Beer News

God & Man

1. Let yourself feel their leaving entirely. Listen for their footsteps as they walk out the door of your heart. Make sure you hear it close shut. Once it does, be sure to lock it. Please, do not peer through the peephole by rereading texts and listening to old voicemails. Do not look at pictures of the two of you together. Do not call them. Do not ask mutual friends how they’re doing.

2. Sink into the silence of their goneness. Let the reality that they aren’t coming back take you over the way a storm cloud makes the sun disappear. Let it consume you and drown you until you know the presence of their absence is real.

3. Cry; cry hard. Lay in bed. Check your phone to see if they changed their mind. Realize they didn’t and remember they won’t. Cry some more. Cry until your chest feels as though it may cave in from the weight of your grief.

4. Breathe in, breathe out. As many times as necessary, until you’ve caught your breath.

5. Get out of bed. Go to your bathroom and look in the mirror. Study your tear stained cheeks, your puffy eyes. Wonder how to God someone who once brought you so much joy is now bringing you so much pain.

6. Find no reason for your pain. Feel it all anyway.

7. Get angry. Remember all their little quirks and the nuances in their voice that once lit you up. Let these things make you mad, annoyed. But know the whole time you’re lying to yourself. Know you still love them, their furrowed brow, their bursting laughter when something wasn’t even that funny. Lie to yourself until your throat gets sore.

8. Fix yourself up. See some friends. Go to a bar and pretend to have fun. Drink some shitty beer, and make sure you document it on social media. , the laughing picture says. You know better, though.

9. Be disinterested in everything. Stop drawing, stop reading stories that interest you, stop writing. Stop seeing friends, stop getting up on time, stop pulling yourself together. Let everything fall to pieces and don’t even try to care that it’s all broken.

10. Let some time pass. Go through the motions. Fulfill social obligations, work duties. Return missed calls, make appointments you’ve been putting off. Start caring that you see yourself and your life in shambles. Start picking up those pieces and putting everything back together.

11. Wake up one morning feeling hopeful. Make some coffee. Read the news. Feel at peace. And then realize it’s because you forgot them, just for a second. Feel empty all over again.

Rinse and repeat this step until you get bored of your own misery and finally kick yourself in the ass to let them go for real.

12. Start to relearn yourself. Write down what you like to do, what fascinates you. Remember what it was that made you, well, you. Write letters you’ll never send them, and throw these pieces of your heart away. Listen to your favorite songs and maybe even sing along. See your friends again. Laugh sincerely with them. Realize how much love you still have in your life even though they’re gone.

13. Hear their favorite song, or pass a spot where the two of you used to hide away. Hear their name in passing. Remember them fully, but do not fall apart. Think of how you’re still here, still moving, still breathing, without them. Smile a little. Hurt a little, but not too much. Not like before.

14. Realize and allow yourself be changed in tiny ways. Little parts of you will always be with them, and little pieces of them will always be with you. It’s okay they made an impact on your life, even if they didn’t stay.

It’s okay that you loved so deeply.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/14-steps-for-going-back-to-the-person-you-were-before-them/

Americans have long rejected Britains booze as too warm and flat but a new wave of brewers are seeking to change that

Americans perceive several reasons to shun British beer. It’s warm. It’s flat. It’s bitter. Or, worse, it’s mild. Thanks but no thanks.

Instead they drink ice-cold Budweiser-type lagers or potent craft brews and leave the Brits to their eccentric potions.

Now a Minnesota-born brewer with a punk vibe and passion for English ale hopes to change all that, starting with “sublime pints” in Los Angeles.

“British beers have been flying under the radar here. They’re maligned and they basically apologise for being what they are,” said Andy Black. “We’re not apologising. We’re proud of what we do and want to be in your face about it.”

Black, 30, is the head brewer at Yorkshire Square, in Torrance, south of LA, which is riding a small, growing movement embracing traditional British-style beer in California.

He makes cask-conditioned bitters, milds, pales, goldens and porters which tend to be more balanced and lower in alcohol than US craft beers or imported Belgian and German brews.

Yorkshire Square has garnered buzz since launching a year ago and will on Saturday debut at LA Beer Week, an industry showcase otherwise monopolized by strong, hoppy India Pale Ales (IPAs).

A pint of ale at the Yorkshire Square Brewery. Photograph: Dan Tuffs for the Guardian

Black considers IPA dominance the “hamburgfication” of beer. “I have a strong anti-authoritarian streak and like challenging existing notions.”

Other British-inspired brewers will also attend, reflecting evolving consumer palettes, said Frances Lopez, executive director of the LA County Brewers Guild, which sponsors the beer week. “We didn’t see a lot of British-style beers on the west coast so it’s been nice to see people gravitating towards nuance and craft beer.”

