BigCityLib Strikes Back

Perhaps the most significant of the proposed policy shifts would see an easing of the typical beer tent-type stipulation that required beer-drinking patrons or guests to obtain and consume their drinks in a fixed space – typically away from other aspects of the event. With these changes, such attendees at events should have much more freedom to wander with their drinks within the footprint of the event.

One of my few good memories of vacationing in Yuma, Ariz. was the weekend flea-market they held at their greyhound track. I'd wander around with an open beer and a Mexican flat-bread with icing sugar on it, and watch the people selling tasers and switch-blades, or the guy offering tax advice out of the back of his camper. I remember the taser-guy giving me a weird look when I told him they were probably illegal back in my country. And I remember one dude selling old coins trying to convince me that the stars visible on a Greek piece suggested that the ancients had been privy to astronomical knowledge given to them by space aliens. I kid you not. I told him that I'd just got off the plane, not the boat, but I think my brother bought a couple of his ring-shaped coins (like twonies with the center missing) and for years after wore them on a silver chain.

And of course, this was the early 90s, when LA Gear was desperately dumping its lower end runners at flea-markets and swap meets and you could buy a pair for $15.

Ah! The old days!

In any case, Dalton's latest policy initiative will serve to bring rural and urban Ontarion's closer together. Or at least, when the wife wants to go visiting some of those farmers' markets North of Steeles, I won't get quite as bored.

PS. Part I was Family Day.

NDP leader Carole James has promised to increase the minimum wage by 25 per cent -- freaking out pub and restaurant owners -- and hike wholesale prices for private liquor stores.

[...]

But private liquor store owner Al Arbuthnot thinks that's the whole point of the NDP strategy.
Kim Haakstad, executive director of the Alliance of Beverage Licensees of B.C] pointed out the NDP election platform makes no mention of increasing prices in unionized government liquor stores. "If they need to raise revenue from liquor, then they should raise prices across the board for everyone, not just pick on small, independent operators."

"This is all union-driven," said the owner of Fox's Reach pub and liquor store in Maple Ridge.Something tells me if the NDP wins, they'll be uncorking the champagne at the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union head office -- no matter what the price.

I would dismiss this as fear mongering but for the fact that Bob Rae, when he was Ontario Premier, almost destroyed the "you brew" industry with a series of damaging tax hikes aimed at taking the pressure off LCBOs.

Your own BigCityLib occasionally suffers from an debilitating condition known as metabolic arthritis, or in the common tongue, gout, which is caused either by eating too many fried chicken wings or drinking too much beer (but most likely, in my case, the latter). Every once in awhile I get these shrieking pains in my left big toe, and if they go untreated I wind up spending the next week or two hobbling around like an old man. However, several years back when the symptoms first appeared my doctor prescribed these wonderful little pills, and it used to be I would pop one of them and presto the pain would go away and I could tap-dance to my heart's content. However, the last time I ran out of these pills I discovered that they were actually Rofecoxib, or Vioxx, which the FDA banned in 2004 because a small minority people had the bad taste to drop dead of heart-attacks after taking them. Because the next best Cox-2 Inhibitor, Celebrex, compares to Vioxx the way watery coffee compares to LSD, I was disappointed yesterday when I read that the FDA would not approve Arcoxia, Merck's successor to Vioxx.

And so I am doomed to go forward in this life forever watching what I eat and drink so as to prevent flare-ups.

And let me just warn my readers about the hazards associated with beer. For when you are young it can seem to be a wonder substance, cold and golden and filled with bubbly happiness--better than women, even, because beer never whines about "rights"and its socially acceptable to have six in one night. When you get older, however, ill effects begin to appear, like the way your gut starts to fall out through your ass and yes, the onset of embarrassing ailments like metabolic arthritis.

If I were to do it all again, I'd stick with ganja and cool-aid.