It’s a Real Corker--and a Lost Art

I am watching a demonstration of sabering, the French art of lifting off the top of Champagne bottles with a military sword.

I am at the Hotel del Coronado. (What did you expect, the Budget Palace in Chula Vista?)

Robert Gourdin, 63, North American director of sales for Moet et Chandon Champagne and Hennessy cognac, is providing the demonstration.

The Hotel del Coronado buys vats of Champagne and cognac. Gourdin drops by occasionally from Paris to keep his big customer happy.

It’s Tuesday, and Gourdin is explaining that sabering was popular among Napoleon’s private guards, the Hussars.

After that, it died out except for a few cadets at the French equivalent of West Point. Moet et Chandon decided to revive sabering a decade ago.

It took Gourdin a year to learn, and he’s got the scars on both arms to prove it. Now he can saber 10 bottles in under a minute.

The knack is to run the blade upward along the bottle a few times to loosen the top, then close in for one final tap.

If done right, the top pops out and the bubbly provides a sparkling arc.

If done wrong, you get a backward explosion of Champagne-soaked shards. A Champagne bottle, packed at 100 pounds per square inch, is like a grenade with a pedigree.

So why am I here? Maybe it’s the rarefaction factor.

How often do you get to watch a demonstration of a thoroughly impractical skill? Maybe next week I’ll learn the proper form of address for a deposed monarch.

I resist the chance to wield a saber. Enough is enough.

Gourdin tells of Dom Perignon (the inventor of Champagne) and the 22 miles of cellars at Moet et Chandon. Then he finishes liberating the final bottle.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he says, “it’s time to drink Champagne.”

Ah, participatory journalism.

Flagrant Fluke?

How much is the power of incumbency worth at election time?

At state expense, Assemblywoman Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita) sent 13,300 letters to constituents, dated last Thursday and delivered Monday.

Hey, I thought Proposition 73 limited a legislator to sending no more than 199 unsolicited letters in a month?

Right. So, Hunter sent 67 different letters, on issues ranging from child care to choosing a swimming pool contractor:

“If you need assistance with any state-related problem, please feel free to contact my office.”

Each letter was sent to 199 households: total number of households covered was 13,300. It marked the first time the newly elected Hunter has done a mass mailing.

At bulk rate, postage was about $1,750. Add that to the clerical time and computer software.

A Hunter aide said it was merely “a fluke in timing” that the your-legislator-hard-at-work letters arrived on Election Eve. A fortunate fluke.

Connie Youngkin, Hunter’s main opponent in Tuesday’s primary, began yelling foul Monday when the letters started to hit mailboxes.

“Misuse of public office for campaigning,” she fumed. Her timing was rotten.

No newspaper would touch the story, obeying an unwritten rule to avoid charge-countercharge stories on Election Day.

From Diapers to Baloney

I hear San Diego calling.

* The state Senate has passed a bill by Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) to reduce the volume of throwaway diapers by requiring child-care providers to accept kids in cloth diapers. Now, on to the Assembly, where passage is expected.

It’s not true that the lower House is split along potty-lines. I checked.

* On Election Eve, the Jeff Marston-for-Assembly campaign sent out a “Campaign Baloney Alert.”