I had planned on taking some time to write a nice thoughtful post, but after nosamrellim made such a nice request for a post, I thought it was better idea to change my blogging format a bit, so this is my take on the nosamrellim format, but with the Andy twist, despite it being a nosamrellim tribute post, any shortcomings and/or offense caused are all my own.
1. Wine corks are an awful idea. I mean cork was the height of packaging technology about the time that wine was invented. But X,000 year later, can't we do better. I can't count the number of times that I've either broke a cork, or had to cork a bottle of wine because I suck at getting the cork out. Now I'm not talking about every other bottle or anything, but it's one of those things where you only remember if it has gone wrong. I don't remember the 99 time I successfully opened a bottle of wine, but i sure as hell remember 6 weeks ago when I accidentally pushed a cork through the bottle and the wine sprayed up and got all over my shirt. I can't remember ever having ruined a shirt trying to open a beer? It's really hard to jam a screw top down a bottle.
Furthermore, not only is cork sub-optimal in terms of ease, it also poses a significant risk to the quality of the wine. When you taste wine at a restaurant, you aren't tasting it to see if you like it, you're tasting it to see if the cork has malfunctioned and the wine is now vinegar! This would only be an ingrained part of the wine experience if it was a relatively common occurrence.
So cork is neither easier nor better at it's sole purposes which is preserving wine. The only reason we still use it is tradition. And I'll admit that there is something to that, but with so much tradition in wine anyway, can't we take a pass on the cork. Leave the French pronunciations, but for the sake of my pride and my dress shirts, I really hope we see more screwtop wine soon.
2. One thing that there isn't enough of out there is people passing out pamphlets. I love people who pass out pamphlets. Yes! Give them to me. Let's communicate, share your ideas with me in a polite and passive way. I don't want to be shouted at, I don't want you asking me "Do you have 5 mins for the environment," (which is insulting to the environment and my intelligence). But yeah, if you care enough to print something up, I want to read it.
I grabbed one the other day outside my grocery store for vegetarianism. I looked at it and read it. It took me maybe 5 mins, I read it while I was walking, and then threw it away. I still remember what it said. I'm not going to become a vegetarian, but i definitely thought about the pamphlet when I was ordering a slice of pizza later that night. (I got cheese).
It's not that I think I or many other people are going to be swayed by pamphlets, or that something going to change the world (although, I guess just ask Thomas Paine for proof that they can) but I really like the idea of people reaching out to others with their ideas. It's kinda like a blog, but a lot more personal. Thanks to google I do have some sense who reads this blog, but only in terms of bits and bytes. If I was printing up a pamphlet, standing on a corner and looking these people in the eye, I know I would feel a more personal connection to this thing. It's good to hear new (even wacky) ideas about vegetarianism, Scientology or (wacky)Ron Paul. Now I may think your idea/Ron Paul is ridiculous, but it still does me a world of good to hear about it. So keep passing that stuff out, I'm going to keep grabbing them.
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