The War on Terroir

FINALLY, people are starting to avail themselves of the pun opportunities given the similarity of terror and terroir.

I for one have long suspected (and our foreign policy similarly ignored) the possibility that a team of suicide vintners from Bordeaux would infiltrate Napa. But for those of us with refined palates, this worry is but one of many crosses to bear.

We Might Be Careful What We Infer From These Happiness Statistics

Here is a list of "top" countries ranked in order of what percent of interviewed people were satisfied according to the question, "In this country, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?"



Possibly more informative is how Americans' answers have fared over time on this poll in terms of percent satisfaction (not relative rank):



(Full article here.) Any poll where UAE and Uzbekistan tie for fifth, ahead of (for example) Canada and Scandinavian countries, suggests at the very least that this isn't measuring what is useful to us, or isn't measuring what we think it is.