Thorstein Veblen: Hater in the House

A guest post by Junior

"Drunkenness and the other pathological consequences of the free use of stimulants therefore tend in their turn to become honorific, as being a mark, at the second remove, of the superior status of those who are able to afford the indulgence."

Thorstein Veblen, "Theory of the Leisure Class"

Although I'm proud to participate in a certain type of hating, I'm not going to stand idle while Thorstein Veblen trash talks two of our great passions: whiskey and baseball. Veblen's theory is that all consumption is a public display of our social position. He would argue that this blog is an effort to impress upon the reader, through our references to expensive whiskeys and leisure time spent at Fenway, that we are members of the powerful ruling class.

I would argue the opposite. In my opinion, the value of these two past times is that they allow us to forget about our own selfish concerns and join us with others in a community. When it comes to sport or whiskey, we allow ourselves to get swept away. Certain people I meet can't understand why I would scream at Rudy Seanez through the TV screen when he hangs a curve ball over the fat part of the plate, or why a win or a loss can change my whole outlook on the day. I'm glad it can, and I enjoy giving a damn about something I have no control over.

In addition, both whiskey and sport give us something we can talk passionately about with a complete stranger. Instead of establishing caste, these tastes actually cut across social and economic barriers. A knowledge of the Sox and single malts goes a long way in this town, and can put you in the good graces of some intimidating company, from the professor to the foreman.



And now on to more important subject matter: rye. I've become a huge fan of this variety of whiskey in the last six months or so. Pops is right, we've discovered the majority of the great single malts. Sure a number of unusual bottlings exist, but part of what I loved about malts was finding them for the first time. Rye whiskey is just beginning to pop up in Boston. Bars rarely carry more than a couple of bottles, if any, and the selections rarely overlap. American ryes are often dark and peppery, similar to a Canadian whiskey, but with more distinctions between distilleries and bottlings. They have a spicy flavor and drink like bourbon, but without the caramel sweetness. To be considered a rye, the whiskey mash needs to be 51 percent rye, but there are a couple of 100 percent ryes out there: Old Potrero and Rittenhouse. These are fabulous. Much softer, with a real taste of the grain. Typically I find these priced similarly to bourbon, which is also an advantage, because you can try the best without breaking the bank.

Yesterday I enjoyed a Guinness at the ball park, while watching Josh Beckett mow down the Mariners. Now that's conspicuous consumption we can all agree on.