Chiedo scusa

A couple days ago we celebrated Columbus Day and we, thereafter made some comments that Christofore was ripe for Sainthood and aside from mustering the courage to make a five week sail across the Atlantic before the trade winds shifter back to westerlies, he didn't do Spain a lot of PR good.  That he wasn't Spanish is well known and that is why Columbus Day appears to be more of an Italian remembrance than a Spanish hoopla.

So now we have a decided choice to make as to how we remember Columbus Day.  We can celebrate the permanent Euro-settling of the Americas and thank him for that; getting the ball rolling so to speak, or we can talk about how the Spanish weren't really good guests and created a lot of mischief during the early years. The Italians caused none of this and unfortunately got caught up in the painting with the Spanish brush as the saying goes.  Chiedo scusa.

We do note, however, that Rush Limbaugh had a great deal to say about those who note that from the Native American point of view, having these three ships appear over the horizon was not a great thing for them and because the White House put up a proclamation that noted that they might have had some displeasure, all lefties were some sort of bad name word in destroying our history as only Rush seems to know it.

That is by the by and let's move on. Halloween is next on the agenda and we are trying to figure out a way to be PC to goblins and ghosts - or is that ghosts and goblins....

See how hard it is to write a blog?  Let's all dance and sing.

I thought I'd wait a day to write this

Yesterday was Columbus Day in honor of one of the guys who popped in from a journey across the pond.  He stopped in the Canary Islands and from there made the 5 week voyage to the New World.  That was, to us, the most interesting "fact revisited" as, we are sure, you like us were indoctrinated in the long, arduous journey with the crew near mutiny from fear and boredom.  We are pretty sure that crossing the ocean at that time was no piece of cake but it also wasn't a journey to the moon.

That brings us to the point.  We are taught or learn certain things in school, at the dinner table, or perhaps  by some just repeating a supposed fact over and over until it  becomes the stuff of legends. 
A legend isn't necessarily true.  It is just that; a legend,  and legendary doesn't mean true stories but some legendary recount as in Paul Bunyan the legendary axeman.

Columbus was by all accounts a pretty nifty navigator (although there is some talk that he had a map of sorts) and his motivations probably started and ended with greed and power.  He was a rotten administrator, infinitely cruel, and essentially ran the holdings into the ground.  Fact is, Leif Erickson's 11th explorations beat him by 400+ years and we don't have a Nordic Day or a  Leaf Day unless we re-invent Arbor Day ( bad joke).

This doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate the day like we did yesterday. On the contrary. It might also be more romantic and inspiring  to think of  the voyage as a hardship from which sprung a nation forged on the anvil of travail. That appears not to be the case.  The only sure facts we know is that Columbus showed up here 4 times in 12 years, didn't do anyone any real good, and now a bunch of folks walk up 5th Avenue in his honor.

Don't you ever wish.....

One thinks of the darnedest things when you wake up too early to get up.  Your mind wants to zip into the day ahead but there are so many more pleasant things to dwell on.

We mentioned this to one of our customers who dropped in just to say hello after his daily trip to the post office across the street.  We said that he was looking in good health and all that courtesy greeting stuff and he replied "I wish" and that got us talking.  He finally came up with the idea that what Greenport could use was a wishing well, like the one in Chinatown in Los Angeles or the ones that sit out in front of countless restaurants gathering pennies.

We thought about it some and talked about it for the rest of the day, off and on. I mean, Greenport is "on the water" and wishing wells came about because people thought water was "sacred" in some way - it is absolutely necessary for life and all that.  Besides it would collect pennies like crazy.

A little reading on the subject gave us the information that it wasn't just a matter of tossing a coin in the fountain (substitute for a well if you don't have one of those handy), but it was "how it landed" that decided if you get your wish.  Seriously.  Only the spirit in the well or water or fountain knew what was the proper landing and if you notice songs like "Three coins in a fountain" popular decades ago, it is tossing in coins in lots of three that gives you the best chance - three for religious reasons and in math probability it is almost completely unlikely that all three of anything will land "same side up" so you were "covered" in a matter of speaking.

