Wet and Dry Status
The ABC uses very specific terminology to classify the state's 120 counties as "wet", "dry", "moist", or dry with special provisions.
- Dry — All sales of alcoholic beverages are prohibited.
- Wet — Sales of alcoholic beverages for on-site or off-site consumption are allowed in at least some areas outside of an incorporated city. However, many "wet" counties have dry precincts. Kentucky's two consolidated city-county governments, Louisville and Lexington, are both wet, although as noted below, a few precincts in Louisville are dry.
- Moist — The ABC uses this term strictly to refer to otherwise dry counties where one or more specific cities have voted to allow alcohol sales for off-premises consumption.
- Limited — A county in which at least some otherwise dry territory has approved the sale of alcohol by the drink at qualifying restaurants. Under this category, the ABC has secondary classifications of "Limited (100)" and "Limited (50)", with the numbers referring to the seating capacity required for a restaurant to apply for a license.
- Golf Course — A county in which at least some otherwise dry territory has approved the sale of alcohol by the drink at a qualifying golf course.
- Winery — A county in which at least some otherwise dry territory has approved the operation of a winery.
- Qualified Historic Site (QHS) — A county in which at least some otherwise dry territory has approved the sale of alcohol by the drink at a qualifying historic site.
In popular usage, "moist" has a much broader meaning than the ABC's specific usage. In addition to the ABC definition, "moist" can also refer to a county where alcohol sales have been approved under any of the special provisions allowed by Kentucky law—in other words, any status other than "dry" or "wet". More often, the term is used to refer to otherwise dry cities or counties that have approved restaurant sales by the drink, as evidenced by a July 2012 editorial by The Independent of Ashland where the term "moist" is repeatedly used to describe several such locations.
According to the last official ABC update of counties on January 3, 2013, 38 counties are dry, 32 are wet, and the remaining 50 are either "moist" or dry with special circumstances.
Read more about this topic: Alcohol Laws Of Kentucky
Famous quotes containing the words wet and, wet, dry and/or status:
“The property of rain is to wet and fire to burn.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Here in the centre stands the glass. Light
Is the lion that comes down to drink. There
And in that state, the glass is a pool.
Ruddy are his eyes and ruddy are his claws
When light comes down to wet his frothy jaws”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“I knew very well that this hope was chimerical. I was like a pauper who mingles fewer tears with his dry bread if he tells himself that at any moment a stranger will bequeath to him his fortune. We must all, in order to make reality more tolerable, keep alive in us a few little follies.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)