Hishtory

Tasting the Stars: the Story of Champagne.

Here we come a-caroling among the leaves so green, Here we come a-wandering so fair to be seen Love and Joy come to you, and a Merry Christmas too And God Bless You and send you a Happy New Year God send you a Happy New Year. Everyone is familiar with the Caroling Song. I had to learn it in music class when I was in elementary school, along with some additional verses, nearly forty years ago, and I still remember the song to this very day. The second verse goes; We are not your daily beggars who go from door to door, We are your neighbors children whom you have seen before. And the third verse; Good Master and Good Mistress while you’re sitting by the fire Pray think of us poor children who are wandering in the mire. But did you know that the song was originally an English song about children begging for an alcoholic beverage as they went from door to door singing Christmas carols? Yeah, of course our teachers left out the verses about drinking. And the verses we did learn had been changed dramaticall

When I bought an old bar in Jefferson City 16 years ago, the rumor had been propagated for many years, by previous owners and others, that it was the oldest bar west of the Mississippi River. At the time, I was working for the State Historic Preservation Office, and I knew that the bar wasn’t even considered to be the oldest in our state. Folks who live here will come to the bar, usually with friends from out of town, and they’ll say, “Tell them, tell them- isn’t this the oldest bar west of the Mississippi?” It takes a little diplomacy to tell them that it isn’t true without embarrassing them in front of their friends. I usually say something like, “Well, we used to think that it was, but some research has shown that it isn’t,” or “yeah, it’s easy to make that mistake, but it’s just the oldest bar here in town.” They always look disappointed. Sometimes even miffed, I guess because I shattered their cherished beliefs, something they had boasted to others; “Our pub is the oldest bar west of the Missi

Taxes. One of the founding principles of our country, or actually the reluctance to pay them that was the founding principle. Needless to say, we’ve had a bad relationship with taxation ever since. Nobody likes to pay taxes, but we can all agree there are some things we can do better as a community than we can do by ourselves. Building roads, public utilities, law enforcement, fire department, the list goes on and on. But, defense, is a big check mark on the list. As a nation, one third of our federal budget is devoted to the military. But, how do you finance a war effort if you can’t levy taxes? During the Revolutionary War the young United States had that very problem. They literally begged, borrowed, and stole whatever money they could from various sources by any means possible, including piracy (they called it “privateering”). They also obtained high interest loans from the other countries, including France and Spain, they cut deals with investors from the Netherlands, and borrowed hard curren

When I was in elementary school we were told the stories of the great American folk heroes that helped explore, settle, and exploit the American frontier. Some of you are old enough to remember the guys I’m talking about- Walt Disney made them famous back in the 1950’s. They actually showed us the cartoons in the classroom. There was Paul Bunyan with his Blue Ox, Babe, who conquered the north woods by chopping down and clearing out millions of acres of pine trees from Maine to Minnesota. And the steel driving man, John Henry, who could drive a rock drill with a sledgehammer faster than a steam powered machine, cutting tunnels through the Appalachian Mountains for the expanding railroads across the country. And Pecos Bill who was raised by coyotes on the high plains of Texas, used a rattlesnake as a lasso, once roped a tornado and rode it into submission, and scared all of the war paint of them Injuns, which made the painted desert. Yeah, kind of gave all of us in elementary school back then a warped s

Thirst. The physiological drive to drink liquid. It’s deadlier than hunger. You can survive without food for three weeks. But, without liquid sustenance, even in ideal conditions, you’d be hard pressed to make it a week before your body began to shut down. Of course, the most abundant liquid in our world is water. Some species of animals and plants are made up of almost 95% water. We humans are only 68%, but every living thing we know is at least 60% H2O. So- thirst. Other than breathing, it is the strongest compulsion that we have; more than hunger, more than sex… well, usually more than sex, at least in normal people. Another urge that most species of fauna seem to share is the pursuit of altered consciousness. Grazing herd animals in North America seek out Jimson Weed- what is more commonly called Locoweed. Reindeer and caribou are known to forage for mushrooms and fungi in the boreal forests of Canada, and Scandinavia in a pursuit of psychotropic trips- Maybe that’s how Santa Claus gets them t