One last pitch for Tim Drew

A wonderful way to wake up this morning: laying in bed hearing Frank Deford on the alarm clock talk about former Cleveland Indian Tim Drew. Drew was one of the phenoms Chris followed with devotion (until he was traded with Bartolo Colon to Montreal for (essentially) Grady Sizemore.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=93040130&m=93057285

Morning Edition, July 30, 2008 ·
Tommy John won 288 games in the majors, but, of course, he remains far better known for the operation that now generically bears his name: Tommy John Surgery. In 1974, a tendon was replaced in his damaged left arm and, miraculously, he returned to pitch for another 13 years. So no one, perhaps, knows the capriciousness of athletic health better than he.

Today, John is still in baseball, the manager of the Bridgeport Bluefish, who play in the Atlantic League, one of those independent circuits which are pretty much stocked by forgotten older players who've been passed over by major-league organizations but still play for peanuts because they don't know what else to do and/or they let themselves still dream that they'll catch lightning in a bottle.

And, by God, it can happen. A 32-year-old has-been named Brandon Knight was in the Atlantic League last season. Saturday night, he started a game for the New York Mets.

Four nights before that, in York, Pa., John went out to the mound to remove a Bluefish pitcher who had just given up nine runs in barely more than three innings. But this time, when John took the ball from the pitcher, he also paused and embraced him.

The pitcher was Tim Drew. Who remembers now that, 11 years ago, Drew was a glamorous first-round choice in baseball's draft? I only know because of a wonderfully touching story written by Rich Elliott in The Connecticut Post. But, oh, what was written about Tim Drew back then. Not only could the kid throw a baseball 94 miles per hour, but his older brother, J.D., was also selected in the first round. And not only that: seven years later, yet a third Drew brother, Steve, was drafted in the first round.

Well, two outta three ain't bad. J.D., of the Red Sox, was the most valuable player in the All-Star Game a couple weeks ago. Steve is shortstop for the Arizona Diamondbacks. They made it big.

Tim did get to the majors. He pitched in all of 35 games. Mostly, though, he caromed around the minors until he ended up, 29 years old, pitching in Bridgeport.

The human arm really is not built to throw a baseball. Like Tommy John, like a lot of pitchers, Tim Drew's arm busted. He had an operation: Three tacks were inserted in his shoulder. He came back this year, but it didn't take him long to realize that whatever he had wasn't there anymore.

After the game in York, he only asked John for one more favor: Sunday, back in Bridgeport, to start the game against Camden, he put Eric DuBose, his best friend on the team, behind the plate, and Drew threw one more pitch.

Then Tim Drew walked off the mound forever. He's going to go to community college. We hear about J.D. and Steve Drew. But most ballplayers are the brother in-between. They're Tim Drew, and they hate to leave the game, but one day they realize they must.

Just give me one last pitch and I'll be gone.

It was a strike, right on the corner.

U.S. Presidents #'s 4, 5, and 3

For those of you playing along with the home game, that would be James Madison, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson. This would also be the order of visitation of their homes that occurred today. Wha???

Chris + a day off + Google Maps = a full day of travel.

An early morning rise. The dogs were fed, watered, and bladders emptied. The Jeep was gassed up and ready to go. Let's hit the open road...


Stop #1: 217 miles northward from Greensboro to James Madison's Montpelier.

$14 entrance fee.

Book purchases? One. Fife purchases? One. (Yes, a fife. Of "fife and drum". Chris bought a fife.)

The furthest of the three destinations from Greensboro, Chris hit this one first then would backtrack southward. Montpelier is undergoing a massive reconstruction project 4+ years in the making. So it was ever so exciting to tour an empty house with plastic sheeting covering doorways, fresh paint everywhere, the smell of plaster, and not one iota of furnishing within the house. Oh, the poor tour guide; trying so hard to liven up an empty construction zone. "This is President Madison's bedchamber. The bed upon which he died would have been here." Or statements such as "The study of nail marks on the walls indicate where the portraits would hang." Construction on the house proper will not be completed until September 2008; and a 100% furnished home will not occur until sometime in 2010. So make your travel plans accordingly, OK?



Stop #2: 29 miles south of Montpelier to James Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland.

