I only found out you have “dry” counties recently – I live in the UK.

Your country confuses and scares me. In many states you can smoke pot for medicinal reasons, yet some places have refused to lift prohibition? I really, really can’t understand why there hasn’t been a seccession movement in certain large states, or even in some minor ones for opposite reasons.

If my countrymen, Scots for instance, were as diametrically opposed to my way of life as someone from Arkansas would appear to be towards a SoCal-ite, we’d split up faster than you could say “Hadrian”.

Oh, and freeped!

I hope Bumfuck, Alabma appreciates the English input. Just make sure they sell warm beer when you win, eh?

I thought you meant if I didn’t want to help, click here. Oh, well.
My parents lived in a small Louisiana town that didn’t sell beer on Sunday. Unless, you first placed the beer in a paper bag. (God can’t see through brown paper).
So, if you went in a store with paper bags by the beer case, you could buy it. No bags, no buy.
You see why I am the only Yankee in the family.

IIRC, Jack Daniel’s is made in a dry Tennessee county. They can make all that whiskey, but can’t give you a sample.

Someone ought to tell these folks that banning alcohol is something that Islamofascists do–half the Middle East is a dry county. I wonder how they’d react. Not to mention how that water-into-wine thing, viewed through Jonesboro-colored glasses, makes a heretic out of Jesus.

Now that’s radical Christianity!.

MCH, I believe that half the middle east is actually a dry parish.

My dad is from right near there – Paragould, Arkansas, and he went to undergrad at Arkansas State.

Wow, your’re from Jonesboro. I was born in Wynne, but thank god my parent divorced when I was 2 and I was able to grow up a Flagstaff AZ. My father still lives in Wynne, and is the State Senator from that area, but I still feel wierd everytime I visit.

Not to mention how that water-into-wine thing, viewed through Jonesboro-colored glasses, makes a heretic out of Jesus.

I’ve had Pentecostals argue to me in all sincerity that the wine Jesus created was actually grape juice. Tha Lawrd would never create alcomaholic beverages, ya see.

Wow, your’re from Jonesboro. I was born in Wynne, but thank god my parent divorced when I was 2 and I was able to grow up a Flagstaff AZ. My father still lives in Wynne, and is the State Senator from that area, It feels wierd everytime I visit.

You mean to tell me that the college kids can’t drive to the next county and buy beer like everybody else?

gridlock: “dry counties” are an attempt to increase drunk driving I think…

In many states you can smoke pot for medicinal reasons

Errrrrrm, I’d have to dispute this on two grounds: first, your use of the word “many” – it really isn’t all that many states we’re talking about – and second, the implication that the government will leave you alone if you try to smoke medicinal marijuana even in the states that have voted to allow it. The Feds still consider it a Schedule One Controlled Substance, and feel that this trumps any pissant state laws or constitutional amendments.

That said, this country scares and confuses me too, and I was born here.

Gridlock, it’s even worse: The states that permit marijuana for medicinal purposes are also at odds with the federal gummint, which has recently won a case in the Supreme Court that says it can stomp all over the wishes of those states’ citizens on the issue.

And we’re still talking (sometimes pretty damn loud) about the last time we had a secession movement, so I wouldn’t expect it to happen again any time soon.

Also: freeped. Currently running about 74%-26% toward “no,” which proves the Awesome Power of Teh Intarwebs.

Wow, your’re from Jonesboro.

Sorta kinda not exactly maybe. Not gonna say much else about that.

I almost didnt post this — and indeed didn’t post a bleg to give donations for a tornado-relief effort when it happened several weeks ago — because ive had a stalker problem before, and am generally the paranoid type when it comes to the net anyway. But then something happened between then and now that makes me think I’ll end up losing my anonymity anyway, maybe fairly soon, so I’m slightly less paranoid than I was. Slightly.

And thanks to those who’ve freeped so far. muah muah!

I voted (happily,) ‘No’.

you’re from Jonesboro?

Is that like the sister city of Jonestown? dude, that’s a crappy situation. At least there, intoxicating drinks weren’t exactly frowned upon.

Cheer for beer, vote No! for Retardeau.

I’ll bet even Nieporent would agree with you on this, and quite frankly, the prospect of Retardo and Nieporent even possibly agreeing on anything frightens and confuses me.

done …

I’ll bet even Nieporent would agree with you on this, and quite frankly, the prospect of Retardo and Nieporent even possibly agreeing on anything frightens and confuses me.

Wow, a double post. Just like the old days.

Wow, a double post. Just like the old days.

I totally freeped it because I went over like some sort of amoral automaton who’s allergic to information and hopped up on booze and Clonazepam and voted “no” like Retardo told me. I have no idea what this is about. I didn’t even read Retardo’s post.

I’m not even American.

Now…can some of you please do something about the infection of Pajamas Media bloggers in Canada?

These arseholes have the nerve to call themselves Tories. The link they have to “Special Ed” should tell you all you need to know.

