Video: Tea Party protests drink tax

2012-03-16 15:59:36

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Video by Steve Mellon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Clad as Indians and mad as hornets, a trio of comedians took to the Mon Wharf yesterday for a symbolic tea party. All that was missing was the tea. In a region noted for the Whiskey Rebellion, local comic Brad Ryan led his comrades to the edge of the Monongahela River where they dumped faux beer, wine and liquor into the waters to protest the county's new 10 percent tax on alcoholic beverages. Nick Milton and Blake Carter, who also work the local comedy club circuit, swigged from a bottle containing water distinctly not of the "firewater" variety, and tossed a few empty beer cases into the water.

Plan was to reel the cases back to shore with fishing line attached. The plan worked imperfectly, which is to say that Mr. Ryan had to beat a hasty trail down the shore to capture a Corona case that got loose and threatened a trip to points west.

We asked Mr. Ryan why he chose the Boston Tea Party as his protest theme instead of the Whiskey Rebellion. That, after all, was over a tax on alcoholic beverages while the tea party was -- well, you don't have to be a historian to know the difference. Possibly, the costumes weren't as entertaining.


First Published February 2, 2008 6:55 pm
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