Monday, March 17, 2008

A Pint of Guinness and a Sack Full of Jokes


From the first moment I tried draught European beer, American beer in bottles and cans tasted, so one might imagine and as members of the Violent Femmes once quipped about the formaldehyde Miller-Time-by-the-plastic-cupful in a Raleigh, North Carolina club, "like piss." Czech, German, French Alsatian Kronenbourg 1664, English and Irish and Danish -- the best of any was fit for kings. Since then, the early 1980s, American micro-breweries have come back in style as in days of old, as in the frothy wet decades before Prohibition shuttered many a fine brewery. In short, one no longer needs to leave the US to sample a good-tasting beer. Yes, there is a God and there are saints and none of them are prohibitionists. . . . .

Given it's Saint Patrick's Day, a salute to Guinness Draught and fond memories of traveling with Jen and Sarah to Dublin and all around the shiny green pastures of rural Ireland in the 1990s. Drinking pints of Guinness in downtown Dublin -- a dream come true -- and to vary things a bit, Half and Halfs -- half a pint of Guinness poured over half a pint of Harp Lager in clear or mottled pint glasses. Ah, yes. And memory, don't forget the Dunhills, back in the days when pubs were smokey.



The Pogues doing "Dirty Old Town" (ca. 1985).

Today's Rune: Signals.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

4 comments:

Sidney said...

A pint of Guinness at lunch makes for a happy afternoon! Happy St. Patty's Day!

Anonymous said...

MGD Rules!!!European beer isn't all it's cracked up to be. Case in point: Stella Artois.--Skunk at the garden party

Charles Gramlich said...

Thank goodness for Micro brews. I didn't realize how bad American beers were until I tasted some richer brews. Fortunately, I now live close to Abita Brewery, one of the best microbreweries in the country.

Can't drink guinness stout though. I can't wrap my head around a beer that has to settle first.

Joe said...

Mmmmm...stout.

Charles Gramlich, you live near Abita? Lucky fella--you also live near my favorite roadside attraction in the world, the UCM Museum.