If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Posted on 04/28/2008 7:58:13 AM PDT by mombyprofession
If you watch much television, you've probably heard of a product called Mike's Hard Lemonade.
And if you ask Christopher Ratte and his wife how they lost custody of their 7-year-old son, the short version is that nobody in the Ratte family watches much television.
The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.
Even if, in hindsight, that decision seems a bit, um, idiotic.
Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan, which means that, on a given day, he's more likely to be excavating ancient burial sites in Turkey than watching "Dancing with the Stars" - or even the History Channel, for that matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at wzzm13.com ...
Are you reading anything on this thread besides your own posts?
Let me add one more thing, there are NO glass bottles at the ballpark.
I'm done with this little issue.
“To me, it tells me that Mr. Ratte may never have even attended a cookout - pretty much every one I've attended or thrown in the past decade or so has required the presence of Mike's Hard or Smirnoff Ice to satisfy the ladies present.”
Sorry - no Mike's Hard Lemonade, and generally no Smirnoff Ice at the cookouts I attend/hold. The ubiquitous Budweiser, Coors Light (most folks find this one unobjectionable), very often Corona, often Yeungling, often Heineken, almost always MGD and Miller Lite, with red wine, and of course, white wine for the ladies. Properly chilled. Often served on ice (yikes!). And good scotch or whiskey for those inclined.
As well, as Grand Knight of my Knights of Columbus Council, we regularly have functions where beer and wine are served. We've occasionally had Smirnoff Ice, but never Mike's Hard Lemonade. I think that this stuff is targeted toward a younger crowd, likely targeted in a way to net in some folks who are underaged. Like I said, mildly deceptive.
sitetest
Again, that accounts for less than one-thousandth of one percent of the nation's soda, and 99.9 percent of the nation's beer.
Part of me feels sorry for this family and part of me thinks that this “professor” must be extremely stupid. I’ve never heard of this product, either. But the name, alone, would be a tip off.
Besides, what good father doesn’t read the label of anything he puts in a 7 year old’s mouth?
If you are a regular attendee at Comerica Park, I defer to your experience.
I'm sure he does.
When the principal at my 6 year old's school made her sit in the cafeteria fo0r misbehaving while the rest of her class played outside, she compared it to being in prison.
I'm sure that's how she felt about it.
However, sitting in the cafeteria for twenty minutes is not doing a stretch upstate, and 48 hours in foster care is not being kidnapped.
Again, that accounts for less than one-thousandth of one percent of the nation's soda, and 99.9 percent of the nation's beer. Indeed. Here in Wisconsin, Sprecher's was a micro brewery that had an over supply of bottles and started bottling rootbeer. The beer business finally took off, but the root beer business is even bigger -- very popular! Now they've added cream soda and light root beer to the line.
They remove the screw top lids from drinks before they give them to you in a ballpark. Also, all bottles are plastic. They don’t hand out glass bottles anymore for safety reasons.
I’ve never been to Comerica Park. I have been to ballparks where there is glass and also where there is only plastic, as well as ballparks where glass bottles are available in premium seats and not available elsewhere.
Indeed.
i’ll give you the upstanding family based on lack of proof, but from the outside, they sure sound better than most of the parents investigated by CPS who get children left in their care.
charges for cps, police and judge, i’ll leave that one as well. i think abduction or harassment, you’ll disagree.
short interviews more often turn up enough evidence or lack thereof to be considered a standard. long intensive interviews also lead to dead children, ricky holland is a good example.
you’re in NJ, I’m in MI, and CPS laws vary by state. We do have enough leeway in our laws that they could have left the child in the home if they chose.
father should have been charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, or furnishing alcohol to a minor. these charges are filed often enough in MI, and do not result in children being removed from the home.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
There are folks out there who don't drink much. Heck, there are some who don't know Zima is alcohol.
First time I ever saw this stuff I was skiing in Canada. I didn’t know what the product was since they didn’t sell it in the US and recall looking closely at the fine print on a sign at the dining hall where they were selling it.
I think it was an honest mistake by an absent minded professor.
How in the world do you come up with the Tigers being at fault here? Comerica’s security did exactly what they should have done. CPS dropped the ball by not allowing the son to go home with his mother, since she had NOTHING to do with the incident.
I think so too.
John 2:1-11 (King James Version)
John 2
1-And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
2-And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
3-And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.
4-Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.
5-His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.
6-And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.
7-Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
8-And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.
9-When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
10-And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
11-This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.
“Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan, which means that,...”
.....Ratte is a braindead liberal. He is reaping the big government that UofM professors and grads beg for.
That's what surprises me a little--hard cider is very popular here in Michigan. Every other town has a cider mill here, and nearly every mill sells hard and "soft" cider. I find it odd that a U of M prof didn't do a double take at the label.
I've known the difference between hard and soft cider since I was a kid, because my family had an apple press and made our own of both varieties. I ahd never heard of hard lemonade until Mike's came out, though. I immediately assumed it was alcoholic because it was labelled "hard."
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