$10 entrance fee.

Book purchases? None. The gift shop was rather cruddy. Beanie babies? Crystal sun catchers? Come on. Not even a commemorative ticket here. A purple-inked register receipt that is given to the tour guide as your proof of entrance. No trinket. No chochki. No souvenir. Sigh...

A simple home for a president from relatively meager means. No family wealth paraded around. No lap of luxury. A basic plantation farmhouse. An odd, post-death addition of a two-story structure that in no way, shape, or form adds to the beauty of the home. All the "Victorian addition" that the tour guide raved about was lost on Chris; it looks disjointed and out of place. I mean, look at it! At least this home was furnished and fully constructed. 2008 is also the 250th year of Monroe's birth, so the big celebration of this monumental birthday is to have period dress throughout the home illustrating mid 1700's clothing. Really? Not too much of a 250th birthday "celebration" in my book. But to each their own. Easily the least of the three visits today.


Stop #3: a meager 3 miles southeast of Ash Lawn to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. By far the gem of the bunch.

$15 entrance fee.

Book purchases? Two. DVD's? One. (I mean you can't take any pictures INSIDE the house, and there are so many cool, cool things inside that a DVD was a must have! You buying the argument?)

Gorgeous. Stunning. Beautiful. A home that frankly looks smallish on the outside, but is so jam-packed with rooms and gadgets and studies and books and furniture it is amazing. Honest to goodness Lewis and Clark mementos on the walls, scientific gadgets abound, it is really a celebration of the genius, if a bit distracted, mind of Jefferson.Why have a home that is all one "style", when all sorts of items pique your interest? Native American souvenirs, classical European artwork, new fangled technology such as automatically-closing doors, closet-sized lazy susans, and dumb waiters in the side of the dining room fireplace! All a hodge-podge, but all tied together somehow into the home of a rather intriguing man. This would be an EASY revisit with Kimberly, with a plantation tour, a winery tasting, and more exploration of the gardens involved. A romantic weekend getaway in Charlottesville would seem to be in order in our future...

Today was indeed a hectic, whirlwind tour of mountainous central Virginia and the history that just drenches the landscape. A bunch of fun. Plenty of pictures can be found here. Now, exhausted, sleep beckons. But not the "permanent" sleep depicted below:

"Government" demotivator

Just got this in email today from the company. A new Demotivator is out:


Tee hee hee.

Race to the Dan

The year was 1781. The Battle of Cowpens occurred in South Carolina in January, and The Battle of Guilford Courthouse occurred in March in present-day Greensboro, NC. What occurred in between?

The Race to the Dan.



After recuperating from the January victory at Cowpens, on February 10, 1781 at Guilford Courthouse, NC General Nathanael Greene calls a Council of War to determine the next plan in the Southern Campaign. Stay and fight, or retreat and retool, rearm, and re-energize? It is determined to make a run northward to cross the Dan River.

North Carolina is interwoven with rivers, rivulets, creeks, and tributaries. General Greene studied the lay of the land and is said to have understood the terrain better than some locals; even without personally seeing some of the rivers himself. He had the foresight to acquire ferries and boats and rivermen to aid his army if needed. This foresight served him well.


February 12th, Greene ordered Otho Williams to take 700 or so troops and act as a feint to draw British General Lord Cornwallis while Greene, 1600 troops, horses and wagons made their break for the Dan. It is just a 70 mile race from Guilford Courthouse in February, but roads were semi-frozen, wagon axles break, troops march miles and miles up to 19 hours day, troops sleep on the ground as not one tent is unfolded, just one meal per day is prepared. Between February 12 and February 14, it is rumored that General Greene slept a total of 4 hours.

Once Greene was across, word was sent to Williams who then high-tailed it toward the Dan and made it across safely.

Disheartened and without boats, Cornwallis retreats southward from the Dan River to Hillsborough, NC. One month later in March, Cornwallis and Greene meet for the final time in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse; a technical British victory, but at what cost? Cornwallis must forfeit the victorious battlefield and retreat to Wilmington for troops and supplies, then gives up North Carolina all together in favor of taking Virginia at Yorktown...only to be besieged and surrenders.

