Legalize It

I didn’t know anyone in Congress had the gall to file a bill to legalize marijuana. But the other night, on Real Time With Bill Maher, Rep. Barney Frank said “I’m going to file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all federal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana.” Frank said he has always wanted to submit a bill like this, but didn’t think he could get away with it politically until now. “I think its time for the politicians in this one to catch up to the public. The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly.”

He told Maher he’d call the bill the “Make Room for Serious Criminals” bill. Unfortunately, there’s really no chance that this bill will pass. The stoner voting block tends to occasionally, um, forget, to vote, whereas the “WON’T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN” voting block tends to make lots of angry phone calls and write angry letters. But it’s a nice start on the road to rational drug laws.

Salvia and Stupidity

A relatively new drug named Salvia has gained some popularity recently. The drug, which is legal, is relatively cheap and causes minor hallucinations for around an hour. It sounds rather similar in nature to psilocybin, the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms.” Salvia is reportedly impossible to overdose on, non-addictive, and does not cause any aggressive behaviors. In other words, there are little risks to the user, and little risks to those around them. Although there are no official statistics on its usage, it is believed to be used widely be aging hippies.

However, anytime people are getting high Republicans need to flip out, and several states are trying to make possession of salvia a felony. Since the war on drugs has been extremely successful, and heroin and marijuana use are receding rapdily it seems logical to open up another front.

Keep Your Grubby Fingers Off My Chocolate

I don’t mind sharing with the world that I am in the midst of a full-blown hormone attack at present. It’s the kind of hormone attack that comes every 28 days and leaves me slightly cranky and fiending for chocolate.

So when my buddy Mark sent me this link to Don’t Mess with Our Chocolate, I had to pass it along to you guys.

Basically, the price of key chocolate ingredients is going up. To keep chocolate prices stable, the chocolate industry is lobbying the FDA to change the regulations for what they can call “chocolate.”

The problem with this is that I like my chocolate without additives that have nothing to do with chocolate. I’ve made this clear to the FDA and you should do the same.

Just be prepared for chocolate prices to go up once the FDA puts its foot down. Not that I mind. I’d pay $10 for a good bar of the stuff about now.

Of Cows and Corn: Artificially High Corn Prices Put the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association on the Same Side as Thomas L. Friedman

The Wall Street Journal reported today that corn plantings have hit the highest level since 1944. This is because the booming corn ethanol industry has sent corn prices skyrocketing to $4 a bushel, as Fortune reports.

The corn farmers are ecstatic. But the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association feels differently. All the surplus corn in this country due to our absurdly high corn subsidies means that corn has become an integral, if environmentally unsound, part of cattle feed. The skyrocketing price of corn has led to skyrocketing costs for beef and pork farmers.

The NCBA knows that sugar cane ethanol from overseas would provide the American corn ethanol industry with stiff competition because sugar cane ethanol is many times more efficient than corn-based ethanol. That’s why they’re lobbying the U.S. government to get rid of both the 54 cent tariff on sugar cane ethanol from Brazil and the 51 cent per gallon tax credit for ethanol refiners.

Coincidentally, this is the same position that New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman has taken repeatedly over the past few years. I wonder just how often he’s on the same page as the NCBA.

In any case, these protectionist tariffs and our $10 billion per year corn subsidy have created a real economic, environmental and human problem. In 2002, Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire told the Christian Science Monitor:

We’re producing way too much corn. So, we make corn sweeteners. High-fructose corn sweeteners are everywhere. They’ve completely replaced sugar in sodas and soft drinks. They make sweet things cheaper. We also give it to animals. Corn explains everything about the cattle industry. It explains why we have to give [cattle] antibiotics, because corn doesn’t agree with their digestive system. It explains why we have this E.coli 0157 problem, because the corn acidifies their digestive system in such a way that these bacteria can survive.

And we subsidize this overproduction. We structure the subsidies to make corn very, very cheap, which encourages farmers to plant more and more to make the same amount of money. The argument is that it helps us compete internationally. The great beneficiaries are the processors that are using corn domestically. We’re subsidizing obesity. We’re subsidizing the food-safety problems associated with feedlot beef. It’s an absolutely irrational system. The people who worry about public health don’t have any control over agricultural subsidies. The USDA is not thinking about public health. The USDA is thinking about getting rid of corn. And, helping [businesses] to be able to make their products more cheaply – whether it’s beef or high-fructose corn syrup. Agribusiness gives an immense amount of funding to Congress.

