I just read this piece, about lower back tattoos and epidural danger, on Gawker. Gross! But come on, you knew god was going to punish you for your tramp stamp, right? You slut.

It reminded me this dinner I went to a few months ago, Marco Pierre White as guest of honor (MPW, mentor to Gordon Ramsey and Mario Batali). He spent a few courses at our table, and we were talking tattoos, after he had admired mine and those of a few other cookies that had come to worship.

He couldn’t believe the amount of tattoo-age (word?) in Seattle, especially the ones on the ladies…on the, eh hem, back. Then I got to teach him the phrase “tramp stamp.” Which pretty much made my night. That and the warm shortbread and cocoa at Union. …And what Marco wrote in my copy of his book, Devil In The Kitchen.

Speaking of sluts…

Mr. Riggs 2005 Shiraz-Viognier
McClaren Vale & Langhorne Creek, Australia
$24-27 (imported by Epicurean Wines)

In carrying with a theme, I don’t even remember buying this wine. Viognier gets added to fermenting Syrah grapes to increase aromatics. And in the case of this wine, those aromatics are akin to a fin de ciecle French whorehouse decked out in purple–the color I always equate with McClaren Vale. Plums, blackberry liqueur, violets, and honeysuckle… This wine will dull your senses to anything else in the room–be it your food or your wife.

I don’t see how I kept this little minx in the cellar. Unless you’re an insecure man going through his midlife crisis, you don’t need to pay through the nose for decadence in Australia, especially if you’re going to drink the wine right away.