Baby P 2013 update: no developments, no news. Just waiting. Monday is the official due date (and we have an ob/gyn appointment Monday morning)…

Any Texan familiar with the way Bartolo Mascarello’s wines were previously distributed in the U.S. will join me in rejoicing: Bartolo Mascarello’s wines are now available in the Lone Star State!

I snapped the above photo yesterday at The Austin Wine Merchant (where we shop religiously).

We may now have one of the most restrictive reproductive rights policies in the U.S. (with just five Planned Parenthood clinics, all located east of I-35).

But the most liberal of Italian wines has now been unchained from the tyranny of the Oklahoma oilman who hoarded the stuff.

The disconnect between the staunchly conservative anti-trust platform who had exclusive access to these wines (the Oklahoma petroliere only allowed one NYC restaurant group to buy them, for example) and the liberal, communist-era ethos of the people who made and make these wines has always baffled me.

But the wine trade has always made for strange bedfellows.

I am glad (and relieved) however that a new generation of Texan wine professionals, enthusiasts, and lovers will be able to experience this icon, this benchmark of Italian viticulture.

*****

Caro Alberto, ti mando questo manoscritto perché tu mi dia un consiglio. È un romanzo, ma non è scritto come sono scritti i romanzi veri…

Dear Alberto, I’m sending you this manuscript to get your advice. It’s a novel, but it’s not written the way real novels are written…

(This cryptic allusion will not be lost on my capelloni sisters and brothers.)