Thinking and Drinking

When I first heard about this course on the "philosophy of wine" I scoffed long and hard and furrowed my brow in earnest trying to figure out what the hell that meant. The philosophy of wine....the philosophy of wine...hmmm. Are we talking about the deep thoughts invariably leaking out of the inebriated brain? Or maybe it was just misstated and they meant to say the philosophers who drank wine. All those Greeks and Romans who used their skilled palates to both orate and imbibe, perhaps simultaneously. That would make sense.

But no, it's actually this fascinating sounding class being newly taught at UC Berkeley Extension. And they're spending significant time on language, which is a topic that's been a thorn in my craw for a few weeks now (as in, where did the language come from. Why are the words associated w/ wine descriptions the words associated with wine descriptions? Is it really all about UC Davis? Really?) They're also going to cover cultural context and current trends and controversies. Talk about a fresh, fun way to approach a staid and dusty topic.

The guy who's teaching this is a fascinating one himself. Quite the philosopher it seems, and passionate and tenacious. He conceptualized andcreated the course, and single handedly made sure it got into the catalog, within the span of a few months.

If I wasn't so busy...if I didn't travel so much...if I wasn't so averse to sitting in an overly lit classroom for hours at a time, particularly on nights of the workweek...I'd have signed up 19 days ago.

See how that works?