WAS HE GNAWING ON A POTATOE TOO?

Candidate for Texas governor caught drinking beer in parade car (The Associated Press, 3/13/06)

An independent candidate for Texas governor rode in a St. Patrick's Day parade car Saturday with his trademark black hat and burning cigar — plus a beer in his hand, an apparent violation of the state's open-container law.

Kinky Friedman's spokeswoman acknowledged that he drank from a can of Guinness that was handed to him. Photographs taken by The Dallas Morning News showed Friedman, who wasn't driving, holding the beer and appearing to take a drink.

"Guinness is the drink that kept the Irish from taking over the world. It would be unthinkable not to have a Guinness during a St. Patrick's Day parade. In fact, it would be spiritually wrong," Friedman said in a statement issued by spokeswoman Laura Stromberg.

When I worked in Texas you could have open containers in your car, in fact the driver could drink, but not outside of it. This created the odd phenomenon of cops arresting people after they stopped drinking and driving, because they'd get out of the car with cans in their hands.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 13, 2006 7:57 AM