Beyond Red & Blue

If you ever think of a joke, don't say it

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is in trouble for dissing an industry she might not have known was in her state, as the AP reported:

She was in Washington state Tuesday for a fund raiser for a fellow Democratic governor, Chris Gregoire, who made a point of praising her state's wines.

A Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist later reported Sebelius' reply, meant as a jest.

"You should be thankful we don't make wine in Kansas," Sebelius said. "If you ever see Kansas wine, don't drink it."

But Sebelius is now drinking the Kool-Aid from her state's vineyards:

"She ... made a poor attempt at humor but says she won't do that again," [spokeswoman Nicole] Corcoran said.

Gov. Patrick had better think twice before making any jokes about seemingly inconceivable Massachusetts products. (Is there caviar from Cape Cod? Does the town of Florida really grow oranges?) Surely he's already familiar with our blueberry and cranberry wines. And our vineyards don't have corny puns in their names.

 

Red steak vs. blue sushi

Via Andrew Sullivan, here is a report on the blog Urbanspoon that finds a correlation between sushi restaurants and Democratic votes in big cities. Of course, cities that have more sushi than steak (Iike Boston) tend to be ocean ports, so proximity to major bodies of water could still be more important than food preferences in determining partisan leanings.