From SlushPile.net - I reviewed Neil Strauss’ bestseller The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists for PopMatters. This book is a real blast. I’ve gotten nine people, both men and women, to buy it and they all love it. You can read this text as a how-to book, a memoir, a cautionary tale, or an entertaining examination of a culture most people didn’t know existed. Strauss was recently featured in a CNN article and his book has spent three weeks on the bestseller list.

Look for the Slushpile interview with Strauss on Wednesday, but for now, read the review here. Or, you can go ahead and buy the book here.

I know they’re a little non-PC, but there are some beautiful pieces out there and we’d like to cover them. If you know collectable guns or knives, drop me a line at john@thesportinglife.net.

Plethora of info about CA wines.

California makes 90 percent of the wine made in the United States, and also ranks first in consumption — we drink 20% of the wine produced in the US. If California were a country, it would be the fourth leading wine-producing country in the world behind France, Italy and Spain.

Some Facts About California Wine [Vinography]

Spitton has found a piece on the rising cost of the golden suds. Between 1999 and 2004, wine sales have gone up in the UK and beer sales down, which may be because beer costs 18.40 pounds per gallon.

“I worked out this week that at a horrendous 89.9p a litre, my unleaded petrol is costing me a wallet-shredding £4.08p a gallon. But far more terrifying is the price of beer. You may not have noticed (because sitting with your elbow on a bar is much more fun than standing in a windy forecourt), but you will, on average, have to pay around £2.30 a pint these days, which works out at an absolutely mind-stuffing £18.40 a gallon!”

Beer more expensive than petrol! [Spittoon]

Article about the end of the Mariel immigration from Cuba.

The older customers who favored the $2 cigars most popular at Boquilla are dying off. The new generation favors fancier shops selling premium cigars at several times that price - usually hand-rolled in Honduras, the Dominican Republic and other places closer to tobacco fields and inexpensive labor.

The cigar-loving Cuban population of Union City has also declined substantially. It probably peaked at 60 percent to 70 percent in the 1980s, said Emilio del Valle, a Cuban community leader. According to 2000 Census data, that was down to 14 percent.

Cigars Up in Smoke? Small shops where immigrants still hand roll Cuban cigars are dying off [AP via MyCigarBlog]

Da dum. Da dum. Da dum da dum da dum… the Mercedes Shark, an upgraded CLS with custom everything.

The Shark is ASMA’s showcase car promoting its CLS upgrade program, which includes commensurate chrome jewelry, a body kit, suspension mods, custom exhaust kit and (stop snickering) intake “gills” carved into the CLS’s flanks.

ASMA Design’s Mercedes CLS Shark [Jalopnik]