What in the hell is THIS? (Zucc alert)

[Jenise]

So this morning I was wrapping up the second of my two orders of Finger Lakes wines (Howie, Mark and Jon, can't thank you enough: I placed orders with both Ed Draves and Northside Wines in Ithaca), and one of the guys in Ithaca and I went off topic a bit, and John Zuccarino's name came up. I ended up googling Zucc in order to find the name of his winery, and from there I went to the website just to see if he was still making wine. When I tried to click on a tab, my computer tossed up a Security Alert, something I see often enough when I wander on to sites I haven't been to before. The alert offers you three options: Yes and No, which have to do with ignoring the alert, and View Certificate. Well, in this particular case my computer was indifferent to both the Yes and No options, so I ended up clicking View Certificate hoping that would make it go away. And then my jaw dropped.

Check this out, I took a photo:

IMG_1176.JPG

If your vision isn't good enough to read that, it says "Issued to: erobertparker.com".

Weird.

For a while there, Mr. Zucc was pretty much dominating the quite moribund eGullet wine board. A quick look at the site shows that he seems to have gone on to other pursuits. For a while, he was posting links to "Wine 101" videos. I found watching these videos to be very strange.

[Jenise]

Mike, I'm surprised no on else responded. And just now, while making dinner, it occurred to me that some might have supposed this to be an April Fools joke. That would be incorrect! This IS what I saw on Zucc's website today.

I would be hesitant to invoke the name of a demonically possessed man.

Or the Z Man either.

Haven't seen Ed Draves' name in ages..where is he, Jenise? I have known John Z for close to 10 years and have visited his winery a number of times..While some of his posts tend to be bit verbose and some "off the wall", he seems to have mellowed over the years and is not as confrontational as he may have been in the past. I have only seen him post on EBob/Mark Squires

[Jenise]

@ Hoke: hilarious!

@ Jon: "verbose and 'off the wall' " don't even come close to describing the problem with Zucc's activities here on WLDG. But I won't go into what those were in public--I can only assure you, you'd be horrified. As for mellowing, not sure. The google that turned up his winery name also turned up a news item about him being arrested somewhat recently for assaulting a police officer (with his car) during a DUI arrest.

[James Roscoe]

@ Hoke: hilarious!

@ Jon: "verbose and 'off the wall' " don't even come close to describing the problem with Zucc's activities here on WLDG. But I won't go into what those were in public--I can only assure you, you'd be horrified. As for mellowing, not sure. The google that turned up his winery name also turned up a news item about him being arrested somewhat recently for assaulting a police officer (with his car) during a DUI arrest.

Don't you miss the drunken emails and phone calls?

[Jenise]

@ Hoke: hilarious!

@ Jon: "verbose and 'off the wall' " don't even come close to describing the problem with Zucc's activities here on WLDG. But I won't go into what those were in public--I can only assure you, you'd be horrified. As for mellowing, not sure. The google that turned up his winery name also turned up a news item about him being arrested somewhat recently for assaulting a police officer (with his car) during a DUI arrest.

Don't you miss the drunken emails and phone calls?

I sure do. The mob-hit death threats were my special favorite.

[James Roscoe]

Zucc did make Alan look like Steven Hawking though! Well, maybe Hawking when Hawking was 5, but you get the idea. The Zucc-man was one of a kind.

Perhaps John Z's WLDG posts were during my hiatus off this Board for 2-3 years,when I was doing some consulting out of town and travelling..or I was just asleep at the switch and turned him off, who knows??..I don't recall any John Z horror stories re this Board and never got any phone calls..When did all of this take place? roughly what time frame?

[Jenise]

and never got any phone calls..

That's because you weren't taking down his egregiously profane posts. Those who did got the wrath of Don Giovanni! Time-wise, not sure. Early 2000's, James?

Zucc donated a case of wine to one of the NiagaraCOOL picnics, which was the cause of one of his tirades, because it was misplaced due to Ed Draves being sick. This had to be either 2007 or 2008. A lot of his antics took place during Chat sessions.

The time frame is pretty easy to nail down because it coincides pretty closely with the migration away from the old home (myspeakerscorner) and, after a brief stop at Netscrape, its arrival here. That puts the date at 12-Jul-2005, to beprecise.

Mark Lipton

It was a pretty horrible time. I thought the forum might be torn apart because of the insanity combined with the internal (and often hidden from clear sight but very much going on behind the scenes) turmoil and friction of many people. The citadel was under siege; no doubt about that. Hard to believe the guy was that psychotically downright nasty and vengeful.

[James Roscoe]

The time frame is pretty easy to nail down because it coincides pretty closely with the migration away from the old home (myspeakerscorner) and, after a brief stop at Netscrape, its arrival here. That puts the date at 12-Jul-2005, to beprecise.

Mark Lipton

I think this was just round one. I believe the real explosion took place a couple of years later.

I think this was just round one. I believe the real explosion took place a couple of years later.

It might have carried on a bit after that, but not much. A quick search shows the last real posts on old WLDG in Nov, after move to Netscape. And this forum started in early 2006 for those unhappy at Netscape.
Hard times, and I'll lift a glass to all those who labored against the JohnZ insanity (apparently I was a target of his "reports to the FBI" one night but slept through it). People (Jenise and others) spending all night deleting craziness. Special thanks to Bob Ross and Robin.

[Jenise]

Hard to believe the guy was that psychotically downright nasty and vengeful.

He is indeed those things. Amazing that he's still walking around. People with his kind of problems usually self-destruct.

[Robin Garr]

Hard to believe the guy was that psychotically downright nasty and vengeful.

He is indeed those things. Amazing that he's still walking around. People with his kind of problems usually self-destruct.

Did we ever check his opinion on global warming?

[Jenise]

Hard to believe the guy was that psychotically downright nasty and vengeful.

He is indeed those things. Amazing that he's still walking around. People with his kind of problems usually self-destruct.

Did we ever check his opinion on global warming?

He, in his Don Giovanni personae, has probably already taken credit for it.

[James Roscoe]

Hard to believe the guy was that psychotically downright nasty and vengeful.

He is indeed those things. Amazing that he's still walking around. People with his kind of problems usually self-destruct.

Did we ever check his opinion on global warming?

Are you implying that he might be using "Alan Wolfe" as an alias?

Although even you have to think that is going a bit far!

I guess I was off the board for 2 time periods..forgot about the Netscape era..I dropped out at that time because, as I get older, my eyes are getting worse, and I had a hard time reading the posts on Netscape..Not sure when I came back ..Guess I missed all of this or was totally oblivious.. or both...Since my return, this board has been pretty relaxed and does not appear to be populated by trophy chasers, just folks who enjoy wine

[Robin Garr]

Are you implying that he might be using "Alan Wolfe" as an alias?

Although even you have to think that is going a bit far!

Maybe not "too far," but probably "different." Say what you will about the Zuke, he thought for himself.

Are you implying that he might be using "Alan Wolfe" as an alias?

Although even you have to think that is going a bit far!

Maybe not "too far," but probably "different." Say what you will about the Zuke, he thought for himself.

I'd also put Alan in the "non psychotic-drunken-poster" category. Whatever you think of his positions and his arguments, he keeps his equanimity.

[James Roscoe]

Are you implying that he might be using "Alan Wolfe" as an alias?

Although even you have to think that is going a bit far!

Maybe not "too far," but probably "different." Say what you will about the Zuke, he thought for himself.

My memory is that Zuke never thought. He only acted, usually under the influence of excessive amounts of alcohol. Good times!