My piece tackled the issue of wine tasting. Many wine stores in the City offer several hours of free wine tasting on Saturdays from noon to 6 pm and if you plan your day correctly, you can hit up six or even ten of these wine stores in a single afternoon. It's a brilliant way to get a buzz on, but probably not something you want to do alone (because after the third or fourth store, you start feeling just a little pathetic and a little too talkative to the strangers surrounding you -- most people will find it strange that this is your sixth wine tasting of the day and may also find the crust of grape residue that's been building on your lip for hours just a tad stomach-wrenching).

When I wrote my piece for the cultural reporting class, my professor chided me for irresponsibility, since recommending inebriation is not something smiled upon by the media. When I reminded her that our school, itself, had taken to giving us free booze on numerous occassions, she insisted that wasn't the point. My attempt at suggesting the Business School got free booze at their corporate sponsored happy hours every week didn't go over well either.

Actually, she declared my piece an excuse to get drunk on the school's time and that if I wanted to be a professional journalist, I needed to get my priorities in order. Right, because journalists never drink. Journalism, in general, is considered the soberest of all professions, isn't it?

I noticed she didn't comment to the dumpster diver that that article was all about a personal goal to find disgusting junk for that writer's apartment. Or the guy who wrote about Catcher in the Rye was simply trying to personalize his experience with the book. Oh sure, that's fine, but free wine tasting is not? Even Holden Caulfield had a few drinks.

Clearly, she didn't understand my motives. Sure, when my friend Chris and I set off that freezing February afternoon, we knew we'd probably blackout by the end of the day, but that was merely collateral damage we would have to suffer for the cause of the article. If we happened to have fun and damage our livers while sampling a potpouri of wines, so be it. The point was, we were entertaining ourselves cost-free for an afternoon.

** RESPONSIBILITY DISCLAIMER **
What makes wine tasting on Saturdays in NYC such a great free activity is that most people in the City don't own cars, so there's no worries about drinking and driving. So, if you don't live in New York City, make sure you find your substance free friend (we all have one), and have him drive you around to all the different wine stores in your area for the free tastings. Of course, you may want to bring along some of your drinking friends too, otherwise your designated driver may get the idea, after several tastings, that you've had enough and decide to drive you home. With a group of people you've got a much better chance of threatening your driver with violence if he doesn't what he's told.

If/When you do go on your wine tasting treasure hunt, I'd suggest you map out your route carefully. Call around and the stores in your area and find out which stores have tastings and how many wines they taste, and then create a map that takes you in a grand circle. Trust me, by the end of the day, you want to end up as close to your house as possible. Two words: nap time.

What may surprise you about the multiple tastings you'll visit over the course of the day is that, often, you'll encounter more than just free samples of wines. For instance, I've been to Saturday tastings that gave out free tequila, flavoured vodka, flavoured rum, and, when you're especially lucky, free food to go along with your drinkage. How great is that: free meals, and you can drink more since you're filling yourself with stuff to absorb the alcohol.