[Growwine] St. Pats

[CanadaVintage]

Speaking of our beloved SAQ, here is a funny article in the morning paper:

Oh, grow up: This holiday is for kids
MIKE BOONE, The Gazette
Published: 5 hours ago
The latest SAQ marketing ploy: artificial delirium tremens.

When I popped into my local booze store on Saturday morning, the clerk at
the cash was a handsome young man dressed as a beautiful young woman. Whoa,
better double-check my shopping cart. This 40-pounder of VO might not be
quite enough.

Of course, this wasn't a hallucination. Just another shopping day in the
wild and crazy suburbs. With a mere 96 hours until Oct. 31, the SAQ staff
were in full Halloween regalia. If this much of a lead-up is the norm,
they'll be squeezing themselves into Santa's elf tights by about Dec. 5.

As a card-carrying curmudgeon whose misanthropy has carried me through more
Happy Hours than I can count, I found Halloween spirit amid the shelves of
spirits quite dispiriting.
It also made me feel old, because I can remember when Halloween was for
children.

(I can also remember when the only costumes at a Quebec liquor store were
the garnet smocks worn by dour clerks who would disappear into a mysterious
back room to retrieve your order, wrapped in a paper bag lest anyone catch a
glimpse of the demon rum. If any of those guys had come to work in drag,
Maurice Duplessis would have had had him on a road gang up north.)

I am not old enough, however, to remember Pope Gregory III. During his
papacy, 731 to 741, Halloween - a Celtic ritual that involved dressing as
ghosts to ward off evil spirits - became a Christian holiday on which people
were encouraged to dress as saints and feed the poor.

Halloween was brought to North America by Irish Catholic descendants of the
Celts. The last night of October was an occasion for pranks, and Halloween
treats were a bribe to protect property from pranksters.

Halloween evolved into a children's holiday in the early part of the 20th
century.

It didn't become an occasion for alleged adults to wear costumes until the
latter decades of the 1900s, when baby-boomers began to grapple,
unsuccessfully, with the horrifying notion that they couldn't be children
forever.

We can look forward to the annual Halloween parties at the Strawberry Fields
nursing home, where residents will be wheeled in wearing their bell-bottoms,
tie-dyed Ts and Shawn Phillips wigs.

The commodification of eternal youthfulness manifests itself in
cross-dressing service personnel. Because no industry is more
blithe-spirited than banking, we can expect to see tellers tricked out in
full Halloween regalia today.

But there's a dilemma down the road. Once the banks have eliminated the last
vestiges of human contact, how will they mark Halloween? Perhaps the ATMs
will become R2D2 for a day.

For now it's still ghosts, witches, goblins - and Dumbledore costumes,
priced to move.

- - -

Tonight will be quiet again on my suburban street, which exemplifies
Quebec's demographic problem.

In a block of 26 townhouses, we've got four children - and 12 dogs.

The canines are very happy to do tricks and get treats. Whether they'll
collect for UNICEF or become pension-fund contributors in 15 years is
another story.

mboone at thegazette.canwest.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Paré" <midmp at abacom.com>
To: "growing Wine in Cold Climates" <growwine at littlefatwino.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Growwine] St. Pats


> Sheesh, strong canadian dollar, not at SAQ stores. Was in the North East
> Kingdom (Vermont) yesterday. Yellow critter 6.99 . Bonny Doon's Big House
> Red was 10.99 $US at Shaw's.  SAQ retails is 18.30 $ CAN.
>
> Beside that, enjoyable outing in that area to visit a yogurt farm.
>
>  btw, and more on-topic with the list, any growiners in the 3 counties of
NEK?
>
> martin in l'Estrie
>
> On 30 Oct 2007 at 16:22, defaria at hughes.net wrote:
>
> > Rob Wrote:
> > However, I can understand
> > that fitting into that business model might be difficult for Canadian
> > customers.
> >
> >
> > Not anymore Rob! We are getting 5% discount these days..
> > Duke DeFaira
> > Defaria Vineyareds
> > _______________________________________________
> > Growwine mailing list
> > Growwine at littlefatwino.com
> > http://lists.littlefatwino.com/mailman/listinfo/growwine
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>