Gimme some bubbly

We are heading to Champaign, Illinois this afternoon. Well, actually, we'll be in Urbana - the lesser of the sister cities by virtue of her name. Champaign just sounds better, eh?

The city of Champaign was founded in 1855. And if you're thinking the name came from the bubbly... you'd be wrong. They borrowed it from Champaign County, Ohio.

We are going there to attend a Healthy Reproducing Churches conference. I don't think it has to do with making more babies in the church, but... ya never know. I've been to Champaign many times. I've attended University of Illinois football games, concerts, they used to hold the Illinois High School basketball state tournaments there, I attended football camp at the U of I between my freshman and sophomore years, I attended the very first Farm Aid concert there on Sept. 22, 1985, attended a couple of Jason & the Scorcher shows at Mabel's (a nice dive of a club in an upstairs closet), and I've been there for various other things as well - too many to remember I guess.

But, hey, enough about the city. How about the bubbly. Here's a little snippet I got off of this fine blog:

Popular legend has it that the 17th century monk Dom Perignon invented champagne -- hence the classic brand that bears his name. That's not entirely correct. The monk was indeed cellar master at the Abbey of Hautvillers, charged with getting rid of the bubbles in the bottled wine because the bottles occasionally exploded from the internal pressure. This being 17th century France, the explosions were considered to be the devil's handiwork. Because only Satan would be so unequivocally evil as to ruin a batch of perfectly good wine. French monks weren't big on the teetolling. The truth is, nobody is entirely sure who invented champagne. The first mention of a commercial sparkling wine pops up around 1535 in Languedoc. From there, it gradually spread around the world.

And if you're like me and you've ever lay in bed at night wondering just what champaign really is... This fine blog says it is, "Wine with carbon dioxide bubbles. The producer adds yeast and sugar to previously fermented wine, then seals the wine in bottles or tanks. This results in a second fermentation, which produces the bubbles."

Oh, and if you're ever ordering a bottle of Dom Perignon, you'll sound real smart if you know a little somethin' about the monk himself. Here's his wiki profile: HERE.

Cheers, maties. (for the record - I don't like champaign the drink. But I much like the city)