OK, now that the history lesson is complete, here's what happened today: an old tobacco processing plant called "The Prizery" in South Boston, VA holds a new display highlighting this military manouever. Chris made the trip today the 27th and found it enlightening and entertaining. It opened yesterday the 26th.

An online story can be found before the opening here and afterwards here.


Displays and maps and artifacts and uniforms and flags; all on display on the third floor of a tobacco building overlooking the Dan River. Chris talked up the curator and she obviously saw the gleam in his eye. "You've heard of the Race to the Dan before your visit today?" Why of course! She then gave Chris directions to the riverbank and see the actual ferry crossing where the last remnants of the Southern Army crossed. Greene and a majority of the army crossed 4 miles down at Irwin's Ferry, but Lighthorse Harry Lee and Otho Williams crossed at Boyd's Ferry, now occupied by a railroad bridge. Wow.

The entire photo set, albeit just a few more than were posted here, can be found here. Truly a nice day for driving and feeding the inner nerd.


The cool thing is that there was a stash of 200 1-cent stamps from 1936 featuring Washington and Greene found, and as a fundraiser they were affixed to envelopes highlighting the opening of the exhibit and sold. Chris got one of the 200 after his visit. Sweet.

As an aside, a monumental occurrence happened to the Jeep during the drive home. Observe:

The Dark Knight

The House of Gordon jumped onto the bandwagon and went to go see the newest installment of the Caped Crusader on Saturday afternoon. Two hours and 32 minutes of a dark ominous film with quite the moving and erratic performance by the late Heath Ledger. Sure, we wondered if the hype concerning his Joker performance was solely based on his untimely death. But really, the effort and immersion he put into the Joker was jaw-dropping. Unsettlingly brilliant.

Before we get too far into it however, as always the trailer:


A "hero" who teeters along the edge of superhero and pained vigilante, Batman plunges into painful depths and tortured inner confusion, desolation, and isolation. Chaotic and dark. Rampant and wild. A crazy ride with a Joker who is by far the best (and darkest) of the bunch: no campy 1960s TV Cesar Romero, and leagues more demented that Jack Nicholson in 1989.

A classic.

An easy Full Price rating by the House of Gordon.

2-Live and his "Crew" invade Greensboro

His name.....is Steve.

There was an enjoyable surprise on Chris's cellphone Friday evening. He had mistakenly left it in the Jeep after work, and upon bringing the dogs in remembered to fetch it. In that short time there was already a voicemail.

Fraternity brother "2-Live" called to announce that he and the fam were driving through Winston-Salem at that very moment on their way to the beach for a week's vacation. Could we hook up for dinner somewheres?

COOL!

345 S. Elm Street was entered into their GPS and Natty Greene's was the destination. Kimberly joined us from work not too too far into our seating. The Gordons enjoyed a few hours with 2-Live, Angi, and their 3 girls over dinner and some craft beers. (2-Live enjoyed their hoppy and unfiltered Full Moon Ale best.)

What a nice surprise and a great time to have a little one-on-one time with a good, good friend.

Our first link from another site.

The fans of Gordon Lightfoot have graced us here with their presence via a message board recently. We've been getting a lot of traffic from some "corfid.com" website. What the hell is that? We investigate.

Well, it appears the post on the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter homebrew session made the rounds in Gordon Lightfoot fandom:

http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=18738

Welcome to our modest little spot on the interwebs!

Gordon Lightfoot Porter

Great Lakes Brewing's Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Yum.

And what wonderful news it was to receive the July/August issue of Zymurgy, the journal of the American Homebrewers Association, and its included recipe for a clone of Edmund Fitzgerald Porter.

Wonderful, indeed.

So with all haste, once the 2008 Carolinian Smoked Porter was bottled, the ingredients would be gathered and the burner would be fired up for another round of outdoor garage homebrewing. Giddy with anticipation.

