Alcohol bafflement [was SC - whats an inn?]

[Anne-Marie Rousseau]

Hi all from Anne-Marie
in Washington State (definately not the bible belt, unless you go East of
the mountains, and then its another planet! :)), we have very strict laws
regarding alcohol. Primarily, in my opinion, due to the litigeous nature of
todays society. If they tell you cant do something, and you do it anyway
and get hit by a bus, you can still sue, but the judge is more likely to
say "you goofus! they told you not to do that!!". This is the state where
if you're in a bar and drink too much and go out and run over someone in
your car, the BAR and bartender can get sued for providing the alcohol to
you--and you the drunk guy could win. Stupid but true. 

Parks often will declare a no-alcohol policy for many reasons, especially
if they're in the city...
1. no booze means that if a drunken party starts they can kick you out
BEFORE damage is done, rather than waiting for some other major rule
infraction to occur
2.no booze means they dont have to worry about minors drinking...cuz no one
can
3. no booze means no beer bottles and empty 1/5th lying about. Sure,
there's still soda cans, but people tend not to chug cherry coke in quite
the same way.
4. no booze TENDS to mean quieter revelry, which means happier neighbors
which means passed bond initiatives which means the rangers get that really
cool new riding lawnmower...
5. no booze means cheaper insurance, which means that maybe, just maybe the
ranger can get paid more than minimum wage! I said maybe...:)

Hey, it's their property. And reallly, at least here in Madrone, there's a
lot less drinking than there used to be, so dry sites arent that much of an
issue. I wouldnt want to hold a crown event at a dry site, but for small
local events, its not an issue. 

And for feasts, which is the reason we're even talking about this at all,
MOST places, even the bone arid dry ones, if you ASK THEM AHEAD OF TIME and
assure them that the stuff is only gonna be in the kitchen and you'll pack
out your empties and assure them that it wont be a drunken baccanallian
orgy are cool. And if not, you can always boil the wine at home first
(thereby "dealcoholizing" it enough for park rules, anyway. Again, make
sure they know you'd like to do this. No suprises!)

- --AM
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