Essay

Frankenstein's Mom was a Liberal It was a freaky night at Lake Geneva in Switzerland: chilly for a summer evening, relentlessly rainy. Then again, most nights were rainy that year. A volcanic eruption the previous year in Tambora, Indonesia, in 1815 had spewed tons of ash into the

BYCU One of the better overviews I've read about why the liquor laws in these United States are such a mess [http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/liquor-in-ohio-is-a-bureaucratic-human-centipede/Content?oid=3702912] . From intro: After Prohibition, the federal government created the three-tier

BYCU Have you ever heard of Put in Bay? It's on America's North Coast, west of Cleveland. I've never been there, but I'm told it's a beautiful area of America, filled with great scenery and drinking opportunities. Unfortunately, it probably

BYCU > Five years ago, the warehouse of Woodland beverage distributor V. Santoni & Co. was stocked with fewer than 300 varieties of beer. Today the company's inventory contains 1,800 brews, a change that reflects the exploding number of mostly small companies making craft beer. Link [http:

BYCU The new Gatorade: You can now get drunk while exercising. They've added electrolytes to beer [http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-boffins-brew-up-a-hydrating-beer-20130816-2s20b.html] . * * * * * * * This might be the most interesting drinking story of the year: Wine and Catholicism among the

It seems like the Catholic Church has a lot of patron saints of alcohol. Here's a partial list I assembled from random Internet surfing: St. Augustine (brewers), St. Arnold of Soissons (hop-pickers and Belgian brewers), St. Dorothea of Caesarea (brewers), St. Amand (brewers, bartenders, vine growers, and

BYCU Detroit teams are pretty competitive. The Red Wings should be in the Conference Championship series right now. The Tigers are rocking. The Lions are on the rise, and the Pistons, though currently struggling, have three NBA championships over the past 25 years. And best of all: The Detroit Tigers

BYCU The un-official start of summer . . . and patchy frost is the word. This really sucks. * * * * * * * But it doesn't suck as much as my holiday weekend. My plans: Work in the office: Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, Monday morning. The one bright side: I plan on drinking

BYCU Feel-good beer story of the year: Local self-taught beer expert overcoming autism with hope and help [http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/04/local_self-taut_beer_expert_ov.html] . The autistic guy is pretty impressive in the important things: "Rice, 55, of Vermilion,

Hell, the World, and Tattoos The world is a better place if you don't care if the world is a better place. Tolstoy criticized a thing he called "family narcissism," which he described as the mindset that says "The world can go to hell, just