Drinking habits of the super wealthy and powerful

If you're anything like me, you stay up nights wondering what sort of alcoholic beverages are found in the liquor cabinets of readers of The Economist. Fortunately, alert reader K-Don sent me this chart, which answers my burning questions.

Believe it or not, my drinking habits generally fit the magazine's profile, even if my age, income and education do not. One question, though: Whither limoncello?

Enjoy other demographic graphics here.

Who is the decider? You are.

It's time for another installment of You Are the Decider, my occassional series on the race for president in 2008. Hence the graphic floating menacingly above this paragraph.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney formed an exploratory committee last week, which is a way for him to start running for president but hold off on an official announcement until people have begun to forget he's running for president, which he's not officially doing yet.

Romney is not alone in exploring a presidential bid. Others with exploratory committees are the 800-lb. gorilla John McCain, American Hero Rudy Guiliani, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson and former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore III. I'm pretty sure Ben Affleck has one, too, but we should double check that.

Mitt, who was for a brief time my boss's boss, has also launched a schmancy new Web site titled "Mitt Romney: The Exploratory Committee." Take a gander at the art, which is quite presidential:

I can't help but think of the merchandising gag in Spaceballs -- Spaceballs: The Lunchbox. Spaceballs: The Coloring Book. Spaceballs: The Flamethrower!

Next, I can only dream of Mitt Romney: The Beverage! And maybe even Mitt Romney: The Dessert!

It will be interesting to watch the pendulum of the national media coverage on Romney. There's been plenty of Romney love, like this piece in The Economist, then this one in the LA Times that pretty much copied it verbatim. And you're beginning to see a little Romney hate, though it's still mostly home grown at this point. Well, as home grown as a story can be when it's datelined out of Suchitepequez, Guatemala.

Of course, what does the man in might not be the enterprising liberal media, but Mitt Romney himself, back when he was an enterprising liberal. There's plenty of print coverage of his 1994 defense of abortion rights, but it's another thing to see him say it himself. I think the Affleck people are behind the posting on YouTube.

I hope my Romney commentary was more insightful than Katie Couric's.

Keep it in the family, Conrad

I saw an ad in The Economist the other day (see how nonchalantly I work in there that I read The Economist?) with a call for nominations for the 2007 Conrad N. Hilton $1,500,000 Humanitarian Prize.

The foundation wants help identifying those who have "made extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering, whatever its cause."

I think this is a real no brainer, so I'm pleased to nominate Conrad N. Hilton's granddaughter Paris Hilton for the Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

I can think of no one who has done more to alleviate human suffering, like when she patched it up with that skinny girl to do another season of that show, or when she made that tape on the Internet that I heard about.

Plus, I think we all know she could really use the money -- she dresses like a bag lady and is apparently rummaging through people's trash these days:

My tastes stay the same; the world's get better

Has Jay-Z drawn first blood in his war with Cristal? The New York Times says maybe, as the big stars forwent (what is the past tense of forgo, anyway?) the big bucks champagne for something a little more pedestrian at the BET awards last week.

Background if you who don't read the Economist or listen to Morning Edition: Jay-Z was pissed when a Cristal executive seemed less than thrilled the champagne had become synonymous with thug life, so the rapper started a boycott in his songs and at his clubs.

The winner in all of this? My choice of champagne, Veuve Clicquot. The NYT says it was seen on tables instead of Cristal at last week's awards show. Plus, Christina Aguilera drinks it when she's slumming around with GQ reporters, so there's that, too.

I've been drinking Veuve for a couple years. It's nice to see that Jay-Z is finally macking my style.