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The high versus middle versus low brow is interesting. I've noticed that many people are stunned when you can order (yet alone make) a cocktail today... but yet wine is still considered the drink of high class people. (Which, I will note, whiskey, wine, and beer will all make you a fool in the right amount... some it takes none at all.)
All this "class," "brow" stuff I half understand and half get lost in the swirl of details and minutia as, for examples, Lizzie's (I'm sure) spot on comments on were your dryer port exits your house. And I'm sure I get a lot wrong as I just don't care, don't have the energy to learn it. If I was installing a dryer port, I'd try to put it in a not overtly visible place as long as it didn't hurt its venting as, aesthetically, it would look better, IMHO, but my God, that's all the effort and thought I can put into it.
But I started typing to pick up on your spot on alcohol comments. I am not a heavy drinker at all, especially now as I've gotten older my capacity has shrunk and I hate feeling hung over (and don't want to beat up my liver), so two or three is my limit (two cocktails or three glasses of wine - woohoo!).
But I like, depending on how I feel or what I'm eating, wine, beer, straight alcohol or a mixed drink and I love sparkling wine (really love champagne, but my budget doesn't allow for that too often) and have seen dramatically different responses from friends and colleagues based on what I order when, the truth is, the next night, I might order something else. Even within each category, there's a snob-appeal hierarchy.
While I have a broad sense of alcohol's "social," "class" or "brow" hierarchy, like the dryer port, the minutia hurts my head and I don't care if someone judges me based on what I drink. I'm not saying I'm a "I don't give a damn what others think about me" person as I do care that, overall, people think I'm respectful, honest, practice reasonably good hygiene, etc., but if you are going to judge me because I drink beer not wine or sparkling wine not whiskey, then I have little interest in being your friend.
All that said, the biggest reaction I've gotten is to ordering sparkling wine (literally, for example, an $8 glass of sparkling when other wines on the menu are about the same, beer ranges from $5 - $10 and a cocktail is $10): It's like I've proclaimed I'm Thurston Howell the Third and no-one around me is worthy. It's happened repeatedly, as the flute it is served in and the bubbles are distinctive enough that, I think, regardless of price (see prior sentence), it is viewed as the most snobbish drink.
To wit, lyrics from Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman"
Well I ain't never
Been the barbie doll type
No I can't swig that sweet champagne
I'd rather drink beer all night
In a tavern or in a honky tonk...
Been the barbie doll type
No I can't swig that sweet champagne
I'd rather drink beer all night
In a tavern or in a honky tonk...
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