oh you crazy MA people.

Grocery stores in GA sell beer and wine, but not on Sundays. We shop on Sundays, which is probably good for the budget, waistline, and general level of boozing it up in the house, but it can be annoying.

Jamaican Musher to Compete in Iditarod

The Iditarod dogsled race begins this Saturday in Anchorage, Alaska and spans 1,100 miles. 27-year-old Newton Marshall is among the 70 entrants and will represent his home country, Jamaica. Marshall used to train in Jamaica on a wheeled sled pulled by stray dogs from the local shelter. He now trains in Alaska with world-class sled dogs.

Singer Jimmy Buffett is among Marshall’s strongest supporters. “He’s absolutely a hero to kids in Jamaica,” Buffett said.

Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurants are key sponsors for Marshall’s dog-sled team, and the famed songwriter says he did not hesitate to back Marshall after learning of his story. Buffett first heard of the Jamaican after meeting Danny Melville, who runs a family-owned tour business in Jamaica where Marshall was employed as a guide.

“I thought from the beginning it was just very cool what he was doing,” Buffett said. “I thought it was so far out there, but it made people smile when they heard about it.”

Grocery stores in GA sell beer and wine, but not on Sundays. We shop on Sundays, which is probably good for the budget, waistline, and general level of boozing it up in the house, but it can be annoying.

When I lived in Atlanta I used to work until near midnight on Sundays, and when I'd stop at the local convenience store on the way home, there'd be a line waiting for the clock to tick over to Monday.

Grocery stores in GA sell beer and wine, but not on Sundays.

Groceries and convenience stores sell beer and wine here in Virginia, but I don't know if they sell them on Sunday. I should go try to buy a beer and find out.

eta Blue laws are weird.

Blue laws that mean you can sell at 12:01 Monday morning are really weird. Did no one in the legislature ever have a 21st birthday??

IIRC in NC you could buy wine and beer in the grocery store on Sundays after 12:00. Which occasionally led to us dilly-dallying around the grocery store at 11:45.

I also find blue laws weird, but I suppose that's because I never grew up with them. Plus I never understood how they would stop one from drinking on Sunday since in theory one could just purchase one's booze ahead of time and keep it in the house.

Huh. I'm wondering how often the way we drink is modeled on our own parents. Like when I think of my parents' drinking patterns, my dad didn't like alcohol and rarely drank it at all, my mom usually had a beer while she cooked and ate dinner and that's about it. And now I usually have a glass of wine while I cook and over dinner.

I don't think we have any blue laws here. We buy beer and wine in the grocery store, 7-11, wherever. When I am in NY it annoys me to have to make a special trip to buy wine.

I think you could be right about that, Burrell -- my parents are not big drinkers at all, and I'm the same way. My mom could never drink because of her medications, and for my dad drinking was a special occasion thing, if you were out for dinner or at a party. So I've never been in the habit of drinking regularly, although I've developed a taste for a good cold beer in the summer, and wine with some meals, and the occasional mixed drink on a weekend.