A federal court in Buenos Aires ruled Tuesday that a law banning personal pot plantations is unconstitutional. The court said that pot farms are legally kosher as long as the plants are potted for personal use only. The law in question calls for up to two years in prison for those who plant, cultivate or even store marijuana seeds with the aim of producing drugs.

Legal scholars and supreme court justices have long maintained that the personal consumption of drugs is legal under Argentina’s constitution. Courts have frequently ruled against attempts to penalize personal possession. Despite this, law enforcement officials in various parts of the country have at times cracked down on individuals for the personal use and transportation of drugs.

Argentina is not a major drug producer or exporter. However, in recent years the country has become a key gateway for the transportation and triangulation of drugs produced in elsewhere in Latin America for export to the US and Europe. A drug enforcement official told The Argentine Post that almost everyday at least one flight out of Ezeiza contains a drug smuggler. Officials often allow the smugglers – or mules – to reach their country of destination so that they can then be arrested and tried for violating drugs laws in both countries.

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It's 2008 and Argentina has a female president, but married women here continue to dominate household chores as if it were the 1950s and Leave It To Beaver were the most popular show on television. According to a Gallup Poll published Thursday in La Nación, Argentine women are many time

s more likely than are their husbands to make the bed, wash the dishes, scrub the toilet and cook dinner. In many ways, Argentine men, according to the survey, are virtually useless on the home front.

Around 90% of women surveyed said they make the bed at home. Just 15% of men do this. Almost 73% of women clean the bathrooms while only 6% of men say they scrub the tub. And when it comes to doing dishes, just 15% of men lend a hand while 87% of women say they do. The smallest behavioral gap is related to family shopping habits. Some 76% of women said they usually buy the groceries and other goods while 38% of men said they do this.

Oddly, perhaps, women said they were least involved in taking care of the kids. About 58% said they watch over the kids while 19% of men said they take care of the children.

For Mac users out there, I just discovered a useful “Argentine Calendar” tool that can be downloaded straight to your Mac's iCal program. The tool is free and it allows you to see Argentina'

s feriados easily on your computer. You can download it here. My apologies to Windows users. I have not yet found a similar tool for Microsoft Outlook. If anyone knows of one, please let me know and I'll post it here. Meantime, the Interior Ministry posts an updated list of holidays in Spanish here. (The Ministry's site was down when I tested it.)

Type rest of the post here

By John D Farr

Wine Snobs Anonymous

Wine is a wonderful and diverse drink that is changing rapidly. I am a Foodie and a cook – even a competitive BBQ cook – but wine was not high on my taste buds list until I started coming to Argentina a decade ago. Wine is sold everywhere in Argentina and is popular at every meal. I drink a lot of wine on my annual three-month tour of duty in the country.

This exposure plunged me into learning about wine. I have visited wineries, tasted many wines and also studied wine. Over the years I have toured some 250 food-production operations in both North and South America. It is a hobby. My family was in the livestock, farm and grocery business, and I have all of this in my genes. I would like to share a bit of what I have learned about wine with you here.

People have different tastes. Some of this comes from where you live and some comes from habit. But then, you have a whole different category of people: wine snobs. I’ll get to them in a minute.

People are capable of eating weird things. There are people who enjoy eating horse, dog and even rat meat. Some of the condiments that we enjoy today were actually developed specifically to cover-up the taste of tainted meats and other weird foods. Horseradish is such an item. The English invented in the 1800s to hide the taste of tainted roast beef.

Food laws, as well as sanitation and freshness standards, have changed immensely in a relatively short period of time for virtually all food products. Wine is no exception.

Originally wine was made to preserve fresh fruit juice into the winter season. The only method of storing it was to put it in casks or wooden barrels. These barrels gave wine a wooden flavor that depended on the number of times the cask had been used. Many casks are charred before wine is added. This system worked well for many years.

Then wine snobs started talking about the taste of tannin in wine as if it were a good thing. Tannins occur naturally in some grapes and in wood. Tannin is a chemical agent that binds proteins. When tasted, it tends to make the mouth pucker. Tannins themselves cannot really be tasted, so don’t get hung up about their taste like wine snobs do.

