The Wine Curmudgeon

So long, Ron Santo

The great Louie Canelakas, a very wise man, said that being a Chicago Cubs fan prepares one for life. Life, ultimately, no matter how successful, is about disappointment, and those of us who follow the Cubs -- a team that has not really won anything for more than a century -- know disappointment all too well.

Ron Santo, who played third base for the Cubs in the 1960s and early 1970s, embodied that ethos. He was a great player on great teams that never won anything; and, to add insult to injury, was regularly voted down for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Santo died yesterday, and his passing is worth noting here -- not just because I'm a Cubs fan, but because Santo stood for everything that matters. He worked hard and he kept trying, even though he was repeatedly disappointed. What better approach is there to life?

Enjoy this effort from YouTube, courtesy of TerminalShockRecords, featuring Santo and several of his teammates from the 1969 Cubs.

Say goodbye to Gourmet

The Wine Curmudgeon has always enjoyed Gourmet magazine, and not just because it had good recipes. One of the most pleasant experiences I have had in my 20-some years of freelancing came when I sold a story to the magazine: The Not so Thin Man: Food and the Detective Novel. (The link is a bit iffy – my Web site is having technical problems.)

I mention this not to plug myself; the story is 10 years old. I mention it to wish the magazine a fond farewell. Its publisher, Conde Nast, announced today that it’s closing the book after 69 years, a victim of the recession that is gutting print media.

Freelancers always -- and I mean always – complain about editors, the editing process and anything that has to do with getting a story in print. To hear us tell it, there are three evils in the world, and magazine editors are first and second. I’m as bad as anyone, and I’ve got the whining to prove it.

But that didn’t happen with Gourmet. It paid promptly, and if the story got held for six months, at least the editors kept me apprised of what was going on. Most importantly, it’s a better story for the editing process. Few writers like to admit that editing can improve their work, because we’re perfect and our prose is untouchable. But the Gourmet editors were tops, using a sure hand and good sense. It was a fine story when I wrote it, and it is a great story now.

So long, Gourmet. You will be missed.

Technorati Tags: Gourmet magazine

Anti-spam software

And it’s free! And it works! Maybe I can make it an honorary member of the $10 Wine Hall of Fame.

The Wine Curmudgeon has been inundated with spam, even with my Outlook 2007 control set to high. But SpamBayes, in a matter of days, has sent almost all the spam to my junk mail folder, and I don’t have to spend my morning cleaning out the mailbox from the night before.

SpamBayes uses a statistical anti-spam filter, with new-style algorithms to detect spam. Plus, as near as I can tell, it learns from its mistakes. Plus, did I mention it’s free?

SpamBayes installs as an add-in for Outlook (and apparently works for Thunderbird, Gmail and Mac). After installation, it will ask how to configure it. Just use the suggested method. The software will set up a junk suspect folder, and if it isn’t sure what to do with email, it sends it there. Then, you can click on a button on the toolbar and send the file to the correct folder. It’s that simple. I don’t know that it has sent any legitimate mail to the junk mail folder without me getting a chance to identify. And almost all of the spam has gone directly to the junk email folder.

Technorati Tags: anti-spam software,SpamBayes

Wine Curmudgeon gets all squirrelly

As in the American Squirrel Wine Blog Awards.

I got an email this morning from a friend who told me I had been selected, and sure enough, there I am -- Best Use of a Hat as a Prop in an About Post. (You have to scroll down toward the end to see it, right after the self-loathing award and just before the lifetime achievement award.) My thanks to whomever nominated me, which is all it took to get in. These are not quite serious, which is much welcome in the all too serious world of wine blogging. Next year, I want to win the award for best punk rock obit. Seriously.

And, as regular visitors here know, my hat is no prop – I wear ‘em all the time. Own almost a dozen – fedoras, straws, you name it. And I have even written about them on the blog.

Technorati Tags: wine awards,wine blogging,American Squirrel wine blog awards

The Wine Curmudgeon enters the 21st century

Yes, the Wine Curmudgeon is on Facebook, and has entered the world of social networking. I am told it is a key part of the future, and the people who have told me that (and you know who you are, dammit) usually know what they are talking about.

So look for me there – my account is Wine Curmudgeon. We’ll see how this works, part of my never-ending attempt to negotiate the marketing environment in the New Millennium. The catch, of course, is that I have to post updates, which I have not been very good about doing in the short time I have had the account.

And I can tell everyone right now that there is no chance – ever – that the Wine Curmudgeon will ever Twitter.

Technorati Tags: social networking,Facebook,Twitter

More changes at the blog

Those of you who subscribe by email and RSS feed (mostly if you use Google Reader, I think) may notice advertising in the email and on the RSS feed. This is a test, and I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it. Like the advertising on the site, it’s more an opportunity to see how this works.

The third-party vendor that does the feeds was bought by Google, and it’s now easier to add the ads. Besides, I want to see if the ads are the usual sort of Google mix or if they take a step up for a classy site like this one. Let me know, either in the comments or by sending me an email (that’s the link on the top of the page), what you think.

I have also added a Facebook link to the posts. This is a major step for someone as cranky as the Wine Curmudgeon, but one must adjust to an ever changing world. It also means that the Wine Curmudgeon is probably close to appearing on Facebook. How will the cyber ether deal with that?

Donald E. Westlake, 1933-2008

In the early 1990s, during one of my other careers, I moderated a panel about mystery writing. It was my great good fortune that Donald Westlake was on that panel. I barely had to moderate at all.

Westlake died last week, and the obituaries described his talent and his proficiency – more than 100 books since his first novel was published in 1960. But what struck me about Westlake in the couple of years we kept in touch was how much he enjoyed actually being a writer – not the seeing your name on a book or signing autographs part, but the staring at the typewriter or going to the post office to see if a check had arrived part. To this day, I can’t believe that Westlake, who got movie money (a huge, big deal, which made him more secure than the rest of us) would come home and bellyache that some publisher had not sent a promised payment.

Westlake was also incredibly gracious and generous with his time and knowledge. He told about working with director Stephen Frears on The Grifters (Westlake got an Academy Award nomination) and his less happy experience as one of the writers for a TV disaster called Supertrain (he said he got fired). He also shared writing advice and recommended agents, neither of which he had to do.

The author Jo Walton put it best: “He is a writer that writers like.” There aren’t many better epitaphs than that.

Technorati Tags: Donald E. Westlake,obituaries