The Great Lakes t-shirt is worn, the Great Lakes pint glass is used to consume some Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, the Cleveland Indians baseball cap is adorned, all in hopes of good brewing karma. The recipe Chris used, although a smidge different from the Zymurgy article due to the hop shortage, is as follows:

55 L Crystal malt, 0.75 lb
Black Patent malt, 0.5 lb
Roasted Barley, 0.5 lb
Light Dried Malt Extract (DME), 8 lb
UK Kent Golding hops, 5.5% alpha acid, 1 oz @ 60 minutes
UK Kent Golding hops, 5.5% AA, 0.5 oz @ 35 minutes
UK Kent Golding hops, 5.5% AA, 0.5 oz @ 10 minutes
Irish Moss, 1 tsp, @ 10 minutes
WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast

It was a fun brew day, albeit a touch muggy with an upcoming thunderstorm. A late afternoon spent sweaty and slaving over a hot cauldron of magic liquid. Speaking of, enjoy the enthralling video of steam from a boil. (No Irish drinking songs as the muse this time; rather, Miles Davis and his Kind of Blue was inspiring the brewer.) Anyway, boiling steam videos? Riveting:


A new twist this time yeast-wise. Instead of pitching two tubes of yeast directly into the wort, Chris made a "starter". Essentially making a mini-wort on the stove, then adding the yeast to that to propagate the yeast and greatly increase their numbers. More active yeast hungry for sugars = a quicker fermentation = less likely for bacterial infection. Pre-brewday planning is involved, as the starter was made two days beforehand. Then once the yeast settle to the bottom, a 2nd "batch" was cooked on the stove the morning of and added to the growler to wake up the yeasties and get them good and hungry for more sugar. Growlers are fantastic for this:











The Therminator again did a stellar job in cooling the wort down to a pitchable temperature. ("Pitching" of course being the fancy term for "throwing yeast in".) Cooled from boiling to 75 degrees in less than 10 minutes? Incredible. (Cooling quickly is another key aspect in brewing good beer, as when it's hot, nasty flavors can occur if it becomes oxidized.) The set-up:


Brewing and clean-up were completed at 8:00pm Tuesday, and as of 5:00am Wednesday morning as Kimberly went downstairs to take the dogs out before work, she discovered "quite a bit of foaminess" in the carboy. By 9:00am when Chris checked on it, the airlock was blown off and there was a bit of gunk to clean-up:


Cosmic clouds in the atmosphere of Jupiter were rolling and swirling in the carboy. The dogs were wondering why in the hell Chris was laying on the floor in the half-bath staring at it (when they weren't trying to lick up the froth and beer off the floor...) The quickest fermentation yet. Starters are kewl.

Can't wait to give this batch a whirl and drink it down. It looks to be a good one. So, the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter clone is hereby christened Gordon Lightfoot Porter. Give a listen:

Satire gone haywire

After a week since the first news snippets over a cartoon hit the airwaves, the damn liberal House of Gordon FINALLY received their latest issue of The New Yorker in their mailbox.

Satirical in its nature, although nobody really saw it that way. What would Joe Belt Buckle think when he saw it on the newstands? Won't it just aggravate his thinking that this cover in fact mocks him for thinking anyway?

Say the magazine roused up a shitstorm of controversy; say the magazine should have been more careful in its cover; say the magazine was irrresponsible in its characterization of the Obamas.

But it sure sold a magazine or two. And it made The New Yorker front page headlines for a few days.

And that in the end was their goal, no?



As Jon Stewart says, "Barack Obama should in no way be upset about the cartoon that depicts him as a Muslim extremist, because you know who gets upset about cartoons? Muslim extremists...It's just a fucking cartoon."

Here's to the State

A 1960s Phil Ochs protest song Here's to the State of Mississippi retooled by Eddie Vedder and Tim Robbins soon after the 2004 election:

