> Do people need to 'learn' about
> chicken? About steak?

Well, yes, actually. Ever eaten chicken made by somebody who could
stand to learn about chicken?? More to the point, cooks =do= have to
learn about spices and herbs and seasonings and accompaniments.

> then why do it with
> wine?

Because there are few kinds of chicken, a few more kinds of meat, but
lots of kinds of wine. I bet you could list a hundred different kinds
of wine from Italy alone, off the top of your head.

> It is only because Americans have grown up up in a
> Puritanical society, in which allcohol is viewed as an evil, that there
> is any reason to be unfamiliar with wine drinking.

Probably true. In Europe people learn about wine too, they just start
younger, and by the time they are of salary age, they already know
enough. Americans aren't that lucky, and we have to make up for it.

> Talking heads on infomercials tell us...

That part is all about money. We don't need makeup either, but girls
are taught (falsely) that they look ugly without them.

> People are told everything except
> that they have a brain of their own

Where's the profit in that kind of revolutionary thinking?

> You don't need to be 'educated' about wine

Well, if you already know about wine, that is true. If you don't, then
that is false.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.