Kids love wishing wells and want to toss money in before they knew or know what the deal is or was and what adult hasn't thought "I wish I...." and followed that with so many "primal car scream" remembrances that we might as well chuck a big solid gold bar in the water and leave it at that; part offering and part hope.

Well (pun), back to sleep. Wish I could get a full night straight. I'm going to talk to the mayor about a well though. It would be a gold mine.

Just not sure

We aren't sure which is going to show up at the tasting tomorrow. So hard to plan. One will be here for sure.


In other news.....

Our village has a photo shoot this morning for some clothes company. It is pretty exciting.
Big weekend last week for the Maritime Festival. Tens of thousands of visitors. That was pretty good too.

Gas down at the corner is well of $4 a gallon.  The food shop just up the street now has a coffee table.  The Harbor is full of big boats.

Halloween is the next huge event on our calendar.  Pretty neat stuff. Pretty neat.

And that's the news from Lake Wobegon.

Martha Clara Entenmann

We have to step back and admire folks who take something from the getgo and make it into something impressive.  We like Martha Clara Winery a lot for that reason.  They will be our "tasting host" this Saturday and we are glad to have them. A very nice selection of wines, a booming business started from scratch, and good friends to one and all.

As we have commented before, Martha Clara was "mom's" name and it is pretty special that someone would name an enterprise after "mom"; something we don't find much anymore.  Of course anyone who shops in any market knows the name Entenmann - something of an icon of baked goods - and we think that we recognize most of the selections in this picture.  When Entenmann's was old and Martha Clara Winery emerged we kinda knew that they would make a go of it.

Anyway, enough. Good folks. Very good wine. Pretty darn good classic crumb cake to this day.

Smarty Skirts

We ran this contest last month to give away some very nice wine glasses for "the more creative among us".  It was a huge success with scores of entries and some terrifically funny ideas.  Our winner was a Deborah who lives locally and although there was great debate over the finalists, we like this best.

What we also like a whole lot is that people, when given half a chance, can be as creative and clever as all get out.  We don't know if the winners/entrants came up with their entries in a flash or after pondering over it.  What we do know is that there are a lot more brains out there, all cocked and at the ready, then perhaps some of politicians give us credit for.

If it isn't Sparkling, What's the Pointe?

We had a conversation about rock climbing the other day.  A local gadfly came in all agog about watching someone climb a big rock face with no ropes - no nothing - just find the niches and up he went. We pondered this for a bit and rather liked the idea of persons doing such things; crazy things that we don't understand and would never do.  We couldn't for an instant imagine a sheer rock face and finding those little niches and handholds and, well up you go...up or out as it were.

A lot of times businesses are in the same position and at the mercy of a lot of things they can't control.  Our rock climber could well have taken a route that had no handholds, no niches for purchase, nada and eventually he would have found his way back but not in a good way.  We are surrounded by vineyards and as a Wine and Spirits shop, we take interest in these businesses because 1.) they are pretty much our stock and trade and 2.) there is a certain "rock climber" aspect to what they do. First there is a long term investment before the first bottle is corked and after that it is weather, or just a freaky poor harvest, or a pre-harvest hurricane. 

Then there are those who go a step further and put their eggs in a smaller basket. They climb rock walls blindfolded so to speak. Sparkling Pointe Vinyards comes to mind as their stock and trade is, well, sparkling and that is something of a daredevil thrill ride of current tastes to be sure. To be sure, the fine cabs and merlots produced around here have a huge following and the vineyards that produce these do a bang up job. People love the wines and rightfully so. Sparkling Pointe just climbed the rock a bit differently.  It is pretty neat really. They took rock climbing up on the vineyard scale and generally bet the farm that they could produce a niche type product that would have a constant following.

They were right and we think they are great.