THE BEER BEAT: One excellent afternoon spent pub crawling with beer on the periphery of the wine walk.

Not a single photo
was taken yesterday.

Like I was saying just the other day ...

It's entirely possible to begin a Saturday afternoon at Floyd County Brewing Company with a couple of locally brewed beers and a burger, then stroll over to Big Four Burgers + Beer for another local beer, before walking eastbound to Hull & High Water and having ... one more "craft" beer, prior to an end-of-pub-crawl night(afternoon)cap -- well, two -- at Gospel Bird, with the added bonus of a restorative dose of Fernet Angelico.

On the market for the last two years, Fernet Angelico is based on an old Italian recipe (purchased in 1930 from a defunct Italian distillery) that involves aloe, saffron, quinquina, gentian, anise, angelica, mint, and myrrh. This spicy, smokey, woodsy Fernet smells of citrus on the nose, and channels a unique savory flavor reminiscent of burning incense and wood. It's naturally-hued (some Fernets have added artificial color) and well-balanced between bitter and sweet.

Fernet is my new favorite beverage, at least until tomorrow. The uniformly excellent beers were Amber; Wit; Gose; Coffee Stout; Saison; and Lager. The participants were me, the missus, Scott and Joe.

What was my point?

It is this.

Nowadays there are so many options for dissipation in downtown New Albany that one can spend six hours roaming and visiting pubs, and still remain only barely cognizant of jingling walks, plasticized Christmas tree lightings and jolly elfesque visitations occurring a short distance away.

And, proceeding from this tableau of a glass half-full, such a state of affairs is a good thing indeed, leaving us with a dissonance-free path toward draining the receptacle's remaining drams. I was so enriched that heckling DNA's cadres didn't occur to me even once.

Big thanks to my co-drinkers, the hard-working folks who served us, and a suitable topography allowing differing points of view to co-exist without the necessity of building some sort of wall.

It will be even better in two years, when my city will revert from New Gahania to New Albania, but this is a story for another day -- right, Mr. Mugabe?

Fascists donate to McCain, Communists to Obama. I'm suppressing a yawn.

I was taken to task yesterday after posting Keith Olbermann’s brilliant commentary.

casualobsever said...

As noted and commented on another local blog, you would be far more credible if you actually chose political opinions from someone other than one of the most liberal reporters currently working and associated with the most liberal news organization.

The radical left rantings are really not going to sway anyone's opinion that may be sitting on the fence.

Hmm, couldn’t I say exactly the same thing about radical right rantings?

And, might that be precisely the point I’m trying to make by countering Dr. Dan’s diatribes with purposefully selected ones of my own?

Could be, although irony plays in America about as well as team handball.

Consider that our local blogging physician, who used to periodically discuss medicine and health, has staked a bold claim:

The health of Floyd County as well as the nation will be drastically different depending on who gets elected. This site, unlike the mainstream media, will have a conservative slant and will have commentaries that may not be read in other places.

There may be a reason why, but no matter. He’s picking his spots, and I’m picking mine. It strikes me that in this context, any list of media sources purged of the implied contagion of liberalism – these presumably being the ones acceptable to both Dr. Dan and the dissenting writer – might well prove to be just as biased from a rightist perspective as any emanating from the left -- and consequently, unacceptable to me.

So, what would they have me do, visit World Net Daily?

(WNT, by the way, once published a column asserting that the Wall Street Journal’s conservative leaning is a “myth” because, among other offenses, too many gays work for the newspaper. WNT is an anti-Obama "news" source. Imagine that.)

If I had the temerity to cite Frank Rich or even Bob Woodward, it probably wouldn’t pass muster, and accordingly, the crux to me is this: At the current juncture in the presidential campaign, who in America can really be said to remain "sitting on the fence” in the sense of being open to any form of rational persuasion?

Irrational?

That’s another story, especially as it pertains to voting against Barack Obama for being black, or for John McCain because he reminds someone in the hinterlands of his dear departed grandfather.

The false positive of culture wars aside, the “health of Floyd County as well as the nation” has to do with economic matters, and if you believe that Nancy Peolosi bears more responsibility for the current mess than George W. Bush, there are two probable consequences.

First, you’ll be voting McCain/Palin, and no source I manage to uncover will change your mind.

Second, I have one big ass bridge to sell you. It doesn’t go anywhere, but it’s cheap … and you can charge it to your credit card.