The festival will come on the heels of Britain’s national beer day on Friday, the anniversary of the sealing of the Magna Carta in 1215, a charter which among other things promised consistency for boozers: “Let there be throughout our kingdom a single measure for wine and a single measure for ale.”

British beer, especially bitter, has long struggled in the US. Less cold and fizzy than domestic beers, it is deemed relatively warm and flat.

The name bitter – a type of pale ale which is not in fact very bitter – alienated drinkers who favoured smooth, light lagers. A 1990s ad campaign for Keystone Light mocked “bitter beer face” with images of gurning trolls.

Then came the explosion in strong craft beers with experimental blends and ingredients, including gummy bears, and British beer was deemed not too strong but too insipid.

“It’s a very misunderstood style, which is why it’s taken so long for people to give it a shot,” Lopez said.

In addition to Yorkshire Square, LA’s beer week will also feature local British-style offerings from MacLeod Ale and an extra strong bitter (ESB) from Three Weavers Brewing Company. Several British-style breweries have sprouted across the west coast in recent years, including Machine House in Seattle and Freewheel in Redwood City, near San Francisco.

“British beer? I think it’s on the way,” said Megan Krigbaum, a contributing editor to Punch, a New York-based online drinks magazine.

“Bitter” and “mild” – another misnomer – reflect self-sabotaging English downplay, Krigbaum wrote in an essay last year. But a trend towards so-called “session beers” – lighter fare allowing multiple scoops in social settings – is emboldening Americans to try British pints, she said.

Even so, Yorkshire Square refers to “bitter” only on the premises, where staff can explain it to customers. It is branded “pub ale” when sold outside. “People are very literal,” said Black.

The tattooed, pierced Minnesotan is an unlikely real ale champion. He studied anthropology and worked at a not-for-profit organisation before deciding to turn a home brew hobby into a career, starting with internships at breweries in Yorkshire and Sunderland in the UK.

Now with a 10-strong team, Black brews 550 barrels of British-style beer per year a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. The average alcohol by volume (ABV) is 4.3%, just over half of that of a typical IPA.

Gary Croft, from Leeds, had the inspiration for Yorkshire Square. Photograph: Dan Tuffs for the Guardian

Yorkshire Square was the brainchild of Gary Croft, an expatriate from Leeds who worked in pharmaceuticals before deciding to recreate British brews and pub culture. “I thought it was something Americans were missing out on,” he said.

Customers lauded the results. “You can have a handful and still hold a conversation,” said Ryan Trousadale, 32, seated in a sunlit terrace and raising a “1948”, a dark mild based on postwar English brewing records.

“Wonderful, low-octane social lubricant,” said Rob Tyrrell, 65, a retired aerospace worker. A welcome contrast, he said, with rocket-fuelled IPAs. “With the hoppy stuff, you better enjoy the first one because your buds are done.”

Jane Peyton, a beer sommelier and instigator of Britain’s national beer day, said via email that some US brewers were importing British hops to make British-style session beers.

Enthusiasm was spreading to imported beers, she added, with some Americans exalting brands with humble reputations in Britain. “I have lost count of the times that my clients have rhapsodised about Newcastle Brown Ale.”

Source: http://allofbeer.com/warming-up-to-ales-the-british-beer-movement-brewing-in-america/

Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase Goooooood morning, Vietnam! Robin Williams made the refrain famous in the 1987 film

Adrian Cronauer, the man whose military radio antics inspired a character played by Robin Williams in the film Good Morning, Vietnam, has died. He was 79.

Mary Muse, the wife of his stepson Michael Muse, said Thursday that Cronauer had died Wednesday from an age-related illness. He had lived in Troutville, Virginia, and died at a local nursing home, she said.

During his service as a US air force sergeant in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966, Cronauer opened his Armed Forces Radio show with the phrase, “Goooooood morning, Vietnam!” Williams made the refrain famous in the 1987 film loosely based on Cronauer’s time in Saigon.

The film was a departure from other Vietnam war movies that focused on bloody realism, such as the Academy Award-winning Platoon. Instead, it was about irreverent youth in the 1960s fighting the military establishment.

‘’We were the only game in town and you had to play by our rules,” Cronauer told the Associated Press in 1987. “But I wanted to serve the listeners.”

The military wanted conservative programming. American youths, however, were “not into drab, sterile announcements” with middle-of-the-road music, Cronauer said, and the battle over the airwaves was joined.

In the film, Williams quickly drops Perry Como and Lawrence Welk from his 6am playlist in favor of the Dave Clark Five.

