Tom Wolfe’s first try at dressing for NASCAR

“I thought I’d better try to fit in, so I very carefully picked out the clothes I’d wear. I had a knit tie, some brown suede shoes and a brown Borsalino hat with a half-inch of beaver fur on it. Somehow I thought this was very casual and suitable for the races. I guess I’d been reading too many P. G. Wodehouse novels.”

— Tom Wolfe, recalling (for interviewer Chet Flippo) his sartorial naivete when undertaking “The Last American Hero is Junior Johnson. Yes!” for Esquire magazine (1965)

Analyses of North Carolina Wines

The only true “analyses” of North Carolina wines I’ve ever done is the drinking kind. Titration tubes, Erlenmeyer flasks, and specific gravity sort of scare me–or at least the grades I got in my college chemistry labs scared me. So, I think I’ll just stick to the tasting of NC’s vino. However, I found the following analyses of NC wines by F. P. Venable (former president of UNC) and W. B. Phillips (a former professor at UNC) while looking for something else. It dates from 1888, so I don’t think that any of the state’s current crop of vintners is represented, but there is a discussion of the scuppernong “and the closely related vines–the Mish or Meish and Bulay.” Pop the cork and enjoy…