I should get out more

“Total Wine” is a chain store with a branch here in Sarasota.

It’s a cool place with a huge selection of wines, and a well trained staff. It’s a good place to get a decent bottle of inexpensive “plonck”, or a very expensive bottle of the best Beaujolais or Rioja.

Even better, none of the staff are wine snobs. They give fine advice about all wines, from the cheapest to the most costly.

I stopped by the SRQ branch of Total Wine today to get some bottles of plonck-plus for a dinner party I am hosting a few days from now. The place was unusually busy. I wondered why.

Then I discovered that Dan Aykroyd was also planning to be there.

I am vaguely familiar with Dan Aykroyd as a minor star/celebrity/actor, but I had no pressing desire to meet him.

I suppose that I must be in a minority of one for here is what the Total Wine website had to say:

“Join founder of Crystal Head Vodka and actor Dan Aykroyd for an exclusive bottle signing of his award-winning vodka.

Produced in St. John's, Newfoundland, this spirit is created with pure ingredients and selected grains to give a creamy and slightly sweet finish. True to the name "spirits," the vodka is then purified through Herkimer Diamonds and packaged in a unique, skull-shaped bottle, inspired by the story of the 13 Crystal Skulls”.

A 750ml bottle of Crystal Head Vodka will set you back $44.99. 

But of course, you will be forking over most of this dough for the bottle.

Here is how it has been described.

The accurate glass rendering of a human skull was designed by artist John Alexander and the glass skull bottle is made by Bruni Glass in Milan, Italy.

Silly me. I missed the chance to get a bit of art by the “famous” John Alexander, signed by the even more “famous” Dan Aykroyd,

I need to “get a life”.

I should get out more.