As a person who gets so easily distracted by the weirdest things, I know exactly what the “rabbit hole” is, even without knowing that term until now. I think sites like Wikipedia that give links in blue to certain topics within the primary topic that we originally went to the site to research, it allows us to gather more information about whatever we came to find from a different perspective or source. But before we know it, we find ourselves completely far away from why we needed to be there in the first place. For instance, I may have went to Wikipedia to find out something about Ancient Greece for a college project. 20 minutes later, I’m reading about something completely different and I don’t know how or why I got there.  I do not think this is something we do intentionally as people living in a world now with so much technology, media, and search engines where we can type in ANYTHING, and that’s what will be found in a matter of seconds.

The Whiskey Wars was a very interesting reading that I feel most New Yorkers, or specifically Brooklynites know about. Apparently the vinegar hill area of Brooklyn was full of illegal distillery’s, were manufacturers were trying to avoid paying the federal tax at the time on alcohol. The 1860’s in Brooklyn was full of federal raids and riots on behalf the whiskey runners. I guess New Yorkers have always been trying to avoid pay taxes.

-Frank Smith