Is Coronavirus Turning America into Bourbon Street?

As if you need more proof that the End Times are nigh and the sun will soon rise in the West and set in the East, consider that within one week last month two things happened: Massachusetts passed legislation allowing cocktails-to-go and New Orleans banned them. 

Massachusetts is, of course, the state where the Puritans landed and never left. In a story I wrote last April for the Daily Beast, I quoted Cambridge bar manager Emma Hollander firmly asserting, “Massachusetts will never let us take a drink outside anywhere for the rest of our lives.” Yet, Hollander is still very much alive, and on July 20 Governor Charles Baker signed Bill S.2812, “An act to expand take-out/delivery options in response to COVID-19.” Cocktails can now go outside into the light of day.

New Orleans, in contrast, is known for its decided dearth of puritanism—it is the nation’s chief distribution center of laissez-faire licentiousness. However, five days after Massachusetts opened its doors to cocktails, New Orleans mayor LaToya Cantrell closed her city’s doors to them. She announced that effective the next morning all bars and restaurants were henceforth forbidden from selling drinks to go—something that had been permitted even in the darkest days of the pandemic. With the lord as my witness, the fabled drive-thru Daiquiri stands were also ordered shuttered.

Read more at The Daily Beast.