Stephen Colbert apparently loved the recent paper that finds that 83% of people can not tell the difference between dog food and pate.

Great work by the authors - Robin Goldstein and John Bohannon.   And check out Robin’s new blog, Blind Taste.  It is worth a read.

This is not exactly wine related, but are things really so bad that JoS. A. Bank Clothiers is offering a “Risk-free suit”?

Yes, you heard it right, JoS. A. Bank is promising to return your money if you buy a suit during their current sale and then lose your job in the 4 months or so. Sure, things are tough.  We can confirm for you that advertising rates are falling through the floor.  But this bad?  Really?

These sure are troubling times.  The economy is in the toilet, jobs are being lost in massive waves, and people have started using the internet equivalent of the sandwich board asking for jobs.

Now more than ever (or at least since 1982), people are trying to be careful with their money.   And we think we can help.When I shop for anything these days, I tend to keep more to items I know.  I am less willing to take a risk on a brand I am unfamiliar with, because I just can’t waste money on something untested.

But I still do not have time to research a drink.  And I am going to buy wine, let’s face it.   Winescorecard can help with that - our recommendation engine helps to improve the quality of your wine selections even when you are buying an unfamiliar brand or varietal.

So get better wine for you money and learn from your past mistakes.  In this economy, we can all use a little help getting more for our hard work.

There are not too many states that have more arcane liquor laws than Pennsylvania where you can buy beer at the beer store (but only by the case) and liquor and wine at the state-owned liquor store.  It is a system that was originally designed to make buying alcohol inconvenient, and it certainly excels at that.

So, now there is news that the PLCB is spending $173,000 to train their employees to be nice to their customers.   We live in PA, and we can honestly say that the state stores are dramatically better than they were 10 years ago.  But that doesn’t change the fact that they shouldn’t exist at all.

That said, they could use a bit of training on how to be nice to people.  Certainly if I owned the stores, I would want them to treat the customers a bit better.

What do you think?  Is this a total waste of money?

Cork’d, one of our “competitors” (like we are really competing, huh!) got hacked today. Kudos for them handling it so well.