ouch. which store? nice or neighborhood?

hoody.

mmph.

You should go cheap and good: Gato! I just discovered they have Gatos Negro and Blanco at an area liquor store- 4.99/bottle. I used to drink this stuff when I was a starving college student in Toronto. 'Member, they used to come with the little plastic cats attached?

I remember those! I have a little bowl full of those plastic cats to this day.

Maybe it was just a Toronto thing. I've seen Gato (Negro, anyway) in NYC, but not with the trinket. Am I just missing it?

Ahhhh... Gato. The life. The love. The hangovers from the very bowels of Hell. Those were the days, eh?

But the sad thing? Even our Old Pal Gato is $12.99 a bottle in my hood. Sans plastic cat, to add a little injury to the monetary insult.

Feh.

(Chico-- I too had a bowl of little plastic cats sitting on my dining table back in the day. Right next to the bowl of condoms, but that's another story.)

That sounds like an interesting story. I'd like to hear it sometime. Anyhoo, yeah, it looks like they got rid of the plastic cats- choking hazards for drunks?

Cuz when you get your drunk on you just can't squelch the urge to...put...toy...cats...in your mouth?

Um, Okay.

Wait, wasn't there another dollar-a-gallon-wine called "El Toro?" that had a plastic bull around the neck? And I've bought an Austrailan Chard that comes with a fancy-pants gold metal kangaroo on a gold rubber band (which I --of course-- immediately put in my hair, slept with it there, and woke to find it so tangled in my coif I had CUT IT OUT WITH SCISSORS.)

How do we get in on this wine/trinket gravy train? Like...sell wineries a different bibelot for each variety they make, encourage the pubic to "collect all twelve!" and then BAM! Come out with a ridiculously overpriced piece of crap bracelet to display them all on.

It'd be like the add-a-bead craze in the 80's. There's millions to be made in the middle-school age bracket alone.

Have the whole deal sponsored by Phillip Morris.

I'm on a roll here.

Dude, you're SO money.

...that had a plastic bull around the neck...

You mean one of these? Nope, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Hey, you made me look up the word "bibelot"! For a guy with so many of them you'd think i'd know that one.
Apparently we're not the only ones who enjoy a little Gato:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22gato+negro%22+wine+&btnG=Google+Search

Now you guys got me craving the damn stuff. I think on Monk's next visit monk, Chico, Zeeb, Vidiot and I get one magnum each...last wo(man) standing wins. Something. Chico's bowl of plastic cats. (Like how I'm so willing to give away other people's posessions?)

How's next weekend sound?

(p.s. I only pulled 'bibelot' outta my ass because I don't know how to spell chatchki, chatchi, chatka, you know, that word for bric-a-brac.)

I'm down for it. The cats are in a storage space above my granddad's barber shop, but I'll hunt 'em down if I can. There might be two dozen of 'em.

For what it's worth, the cat & bull &c. seem a bit Catholic/Pagan, like blood totems of mythical creatures that give strength to the drinker. And Lord, how that's true.

And a-g, I bet you're right: maybe people forgot to take the little tchotchkes (you meant tchotchkes, right?) off the bottle before ramming the whole magnum down their boozy pie holes.

you got bibelot at your fingertips but tchotchke escapes you???

i'm down for a little contest. let's go.

Joanie loves tchotchkes.

God damn you Monk. Stop knowing me. (I was just thinking of a way to work joanie loves tchotchkes in here somewhere.)

And Zeeb? Won't it be fun to watch the amateurs? It's just not fair, really.

you'll hold my hair at the end of the evening, yes?

Of course my sweet. And give you a wet wash cloth. However I may have to pop out for a cocktail at some point. I mean, with just a magnum under my belt...

I have a magnum under my belt too, but I'll need at least a plastic animal before I'll let you see it.

I have a plastic animal... oh, nevermind