Here's to the judges of John Roberts,
Who wear the robe of honor in a phony legal form,
And justices are stranger when the partisans report,
When the court elected a president it was the beginning of this war,
Here's to the land you tore out the heart of,
John Roberts find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the government of Dick Cheney,
With criminals posing as advisors to the crown,
And they hope that no one sees the sights or that no one hears the sounds,
'Cause the speeches of our president are the ravings of a clown
Here's to the land you tore out the heart of,
Dick Cheney find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the churches of Jerry Falwell,
Oh the cross once made of silver now is turned to rust,
And the sunday morning services preach in fear of men in love,
And God only knows in heaven they must trust
Here's to the land you tore out the heart of,
Jerry Falwell find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the laws of Alberto Gonzales,
Congress will pass an act in the panic of the day,
And the Constitution's drowning in an ocean of decay,
And "freedom of speech is dangerous" I've even heard them say,
Here's to the land you tore out the heart of,
Gonzales find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the businessmen of George W,
Who'll want to change the focus from Halliburton and Enron
And their profits like blood money spilled out on the White House lawn,
To keep their hold on power they're using terror as a con,
While the bombs they fall on children don't know which side, don't care which side that they're on
Here's to the land you tore out the heart of,
George W find yourself another country to be part of
Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
George W find yourself another country to be part of

Pearl Jam's "Alive"...the lifting of the curse

A while back, we watched a VH-1 Storytellers episode with Pearl Jam. There was a heartfelt moment concerning the song "Alive".

Sitting around putting Pearl Jam tunes on Chris's iPod tonight brought about the heartwarming story of that song. Here's Eddie Vedder explaining the curse, followed by the music video from 1991.

1991. 1991?

Wow. We're old....







Wherever you are tonight, whatever you're doing, just celebrate being alive.

Have we mentioned we're going to Denver?

Let's go change the world.

Got a hankerin' for some NC beer?

Then order it to be shipped to you!

(thanks Sean for the lifted Pop the Cap photo to the left)

New news in the ever-improving world of NC Beer:

North Carolina Beer Shops Get OK to Ship

ASHEVILLE, NC - Word came last night from Julie Atallah, owner of the #2 rated retailer in the world according to RateBeer, Bruisin’ Ales, that North Carolina beer stores will soon be able to ship beer out of state. Atallah says that her Asheville beer shop got its FedEx permit and is awaiting finalization of the states to which she can ship.

Let’s break down what this could mean to beer people around the U.S. North Carolina has had a quietly up-and-coming beer scene for a while now. Unfortunately, some of the better brewers and brewpubs in the state don’t distribute very far, if at all — Pisgah Brewing, perhaps, being the prime example.

Pisgah’s ‘green’ philosophy has been well-documented; the brewery has no interest in large trucks carting its beers around the country. Aside from trading in the forums, this may become the only other loophole in Pisgah’s initiative. A look on the Bruisin’ Ales site shows that the store has previously stocked the brewery’s gem, Valdez. Unfortunately, there is never a guarantee that special releases like these will be made available for shipping. Even so, their other beers are certainly nothing to scoff at and several of them have been bottled. 17 of Pisgah’s 18 brews are rated B+ or better on Beer Advocate. Bruisin’ Ales reported Hellbender, a Barleywine, Cosmos, a Baltic Porter, and Solstice, a tripel, all available on store shelves as of yesterday evening.

This goes far beyond Bruisin’ Ales and Pisgah Brewing though. Ever wanted access to fellow Asheville breweries, Highland and French Broad (who just started bottling their ESB and Wee Heavy-er Scotch)? How about The Duck-Rabbit Brewery? Or easier access to Terrapin beers?

There are four North Carolina retailers in the RateBeer Top 50 and over 30 on Beer Advocate rated A- or better. Hopefully, some of these stores will try out the online beer market. Regardless, this opens up a pocket of the country to which most of us have never had access, and that is pretty exciting.

Featured at Bruisin' Ales:
Highland Brewing
Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery
Pisgah Brewing
Catawba Valley Brewing
French Broad Brewery

For growlers of Foothills or Natty Greene's you'll still have to ask the Gordons to ship you some personally. "Hypothetically" of course since we don't have an alcohol license and neither do you...

Wink wink nudge nudge.

American Originals: Budweiser

It was a big to-do. but wasn't posted here. There was recent news that Belgian (if you could call it that, as the company is rather mysterious and does not really have a "concrete" home office) beer giant InBev has purchased Anheuser-Busch for 52 billion (with a 'b') dollars. Madness.

A massive global fizzy yellow lager company buys a massive American fizzy yellow lager company. Big news in business, but for news of spreading a quality TASTY beer product to the masses? Yawn. Wow, Budweiser will share the locker room with the likes of Stella Artois and Beck's! Snooze...

