Ralph's grocery store was my one-stop-shop for my sister-in-law's birthday. On a Sunday even- I got Cuervo 1800, a birthday card, and a gift bag. The only thing they didn't have was tissue paper (shouldn't a store that has gift bags also sell tissue paper? Right next to the gift bags, maybe? Extra few bucks with every gift bag purchase? Silly humans) so I had to use fancy paper napkins.

That's just crazy.

Didja notice Duane Reade sells beer now?

I am one of the cool kids now. Fraudulent charges on my Citibank Mastercard number.

I am one of the cool kids now. Fraudulent charges on my Citibank Mastercard number.

Um... woo-hoo?

Did you figure out how they got your number?

One of the cool things about Illinois is our governor's name. The newspapers usually abbreviate it to 'Blaggo.'

His website used to have a little icon that spelt it phonetically to answer the rhetorical question "How do you say that name, anyway?"

Growing up in Illinois, I thought that you could get all sorts of booze at the grocery stores/liquor stores at all times of the day or night, and was surprised by my sister's reports of Washington state's state-run liquor stores.

I am one of the cool kids now. Fraudulent charges on my Citibank Mastercard number.

Having BTDT, I say, "Yay, ita?" Did you catch them early, at least?

Liquor laws are among the weirdest laws out there. In Georgia, you can't buy wine by mail unless you've actually been to the winery. You can buy beer and wine in grocery stores and minimarts, except on Sunday, but liquor is only sold in package stores. For a long time, you had to be able to physically separate beer and wine from hard liquor, leading to some rather odd floor plans that still linger. In Tennessee, you can't buy beer anywhere that sells wine or liquor, so beer is sold in grocery stores, but not wine, and wine is sold in liquor stores, but not beer.

Speaking of beer, Michael Jackson's last column was about cheating death [link]

Growing up in Illinois, I thought that you could get all sorts of booze at the grocery stores/liquor stores at all times of the day or night, and was surprised by my sister's reports of Washington state's state-run liquor stores.

Both of our local grocery stores were in Wheaton so we had to buy our booze at the liquor store until the mid eighties.

Add me to the list of peeps glad they are able to get booze in the grocery store. I feel like a criminal or something when I have to go to the booze stores in other states. It's weird.

Florida you can only buy hard liquor at the package store, there's one with a drive thru here. Actually it closed and then reopened under new ownership becuase the new owners thought the town still needed the Beer Barn.

At the grocery store and convienence store you can buy beer, wine, and wine cooler type drinks (including Jack Daniels brand and Smirnoffs). But not after 2 am. But some grocery stores, like Albertson's have a liquor store attached to them (but not all Albertsons).

We're relatively close to the Florida/Georgia line and right before the line there's a liquor store -- you can't buy alcohol on Sundays in Georgia.