Messages

Is that St Nicholas? 

He had to be silenced by the Coca-Cola Santa Claus; he had the wrong values.

EoC, you're a New England spag, right?

get your hands on some of Allagash Brewery's stuff. They're probably the best American brewery going (and probaly the ONLY american brewery that's worth a shit except for maybe Dogfish Head).

You know, I think I've had Allagash.  I generally fill up a mix-a-six pack a week with whatever I haven't tried and then work through it, so I'm sure I've crossed it.  Dogfish Head, to be honest, I don't see what the fuss is about.  Jim Cagalione is a maniac, and I love him for it like I love the obsessive and intolerable Jim Koch, but I find his vision greater than his ability.  Every Dogfish Head beer is worth a story but there's a sad few worth a second drink.  I -love- the Palo Santo Maron background of it being aged in a hard, oily wood, but couldn't get past a few glasses of the stuff.  Their liters or British pints or whatever the big bottles are, though, are generally quite tasty, especially Sahtea, as is 90 Minute Imperial IPA.

Stone is by far my favorite brewery in America.  Ruination is the best IPA I've ever had, and were it not for the $18 per six pack tag it commands in my area I'd drink nothing else.  They hold the title of the best beer I've had the fortune to experience, the Stone Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, which was their 2008 limited edition and as I understand highly coveted to find by its enthusiasts (my brother-in-law works at a liquor store and found a few in the discount bin, if he doesn't save at least one I will end him).

Southern Tier definitely has my respect for a few of their brews, but their seasonal ones like Harvest and Old Man Winter are actually terrible (proof you can't just add hops to anything and have it work out).  Pumpking is still my favorite pumpkin beer, and if I want to get fucked up without knowing it I'll go with their smooth-as-shit-for-11% Unearthly IPA.

As of their Leviathan series, I give my accolades to best all around brewery to Harpoon.  I can turn to them safely for a solid and safe regular line up and also delicious extreme brews if I'm down for them.  The Leviathan IPA is a god damn triumph (I would rank it 2, behind Ruination, but above 90 Minute, for IPAs).  Plus, Harpoon offers free "tastings" at their Boston location where they just keep filling up your 4oz glass for an hour (including the 9%+ Leviathans) that I've left straight fucked up from.  I fully intend to apply for their apprenticeship program come January when I officially meet the quota for the year of professional experience it requires.

OOOoooh. That. Allagash is awesome.
EoC- I don't know if you'll be able to find cigar city stuff where you are. i mean, it's a florida beer (that surprisingly does NOT taste like ass.... no for real) so i'm not sure how far out they ship it, or who would actually want it.
you might be able to buy it off the website?? i dunno

I clicked around a bit on their site and didn't see a distribution thing.  Maybe some third party site would have it?  I'll have to look into it.

I'll admit it, when I went to Florida I was so psyched that you guys had a Yeungling brewery down there and the place I got it from had it on $2 draught that I bought nothing but.  For a straight up "American style" lager I love the shit out of it and even it being located in Pennsylvania we cannot get it shipped north of Connecticut.

Also, sorry for the geekery and lengthiness of my reply.  I've been drinking.   
(Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout - not bad).

This one is for the children.
                 \

I'm actually a pretty solid typist, at one point coming in between 90 and 100 words per minute (no longer).  I owe it to a few things, like having withdrawn from my first typing class in high school because we were learning on typewriters, then re-enrolling in a class on computers so I could fuck around but learn the actual technique, then playing online games so I had to practice by socializing.  A few of my co-workers look at my fingers when I'm writing something with a fury and they're a bit shocked.  I guess the K-9 dog picks up on it when the officer visits with him, one time he was curious as to what was making the noise and he came to investigate; suddenly I was attempting to click a wet German Shepherd nose instead of a mouse.

Linkage to the website you're using?  These prompts are awesome.

Edited in:  The typewriters thing, that was 2002, well beyond the obsolete realm of typewriters usage as a practical skill.  Quite a few of my friends still had to learn on them.

Probably the best pregnancy reaction ever.

"Well, it certainly is, hmm, occurring?  I suppose?"

Congrats.

I think a professional looking logo and website would be key for the War on Christmas to be a success.

Also, covering our tracks so people won't be able to easily find out who is behind it.

I thought the point was to get people to find out about discordianism? Why cover trakcs if we want people to figure it out?

What better way to get attention than a publicity stunt?

 

I just really love Old Fezziwig.

I have a soft spot for Sam Adams because I think it does its job great.  Being a large enough company to have recognition nation wide makes it sort of a gateway into better beers.  It's rare to find someone who'll try a serious beer and love it right away, so Sam Adams can be used to build up to that.

Unless you're my girlfriend, who somehow tried Arrogant Bastard early in her beer sampling and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Squiddy, in all the hunting I do in my area I don't believe I've ever seen Cigar City Brewing around.  If it ever pops up I'll keep it in mind.  Thanks for the suggestion.

So, if I recall there are a few Boston area Muse fans around?

Well for a heads up, they're playing a show in Boston in March, tickets are up for pre-sale for fan club members tomorrow and open to wider sale on Saturday.  I wouldn't announce it but for their North American appearances being so rare and there being only six of them this time around.