Generally casks are made of oak and used only a few times before being discarded. These barrels cost several hundred dollars each. They are an environmental disaster. To use them, you have to cut down forests, haul around empty barrels and then burn them to obtain largely unnatural flavors in a fresh fruit product. Economically, this makes no sense and it is not good for the environment. It adds immense cost to a naturally fresh and healthy product. If you are addicted to that “taste” of tannins, then you have a problem with “fresh,” and you should consult the nearest Wine Snobs Anonymous and get help.

Another weird taste that wine snobs talk about is leather. Leather is beautiful and functional. It smells and feels good. But nobody eats leather. Unless you grew up chewing on a leather pacifier, you’ve probably never developed a taste for leather. It is OK to laugh out loud when wine snobs talk about the taste of leather or tobacco or wet paint in wine.

A recent wine review featured an attractive blonde wine snob from Canada talking about wine that had a “hint of tobacco” in it. She didn’t look like the kind who chewed snuff, but apparently she did. How else would she know a foul taste like that in a glass of fine wine?

The name of the game in the food today is freshness. Old, stale, “oak tasting” wines may fetch high prices from wine snobs. But most wine certainly does not come from oak casks. An honest winery cannot afford to have old casks racked up in a damp basement while their bungholes face upward as people check barrel conditions and adjust oxygen exposure levels. It is just too expensive and too many things can go wrong.

Even the old cork is giving away to new airtight sealers, which are better for the wine, for wine purity, and for the environment. Ironically, scientists have demonstrated that natural corks add real taste and allow bottles to “breathe.” It is the one taste that really exists that wine snobs never admit to tasting. Yet they often ask you to smell the cork!

Wine is produced from grapes that are harvested and brought directly to wineries, where they are processed into juice. Virtually all wine juice is clear. The squeezing of the skins gives the wine its color and much of its flavor. Modern plants are built with stainless steel and wine is processed and chilled in gleaming tanks whose temperatures are precisely regulated by refrigeration. Tank temperatures are monitored carefully to ensure that each grape variety develops its proper flavor. Many modern wineries have only wines that are between 18 months to two years old. Despite what wine snobs will tell you, the only thing that really, noticeably changes with older wine is the price.

Many wineries are just like food processing facilities. Grape crops and flavors vary from year to year and some people think global warming affects flavor. Much wine today, just like fine whiskey and quality orange juice, is blended. Each winery has a laboratory with wine chemists who know the exact flavors and DNA of each batch of juice they are fermenting and processing. They can blend them to obtain uniformity in taste. People like consistency in taste in all foods. You have certain expectations for Swiss cheese or Blue cheese, and if they taste like onion cream cheese or Limburger, you end up disappointed. Wine is exactly the same. Blending helps create uniformity in each wine.

So when a winery produces a large amount of virtually identical wine, they tend to label it with their signature brand, with private labels, and with a host of unknown names to move it at different prices. I personally never enjoyed a high priced bottle of wine when I considered my options for the money or thought about how many other wines I could have tried for the same price. But marketing is marketing, and wine snobs and tannin, leather, and tobacco tasters will be out there like used car salesman making a pitch for this label or that one – especially if it is highly rated. These hucksters will never give you inside information about how they market their wines under different labels at different prices, even if the same wine has different prices points. You have to find that on your own.

Wine Snobs Anonymous, or WSA, may be the fastest growing organization in the world. Wine is made everywhere these days and has fantastic fresh tastes that are delightful with many meals. Check out your local wines. Go to wine shops or wine bars and taste a variety of wines to find out which flavors you like. Many vineyards do not have a winery and not all wineries are open to the public. It takes time, space, effort and money to cater

to visitors in a winery.

One of the best secrets in the wine business: Rose wines. Much like the first pressing of olives for extra virgin olive oil, the Rose wine of any type of grape is the first taste of a new wine harvest. It is a taste that almost everyone involved in wine production savors to find out how good the new crop is that year. I learned this secret from the vintners in the wineries. A fresh Rose of a dark grape variety can be as sensual a wine as about anything you may experience.

MALBEC

The wine of choice in Argentina is Malbec. Malbecs vary by winery. This wonderful wine goes with any meal, served cool or warm, and is just delightful. It grows exceptionally well in the Andes region of Argentina. A few years ago some good friends and good wine tasters visited Argentina and tried a different Malbec every night for 30 days. There favorite ended up being the cheapest one.

The reality is that good wineries cannot afford to export poor wine. Big wineries produce a great amount of wine each year – it is a fresh product. They market the SAME wine under different labels at various price points. There is more variety in wine labels and pricing than there are wines!

