It's certainly a red-letter day for Captain Puffy over at the new Boat De Jour blog.
Fresh off his win in Tillerman's Love and Sailing writing project, he has now won the Tillerman Painkiller Challenge which, confusingly enough, Tillerman actually had little to do with, other than drinking a lot of alcohol to provide us with the raw data for the competition.
The competition was intense, comprised of an international field of entrants. The judging was difficult and I hope not too controversial.
While the Challenge was named for the popular BVI drink, the Painkiller, I hope I made it clear that Tillerman's total gross consumption (or is that his gross, total consumption) of tropical drinks while on his BVI vacation was to be considered in calculating an answer. While one of the entrants, Pat, did exactly calculate the correct number of Painkillers (one), I think he was just trying to lowball the other competitors and got lucky.
I'm guessing Tillerman's room came with one of those free complimentary Painkillers and that his taste in rum drinks may lie elsewhere, so the one Painkiller was hardly an accurate representation of his overall lack of sobriety.
I'm therefore declaring Captain Puffy the official winner of the Tillerman Painkiller Competition. Captain, if you'll contact me via e-mail with your address, your prize will be shipped off to you.
And what is that prize?
That brings us to the photo at the top of the post - which you've probably noticed is not a Painkiller, at least not with a capital 'P'. It's a bottle of one of my favorite wines - a Bogle Petite Sirah - which happens to be a product of a winery located not far from my home town of Sacramento. I'm not one of those snooty oenophiles, but some of them have apparently been duly impressed by this wine and it has won several prizes at competitions that those snooty oenophiles get all excited about.
I should add that I was sufficiently impressed by Captain JP's enterprise in preparing an entry that I am awarding him a consolation prize for his efforts. Should our tracks ever cross, either here in the states or in London, I hereby offer to buy the first round.
And one final note about all of this alcohol business. Despite all of the above, I should note that I'm not much of a drinker. I certainly drink more rum when I'm in the BVI than I ever do at home. I'm one of those party-killing one-or-two-beers-and-an-occasional-glass-of-wine types and would encourage moderation and responsibility in things alcoholic.
And, as is often advised, especially at this time of year, if you drive, please don't drink.
If you drink, please don't blog.
.
This is getting a little scary. How did you know about our favorite wine? How did you know I was born in California? How did you know I am not a snooty oenophile? How did you know I have an address? You don't friends with black helicopters, do you?
ReplyDeleteWow, two contests in one day! I'm going to need a nap.
Thanks O Docker!
Greater than or equal to 5.6 cocktails a day. Not bad, I want to see some drink recipes. How about a nog and rhum one?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Kudos Mr. BDJ.
P.P.S "O" is the master of time and space. He knows, before he knows.
Some say the O is for Omniscient.
ReplyDeleteSome say it is for Oracle.
My wife says it's for Obtuse.
Uh-OH!
ReplyDeleteWas that bottle of Bogle on the kitchen counter a prize in some contest? Hope you won it and weren't thinking about giving it out.
It sure was smooth. Just what the doctor ordered after a tough day of giving and correcting finals.
Captain Puffy, my apologies. There may be a short delay in the shipping of your prize.
ReplyDeleteI'll need to raid the secret cache of Petite Sirah my wife doesn't know about.
Ta, O Docker, that sounds great!
ReplyDeleteBTW, for the greater good of the blogsphere can I suggest that there would be some entertainment value in a bit of drinking and blogging?
(btw first three letters of word verification were "bar")
And should also add don't blog and drive.
JP, your word verification further supports my theory that those are created by roomfuls of low-paid typists - hmm, that sounds like a newspaper, actually. Maybe that's where all of my former colleagues are ending up.
ReplyDeleteMaybe some can drink and blog. I can't even stay up late and blog. If I do, I end up with ridiculous posts like the one that created this challenge.
Looking forward to a meet, if we can ever arrange it.
JP-
ReplyDeleteI thought that drinking and blogging was a given (peanut butter and jelly).
So if Klove Hitch was giving and correcting final exams, that would indicate that she and I are in the same field, education, either secondary or post-secondary.
ReplyDeleteGee, we may have a LOT to talk about when we get together ... I wonder whether Honey Bunch is also a teacher?
Senior assisted living career by day, educating Capt. Puffy the rest of the time.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct, Carol Anne, Klove Hitch is an educator.
ReplyDeleteAs HB does with Captain P, she spends most of her time educating me.
In her spare time, she somehow manages to cram enough into the heads of 160 sugar-stoked, hormonally-unstable high school kids that none of them, as is today mandated by law, will be left behind.
For more than 25 years now, I have wondered how she does it.
My hat's off to Klove Hitch. I'm at a community college, where I teach mostly night classes. I get the ones that either didn't graduate from high school or graduated without learning anything. They've been out in the real world, they've discovered that they don't want to work minimum wage the rest of their lives, they've come back to school, and THEY'RE MOTIVATED!
ReplyDeleteI don't know what I'd do with 160 of them when the majority of them are there because they have to be, not because they want to be.
Oh, and sorry about not getting Honey Bunny's name quite right last time. I'll remember next time.
Guessing, smessing. I had a valid rationale and I'll stick with it.
ReplyDeleteI think Pat deserves a prize too. His answer was..
ReplyDeletea) factually correct in that the question was about "Painkillers" with a capital P.
b) perfectly accurate
c) with the entirely correct explanation for his answer.
Whereas Boat de Jour just made a lucky guess that's only approximately correct and his rationale is actually wrong in that I wasn't there for either one or two weeks. I was there for 10 days. In any case Boat de Jour says he prefers pinot noir.
Oh geesh, I should have expected this from racers.
ReplyDeleteI will not be pressured by two who are experienced at slippery maneuvering in the protest room.
As any racer should know, there are the racing rules and then there is the notice of race and both are to be taken together in determining how the race is run. While the original post did mention Painkillers, on 12/10/09 at 3:44 PM Pacific time, I added this in the comments page in response to a comment by Boat de Jour:
"...It's the total tally of tots actually taken by the tipsy tippler of Tiverton that will be compared to the contest entries, not the content of Tillerman's glass..."
The purpose of this alliterative comment was to avoid a narrow interpretation of the term 'Painkiller' and to clarify that computation should be broad and include any painkilling beverage. It is the responsibility of competitors to review all communication from the race committee.
Pat did not post his entry until 12/11/09, at 8:14 PM Pacific time, over 24 hours later than my clarification.
However, in the interest of maintaining peace and harmony with my readers, I shall extend to Pat the same consolation prize offered to JP. Should we meet, I hereby offer to buy the first round.
The choice of the prize was not arbitrary. I took this as an opportunity to disseminate knowledge throughout the sailblogging community of a local vineyard whose products may not be as well known outside this region as those of some Napa and Sonoma valley winemakers.
If you give a man a bottle of wine, he drinks for a day. If you teach him how to drink, he's drunk for the rest of his life.
I apologize for my ill-considered comment. Just another example of why blogging while drunk is not a good idea.
ReplyDeleteActually I think Mr Bogle's wine is quite widely distributed and well known in spite of his rather unfortunate name. I happened to see some of his products at my local wine merchant (in that well-known haunt of snooty oenophiles, Fall River MA) when I was stocking up the cellar ready for the expected onslaught from the vast (and rapidly expanding) hordes of the Tillerman Family in America expected later in the week.
I AM one of them snooty oenophiles. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us, Greg.
ReplyDeleteThis blog tries to appeal to the tastes of all social strata and to all levels of inebriation.