I didn’t think that I have led a sheltered existence.  But the problem posed by the Wall Street Journal when-your-dinner-guest-orders-a-700-bottle-of-wine is outside my experience. Do they make $700 bottle of wine in a screw top? Never been to a barbecue joint with a wine cellar.

I was present when Jimmy, given the opportunity to try eighteen year old single malt scotch, poured Coke over it.  He didn’t do that a second time.  

I have personally thrown the cork for a quart of whiskey away, on several occasions.  This is easy to do with several participants.  It becomes a real tester when there are just two. Best done around a campfire with a couple of good dogs looking on.  They don’t judge.

I mediated an argument once over who got the worm.  Mescal, I think is Mexican, for kerosene. It is a home brew variation on Tequila and is distinctive for the worm in the bottom of the bottle. It really wasn’t difficult, there were three drinkers, three shots and with the aid of a buck knife, a worm in three segments.  The worm tasted better than the Mescal.

Guess the closest I ever came wearing out the host’s hospitality was a convention involving 700 narcotic investigators.  We bought every narc in the motel bar a drink and put it on the Commander’s room tab. Great convention.