A Positive Benefit From Hangovers

These last couple of days I've been sick. Really sick. Probably not fatally sick, but sick enough to realize that being sick sucks.
It was cool when I was a kid and being sick enough to skirt responsibilities meant having a particularly nasty cough; but now that I am distinctly less kid-like, it means taking enough medication to kill a horse. This is because, like so many others, I am a wage-slave and unless I physically am incapable of moving, I am going to work that morning.
Take this morning, for instance: my entire head was, quite literally, full of snot. That is as gross to me as it sounds to you, and then when you add in some pressure headache and a lack of sleep after a ten-hour shift at work, you just know you're going to enjoy that next ten-hour shift.
But, getting up and getting what needs to get done done, in spite of feeling adverse is no stranger to me. This is because of the wonderful character-building provided by alcohol. Liquor has a two-pronged attack; first, it makes it so you both don't want to sleep and then can't; second, it leaves you hung-over and in pain many hours later. What's more is that you can't jolly well not show up to work after a night drinking because, in spite of the fact that you feel far worse than you did when you skipped a day of seventh grade, you inflicted this upon yourself and no one will accept the excuse: not even yourself.
So, thanks primarily to alcohol, I have developed a robust character for showing up to work feeling less than 100%. One might also pin this on stupid and unlikely shit such as work ethic.

Omission and apology

The author of the previous post, and all of us here at Why Not Just Blog? would like to formally, and publicly, apologize to Rogue brewing for omitting them when referencing wide-spread and popular microbreweries. Though Rogue is, as a general rule, not as inventive as Stone or Dogfish Head, they engage in the most bottling and certainly have the widest selection of brews of the three. Indeed, Rogue practically defines the gambit along which beers may run, no matter your tastes, there's always one, often two, expertly crafted Rogue beers to enjoy.

Like Stone and Dogfish Head, Rogue embraces and supports the Microbrew Revolution, even moreso than then others, and it does so with far less ego or eccentric psyche.

Apologies to an excellent brewing company. Sorry.

Beer in politics

It's been a month since I last posted, so I wanted to get one in here so that my archives tag the month as having a post instead of just omitting it altogether. Seems sad, to be needlessly padding my blog in its earliest days, kind of like putting a five-year-old on Ritalin, to avoid the responsibility of actually having to do some work. But, alas, there was a news story that appealed directly to my interests.

New York Times: What A White House Beer Says About Race And Politics

That link, at least at the time of this posting, connects to the story about Obama's solution to the allegedly-racist-white-cop-pulling-over-black-Harvard-professor turned presidential-scapegoat-incident-on-racism-in-police: he had everyone over for a beer. While we can debate endlessly whether or not this was a good solution—though I, for one, am a huge fan of colloquial politics—to a problem that was at least self-created, we can all agree there was one major loser here: beer.

The president reportedly asked his attendees, "Do you want a Bud, Red Stripe, or Blue Moon?" before the incident (presumable so the mugs would be properly chilled for best enjoyment). We know the president has a Bud Light, the vice president a Buckler (nearly non-alcoholic brewed by Heineken), the officer a Blue Moon, and reports vary on whether the Harvardite had a Red Stripe or Sam Adams Light.

Assuming he did have the Sam Adams Light, the professor is the only person there who went American. Presumably, the president chose Bud Light because it is, symbolically, the American beer. There's even a tale that, while on the campaign trail, someone in a stereotypically hickish, red state told Obama, "I'm going to vote for you if you drink Budweiser," shortly after the politician ordered one.

But far more important than going American, the professor may have been the only one there who went craft brewer, showing that the true losers are microbreweries and discerning beer drinkers in general. I presume that you can get any beer currently in existence if you're going to be drinking it at the White House in a publicized event with the president. I can just imagine a White House staff member cruising liquor stores looking for the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA or Stone flying out a growler of the first-ever batch of Imperial Pilsner (yes, they just invented it, in 2009). And those are just my suggestions from the well-distributed microbrewers and beers that fit the summer afternoon.

As Dogfish Head proved within the last twenty years by inventing the Imperial India Pale Ale (or double IPA, or IIPA), a beer that essential turned brewing on its head, and Stone did with their just-developed Imperial Pilsner, American brewing has some merit. Merit far beyond slamming the same, simple, three brands of beer. A merit that deserves to be recognized and is, obviously, ignored by those in the upper echelons of power.

We will not be ignored, discerning beer drinkers. Let us raise this incident as just the most recent in a series of grievous crimes committed against brewing. We shall unite, probably drunk, under the flag of flavor as we battle this injustice from the barstool. The macros have awakened a dangerous beast with this flagrant display, for now our cause is a righteous rebellion.

Viva la bière locale!