Jackson is a dry county, but it is full of booze, relates Quintin Ellison in the Smoky Mountain News. That is because businesses take advantages of loopholes in state legislation. Ellison describes the law as being “tailor-made.” For example, exempted from the prohibition are restaurants or hotels within 1.5 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. (There just happens to be a Balsam Mountain Inn up there.) Since sports clubs qualify, some people have put up tennis courts and charged membership fees. The owners need only keep a file of memberships to satisfy ABC inspectors that those consuming on premises indeed belong to the club. For facilities that don’t want to become clubs, brown bagging permits and Special ABC Area designations are available. An end may be in sight for the “spot permitting” if voters pass a referendum, a concept being kicked around by some county commissioners.