A fine Malbec Vinegar can make a salad dressing dance. There is also a big difference between wine vinegar and specific grape vinegar. A fine Balsamic Malbec vinegar is worth bringing home for your kitchen.

MENDOZA

Mendoza is the center of the wine region in Argentina, but there are other valuable production zones. Fine wine is also produced north of Mendoza and the hot new expanding area for wine is the Rio Negro area in Patagonia, east of Bariloche in the heart of the apple and fruit production region. Some marvelous fine wines come from this area. The Argentine secret for grapes is lots of water, long sunny days and cool nights. Argentine wine is now on the world scene because of the country’s cheap exchange rate, but Argentines have been producing fine wine in these areas for years. Old European wine families from France, Germany, Italy and Spain have been here for a long time.

ARGENTINE WINE HISTORY

Wine Snobs tend to say that Argentine wine has just arrived on the scene. That is because they do not know their history. In the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was first opened, Argentina built the 16,000 square-foot Argentine Pavilion to showcase Argentine products, including a selection on fine wines that were very well regarded. That was 120 years ago!

TASTE

Members of WSA do not like to hear about wine that tastes old and stale. They like to hear about the taste of things that were never in the bottle in the first place! Have you ever heard about how a wine tastes when it is “full of life and good cheer?” Or how about one that tickles “your tonsils “(just for fun) or “awakens all the senses” of the mouth? Toothpaste ad writers have better definitions of how your mouth should feel after a nice sip of vino than do the old Wine Snobs. These ad writers do not discuss old and odd flavors in your mouth.

The quaint view of a little boutique winery is almost like a fairy tale. The good wineries today are very clinical and clean. They are carefully managed with the finest computer wine-science available, just like most fine food processing plants. Outstanding quality control and purity of product does not happen by accident or by a group of elves sprinkling stardust on the harvest. Quality wine is produced only after being subjected to carefully thought-out scientific processes. To some extent, a winery’s standards and cleanliness does more to determine if a wine will be “fine” than anything else, and this is true regardless of where the wine is produced.

The careful growing of grapes is also critical to good wine. Like any good agricultural product, the final product set often set the day the vine is planted. Agriculture is a science today and good grape production is tied to plant quality and product handling standards – be it grapes or potatoes or apricots – at harvest time.

You can be sure that the various wine magazines and ratings are all based on personal taste and all are designed to sell wine. Do not be snookered by these pitches. Be your own wine taster. To thy own self be true, be a your own Wine Snob. Most wine shops will help you find some fine fairly priced wines to try and discover what appeals to you. You should concentrate on figuring out the taste and type of wine that you like.

If you are looking for something with a taste of raspberries or strawberries, go to the fruit section of the produce department and get them. I prefer cream on mine. If a wine has a hint of blueberries, maybe the grape picker got drunk and picked blueberries instead of grapes. If you are looking for a fine vino in a variety of grape types that wakes up your taste buds, then stay in the wine department and explore around.

Some labels look and sound so nifty and homey that you want to buy them just to support the folks picking those delectable little grapes. Many of those labels are owned and produced by giant beverage companies. Do not let their marketing fool you. You would be astounded to know how intertwined ownership is in alcoholic beverages industry around the world. Mega corporations produce a lot of wine, just like they produce a lot of our food. Wineries are expensive businesses.

Set yourself free and be your own WS. Be true to yourself. Your own taste buds will tell you a lot more about a wine than a label or a trumped-up magazine review will. And it is a lot more fun finding out what you like on your own than it is to read what some sanitized wine snob in a faraway place has to say.

If aging really counted for much in wine, they would tell you the number of years certain years were in certain barrels. They would also tell you how often those barrels had been used previously. Whiskey makers do this regularly. In fact, they are often required to do so by law. Most wineries only use a barrel a few times and then pass them off to other uses, like cutting them in half and selling them as flower containers for the patio. It’s time for you to get over the old image of dusty barrels in a basement.

In early 2008 Stanford University and Cal Tech released a study showing how people’s perceptions are changed by the pitch they get on wine. The tests used the same exact type of wine in blind tasting surveys. They asked tasters primarily about price. In every case, people thought the higher priced wine tasted better. The old snob appeal works wonders. The ultimate test was for a $10 wine. Testers pitched it as a $90 wine. Across the board, every tester thought it was a superior wine. There was a cross section of people from wine fanatics to the casual wine drinker in this big study. I rest my case!

