While hanging out with family up in the Tahoe area my sister brought up a novel way to access one of our favorite adult beverages if you are caught without the necessary equipment. Open a bottle of wine with a shoe? She described it and I still couldn’t believe it was true.

Here is the proof (en Francaise, naturellement)

Amazing. I haven’t tried it myself, but the video looks authentic. Maybe I’ll experiment on a bottle of Two-buck Chuck.

hs

As we head into the annual celebration of our independence from the mother country I came across an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that offers a little more insight into George Washington. He has been deified over the centuries, an almost mythic figure who dodged death on the battlefield, and portrayed as a man as stiff as a statue.  Writer Barrymore Shearer tells of another side of Washington. Although not a musician himself, he had a fine appreciation of music and was more than willing to pay whatever amount to enjoy it.  And it turns out, through an eyewitness account from his step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis, the minuet was “peculiarly calculated for the display of the splendid figure of the chief, and his natural grace and elegance of air and manners.”

Read the whole article here and have a safe and happy 4th of July.

hs