“No” on your behalf, Retardeau. I’m in Moscow, er, Little Rock, and here Faulkner is our nearby-dry-county-that-college-kids-have-to-drive-from-to-buy-beer. But, hey–in the 80’s I lived in Jefferson City, MO, and just as I moved there they repealed their blue laws. Before that, in Cole County, you couldn’t shop at a HARDWARE STORE on Sunday! Mock us Arkansans if you will, folx, but we have two of the three Southern Democrats in the Senate, and three of the dwindling number of Southern Dems in the House. And come November, we’ll have a Dem Guv, too.

Hell, we still have Purtian blue laws and dry towns up here in Godless liberal New England.

You can’t buy beer at a store on a Sunday in CT, or after 9 PM, but you can still get it a bar or restaurant.

a few years ago, I got suckered into an interview with Cutco, and their local office was in a dry town. I went to the interview, and while I was waiting for the train back home, I went to have lunch at a restaurant. I asked ‘what kind of beer do you have?’, and the woman said ‘we don’t. This is a dry town.’

I was like ‘what is this, 1750?’

So I feel for those of you who live in dry counties! It would suck sooo much if our counties were dry, and you can drive all the way across one in like 35 minutes.

RM, consider it freeped. And doing quite well for the no votes, when I left. I didn’t even read the rest of the post before I did. I figured I owed ya one, for all the fantastic posting you’ve provided since coming to S,N!

gladly freeped. i feel like a dutiful minion.

i lived in macedonia, ak
for a couple months back in the day. it was a dry county but luckily it wasn’t too far a drive over to the next county.

the whole issue would seem more complicated as those counties which are dripping wet have strong economic incentives to block any change in the law. is this an issue at all?

random ak anecdote:
while living there my friends and i traveled out of the county to find a bar to watch a 1995 red sox playoff game against cleveland. in all honesty we were freaks and stuck out like weird little monsters amongst the local denizens. the only other folks in the bar were a cammo wearing crew (seriously, they were all dressed in cammo) playing
pool. one of the fellows, an older bear like man with a beard that screamed “currently stockpiling weapons,” sat down and asked us where we were from. when we replied masssachusetts, he went into a diatribe that included the phrase, “flush the jews down the toilet”.
left a mark that did.

oopsy. state abbreviation for arkansas is AR not AK.

You can’t buy beer at a store on a Sunday in CT, or after 9 PM, but you can still get it a bar or restaurant.

After 9 PM? Really? When I lived in Connecticut (in lovely New London), alcohol sales stopped at 8; if you left right at 8, you could just make it to Westerly, RI in about 20 minutes – leaving 10 minutes to buy alcohol before 8:30 when liquor sales stopped there.

Ah, college; good times, good times.

If my countrymen, Scots for instance, were as diametrically opposed to my way of life as someone from Arkansas would appear to be towards a SoCal-ite, we’d split up faster than you could say “Hadrian”.

Most of the US’s strategic nuclear stockpile is located in places that really would be utterly terrifying if given complete soverignty. Think of the US staying together as a global public service.

I’ll drink to that!

I’ll drink to that!

This post makes me so glad to live in So. California, where you can buy just about anything, anywhere, at just about any time of day.

The horrified looks I got last time I was in Oregon and tried to buy liquor on a Sunday morning at a grocery store were priceless. Whaddya mean, I can’t buy liquor on a Sunday? But I’m not drunk yet!

Oh, and the poll was at 78% no when I just voted.

It’s the fact that all these rules and laws force people to drive when contemplating drink that makes me wonder if we could possibly get any stupider.

Drinking and driving don’t mix, I thought. My mistake.

I try to avoid Connecticut in general.

I live in CA, and am considering moving to the Portland, Oregon area… But… waitaminute… what’s this about not being able to but booze on Sunday?

Is it just liquor, or beer & wine, too?

Done and done.

As someone born in a state that only recently allowed the use of sinful open-pour bottles (as opposed to airplane bottles) of liquor in its restaurants, I say “huzzah!”

Ah, South Carolina. Our motto: thank Jeebus for Mississippi.

Glad to cast a vote. The “nos” seem to be stomping the opposition… Hoist a glass for me when you can.

I grew up in Pocahontas, and the nearest place to get alcohol is either the Missouri state line, or O’Kean (15 miles away in the middle of nowhere). But somehow, the dryness of Randolph County didn’t keep the high schoolers wholesome, if you know what I mean.

I went to college in Fayetteville, which is a lot more sensible and has drive-thru liquor stores and what not. Then I moved to Texas and was blown away by the ability to get beer and wine in the grocery store. Then I moved to California and was astonished that you can get any liquor in the grocery store. Bizarro!

I spent part of the seventies in Johnson county, texas. Dry county. Funny rules. You could join a “Private Club” for a dollar a year, and keep your licquor in your own private “likker locker” there. Except for two things. There was no lockers, and it was THEIR booze. The whole thing was word play to get around the rules.

