Whipped Cream Difficulties

By way of Radley Balko, we found an interesting Slate article; wine expert Michael Broadbent is suing author Benjamin Wallace for allegedly libeling Broadbent in his book, The Billionaire’s Vinegar. I’ve read (and recommend) Wallace’s book; the Slate article gives a pretty good short summary of the whole Jefferson’s wines fraud. My opinion is that Wallace doesn’t libel Broadbent; he makes Broadbent look careless, but not criminal.

In other news, the Williamson County Attorney has decided that letting a waitress fondle your patrol rifle in the parking lot of a restaurant is not a crime. At least, not if you’re cops visiting from another county. Twin Peaks is right around the corner from work; I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve heard it described as “Hooters without the class”. (Personally, I would apply that description to Bone Daddy’s.) For once, I find myself agreeing with the Williamson County establishment; I couldn’t see what the criminal conduct was when this story first broke. Bad taste? Poor judgment? Sure. A crime? Not as long as she wasn’t pointing it at anyone or making threats.

Edited to add: Our friend James points us to a second article from MyWestTexas.com. According to this article, one of the five deputies was fired, three were suspended for three days without pay, and one was issued a letter of reprimand. Even better, this article includes a photo of the waitress and the patrol rifle.

Edited to add 2: Our great and good friend Commvault Bryan points out that The Smoking Gun is now on top of the story, complete with legal documents, a larger version of the photo, and the fascinating tidbit that the waitress uses the name “Bambi”. Seriously, “Bambi”. If I put that into a work of fiction, my editor would reject it as implausible.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Books, Clippings, Food, Mixology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.