I cracked open the Thunderbird. Just so everyone’s clear on the concept, the challenge here is not the alcohol. I did the math earlier, and a 750 ml bottle of 17.5% alcohol wine is equivalent to about seven and a half shots. Respectable, but not particularly impressive.

No, the challenge is the vile FLAVOR of this stuff.  It tastes like something from an oil refinery; it’s not fermented, it’s made by fractional distillation. And the aftertaste is worse.

Updates to follow…

I must reluctantly move the Gallo Thunderbird Tribute to tomorrow night. I’m just not about to dump a bottle of the cheapest possible booze into a stomach full of greasy Mexican food. Hey, I have SOME sense of self-preservation.

As you may have heard, Ernest Gallo died this week.

We here at The Unforgiving Minute strongly believe in honoring greatness, and few are more worthy than the intrepid Mr. Gallo. Ernest and his also-dead brother Julio built a thriving commercial empire by catering to that timeless, iconic figure, the Great American Wino. So I can think of no more perfect way to pay my respects than by drinking a bottle of Mr. Gallo’s most perfect product, Thunderbird, the king if wino wines, tomorrow night.

What’s more, I’m going to (attempt to) liveblog it. And I’m inviting all of you to join in. Go out and buy a bottle of Thunderbird (try looking at the trashiest liquor store you can find; I have to drive to the edge of Detroit to get a bottle) and assist me in saluting the late, great Ernest Gallo. I’ll have my IM client up and running, so if you want to offer encouragement and inquire as to the status of my liver, direct your messages to unforgivingmin (AIM) or theunforgivingminute (Yahoo).

What’s the word? Thunderbird!

Tonight, we’re getting tore up on hand sanitizer!

Best part of the story: “A usually calm 49-year-old prisoner prompted a call to the Maryland Poison Control Center after guards found him red-eyed, combative and ‘lecturing everyone about life.’”

H/T to pdb.

Seventy-three years ago today, the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified, bringing an end to our long national nightmare.

I’ll drink to that.

If you read pdb’s blog last night, you know he had a few drinks.

Towards the end, he hit on a brilliant new marketing strategy for his business. Being a good friend, I encouraged him to give it a shot. Here’s the result.

Drunkenness is the ruin of reason. It is premature old age. It is temporary death. - St. Basil

Today marked the official start of Super Extra Happy Family Fun Season. I’ll be spending more time with my family over the next month than I do during the other 11 combined. In light of that distressing fact, today I was most thankful for this:

Damn, it’s just about time for another trip to the local Booze-O-Rama. It’ll be Sauza Hornitos next time; I’m not particularly crazy about 1800.

I’m also thankful that pdb arm-twisted me into starting my humble little blog. pdb, I salute you thusly:

Hmm, that makes two blatantly sexist sexy picture posts in two days. Could we be witnessing the start of a new trend?

Eh, probably not.