Standard-Examiner: OUR VIEW: The Vodka War

Keep your heads down, folks...  The Standard predicts there's an upcoming Utah-Idaho trade war

In the wake of Wednesday's Standard Examiner story, (which reported that local Ogden hootchmaker, Ogden’s Own Distillery, has had its vodka product rejected for sale in the state of Idaho because the "label on the vodka offends women and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"), the OAD vodka brand is definitely relishing its fifteen minutes.  This morning's Standard follows up Wednesday's story with this strong editorial, which keeps "Five Wives Vodka" right up front in the local limelight:

• OUR VIEW: The vodka war

Smith, Beatty & Conlin (Std-Ex Pic)

We gotta hand it to OAD proprietors Beatty, Conlin and Smith, who, in the finest spirit of opportunistic American free enterprise are making hay with this little tempest in a teapot, and cashing in big-time on all the free publicity. This morning's followup editorial reports that the story's now gone viral, and the SE editorial board is exactly right. Here's a brief sampling of the array of stories on this topic now appearing at various prominent sites across the web:

• Idaho bans Five Wives Vodka for being offensive (Fox News)
• Does Five Wives Vodka Offend Mormons? (ABC News)
• Five Wives Vodka Banned By The State Of Idaho (Huffington Post) 
• Five Wives Vodka can get a seat at the bar in Utah, not in Idaho (Los Angeles Times)
• Banned In Idaho, 'Five Wives' Vodka Says It Meant No Offense (NPR)

And that's just the tip of the iceburg.  There's more... much, much more.

Here's our reco.  Why not mosey on down to your local Utah DABC package store and score yourself a bottle of this fine locally-made artisan product right now?  Not only will you be supporting a local Ogden business, but you'll become a participant in history... in a roundabout way.

And if you're a non-imbiber, howbout a nice "Free the Five Wives" T-shirt for your next Two-five Drive Farmers Market summer morning stroll? We're sure these fine and attractive pieces of apparel will be de rigueur on the streets of Ogden 'til the cold weather hits around November.

And keep your heads down, folks.  The Standard predicts there's an upcoming Utah-Idaho trade war, probably something akin to the storied Hatfield-McCoy West Virginia-Kentucky "border war" back in the days of yore, we reckon.

So who'll be the first to toss in their own 2¢?