Cronauer said he loved the movie, but he said much of the film was Hollywood make-believe. Robin Williams’s portrayal of a fast-talking, nonconformist, yuk-it-up disc jockey sometimes gave people the wrong impression of the man who inspired the film.

“Yes, I did try to make it sound more like a stateside station,” he told the Associated Press in 1989. “Yes, I did have problems with news censorship. Yes, I was in a restaurant shortly before the Viet Cong hit it. And yes, I did start each program by yelling, ‘Good Morning, Vietnam!”’

The rest is what he delicately called “good script crafting”.

When the film was released, the presidential campaign of the Democrat Jesse Jackson called asking if Cronauer would help out. The conversation died quickly after Cronauer asked the caller if she realized he was a Republican.

In 1992, George HW Bush’s re-election campaign taped a TV ad slamming Bill Clinton’s draft record. In the ad, Cronauer accused Clinton of lying.

“In many ways, I’m a very conservative guy,” he said. “A lifelong, card-carrying Republican can’t be that much of an anti-establishment type.”

Cronauer was from Pittsburgh, the son of a steelworker and a schoolteacher. After the military, he worked in radio, television and advertising.

In 1979, Cronauer saw the film Apocalypse Now with his friend Ben Moses, who also served in Vietnam and worked at the Saigon radio station. “We said: that’s not our story of Vietnam,” Moses recalled Thursday. “And we made a deal over a beer that we were going to have a movie called Good Morning, Vietnam.”

It wasn’t easy. Hollywood producers were incensed at the idea of a comedy about Vietnam, said Moses, who co-produced the film and wrote the original 30-page story.

“I said: ‘It’s not a comedy; it’s the sugar on top of the medicine,’” Moses said. The writer Mitch Markowitz made the film funny, and the director, Barry Levinson, added the tragicomic aspect, Moses said. Williams’s performance was nominated for an Oscar.

Moses said the film was a pivotal moment in changing the way Americans thought about the Vietnamese and the war.

Cronauer attended the University of Pennsylvania’s law school and went into the legal profession, working in communications law and later handling prisoner-of-war issues for the Pentagon.

“I always was a bit of an iconoclast, as Robin was in the film,” Cronauer told the Associated Press in 1999. “But I was not anti-military, or anti-establishment. I was anti-stupidity. And you certainly do run into a lot of stupidity in the military.”

Source: http://allofbeer.com/adrian-cronauer-veteran-whose-radio-antics-inspired-good-morning-vietnam-dies-aged-79/

The 23-year-old woman was hit after she swerved to avoid a car pulling into the bicycle lane

An Australian cyclist has been killed in a collision while on holiday in New York, police have said.

The 23-year-old woman was struck by a garbage truck near Central Park on Friday afternoon, after she was forced to swerve to avoid a car pulling into the bicycle lane, they said.

The driver of the truck was taken into custody by police, who said they would evaluate him for driving under the influence after beer cans were found in his cabin.

“The female was riding a bicycle north bound on Central Park West, in the bicycle lane, when a black Toyota livery vehicle pulled out into the bike lane from a stopped position,” a NYPD spokesman said in a statement.

“The bicyclist swerved and was struck by a private carting truck, which was also travelling north.”

The woman was taken to the Roosevelt Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, visited the scene of the accident and told NBC news too many drivers “didn’t take care” on the city’s streets.

“This is disgusting what happened here,” he said. “Here is someone doing everything they’re supposed to do, clearly riding in the bike lane. We know in some of these cases we’ve lost innocent people because drivers didn’t take care.”

Twenty-four cyclists were killed on New York streets last year.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/australian-cyclist-killed-by-garbage-truck-while-holidaying-in-new-york/

Mug shot for Suse Antunez-Garcia, 26, accused of murder trying to stop a “beer skip” at a Las Vegas convenience store where she worked. (Las Vegas Metro Police )

Las Vegas police say a woman working at a convenience store has been charged with murder after using deadly lethal force trying to stop a “beer skip” theft.

Police said Suse Antunez-Garcia, 26, was working at the gas station convenience store just before 6:15 a.m. Friday when she fired two rounds into a vehicle, striking the victim, a man in his 40s, in the lower back and in the leg.

“The male victim was shot while he was getting back into the vehicle during the beer skip,” Lt. Ray Spencer said, according to video posted by Fox 5 Las Vegas.

FLORIDA MAN, 32, FAKES ROBBERY TO GET OUT OF GOING INTO WORK: POLICE

He was dropped off at a hospital 15 minutes after the shooting and was pronounced dead.

The victim was shot after he and a female accomplice entered the store and stole three cases of beer, Spencer said. They arrived in a vehicle being driven by a second man.

