Wine Racks and Idle Sophistry
Nothing is more indicative of a person than his or her tastes. Agreed? The person who will absolutely never eat vegetables. The one who will absolute not eat anything else than what he or she knows from home. The person who keeps strictly kosher, as compared to the one who only observes the major aspects of kashrut.
Consider, then, not an individual person but a whole people. Consider, indeed, whole peoples, plural, whole cultures as compared against one another. The Chinese are infamous for eating just about anything that can be eaten. (Amongst themselves they say of Southerners that they eat everything with four legs except tables and chairs!) And indeed cannibalism has even been officially sanctioned, such as when State of Qin ruler Fu Deng ordered his troops to feed upon their slaughtered enemies due to the surrounding region undergoing famine and drought – at the time, armies routinely lived off the countryside.
So a resourceful people, then, a hardy people who will shirk from no misery, one which misfortune cannot keep from the will to live, by any means necessary. Is it any surprise that such a civilization should have produced one of the greatest cuisines in the world, widely recognized for both ingenuity and variety of taste?
On the other hand, Europeans have traditionally been more adept at creating new varieties of alcoholic beverages than food. What to deduce of such a culture, one that is not only given over to routine intoxication but which even celebrates it – often, even daily?
Idle sophistry and speculation, yes, but the sort of conversation that comes from having wine racks. For in enjoying a drink one comes upon the most marvelous fancies and trains of thought! And the more outrageous the wine racks the better; imaginative designs stir the imagination all the more. No one thinks of wine racks as conversational pieces, as conversation-starters, but with enough wine and a creative enough design there is no telling where good friends may wind up!