EoC,
will be braving the Twilight fans to go.

I respect you, really I do.  I place a good deal of credit in the revival of craft brewing in this country with the success of Sam Adams.  You weren't the first to do it, but I think you played a big hand in its popularity.  I think that you have a live feed of hop fields in Germany to have up to date weather information is fantastic, and that you bought a surplus of hops during the shortage to sell at a loss to other microbrews was a great gesture.  I like your commercials and that catchy tune that plays in the background.  I like that when you gave your speech at the 2008 Octoberfest I'm pretty sure you were drunk.

But our relationship is tumultuous at best, Jim.  Quality seems to be taking a dive.  There was a time when your seasonals were only available in New England and summer wasn't summer without Summer Ale.  Winter Lager was one of my favorite beers and I could ignore Spring Wheat because your Oktoberfest kept getting tastier.  They just aren't as fresh anymore; this year's Summer Ale tasted like piss and I don't mind telling you, but this year's Winter Lager is one of your best in some time.  Nothing has become more stressful in the season changes than that first Sam Adams to find out if my safe standby for the next few months will be your own or if I'll have to find another.

I'm a fan, Jim Koch, I'm a fan of you and I'm a fan of your brewery.  I've known you and enjoyed you for years, and I wish you would take this simple advice:

Make Old Fezziwig Ale available in a six pack.

It is the best beer you make, hands down, year after year.  It is cruel, making me suffer through a Winter Warmer 12 pack including that god forsaken Cranberry Lambic so I have an opportunity for two of those delicious Old Fezziwig Ales.  Give me direct, unhindered access to Old Fezziwig and I'll ignore your miserable decision to mass produce Blackberry Witbier, which I advised you upon taste testing it against the Espresso Stout to shit can both.

So Jim, I ask you, nay, implore you with all humility and deference, give us Old Fezziwig.

Sincerely,
EoC

Then it is fortunate your sister is not the head tack - tician

This is the first year I've had my own tree so I had to get a stand and lights for it.  I refuse to buy ornaments and thus far am decorating it with one (1) tatting snowflake my memere made, one (1) blown glass and hand painted Boston scene my girlfriend got me, two (2) christmas cards, and a dozen or so (~12) paper cranes I had lying around from when I was practicing origami earlier this year.

Do you think there's still a center of gravity, Cain?  I'd love to find it, the tipping point, to agitate it and drop even the faintest whisper of weight upon its teetering edge.  There would be beauty in that cataclysm and horror, of course, and treachery.  When that cascade hits the ground there will be levees dug for its guided escort through the proper channels and I like to think it would be the right people that are doing it.  But the bleeding and cracked fingernails that feverishly worked on those gutters until bones became their digging tools need to compete with the one team that controls the one backhoe, a minority of prescient minds whose self preservation and preparedness for all eventualities brought them to where they are in the first place.

When I look at the successful protests of the past and the ones of the present, even the organized and controlled cases you bring up, I see causes.  Where once there was a center of gravity for a single behemoth there are now small collectives with an infinite number of causes.  It's a puzzle, it's the Tower of Hanoi, and when all the rings are in order it tumbles but without direction.  Each little mass will blame each other little mass as the source of the problems and all the pointed fingers will form a web that holds it all up, stronger than spider silk and double redundant.

Those drunk students that night, they reached the tipping point.  As large of a mass as I described them they're of course the tiny minority and when they hit the channels they hit the ones with the machines dug that fed right back to where they started.  The contained outrage, the controlled uprisings, the little slips in quiet acceptance don't gain momentum other than to allow larger forces to assimilate and learn to prevent such future mistakes, I wonder if they're not simply allowed for practice of efficiency.  You say why not take control where you can, but when their faces swelled from a couple thousand Scoville units worth of pepper ball I don't know how much control they had even in their own inebriated minds.

Cain, we can't outdig the backhoe but its goal is a singular river.  Even the most powerful rivers have subsidiaries, offshoots so numerous the main body becomes a trickle at the end.  Just enough to nourish the earth it sinks into.

But does it have a special holder for freedom fries, and a gallon of coke?

For the discerning patriot, it comes with a complimentary feedbag that you can strap on to your head to allow a hands and mess free eating experience for better attention paid to the teevee, but only IF YOU CALL NOW WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.

[under the right circumstances.]

What Iason said... I could see it helping a great deal under the right circumstances.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them when there's people involved.

I just clicked "mark all read".

Quick, someonetell me what's going on!

THINGS FELL APART,

AND NO ONE

DID MUCH

OF ANYTHING.

Ketchup on Mac'n'Cheese and potatoes... and Peanut butter on my burgers. Good.

anybody who eats mac 'n' cheese WITHOUT ketchup is fucked in the head.

I hate ketchup.  I hate ketchup so damn much.   

I'd never have survived if they hadn't invented ketchup. But when I'm eating my favorite snack of chips and ketchup, the ketchup often doesn't have enough sugar to compliment the salty chips, so I add some honey.

Not enough sugar!?