The Speakeasy

During Prohibition, George L. Cassiday apparently supplied liquor to most members of Congress. 

Here’s an excerpt from John Kelly’s Washington Post column from this morning:

If, during Prohibition, you wanted a nice stiff drink in Washington, your best bet was to befriend a congressman. It didn’t much matter which particular congressman. Republican or Democrat, Bible-thumping son of the South or worldly big-city Yankee — nearly all had access to whiskey and gin.

And for that you could thank a short, well-dressed former World War I tank crew member named George L. Cassiday, or, as he came to be known across the country, the Man in the Green Hat, official bootlegger to the solons of Capitol Hill.

Here’s the full article on the man in the green hat: Congress Winks at Prohibition in Bootlegger’s Tale

Check out this Sunday sales story from Laredo, Texas featuring a Mexican package store owner cheering the Texas Sunday sales ban, noting that the majority of his Sunday customers are Texans. Watch video here.

From the story:

• While local Laredo stores feel the ban lift will help their business, Mexico store owners fear the ban lift could hurt their Sunday sales.
• Mexican stores admit Texas’ ban does generate sales for them.
• “Majority of the people from Laredo, Texas come on Sundays.” –Carlos Sandoval, Licoreria Guerrero (Mexico)

Jim McMeans wrote a great column on how there is no religious basis for blocking Sunday sales in Georgia.  McMeans is an antiquarian bookseller in Danielsville who writes on church-state separation. 

Here’s a rather salient point:

The heart of the controversy over Sunday alcohol sales is the sanctity of the Christian Sabbath. But many Americans, including many Christians, don’t believe in that doctrine.

It goes without saying that Jewish Americans, Seventh-day Adventist Americans, Hindu Americans, Buddhist Americans, Islamic Americans, non-believing Americans and even many fundamentalist Christian Americans such as I would disagree that “as a people, we have valued Sunday as a day for family, for rest” – in other words, an Old Testament-type Christian Sabbath.

Read the commentary as published in the Athens Banner-Herald here:  Forum: No religious basis to block Sunday sales