Along a rail trail – Abuses of Oregon liquor control – McDonald’s embarrassing ad – Evening statistics
Today I went with the Capital Hiking Club on the Torrey Brown Rail Trail. The trail is flat (not quite flat, however – it has a very gentle grade in places so that in the course of 14½ miles it ascends 200 feet, but certainly flat enough so that its rise is scarcely noticeable), and I suppose that is why, unusually for a CHC hike, it was rather sparsely attended. It is shame, actually, for the hike is much more interesting than I remembered it to be. I have not been on it since the pandemic began, and indeed since well before the beginning of the pandemic. The trail, as the name indicates, goes along the track of a defunct railway, in this case one that connected farms in northern Maryland to York, PA in order to transport their produce. It does not intersect any other trails but there is a quantity of quiet country roads that go across the path. Many parts of the trail recall an era that, if not simpler, was at any rate different: a time when agriculture provided a greater amount of the GNP than it does now, when transport by railroad was the fastest way of getting from one point to another, and when the few cars to be seen on the roads were still regarded as toys for the wealthy. We were fortunate in our weather as well. During the past few days the sky has been cloudy and dun-colored, but today was very sunny, with air like crystal and a few slight snow-white clouds emphasizing the bright azure surrounding them. Our timing was fortuitous; during the bus ride home the clouds began to thicken and cover the sun, while the forecast for the following day is one of unrelenting rain.
The Oregon Department of Justice is opening a criminal investigation of Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) following an internal investigation that concluded that OLCC officials were diverting rare, sought-after bourbons, which can cost thousands of dollars per bottle, for personal use. The officials appear to have routed limited bottles of top-shelf bourbon to a liquor store, often in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie where the commission headquarters is located, and would reserve them for pickup later. This process, which would appear to be fairly risky to an outsider, can actually be performed with surprising ease. Oregon is one of 17 states known as a “control state,” in which the government operates either the wholesaling and/or retailing of distilled spirits in the state. Nearly all the liquor the state receives goes to a single warehouse, from which it is then distributed to various retailing outlets, known as “contract stores,” that are operated by state-appointed liquor agents.
The officials claim that they were paying for the liquor that they acquired; but if so, they were not paying market prices. Bourbon has had a boom in popularity during the pandemic of almost unprecedented proportions. Since, by definition, 15- and 20-year old bourbons cannot be manufactured overnight, the prices for these in particular have skyrocketed. In a state that imposes uniform government-mandated markups, a bottle of bourbon that might be worth $2,000 on the secondary (illegal) market is selling for $100–200 dollars in a state-run store. Inevitably, the rush to obtain these bottles is enormous and creates ideal conditions for insider jobs and abuses of power. Oregonians are well-aware of this state of affairs. They have attempted to privatize their state liquor system on several occasions, including most recently in 2022, when a voter initiative was aborted before making it onto the ballot.
McDonald’s has had a bit of a a mishap concerning one of its ads at a bus stop in Cornwall, England, for “McCrispy.” a sandwich consisting of a patty of chicken dipped in batter and deep-fried, accompanied with shredded lettuce and mayonnaise sauce on a soft potato bun. The placement of the ad was somewhat unfortunate: the bus stop in question is directly opposite the Penmount Crematorium. Several of the locals found this contretemps quite amusing, although, as one of them pointed out, it was “no worse than our local council entertaining the idea of allowing a crematorium to be built next door to a retirement village,”
Today’s statistics as of 9:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 677,425,583; # of deaths worldwide: 6,781,871; # of cases U.S.: 104,764,296; # of deaths; U.S.: 1,140,015.