The Wine Commonsewer™

A Day of Infamy

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

My dad was twelve when Pearl Harbor was attacked. He and the family gathered around the radio in the living room on McLean Avenue in St Paul, listening in awe and horror, as the Day of Infamy unfolded.

The USS West Virginia suffered extensive damage from the bombing at Pearl Harbor. 106 Sailors died in the attack, including her Captain. The ship was repaired and three years later took part in the last Battleship-to-Battleship battle ever fought, sinking the Yamashiro with a broad side from her radar guided 16 inch guns, thus avenging Pearl Harbor.

 

 

TWC has a Samurai sword, a Japanese officer's sword, and an Arisaka Type 38 carbine; all came home to the US as souvenirs after the Big War. 

Almost cut my dang hand off with the Samurai sword, too. As I picked the dam thing up to show it to my friend Stevie Crown of the Dark Side, it tipped toward the floor and slid out of the scabbard (because the ancient locking mechanism doesn't work right).

I reflexively grabbed this HEAVY, STEEL, SHARP-EDGED, MOVING OBJECT with my  bare hand. It was an instant in time where you realize immediately that you've miscalculated. My brain was on it: DON'T GRAB THAT! Too late because my automated reflex overrode the message...... Lisa said I had a big OH-Oh look on my face.

As Ever,

TWC

Celebrate Repeal Day

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

There has been a remarkable shift in American attitudes about the role of the federal government in the ninety some years since the 18th Amendment was ratified. In 1919, there was no question that simply outlawing alcohol was unconstitutional and that banning demon rum would require a constitutional amendment.

Family lore holds that along about 1921 my Grandma's fiance was machine gunned to death in a firefight with the Fibbies at the Canadian border. It would be another dozen years before importing intoxicating liquors from Canada would no longer carry the prospect of an informal death sentence. 

Prohibition decimated the wine industry in California, pushing the evolution of high quality wines out for a half century and changing forever our cultural views toward alcohol. With the end of a legal market for wine, many wineries collapsed, finding it impossible to stay in the red (heh) selling sacramental wine. Others replanted wine grapes with juice grapes that resulted in a glut of low quality grapes that far outlasted the demise of Prohibition.

Some growers, like the Mondavis, shipped Zinfandel grapes back east to Italian Catholics who were permitted to make their own wine for sacramental purposes. Guys like Ernest & Julio Gallo hooked up with the Chicago mob to sell wine made in clandestine wineries in Central California.

That's H. L. Mencken celebrating the end of Prohibition.

To your health!

As Always,

TWC

Run Like You Stole It

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

I like a little steel guitar. 

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

The Ghost of Christmas Past, Hollywood Style

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Hollywood Boulevard, looking east toward the most recognizable intersection in the world, Hollywood & Vine, circa 1948. The Art Deco Kress building on the right was the international headquarters of legendary Frederick's of Hollywood from 1949 until 2008. The Kress was a chic night club for a short time. The building is currently vacant and for sale. In the distant right, as large as a hotel, is the Hollywood Broadway department store. 

As Always,

TWC

Image scanned from a Kodachrome slide and appears courtesy of Vintage Los Angeles & Arnold Hylen Archives. Mr Hylen documented much of pre-freeway LA on film. 

 

Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

This lovely German Christmas hymn dates to the early 1600's. Dave Grusin's exquisite rendition conjures up chilly nights, and warm holiday fires. 

 

The tune was first released in 2005 on GRP's Christmas Collection, Volume III. 

As Ever,

TWC

Photo Credit: TWC 12-05-11 ©  Yes, that's my fireplace.