Anyhoo, giving credit where credit is due, Anheuser-Busch does a phenomenal job of quality control. A Bud purchased that was brewed in St. Louis tastes the same as a Bud brewed in Columbus, OH tastes the same as a Bud brewed in Williamsburg, VA. Quite a feat, even if it is a boring fizzy yellow lager.

Tonight, July 17 at 9:00pm EST, CNBC will air an episode of "American Originals: Budweiser". It will re-air Sunday July 20th 10PM, Sunday July 27th 12AM, and Monday July 28th 9PM. Sure it's crap beer, but it is an American institution and quite an innovator. Did you know that Anheuser-Busch trailblazed the use of refrigerated railcars to distribute their beer nationally? Or that the company is the largest recycler of aluminum cans in the nation?

"American Originals: Budweiser" taps into the beer industry, as CNBC reveals how Anheuser-Busch cultivated its Budweiser brand to remain a leader even as it was losing market share. CNBC gained unprecedented access in order to show viewers how Budweiser executives built the brand and how they respond to one of their most challenging issues yet: how to battle relentless competition from exotic brands from overseas and microbreweries as well as favorite local brands and other national beers. The fate of the last of the independent American beer brands is at stake and CNBC shows you what is being done to maintain market share lead.

The Top 10 Will Ferrell scenes of all time (so far)

A sage. A scion. A scholar. A modern day philosopher.

In order:

10. Glass Case of Emotion
9. He's an angry elf
8. Go back to your home on Whore Island
7. I'll murder your family
6. Dust in the wind
5. I want to be on you
4. Ma, the meatloaf!
3. I like you but you're crazy
2. Little tiny baby Jesus
1. Frank the Tank

http://www.theworldofisaac.com/2008/07/10-funniest-will-ferrell-movie-scenes.html

Classic.

O come all ye gay folks, come to South Carolina...

Folks on the London tube (that's "subway" to you continental types) can see posters proclaiming a fantastic holiday (that's "vacation") destination for those leaning towards a gay persuasion:
South Carolina.

Come see our gay beaches, come see our Civil War era plantations! Come stir up the pot with the conservative bible thumping yokels!

Don't know what's funnier: the straight-laced god-fearing idiots in South Carolina getting their panties in a bunch over their state being called "So gay" for tourism, or the fact that their tax dollars actually paid for it.

Classic.

The story.

The next Ken Burns documentary

<---Glacier National Park, Montana. Part of the Gordons's Summer 1999 vacation extravaganza.

In the Fall of 2009, Ken Burns is set to release "The National Parks: America's Best Idea". A 12-hour, six-part film. Oh the JOY!!!!!

PBS to air Burns' national parks series next year

Sat Jul 12, 4:21 PM ET

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns' new series celebrating America's national parks and detailing their history will air in fall 2009, PBS said Saturday.

"The National Parks: America's Best Idea," is a 12-hour, six-part film that traces the origins and growth of the national parks system over 150 years.

The series will feature Burns' trademark blend of archival photos, interviews and what PBS called "breathtaking images" of the national parks system. Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia and John Lithgow are among the actors who lend their voices to historical figures in the series. The narrator is actor Peter Coyote.

Those who fought to preserve the parks saw in them a "visual, tangible representation of God's majesty," Burns said in a statement released by PBS at a meeting of the Television Critics Association.

The series details the crass opportunism as well as the lofty ideals that became part of the national parks story, Burns said.

"The National Parks," produced by Florentine Films and public TV station WETA Washington D.C., is directed by Burns and produced by him and writer Dayton Duncan, who wrote a companion book for the series.

Burns, among the nation's highest-profile documentarians since his series "The Civil War" created a sensation, has agreed to air his work exclusively on PBS until 2022, the network said last year. His other films include "The War," a 14-hour series on World War II, and "Baseball," an 18 1/2-hour series on the sport's history.

Hagar the Awesome

Yeah. And?.....

The "one to two months until something opens up in Greensboro" saga is over.

