Brews You Can Use

Need a gift for the little lady? Look no further: Dogfish Head Beer Shampoo Bar. Only $5 for ten ounces. It probably smells so good, you'll be tempted to use it yourself. But of course, real men don't shampoo their hair, unless it's beer from the bottle, Head and Shoulders, or some Brute shampoo knockoff.
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Red banner day! This blogger reminded me that today is the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. He has 21 related ruminations on the topic. Excellent stuff. I've been reading this brew blogger/writer for a few years, and he has always impressed me with his style and erudition. It's worth checking out. Excerpts:

Prohibition was not, however, foisted upon us by Bible-thumpers, "conservatives," puritans, rural nutjobs, or Republicans. They had their place in it, but the progressives, liberals, city-dwellers, public healthmongers, and Democrats were right there beside them. Not a judgment either way, just truth. . . .

Prohibition was foisted on us by a progressive lie, much like keg registration is being shoved down our throats now. It started in one town/township/county. But the drinking wouldn't stop, and booze would come in from every border. "Give us statewide prohibition," would be the cry, "and we'll show you how it can work! The outsiders are ruining our good work!" And they'd get statewide Prohibition, and the drinking wouldn't stop, and booze would come in from every border. "Give us national prohibition," was the cry, "and we'll show you how it can work! The outsiders are ruining our good work!" And they got national Prohibition...and we got Al Capone, Dutch Schultz, and Joe Kennedy. "Give us more money for enforcement, give us the military to stop smugglers, give us easier search warrants!" And they got it...and nothing happened. Prohibition, as Will Rogers said, made you want to cry in your beer, and then denied you the beer to cry in. . . .

Prohibition got a big boost from business -- John Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and other industrialists thought it would mean a clean and sober workforce that they could get to work more like the automatons they wanted -- and government -- because the feds now had the income tax and were rolling in revenue, and thought they didn't need booze tax any more. . . .

Repeal was a gloriously happy occasion. The beer trucks rolled, wine flowed, hipflasks were openly waved. Happy days were here again! I would truly love to go back in time for those two days -- Happy New Beer in April of 1933 and Repeal Day eight months later -- to watch America celebrate the return of John Barleycorn and Demon Rum. . . .

But the Drys often got the last laugh, or at least a long one. States remained dry, then counties, towns, as local option laws held on. Screwed-up liquor laws kept things weird: in some states, the word "saloon" was illegal. Morality and government greed got mixed in an unholy combination of taxes and control schemes: state stores, rapacious prices, and customers treated like unclean supplicants. An alliance of Baptists (who wanted no drinking) and bootleggers (who wanted no legal booze sales) kept many counties in Kentucky dry to this day.

The Lew Rockwell Show (podcast) is about Repeal. I haven't listened to it yet, but it's downloaded to my iPod and I look forward to listening to it this weekend.
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A two-minute video for the holidays. We're decorating our tree tomorrow evening, but it won't be anything like this: