wondering about reidel o wine glasses

Milud, While we've got your attention (and while we're engaging in a bit of jingoistic teasing) might I ask: WTF is going on in the America's Cup competition? It's not entirely surprising that US can win one once in a while, but really... Switzerland, a landlocked country? And where are the Kiwis in all this?

Just askin' Mark Lipton

st.helier wrote on Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:18:47 +1300:

I'm afraid, Milord, that proper English is that of the majority and guess who they are! :-)

"Mark Lipton" asked of His Lordship......

Long story - I am not totally surprised that you (and 99.9% of Americans) have absolutely no idea what is going on!

Holder (Alinghi of Switzerland) - crewed by mainly NZers, lured by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli's million Euro pay cheques (checks to you :-))) - attempted to change the 160year old rules of the contest.

Larry Ellison (software magnate squillionaire) took the case to the NY Supreme Court (final arbiter as set down in the original Deed of Gift)

After spending something like $50M each on legal bitching, a regatta was ordered (by the aforementioned NY Supreme Court) - comprising two only competitors, sailing on racing multihulls - each costing in the order of another $50M - to the exclusion of all other challengers.

So, Larry Ellison's BMW Oracle (with NZer Russell Coutts as CEO) won the race(s) 2 - 0 - as sailed in Valencia, Spain - and the America's Cup is on it's way to San Francisco.

Hopefully, Mr Ellison will now let a true, multi-challenger regatta to commence - probably in 3 - 4 years.

Sorry about the long convoluted explanation - but this has been a case of two ultra-rich kids, each wanting to "own" sports oldest trophy - where

So, champagne flowed for the Oracle crew - sour grapes for the Swiss (ex) holder - and flat beer for all other wanna-be racers.

Went sailing myself last weekend - air temp 30degrC - water temp 23degrC - was thinking about you guys up to your "you-know-whats" in snow.

Cheers

A B

"DaleW" wrote..... < < As to the assertion that it's only Americans, I just took a minute < to search the UK Drinks forum for Reidel and Reisling, lots of hits < from each (I checked to make sure not all from interloping Americans,

That would be Sussex NJ and Essex VT - Right!!!!

:-)))))))))

st.h

No Sir, sorry. My English has been called "mid-atlantic" by leading linguistic authorities.

M.

Yes, I heard about that kerfuffle.

Aha! Didn't catch that aspect of the story.

Which probably goes a long way toward explaining why it didn't get more play in the press, though. Rich kids squabbling isn't newsworthy unless some salacious details come forth.

All the best to you, Mark Lipton