So how do we get ourselves out of this mess? We open the market. We allow cheap sugar cane ethanol to compete directly with our corn based ethanol industry. Simultaneously, we erase the corn subsidy and use the money to bail out farmers who wind up on the wrong side of the course correction. Once the farming economy has diversified sufficiently, we take the $10 billion a year we were spending on corn and put it to better use. And we tell the NCBA to start recommending that farmers use something besides corn in their cattle and hog feed.

Wine Tasting in Grocery Stores is a Great Idea

Sometimes I get tired of drinking the same wines all the time. I’ve established that I love Bogle’s Petit Syrah and Chateau San-Michelle’s Riesling. But there are a lot of wines out there on the shelves of my grocery store, and I’ve only sampled a few dozen. I must say that I’m reluctant to buy a bottle of wine, particularly one that costs more thatn $10 a bottle, without sampling it first. That’s why I think having the occasional wine tasting in a grocery store sounds like a perfect way to open myself up to new varietals.

Sobriety advocates in Washington State disagree. They think that casual wine tasting in grocery stores could lead to underage drinking.

I call bullshit. Kids see their parents casually consuming alcohol at home. Does that make them any more likely to engage in underage drinking? I don’t know if it does or not, but you don’t hear sobriety advocates up in arms over it.

When I was a kid, my parents let me taste wine from time to time. My dad started me with a glass of wine on the Sabbath when I was 13. This has informed my attitude towards alcohol for my entire life. When I was in high school, I had nothing to rebel against. So I felt no need to get smashed at parties. And when I got to college, it took me until the end of my freshman year to drink much more than a glass of wine.

Being smart about alcohol use starts with seeing your parents be smart about alcohol use. Kids should see their parents setting a good example by placing more emphasis on the flavors of wine than the alcohol itself. That sets them up for treating wine as a culinary pleasure rather than just a way to get drunk.

Much healthier, I think.

Richland Wine Tasting Redux

Andru Edwards has put together a hilarious montage of our day wine tasting in Richland, WA. We flew over on planes provided by Greenpoint Technologies and dined at the fabulous Hedges Cellars.

All I can say, now that the video of Halley and I singing French drinking songs is public is, “oui oui oui!” all the way home.

Yummy Things with Gin

Last night’s gin party was a lot of fun. I really dug the Havana and it was good to get a chance to catch up with Lori and the gang from Randall PR. I said something to Lori last night that bears repeating here because it’s so true. There are really two ways that public relations professionals can react to the blogosphere and all its attendant emerging technologies. They can either go into denial and turn into dinosaurs, or they can embrace it and figure it out. It’s always refreshing to see people doing the latter, which is part of why it’s so much fun to hang around with Lori and her crew.

Anyway, I had a couple of very tasty drinks at the Havana. One was called a paper tiger (left), which was very tasty and served up in a champagne flute with a sugared rim. According to The Martini Republic, a paper tiger is champagne and gin. And to my endless delight, I discovered that the little red dollop in the center of the glass was not a maraschino cherry, but a raspberry.

The other drink, which Andy ordered, was a classic Plymouth French 75. Here’s the recipe according to Chris Pirillo:

* 1 oz. Plymouth Gin
* 1 oz. lemon juice
* 2 bar spoons simple sugar syrup
* Top with champagne (or sparkling wine)

Shake Plymouth Gin, lemon juice and simple sugar with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with champagne and garnish with a lemon twist. [Created around 1925 at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris]

Hmm…it seems like there’s a common thread here. I really like Plymouth Gin, but I like it a lot better when it’s served with champagne. I guess I’m just a fruity, sweet mixed drink girl through and through.

And now off to the gym, then to go pick up Andy’s beautiful new suit ::creams self:: and my special bra for my special dress. All I ask is that you get me to the church on time to watch Ponzi and Chris enter into matrimonial bliss.

Seattle’s Pagliacci Pizza, Where the Food is Great and Service Still Matters

Andy will tell you, when I call a 1-800 number, I usually do it with gritted teeth. I don’t deal well with customer service people. And it seems like customer service continues to go downhill nationwide.