Friends, do not let the Wine Snobs ruin your budget or your own idea of good taste. Explore different wines, look for the bargains, find out what you like and enjoy.

Think and taste “fresh” in wines. Avoid musty, old, non-food tastes in wine. They don’t really exist, or at least they don’t exist naturally. Set your palate free and enjoy the fruit of the vine as it was meant to be, fresh and alive.

what is a good dog food for allergies+2.png” border=”0″ alt=”" />Sick of the farmers and their protesting? Why not side with Luís D'Elía and punch them out of the Plaza de Mayo? You can do it here, virtually, in this fun little video game.

Kudos to Darío Gallo at Blocdeperiodista for the link.

El Teatro Colón, one of the great opera houses of the world, turns 100 today. Unfortunately, the majestic theater doesn't

have much to celebrate. It is closed and undergoing dramatic reforms. It won't open again until May 25, 2010. I wrote a feature about the Colón for today's edition of the Miami Herald. Because of space constraints, the piece left out many fascinating behind-the-scenes aspects of life at the Colón and I will likely return to those in future posts. But the story does contain a lot of interesting information about the theater and its sad predicament. You can read all about it here.

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Seven guys in Entre Rios Saturday decided to put a new face on the conflict between farmers and the federal government. So they woke up early and met at 8:30am in the middle of a soybean fie

ld. Their goal: Create a massive image of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the middle of the field. They wanted the image to be viewable from high up in the sky, just like those mysterious crop circles that appear every so often in UFO or Alien hunter magazines.

By the end of the day they had accomplished their goal and is the result is here for you to see. Go here to learn more about these guys and how they got the job done. Kudos to Bloc de Periodista for spotting this.

Link: Cristina In The Soybean Field

Argentina is the absolute opposite of a boring place. For journalists, especially, there is nothing quite like it. There is a nearly constant flow of news items, policy changes, unexpected events and surprises. This keeps things interesting. It guarantees that journalists have more work here than in, say, Switzerland, where life is predictable and, perhaps, not as interesting.

The past two months in Argentina have been a perfect case in point. Almost every day has been filled with unexpected announcements or events. The above video, entitled Two Months Of Craziness, encapsulates this perfectly. It is a wicked-fast summary of the key events over the past two months. It's in Spanish, and it moves very rapidly,

so you have to pay close attention to keep up. But it's worth it. Kudos to The Argentine Post reader Annik for passing this along.

In stark contrast, below is a recent BBC video that shows what the nightly news show might look like if there were no news in the world. It's called The Day There Was No News. Imagine that. The contrast is unbelievable. Kudos to Alejandro Rozitzcher over at 100volando for this one.

dating advice for women993998″>MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

I first saw this exceptionally cool video over at Longhorn Dave's site, and immediately wanted to link to it here. But first I wanted to interview Blu so I could add value to the post. I haven't heard back from him yet and this video is just too cool to sit on for any longer, so here it is. Stay tuned for an update if I get an interview. I'm really curious to find out exactly how this was done and how long it took, etc.

Link: Blu's Site
Link: Blu's Blog

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If you are reading these words you probably live in Argentina, have been here or are thinking about visiting. But maybe not. This site gets hits from 98 countries, so maybe you've never been here and have no plans to visit. Whatever the case, for some reason or another, you are interested in Argentina. And if that's the case, you are probably at least moderately interested in the Spanish language. If you are, then this post if for you.

Below are nine cool cognates that are not commonly used in Argentina. That's partly why they are cool. They're not the standard daily dish of words that are tossed about everyday. But none is so rare or haughty that using it will make you sound like an egghead or faux intellectual. Cognates, of course, are words that are largely similar in two languages. Examples include conclusion (conclusión), psychology (psicología), and nation (nación). False cognates are words that are similarly spelled or pronounced but have deceptively different meanings.

Deception is a perfect example. “Decepción” in Spanish is more related to something being a “disappointment” than it is to someone being deceived. Sensible is another good one. It refers not to something that is reasonable, but rather to someone who is sensitive. She's very sensitive = Es muy sensible. Sensible (in Spanish) can also mean notable or manifest, as in, “La inflación registró un sensible aumento.” Carpet is hugely deceptive. Its Spanish equivalent, “carpeta,” means “folder.” Finally, perhaps the worst false friend of all is embarrassed. In Spanish, “embarazada” means pregnant. Confuse these two and surely you will end up embarrassed.

