I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast (but we like hot butter on our breakfast toast.)

No...wait. Seriously.

(SUBTITLE: I <3 Wikipedia. Or; How a martini taught me about the Corsican Flag.)

When I was in the 8th grade my history teacher tried to recruit me into the GATE class (I turned her down). She said my mind was like a sponge. That I just absorbed information.

Without sounding like a pompous ass; that might be the most astute observation about my personality ever made. I do love information and I try to get my hands on as much as possible.

Despite what people think of it, Wikipedia is the perfect tool for gathering information, random bits of it, things that you would never learn about other wise.
This is one of those stories.

I bought a new bottle of vermouth today.
It's a special bottle "for a fruitier martini".
I looked on the Martini & Rossi website for recipes but didn't find any so I turned t the web. Among my results was a Wikipedia entry about vermouth. So I clicked it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermouth

When I was done with the article I saw at the bottom there was a link to an article about the "History of Alchol"
I clicked it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alcohol

When I was about half way done with it I noticed a chart depcitcing "alcohol per capita comsuption"

I clicked it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_by_alcohol_consumption

I said "Uganda? Really?"
Uganda has the highest rate of alchol comsuption in the wold. almost 19.5 liters per person per year.
The United States is way down at #43.

Then I spent a little while reading about Uganda. Oh yeah, Idi Amin. You should check out the documentary about him "General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait" I saw it a few years back. That dude was crazy. I still haven't seen the movie with Forrest Wittiaker about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idi_Amin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Idi_Amin_Dada:_A_Self_Portrait

Then I went back to the list and I emailed it to my friends.

I was reviewing it again and noticed that there is a country in the top ten called Réunion.
I was like, WTF? Réunion? I've never heard of such a place and they have the same flag as the French.

So I clicked it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Réunion

So I was reading all about Réunion and I notitced that Réunion is in NUTS Region FR9.
What? NUTS?
That's right. I clicked it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_level_NUTS_of_the_European_Union

I got down to France and noticed there was a subdivison called "Corse" and I thought "Corsica! Napolean!!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corse

I was intrgued by the flag of Corsica. So naturally I clicked on the Corsican flag to learn more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Corsica

And that, friends, is how I learned all about the Corsican flag because I wanted a Martini.

And I ended up drinking a mai tai anyway.