But there are some businesses where service still really matters. One of those is Pagliacci Pizza, which serves up terrific thin-crust gourmet Seattle style pizza around the Pacific Northwest. Until the age of 13, I hated pizza with it’s floppy crust, over-spiced tomato sauce, and disgusting layer of gooey cheese. It offended my sense of what food should taste like. Then, one night my friends ordered a primo agog pizza from Paggliacci and, with great trepidation, I nibbled a slice. The salty, oily kalamata olives and soft, fresh tomato slices balanced perfectly with the light coating of melted fontina and mozzarella. Chunks of goat cheese melted in my mouth next to chunks of roasted garlic. It was the perfect pizza. I was hooked.

During my four years at Pomona College, I deeply missed Pagliacci. Since it was the only pizza I could stomach–with the exception of Claremont’s overpriced Pizza N’ Such–I spent almost my entire college career pizza-less. An unthinkable travesty in the mind of the American college students that was only rectified with my return to the Pacific Northwest last year.

Tonight, Andy and I went through the standard, “what’s for dinner?” conversation and decided to order a pizza. More than an hour later, it still hadn’t arrived. I called the customer service line to find out what was going on and was told that the Bridle Trails store was severely backed up and that our pizza hadn’t yet been made. Then, without missing a beat, the woman on the other end of the phone told me that she would be happy to have them make and deliver the pizza gratis for the inconvenience.

I told her that out of the many businesses I dealt with, Pagliacci’s customer service remained the best. They’ve consistently earned my enthusiasm and dedication as a customer, and I’m pleased to blog about them.

I should note that apart from the free pizza, Pagliacci has given me no monetary incentive to write this post. This isn’t pay-per-post, and it’s not the product of blogger outreach on their part. It’s the hands-down most valuable kind of blogger engagement, the kind that comes from being a great company.

All Your Grapes (On a Plane) Are Belong To Us!

UPDATE: I should have stated from the beginning, as Scoble always does, that this was a junket, which my company organized to draw some blogosphere attention to our clients. Yes, we got stuff (specifically good wine, good food and flights on private jets) for free with the expectation that we would blog about it and link in. However, as Christophe Hedges said to me, “I don’t mind if you write bad stuff about us. I just want to read it either way.” It’s up to you, my readers, to make up your mind whether you believe me or not about how great this event was.

Wow! What a 24 hour period. We finished the conference yesterday evening. It was an amazing three days with a mega letdown afterwards.

The Grapes on a Plane event was a smashing success. All the bloggers had an awesome time and we all bonded. I have a bunch of amazing photos that are forthcoming over my flickr photostream.

We visited a number of wineries. First we did some tasting at Bookwalter (try the 2004 Columbia Valley Chardonnay-Viognier) and Chandler Reach (the ‘02 Cab-Franc is awesome) before traveling to Hedges for dinner.

The dinner was really cool. There was an organic butter lettuce salad with Walla Walla onion and paired with a Three Vineyards. The main course was a traditional Boeuf Bourguignon, which was obviously well-prepared but not really my thing. I do have to get the recipe from Christophe Hedges because I think Andy would really enjoy it. They paired that with their Two Vineyards Reserve.

After the beef, there was a bread and cheese course, which is my favorite thing to eat. The bread crust reminded me a bit of matzoh, which is a good thing. They paired the course with a private reserve Single Vineyard Syrah, which requires a private list membership to even purchase. If I had the money, I would seriously consider purchasing a membership because I’ve never had anything quite as special as that Syrah.

Finally, they paired dark chocolate truffles with their Red Mountain Fortified port. Everyone had a great time. I think a small food fight even broke out at one point, there are photos in the photostream

The jets provided by Greenpoint Technologies were really a trip. I’ve never flown on a private jet before, and I felt very fancy. My favorite thing by far were the bathrooms. On commercial jets, the toilets make really scary noises when you flush them. I’m always afraid that it’s going to de-pressurize the cabin and vent everyone onboard into the stratosphere. On our jet, the toilet flushed like a normal toilet, except the water was blue. I wasn’t freaked out at all! I may never fly commercial again.

UPDATE: So, what do you think? Am I telling the truth about the junket? Did I really have a good time or is Jason Calacanis right to question my authenticity as a blogger? If you need to check out the photographic proof one more time, you might want to do that.

Plymouth Gin Rocks

Quick shout to Plymouth Gin, Randall PR, and Maggiano’s, for throwing an awesome party last night.  They provided us with free food and drinks.  Teresa will probably post more on it later, but I just want to give them some quick props.