an item in stock I will then start making the rounds. My next goal with this quest would be to get a list of all the delivery days for all the ABC stores in close proximity. I have three, but knowing another handful could prove useful.

Happy National Margarita Day 2017!

Today is National Margarita Day so belly up to the bar with a refreshing margarita and celebrate!

Celebrating Five Years

Today is the fifth anniversary for the blog. When it started 1,827 posts ago the direction was unclear and with this post once again the direction is a bit of a mystery. Trying to post daily has proven difficult when a fresh topic idea isn’t forthcoming, for that reason the plan is to only post when there is something relevant or fun to say. That might be a reminder of a particular day to celebrate a drink or beverage of a discourse on how ignorant a politician is on the topic of alcohol or firearms. The goal will be for topics to concentrate on firearms and fermentation only occasionally coloring outside the lines. Thank you to everyone who receive the blog via email and to those who visit regularly to read what we have to say.

Cheers to you all!

Which Constitutional Rights Should Require ID?

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with someone who tried to read words into my statements which were not there and made false comments so I ended our conversation before it lost civility. It was regarding voting and my comment was we should show proof of identity. Currently in NC you can look up any registered voter and you could take that information to a polling place during the elections, say the name, confirm the address, and vote. We had an ID law in place which was deemed by some court somewhere unconstitutional and struck down. I don’t actually remember the reasons why it didn’t pass muster, but I believe providing proof of identity should occur prior to voting. It could be an ID card or heck just a thumbprint on an electronic reader. If my cell phone can pickup my print to let me in the phone then one should be able to setup a voter identification app to do the same at the polling station.

All this got me thinking which rights require an ID already and if one constitutional right requires it why would it not apply to all of them? Certainly for the Second Amendment the laws nationwide involve an ID, so there’s one. I would think the Fourth would involve an ID to be sure when a warrant is served they have the right person. Probably the Sixth and Seventh, again to have the right person which leads into the Eighth. The Eighteenth took away our rights to alcoholic beverages and the Twenty-first brought back that right and last time I checked an ID is required for anyone who appears to be younger than the drinking age. In fact several places require ID no matter what your age. Without going through them all it would make sense to me that the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-sixth should all require an ID since so many others do already. I read that 7% of the voting age population is without an ID. That equates to around 16 million US citizens who have no form of ID. I have no problem at all with us finding a means to get any registered voter a valid ID for voting purposes. Even if it cost an average of $25 per person to carry out and all 16 million took advantage of the program our total out of pocket would be $400 million which is a drop in the bucket of Federal spending. My suspicion is most of the 16 million are not registered to vote in the first place and so they don’t vote anyway even when an ID is not required. I still cannot wrap my brain around the position requiring proof of identity is a burden and will reduce voter turnout. The only thing reducing voter turnout was two candidates which were difficult to like.

Upcoming Fifth Anniversary

On February 12 the blog will turn five. We generate about 1,000 new views per month and 135 people following our mindless banter. Every comment is considered and we appreciate you taking the time to read about whatever happens to come to mind that day. We may decide to post less frequent and with more focus after the 12th because some days it is difficult to find an interesting topic while other days it is difficult to stop typing. So if you start to see less posts do not become alarmed, we’ll post when we have something to say as opposed to saying something daily.