Craft Trekkies
I've undeniably benefited from the whole "micro-brew/craft brew" phenomenon. Most of my favorite beers are craft beers, and I love the resulting assortment now available everywhere, even at ordinary grocery stores. But the whole thing still has a "nerd" feel to it, like Trekkies who took an enjoyable little show and transformed it into proportions that even made William Shatner chuckle. Exhibit A: Jay Sheveck has been working on a film about the early days of craft brewing, Beer Pioneers, for fifteen years. Now slated for a summer of 2010 release, he's just released a teaser trailer. It's actually a nice little blurb, but I can't see myself watching such a documentary for nearly two hours . . . at least no sober. But hey, maybe I'm not expected to. What guy, after all, watches a beer documentary without drinking beer?
Dopa Me
Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? It's a legitimate question, and I've long pondered it. I've vacillated from "pot oughtta be legal," to "no it shouldn't," back to it should, back to it shouldn't, to my stance today, which is "it probably should." I have little tolerance for people who think it's wholesale worse than alcohol, and I have little tolerance for people who think it's absolutely ridiculous that it's illegal while booze isn't.
Pot is different, though it's hard to articulate the reasons. I tried five years ago over at Busted Halo.
One of the biggest differences between alcohol and marijuana is their social qualities. Alcohol has a social element. Marijuana does not.
I realize, of course, that you can smoke a joint with a friend. But comparing drinking a beer with a friend to smoking dope with a friend is like comparing sex with one's wife to sado-masochistic sex with one's wife. There are similarities, but the differences dwarf them.
You ever talk with an individual after two or three beers? I typically find such individuals quite convivial. You ever talk with a person after a joint or two? It's Wayne Campbell without the charm. The stoned mental state is inherently anti-social. Smoking marijuana, in fact, can aptly be described as voluntary autism.
I got quite a bit of hate mail for that piece, most of the words aimed at my intolerance for people with joys different from my own.
