mangeorge said:
“Berringer Founders’ Estate 1998 Merlot. On sale, 8 bucks/bottle. Not bad. I’m new at the wine game, but enjoying the learning experience.”
mangeorge, thanks for the wine suggestion. It’s just the right price so I’m fixin’ to go do some empirical research on it after I finish this post. If you’re new to wine, check out the Wine Spectator, particularly the “Best Buys” page. It’ll give you some good tips on wines. Contrary to popular belief, you can get WONDERFUL wine for under $10. Oz Clark’s also put out some good books that’ll introduce you to wine. Have fun with it. BTW your dinner sounded wonderful. I hope it was. Now I’ve got a taste for broccoli and merlot. Hmmm.
Ivorybill, I’m sorry if you and the rest of the class felt left out. mangeorge and I were trying not to be too disruptive because we didn’t want to get Prof. Collounsbury (Hi Coll, sweetie. I see you’re stirring up trouble as usual. 
Te tiro un beso, amor mio.) mad at us. [shiver] Of course you’re welcome to join our whisperins about wine and what not. So you like mint juleps, eh? Only had 'em once, and I ain’t never had Old Rip Van Winkle. Guess it’s off to the liquor store I go . . .
spoke said:
Lost in all of this bickering are two critical points:
Southerners do not traditionally drink wine with their meals.
When Southerners do drink wine (after a meal, out of a fruit jar, while sitting on the porch), it is home-made muscatine wine.
Sorry, but I’m a purist.
Um, spoke, in the South I come from, folks do too drink wine with dinner; they have it before and after dinner too. Some wine we got from the store; there was some that somebody’s momma made; and there was some that come from the still. I’ve had it in a fruit jar and in one of them fancy Riedel glasses, and it tasted right good in either one. There’s Southerners that drink wine on the porch, in the dining room, bedroom, in the woods, . . . I got a friend whose granddaddy’s peach wine’s so potent it’ll knock your socks off after you’ve had a few sips. So don’t you be tellin’ me what kind of wine Southerners ought to be drinkin, when, where, or how. You hear me? Purist. Hmphf.
And lastly, kniz. I’m sorry you having a rough time adjusting to the South, but I take issue with your callin’ the term “Damn Yankee” a slur. I’m trying to wrap my mind around how that appellation could be considered insulting. I’ve used it, and I will continue to do so because I associate humor with it. It’s not insulting. Rather it’s a way to deal with misplaced Northerners and Westerners who come to the South and start trying to tell us Southerners how we ought to be acting in our own region. As if we ain’t got any damn sense down here. And for the record, what’s wrong with Southern accents? They’re BEAUTIFUL. They’re so musical, and they don’t get on my nerves near as much as them Boston accents do. [celestina prepares to duck the tongue-lashing she might get from some outraged Bostonian.] I was reading somewhere a few months ago how when Southerners move up North, they generally don’t lose their accents, but when Northerners move down South, they do pick up to some degree the cadences and rhythms of the Southern twang. I ain’t got no cites, and I ain’t sure there’s been any of them linguistics studies done on this, but I think it’s easier to pick up and retain a Southern accent than a Northern one, and it’s much more fun IMHO. There’s something powerful in a variety of American English that seduces you into adopting it before you know right good what happened. I think folks ought to repsect that. Just settle down. Here, have a virtual drink on me.
). And it’s to your credit that you had the moderators retract that rather antagonistic post. So while at the time I thought you were over the line, at this point it’s all good.
