I helped two friends run a booth for two or three years running at the San Francisco Festa Italiana during the 1980's when I was in the wine business and they were trying to make their mortgage payment publishing a wine magazine for the restaurant trade. They were often sent Italian wines, good ones, to evaluate for their magazine and they'd save the extra bottles to sell at this event, selling wine for $3 to $5 a glass. Understand that these were good sized glasses of expensive wine and anyone buying it for resale would have had to charge the same price, it's just my friends got it free and could pocket the entire amount. I and two other friends volunteered to help, a contribution to the cause, and we had a good time talking up the crowd and checking out the other exhibits during breaks. There was a jury rigged wine bar at the Jack London event today and people were buying, although I didn't check their wines or their prices. Be nice to think someone else was financing another impossible adventure at $6 a pop.

Better to stop this now. I'm dry and I need a drink.