Wine is a GREAT thing. :D I'd never heard of Veuve Clicquot before I read Sunshine, as my (economical) tastes were limited to the alphabetical beginning of the champagne section: Andre, Ballatore. (The morning after a night with these fine selections continues the pattern, interestingly: Cranky, Dehydrated, Explosive emissions...) I should've started at the end!

Also, now I want to hear more about all your travels.

I went with A. to one of his philosophy lectures last semester. The prof was a pragmatist who'd moved to our area from NYC loong ago when a lot of the roads near campus were still (he says) cow paths. I was never very interested in philosophy until that lecture, he was fascinating. It also didn't hurt that he has a massive home library and let us (students and lucky spouses/tag-a-longs?) run around in it with wine and cheese as an end-of-semester treat. I did not swoon. Not quite.

Okay, not in view of the prof.