damn revenuers

I got The Boy in bed earlier tonight, and Big Brother was on the computer, so I turned the tv on. I don't often do that for myself lately. If Momma is actually not at work she gets first crack at the computer, so I sometimes get the tv then, but it's usually during the day when nothing is on. Generally the boys get the tv giving me ample time to figure out when the good cartoons are on.

The good cartoons, in my opinion almost begin and end with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. That's my newest favorite show right now. Big Brother loves Ben 10, and I find that I can certainly enjoy it along with him. No show in recent memory can top Fullmetal Alchemist, easily one of the greatest things I have ever seen. I'm not even close to caught up on the story line. The dumbasses at Cartoon Network decided to mess with the schedule, and now they only show new episodes. That means basically that I need to start investing in the DVD's just to figure out the damn story.

None of that is the point. That was all a rabbit trail diverting us from the real point here. When I finally did get the tv I did in fact watch The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. I loved it. I laughed still more of my ass off. Then I went channel surfing. I'd missed the first half of the new Doctor Who, so I have no opinion about that, although I really need to remember to watch it. I did watch the last half hour of a History Channel show, Rumrunners, Moonshiners and Bootleggers.

I've always harbored a sort of respect for the bootleggers. That's not a surprise really if you really know me. I can see myself about 60 years ago in a modified Ford, gallons of moonshine my sole companion. The only thing I see in my headlights is that long strip of blacktop and a fence and some trees. I've got the pedal down, while my eyes keep darting to the rearview mirror. I'm praying I don't see a thing in that mirror.

I'm not sure exactly what the law says about making liquor. According to someone on the show, while making wine and beer are legal, making any liquor requires paying taxes. I know that I can make beer and it's legal, but I can't sell it. Making beer is easy. Distilling liquor of any kind just seems to me like too much work. It's not something that I could see doing as a hobby, but as a nonchemist/distiller, I don't know that it isn't feasible to make liquor on an extremely small scale.

I want to think of the bootlegger as the basic stereotype of the poor mountain man trying to feed his family. I don't doubt that a good number of bootleggers at one time really were doing what they could, what they knew how to do. That view was somewhat tarnished tonight though when one man who used to distill alcohol discussed the fact that he basically making sugar liquor.

All alcohol is based on finding something that has sugar in it and making that sugar turn into alcohol. Next to the oldest profession, it's probably the second oldest profession. Wine uses the sugar from grapes. Beer uses the sugar from grains, usually barley. Liquors use a variety of things from potatoes to grains to plain old sugar.

I'd never heard of sugar liquor before tonight. Corn liquor I'm well aware of and well acquainted with. I've also been known to enjoy a particular cactus based liquor. But I'll be damned if I need to get drunk so bad I'll drink sugar liquor. That's not even trying. And yes, that was the point. I took you all around with those silly cartoon distraction, and in the end I just proved that nothing I say is worth the paper it's written on.