wordplay
by Kevin Fahy
Stealing Time
In a 1937 cartoon for The New Yorker magazine, James Thurber skewered wine lovers and critics in his usual pitch-perfect voice. It showed the host of a dinner party saying to his guests, “It’s a naive domestic burgundy with no breeding, but I think you’ll be amused by its presumption.”
One of our magazines actually includes some wine reviews from time to time, and I always hear Thurber whenever I read about a wine that has a “flinty nose,” leading to an “elegant structure” with a “layered, spicy, petulant depth,” plus a “hint of mango” and “pear notes.” Petulant? Really?
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