I wasn't all that much on beer either until I found some Belgian beers that use different fruit bases, cherry or raspberry and they taste more like adult rated soda pop than beer. I like
Liefmans Frambozen, myself. There is another one brewed with licorice, but I forgot the name.

There is another brewery in Belgium that makes all sorts of fruit based beers . I think the name might be Lindemans.

Delaware (and a few other states) have no sales tax. If the restaurant doesn't comply with the VAT reduction, are they responsible to send the full tax to whatever office collects them? Or do they get to keep the amount over 5%?

And some states tax different things. I moved from one state that didn't tax food (as in grocery store food) to one that now does. This state also still has barbaric laws like not selling wine or beer on Sundays...some day of rest!

Sales tax can actually vary from county to county within the state! When I was in SC, I think the state tax was 6% and the county where I lived charged an extra 1.5% (I assume to pay for this five million jillion dollar bridge they built a few years ago...). In NC, unprepared food is taxed at 2%, but prepared food and restaurants still charge the full rate (6.75%??).

I think that in PA, clothes aren't taxed up to $200, but bathing suits are taxed. My friend tried to explain it, it was weird.

Its all very complicated, and I wish that they would either make it an easy number to calculate and add (like 10%, which I think is Alabama's rate) or they would just add it in to the listed price like the rest of the world.

Oh, and the sirens went off on the first Wednesday at noon in Beauvais as well. I live near a nuclear power plant here, but they only have sirens in a 10 mile radius of the facility, so I don't have to hear when they test.

Kyliemac --

Thank your lucky stars that the pantless guy on the Metro wasn't commando.

Love,
Janilani