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In article >, says...
>
>Poor Joe Phelps has to operate on only a 500% mark up-----did one of his
>construction jobs go sour?
>
> I had reservations for Mustards(1984? 49er won super bowl) when the lady
>giving the tour asked me if I want to have potluck dinner with Joe. I said
>sure, thinking one day I'd do a book. Well I got there and Joe wasn't there
>but I was kibitzing with some ladies who worked on the crew, dinner was for
>the all the workers, cellar rats, tour guides. About half way through the
>meal when people got up to grab a new dish, I saw the lady who invited me
>ask the two ladies adjacent to me to find another seat. We had a very nice
>talk and had a nice time afterwards.
>
>I was flying the next day--after all I was 5-6 with a 56inch waist, food
>stains on my shirt, a scraggily beard, long hair. I was not anyone's prize.
>The lady was an attractive pr person, so I new Parker but I stayed clear of
>his business just passing along messages like" he(Parker) didn't review my
>cab, why?I" Other then a rather spare compilation of my ratings on wines
>tasted 1978-1982 that sold in the low teens, I was of no use to the Phelps,
>the store I worked for had limited allocations of Eisele, Backus & Insignia
>and the owner did not buy the rest of line in protest. Almost all the time I
>had to forgo wines allocated at 1/2-2 cases. The store would rather
>allocated wines go to customer & not down my gullet. But when my
>appointment was setup by the wholesaler, it was made clear that I was just
>weekend help and not the buyer. They were left to find out for themselves
>how loaded and insignifigent I was at that time.
>
>Anyway, thanks to my new friend I got to have dinner with the lady, her kids
>& Bruce Neyers in a French nouvelle place near Fisherman's walk.
>
>Nothing ever came of the relationship--I wrote and called a few times but I
>was yesterdays news. I never found out what that dinner & later stops were
>about. In no way I was a Norman Mailer when I talked. I was 150% about wine
>& food, food, and food to other people and an a one trick pony after all.
[SNIP]
So-o-o, you got to write a chapter for that book after all, albeit a different
chapter, than the one you had intended... ;-)

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