You know how your momma used to tell you to not say anything if you can't say anything nice?

Yeah.

No comment on Parks Helms, our county's ABC Board Chair and  most infamous epicurean or his cowardly u-turn yesterday. But, here's what the Charlotte Observer is reporting:

The state's top liquor regulator lambasted Mecklenburg County ABC Board Chair Parks Helms Wednesday, highlighting him as an example of a "culture of entitlement" in the alcoholic beverage system.

Helms was headed to the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission headquarters in Raleigh to make a statement Wednesday afternoon, and some county officials expected him to resign.

Helms has been under intense criticism for several weeks over a $12,000 dinner in November for him and a group of ABC board employees that was paid for by the liquor company Diageo. Helms and board employees later paid back their $9,000 share.

But on Wednesday, Helms turned around halfway to Raleigh and headed home after he was told of the comments by state commission Chair Jon Williams.

"I got to Greensboro and had a conversation with (Williams by phone) and headed back to Charlotte," Helms said.

He offered no details of the conversation other than to say he would have a statement today in Charlotte.

Earlier Wednesday Helms would not comment when asked if he was resigning. After reversing course on Interstate 85, he said he had been headed to Raleigh to meet with Williams, "and that's all it is."

Read the rest of this article, by Mark Johnson, here.

While not exactly the same, the ABC Board's big spending makes me think of this YouTube video: "How not to rob a liquor store."