The following are cognates I've heard used within the past month. They caught my attention because they are so uncommonly used. At least I am not used to hearing them frequently (frecuentemente). Enjoy, and let me know if you think using these would make you sound like a snob (o, un snob).

Neophyte – Neófito – He's a total neophyte. Es un neófito total. (A novice, or a beginner)

Vehement – Vehemente – She's vehement in her opposition to farmers. Es vehemente en su oposición al campo. (Strong, passionate)

Truculent – Truculento – Truculence seems to be one of her character traits. La truculencia parece ser una de sus carecteristicas principales. (Eager to fight or argue)

Pusillanimous – Pusilánime – He who is afraid to speak his mind is truly pusillanimous. Aquel que tiene miedo de expresarse es un verdadero pusilanime. (Cowardly, timid, too weak to attempt bold things)

Ramification – Ramificación – The possible ramifications are frightful. Las posibles ramificaciones son temerosas. (Consequence, result)

Malleable – Maleable - Marble is not a malleable material. El marmol no es un material maleable. (Easily influenced or bent or shaped, but in Spanish the term usually refers to physical objects. )

Putative – Putativo – Joseph is the putative father of Jesus. José es el padre putativo de Jesus. (Generally considered to be or reputed to be something. The nickname PP is more common in other countries like Spain.)

*This expression is said to be the reason why some people named José go by the nickname Pepe (or PP), which in Spanish historically stood for “padre putativo” because Jose was “reputed to be” the father of Jesus.

Pompous – Pomposo – Alec Baldwin is an awesome actor, but he seems like a pompous jerk. Alec Baldwin es un actorazo, pero parece ser un tipo pomposo. (Self-important, arrogant)

Peculiar – Peculiar – Things are really peculiar in Argentina now. Everything seems to be normal, but people are really nervous about the future. La cosa es bastante peculiar ahora en Argentina. Las cosas parecen andar bien, pero todos están muy preocupados por el futuro. (Strange, odd, weird, unusual)

*There is some debate among lexicologists (nerds like me who compile and write dictionaries) about the meaning of peculiar in Spanish. The dictionary Real Academia Española's dictionary says the definition is limited to “something that belongs to a private person or thing.” But Spain's El Mundo dictionary says it also means something that is “special or infrequent.” Here in Argentina it is typically understood to mean “rare” or “strange.”

Link: The Royal Spanish Academy online dictionary (Spanish's equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary)
Link: El Mundo dictionary

I just came across a treasure trove of audio recordings of historical Argentine speeches, songs and other events.

The list is pretty impressive. Many of the recordings are shorter than you might want, but they're still worth checking out. You can hear everything from speeches by General Juan Domingo Perón and (a partially Cuban-accented) Che Guevarra to the Boca Marching song. There is even a version of the Argentine national hymn by Charly Garcia and another by Los Piojos. The recording are organized chronologically and are easy to find. You can find them all here.

Most Argentines do not read books, according to a TNS Gallup poll published Tuesday in newspaper La Nacion. The poll, which surveyed 1,006 people aged 18 and over, indicates that 58% of Argentines have not read a single book within the past year. Those who do read prefer history books or novels. Gallup conducted a similar poll in 1999. Since then, the demand for religious books has declined while demand for self-help has increased. Argentine men tend to read history books while women prefer novels by Argentine authors. Those who read said they read an average of 5.9 books a year.

IPSOS Public Affairs conducted a similar study last year in the U.S. That study, which had a sample universe of 1,003 adults and was published by the Associated Press, said 27% of Americans had not read a book within the last year. American readers read about 6.5 books annually, according to the poll.

In the UK, a recent poll of 2,000 adults showed that 34% of Britons had not read any books in the last year. Almost half of the people surveyed had read at least five books while about 20% said they had read more than 20 books over the last year.

Argentina’s literacy rate stands at 97.2%, ranking it 55th in the world. That compares with 99% in both the UK and the US, which are both ranked 18th worldwide, according to a 2007-08 UN Develop Program Report.

Link: IPSOS Poll (Unfortunately, it is available for free only to the media)