(Who has become more kind and gentle, the newly defenseless Vikes or the Vulcan Royalty?) Read below and then whats in the Notes From The Beat Department, and you could make a call? Not unnecessary roughing).
You never want to talk at length to the guy at the bar whose had a couple too many, correct? But sometimes, someone a little less tipsy there can really have something to say, including about the politics of the day. So www.HudsonWiNightlife makes one of its rare trips into actual social commentary:
This information was given to me across the threshhold in my driveway just prior to the PepperFest beer-drinking itself. A man who was a mainstay with the festival parade, and staying with friends who are very big into the PepperFest royalty and related activities, was looking for a way to round out the time the night before it all started. He expressed interest in an old Cadillac that I had agreed to house in my driveway for an acquaintance, to take advantage of all the foot traffic from potential buyers.
What evolved from that was a primer given to me on the NEW kinder, gentler Vulcans, taking a far different approach to the longtime, traditional smudging of womens’ cheeks with their painted faces — even if some of those many chosen ones are reluctant — across the various summer festivals to which they are typically invited, and their parades. These days, he said, the Vulcans have needed to ask first if such marking could be made to women taking in the parades at the curb, and even then, they have limited it to placing stickers on the cheeks of the willing. That’s far different than the approach taken in some St. Paul bars where servers wearing shorts were expected to let a Vulcan do the “garter” dance on their legs and raise the ringed cloth dangerously close to their crotches. You could tell they were uneasy with how far up is too far, and a friend of mine became at the center of the controversy when she alleged she was sexually assaulted during such an escapade.
And on a different side of the spectrum, there was the guy I met before last call who describes himself as a lower-case-R republican and a capital L Libertarian. (Oddly enough, that’s the same characterization given by a longtime friend of mine and downtown patron). The former man was all about the right to bear arms, and to protect his property from looters under the so-called “Castle” law, but said actually firing such a weapon should always be only a last resort. He cited a recent shooting that made national news that could have been avoided if the man firing the gun had simply brandished it, as a method of deterrence, and said to the alleged perpetrator to back off from the disagreement they had, which involved a shove. My new bud, with me being mostly liberal, also said that sometimes simply seeing that a firearm exists on a person’s hip — when talking about conceal and carry — can lead to an altercation by a do-gooder who raises an issue after seeing it, subjecting the carrier to unnecessary harassment that could be avoided. But back to the guy telling the tale: Contrary to what you might think, he is all for universal health care available to everyone, no matter that there might be sacrifices needed by some of the well-to-do for that to be accomplished, and other causes that you wouldn’t necessarily equate to conservatism. But I agreed with everything this man said.