Chris is finally moving from the land of John Coltrane back to the land of O. Henry. The busiest pharmacy in the district shall be no more as a place of employ. Post-Target, Chris went to High Point "to get his foot in the door" until a spot opened up in Greensboro "soon". Then, as it became painfully aware that staffing High Point was a challenge to say the least, Chris did his time with a smile knowing that there would be reward soon enough.


That "soon enough" has finally occurred a mere year and a half later. Today begins the era of Chris making a triumphant pharmacy return to Greensboro to another 24-hour store.

A commute just 10 minutes away from home? Life is good.

Beer: Is There Anything It Can't Do?

July 10, 2008

Beer: Is There Anything It Can't Do?

By George Will

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/07/the_essential_beer.html

WASHINGTON -- Perhaps like many sensible citizens, you read Investor's Business Daily for its sturdy common sense in defending free markets and other rational arrangements. If so, you too may have been startled recently by an astonishing statement on that newspaper's front page. It was in a report on the intention of the world's second-largest brewer, Belgium's InBev, to buy control of the third-largest, Anheuser-Busch, for $46.3 billion. The story asserted: "The (alcoholic beverage) industry's continued growth, however slight, has been a surprise to those who figured that when the economy turned south, consumers would cut back on nonessential items like beer. ... "

"Non what"? Do not try to peddle that proposition in the bleachers or at the beaches in July. It is closer to the truth to say: No beer, no civilization.

The development of civilization depended on urbanization, which depended on beer. To understand why, consult Steven Johnson's marvelous 2006 book The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic -- and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. It is a great scientific detective story about how a horrific cholera outbreak was traced to a particular neighborhood pump for drinking water. And Johnson begins a mind-opening excursion into a related topic this way:

"The search for unpolluted drinking water is as old as civilization itself. As soon as there were mass human settlements, waterborne diseases like dysentery became a crucial population bottleneck. For much of human history, the solution to this chronic public-health issue was not purifying the water supply. The solution was to drink alcohol."

Often the most pure fluid available was alcohol -- in beer and, later, wine -- which has antibacterial properties. Sure, alcohol has its hazards, but as Johnson breezily observes, "Dying of cirrhosis of the liver in your forties was better than dying of dysentery in your twenties." Besides, alcohol, although it is a poison, and an addictive one, became, especially in beer, a driver of a species-strengthening selection process.

Johnson notes that historians interested in genetics believe that the roughly simultaneous emergence of urban living and the manufacturing of alcohol set the stage for a survival-of-the-fittest sorting-out among the people who abandoned the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and, literally and figuratively speaking, went to town.

To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer. But to digest that beer, individuals needed a genetic advantage that not everyone had -- what Johnson describes as the body's ability to respond to the intake of alcohol by increasing the production of particular enzymes called alcohol dehydrogenases. This ability is controlled by certain genes on chromosome four in human DNA, genes not evenly distributed to everyone. Those who lacked this trait could not, as the saying is, "hold their liquor." So, many died early and childless, either of alcohol's toxicity or from waterborne diseases.

The gene pools of human settlements became progressively dominated by the survivors -- by those genetically disposed to, well, drink beer. "Most of the world's population today," Johnson writes, "is made up of descendants of those early beer drinkers, and we have largely inherited their genetic tolerance for alcohol."

Johnson suggests, not unreasonably, that this explains why certain of the world's population groups, such as Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, have had disproportionately high levels of alcoholism: These groups never endured the cruel culling of the genetically unfortunate that town dwellers endured. If so, the high alcoholism rates among Native Americans are not, or at least not entirely, ascribable to the humiliations and deprivations of the reservation system. Rather, the explanation is that not enough of their ancestors lived in towns.

But that is a potential stew of racial or ethnic sensitivities that we need not stir in this correction of Investor's Business Daily. Suffice it to say that the good news is really good: Beer is a health food. And you do not need to buy it from those wan, unhealthy-looking people who, peering disapprovingly at you through rimless Trotsky-style spectacles, seem to run all the health food stores.

So let there be no more loose talk -- especially not now, with summer arriving -- about beer not being essential. Benjamin Franklin was, as usual, on to something when he said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Or, less judgmentally, and for secular people who favor a wall of separation between church and tavern, beer is evidence that nature wants us to be.

georgewill@washpost.com
Copyright 2008, Washington Post Writers Group