Author: teresafannin (Page 29 of 56)

Language can be obtuse. Labels can be insidious.

There was a time, at the beginning of the last century, after what was thought to be the ‘war to end all wars’, when we thought we could work together as sovereign nations. That was when President Woodrow Wilson came up with the idea of a League of Nations. Countries coming together in a meeting hall and discussing their problems, working out diplomatically border issues or trade issues. The League fell through, not in small part because the  United States Congress didn’t want to have anything to do with it. And, we had another war. And we started another group, the United Nations in 1946. A ‘grand alliance’ Winston Churchill called it.

And, this week in the Wall Street Journal the Saudi government said, “Allowing the ruling regime in Syria to kill and burn its people by the chemical weapons, while the world stands idly, without applying deterrent sanctions against Damascus regime, is also irrefutable evidence and proof of the inability of the Security Council to carry out its duties and responsibilities,” said the Saudi statement. And, so they declined, the Saudis, NOT wanting to be part of the Security Council of the U.N. in a two year non-permanent members. Originally there were seven, the five permanent and two rotating, or non-permanent. There are now fifteen members of the Security Council, the five are permanent and can veto any resolution. The only change, really, from 1946, is that China, or the Republic of China [Formosa] has been replaced with the Peoples Republic of China, a move from an island to a the mainland. These were the victors, who always write the books.

Diplomatic language is a way of saving face, of skirting issues to solve them. It always is a way to stymie and forestall action. Say what you will about the Saudi government, that it can be repressive, and non-democratic, but at least it was neither obtuse or insidious. It said the ’emperor has no clothes.’ That the U.N. is not effective in meeting it’s goals, that it has become a political player. All, sadly, too true…

So. It’s done. The conference is over and wow! It is not the amount of work. It’s not the faculty. It’s not the venue.  It is the stuff.

To come to the conference we bring LCD projectors, print rows of name badges and labels. We copy forms and informational sheets and bookstore items and handouts for the speakers. We bring gift bags for faculty.  We bring baskets for the books and for the First Pages. We have signs to direct participants to the baskets, the critiques and reviews and registration. We have folders full of the handouts, the informational sheets, the bookstore items and the schedule. We even have a huge banner for our chapter!

We write scripts for our panels and for our conference narrator chatter. We go to a good hotel, staffed by caring, hardworking people. We try to have something where almost everyone, okay, okay, it should be everyone, but seriously? We try to have take-aways for as many as we can.

But the big deal isn’t any of that. The biggest deal is the expectations. :-). There are those who nod knowingly and talk about managing expectations. Or, suggest this little tweak here, or that little tweak there, and all will blossom into the most perfect of alignments, a spectacular conference. Personally, I like the glitches, the hangups, the issues. They mean that the conference can’t run itself. It needs all of us, those who volunteer for this duty, this job, this vocation.

I should have pictures, but I don’t. I was having so much fun, enjoying myself, it was like the last ten or so years were just erased, that I forgot to memorialize the time together. I think FaceBook and Twitter make us think we have to do this. I’m sure before there was Social Media, not as many people took pictures, candid yet posed, to show off to family and friends. But now, I guess, you’re supposed to remember to do that. LOL, it was like the time I came in by boat to the White Cliffs of Dover and I watched and forgot to take pictures. Just like that.

So it was a great weekend, time with friends we could have lost and thankfully have not! So today we proceeded to the event that was our raison d’être for this week in Kentucky–the Bourbon Trail. Is it a gimmick? Yes. Is it hokey? Well, sort of. But still, marketing aside, how many people know exactly how and why the spirit [alcoholic drink]  known as Bourbon, is the national American drink? Did you know it’s regulated by law? Just like champagne must be grown in Champagne France, or like the coffee beans must be grown in a twenty mile by two mile side of the hill in Hawaii to be called Kona, in order for a whiskey to be called Bourbon it must meet several requirements. It must be made in the US. It must be made from a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn. It must be aged in new charred oak barrels. It must be no more than 160 proof or 80% alcohol by volume. It must enter the barrel for aging at no more than 125 proof or 62.5% alcohol by volume. And it must be bottled at 80 proof or more (40% alcohol by volume. We started with the distillery that is the oldest, longest running [yes, even through the thirteen years of Prohibition] in the entire United States.

As a side note, Bushmills, operating in County Antrim, [yes, part of the UK] was already over two hundred years old when the distillery that is Buffalo Trace was begun. But I digress. While we tend to think of Kentucky as the only place to make bourbon, that’s not true. It’s made in Tennessee, Michigan, California, Illinois, lots of places. That’s not to say it’s good, just that it’s made.

So, before I toddle off to sleep.. Bourbon is named after a county that is named after the French royal family, house of. It can be aged four years or twenty four years. It ages more aggressively in the heat and actually has a hot after taste. And, it’s bright amber golden color comes from the charred oak. By law, nothing can be added to the mixture, if they do, they can’t call it bourbon, it is just plain old whiskey!