It's St. Brigid's feast day. She liked her beer:
Probably the best known Irish saint after Patrick is Saint Brigid (b. 457, d. 525). Known as "the Mary of the Gael," Brigid founded the monastery of Kildare and was known for spirituality, charity, and compassion. St. Brigid also was a generous, beer-loving woman. She worked in a leper colony which found itself without beer, "For when the lepers she nursed implored her for beer, and there was none to be had, she changed the water, which was used for the bath, into an excellent beer, by the sheer strength of her blessing and dealt it out to the thirsty in plenty." Brigid is said to have changed her dirty bathwater into beer so that visiting clerics would have something to drink. Obviously this trait would endear her to many a beer lover. She also is reputed to have supplied beer out of one barrel to eighteen churches, which sufficed from Maundy Thursday to the end of paschal time. A poem attributed to Brigid in the Brussel's library begins with the lines "I should like a great lake of ale, for the King of the Kings. I should like the family of Heaven to be drinking it through time eternal."
Heck, it's practically a holy day of obligation. I attended the solemnity last night at my town's new brewpub with fellow Papists. I drank a few tall Blue Moons and enjoyed good conversation (I hope that doesn't mean I dominated the talking. The bore's anthem: "Of course the conversation was good. I did all the talking!")
I have a small headache today. I took three ibuprofen, opened a Rock Star (my preferred energy drink, since the caffeine content is a smidgen less than some others and it's cheaper than Red Bull; if you didn't know it, energy drinks are the best hangover killers since a bullet in the brain), listened to this discussion about one of my favorite authors (Christopher Dawson), and put together this blog post. After this, I'll do the Divine Office, finish a writing assignment, shovel my driveway, and walk to Mass. The the rest of the day is mine. I think there's a brunch and nap in the near future.
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Inside the virtual beer world of Anheuser-Busch's advertising:
The new Bud Light ads depict a day in the life of an unnamed man who communicates using the word dude and dude alone. Save for a single Bud Light and the flash of a logo, there's no mention of the product. Why, exactly, would this ad make me choose Bud Light over Miller Lite or the Silver Bullet?
Bob Lachky, Anheuser-Busch's chief creative officer, told me that the dude ad is in the same mold as Budweiser's successful "Wazzup" spots. Both campaigns, he said, pull a word or phrase from the popular vernacular and stamp it with the Bud brand.
I don't like Bud Lite, but its advertising, along with Miller Lite's, has been great for TV viewing. Bud Lite consistently out-performs everyone in the Super Bowl ad extravaganza.
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And I'm selling the bong water, not the stuff in the bowl: "A man who has been indicted on charges of illegally possessing up to $1 million worth of Jack Daniel's whiskey claims he is a collector who was trying to sell the vintage bottles they came in, not the spirits."
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They probably didn't know whether to close it or exorcise it: "With beers in hand, hundreds of former patrons Tuesday protested the closing of Mexico's oldest cantina, where Cuban President Fidel Castro, revolutionary Che Guevara and Mexican leaders all once drank."