The funny thing is that a few miles up the road was the Tarrant county line. Tarrant county is where fort worth is, and it is most assuredly NOT a dry county. But right on the county line, well before you get to fort worth, is the little town of Burleson, texas. Comprised of nothing but about a hundred licquor stores. Serving the religiously oppressed drunks for a hundred miles. Used to crack me up…

mikey

phleabo – it was 8 until about 2 years ago, when they switched it to 9, and it’s been a godsend.

I heard that it was also possible for liquor stores stay open on Sunday, as long as they closed one other day of the week instead, and I swear I remember buying beer at our campus liquor store on a Sunday in fall 2004, but recently they’ve all been closed on Sundays again.

Stacy – nothing like a drive through liquor store. That must be crazy. You can buy beer and sometimes wine in the grocery stores here, but no whiskey. (that must be really convenient.) Fortunately there is a liquor store right next to our Stop and Shop.

Jay C., too bad y’all still can’t drink on Sundays. At least up here north of your border, we can do that (at least if we aren’t Down East.)

On the other side: my New England wife freaked out when she visited my home in Ohio for the first time and saw the state allowed beer drive-throughs, where you could buy your booze without ever leaving your car!

I used to think we had it bad up here in Washington State because the state run liquor stores were all closed on Sundays. You could still buy beer and wine at the grocery store or go to a bar or restaraunt to get hard liquor, but still, what if I need to buy in bulk? Now a bunch of the stores are open on Sundays and all is well in the great Northwest!

Yes = 18%
No = 82%

The word “here” should have the link the words “this lawsuit” has. I clicked on “here” and searched toe page twice to be sure there was nothing you wnated. Not to be deterred, I went on to the other link.

Anything to annoy the AmTaliban.

Done! Lived most of my life in Connecticut (coincidentally enough, in New London); the ‘blue laws’ there were always silly. Glad they are finally relaxing them, to some degree. Now, here I am in Missouri–I too was astounded at the availability of booze when I moved here a few years ago. Stopped at a gas station and went in to pay, they had pints of liquor behind the counter! Woo hoo! I was dizzy, and I don’t even drink liquor.

Cheers,

GW

The town that I lived in up until about 15 years ago was a dry town until the mid-80s. Of course, that town is the Bible-printing capital of the world, and the local college is a religiously-affiliated one where not only drinking is prohibited, but dancing as well(!). They also look askance at popular music and movies. Anyhoo, while they’re no longer dry, they still have eccentric liquor laws: sales are until 10pm, at which time gates usually close off the liquor area at the grocery stores. Also, you must purchase the booze at the liquor department–you can’t pay for it in a mixed order in the grocery line. I think the earliest you can buy is 10am, so for only half the day. There aren’t any Sunday restrictions or types of booze forbidden to grocery stores, though.

Oh, also, in my old town, I don’t believe that any actual liquor stores are allowed, even though all the surrounding cities have them–all booze is sold either in groceries or drug stores, and some restaurants. The restaurants are the one place you can buy after 10pm (at highly-inflated restaurant prices).

I’ve had Pentecostals argue to me in all sincerity that the wine Jesus created was actually grape juice.

If you make grape juice, and let it sit around for a few days you get wine. Welch pasteurized grape juice so his fellow parishioners could have unfermented sacramental wine.

The Wedding of Cana (water into wine) was my old roommates favorite Bible story. He even had it read at his wedding.

If you make grape juice, and let it sit around for a few days you get wine.

Well, there’s a little more to it than that. If it has been pasteurized, but not sulfited, and has a decent amount of sugar (natural or added), and the titratable acidity and pH are in the right areas, and there are wild yeast naturally present in the area, then you may get wine. I don’t know that I would drink that though, it sounds pretty unsafe to me. Nope, it would be better it measure the SG, TA, and pH yourself and introduce a proven culture of yeast into it and ferment it out for a few weeks, then age it for a few months.

Marq, are you from Nashville?

Nope. Illinois born & bred. Have only lived in other states for short times–some schooling on the East Coast a ways back. I actually like it here, in spite of some of the shittiest weather in the continental lower 48–hot, humid, nasty Summers, and often cold, snowy winters (though less so, recently-I wonder why?). Northern Illinois. Anything south of Springfield has an unsettling similarity to the more benighted parts of the South. Alan Keyes actually did win a number of counties in Central and Southern Illinois. **shudder**

I live in Jonesboro, and it is the most backwards, saddest place to live. We are just now allowed to drink in our Outback Steakhouse (it was the only location of the chain in the WORLD that didn’t serve alcohol!!!) But, they had to section off us heathens from the “True Christians.” Basically it is a private club, you must pay a membership to join, and there is a private & public entrance. The general population is uneducated and rely way to heavily on religion. The town is moving forward at the moment, but let’s just hope it keeps going instead of heading into reverse in the next 10 years.