FLORIDA MAN ARRESTED FOLLOWING ROBBERY, SHOOTING AT POLICE: OFFICIALS

Antunez-Garcia fired her weapon after she chased after the store manager who ran out first and tried to stop the man and woman from fleeing, the lieutenant said.

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Antunez-Garcia was booked into the Clark County Detention Center, WJBF-TV reported Saturday.

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Source: http://allofbeer.com/las-vegas-convenience-store-clerk-accused-of-murder-trying-to-stop-beer-skip/

What a time to be alive: While we’re looking for signs of alien life in our Solar System and creating vaccines against types of cancer, engineers are also manufacturing self-chilling cans that will guarantee a cold brew wherever you are.

Far from being a futuristic technology you can only dream of when you’re sipping on a grimly warm beer, you can actually purchase one of these little marvels now. 7-Eleven has just released a range of cold brew coffees that come in real-life, self-cooling cans.

Named (of course) “Fizzics Sparkling Cold Brew Coffee”, the containers have been developed by The Joseph Company International, whose history with the tech goes back several decades.

The eponymous inventor, Joseph Mitchell, created a prototype of a self-cooling drink can more than a quarter of a century ago that used an HFC-based coolant system. Seeing as HFCs are an increasingly outlawed type of incredibly potent greenhouse gas and ozone destroyer, this prototype was then banned by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Back in 2012, a CO2 version was released, which works and doesn’t appear to be anywhere near as environmentally threatening as its predecessor. It’s this design by Mitchell and his company’s patented technology that appears to have been snapped up by 7-Eleven – and the coffees are available on a trial basis in the Los Angeles area.

When the cans need to be chilled, a nozzle at their base is turned, which releases CO2 with an accompanying hissing soundtrack. Turning the can upside-down and leaving it be, consumers need only wait around a minute and a half, whereupon the beverage will be chilled by around 16.7°C (about 30°F).

Details are scarce as to what precisely causes the cooling – and we’ve reached out to the company to check – but here’s our best guess based on the demonstration video.

The carbon dioxide part of the can, separate from the beverage, is pressurized and kept as a gas. Opening it to the atmosphere and allowing it to vent causes it to depressurize and expand.

A thermodynamics law known as the Joule-Thomson effect dictates that this type of expansion, via this small opening, causes a refrigeration effect. As the gas expands, the average distance between the molecules grows. Crudely put, this causes a decrease in the individual molecules’ kinetic energy and therefore the overall temperature.

It’s not clear how “environmentally safe” the tech, as the company describes it, is at this point. The CO2, for example, is described as “reclaimed”, which essentially means recycled or reobtained from another process, but no more information is given. It’s not clear how recyclable the cans themselves are compared to conventional ones either.

In any case, the tech behind these cans is, ahem, very cool.

[H/T: FoodBev Media via The Takeout]

Source: http://allofbeer.com/these-drink-cans-can-chill-themselves-and-theyre-already-on-sale-in-the-us/

Gloria and her husband Anthony and son Ivin work together to serve up meals to the homeless on the weekends in her Florida community.  (SWNS)

A kindhearted waitress whips up fresh meals for the homeless in her community and says she has dished out 75,000 dinners from her own kitchen.

Granny Gloria Lewis, 54, spends her weekends making 225 fresh dinners and 180 breakfasts from her two-stove, four-fridge kitchen after years of living on the brink of homelessness in her low-income job.

Gloria, who moved to the US from Barbados in 1987, spends $700 on groceries every weekend to make dozens of home-cooked meals for those in need.

Every Sunday the charitable mom-of-two preps giant trays of chicken parmesan, spaghetti and meatballs, barbeque chicken and ribs, along with fresh veggies and rice to help those on the street.

Waitress Gloria, who also works full time, spends her Mondays in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where hundreds of people gather for her fresh meals every week.

Gloria and her mechanic husband, Anthony Vargas, 44, began their charity Care in Action in 2012 out of their own pocket making just 20 meals a week.

Waitress Gloria, who also works full time, spends her Mondays in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where hundreds of people gather for her fresh meals every week.  (SWNS)

However, the kind-hearted pair has seen their output increase by 90 per cent thanks to the financial support of Pennsylvania businessman Bob Byers who became involved in 2015.

“My husband and I should have been putting money away, but we put it all into this, everything we had. A businessman, Bob Byers, he has been our angel. He has been an amazing support for Care in Action. He saw my struggles and how much of a sacrifice we were making,” Lewis said. “We were on the verge of not being able to do it anymore when he gave us a check for $10,000. He’s been funding us regularly ever since.”

Lewis said she helps because she knows how “easy it is to become homeless.”

“I have always worked in low-income jobs and I could see just how easy it is to become homeless. It’s so easy,” she said. “The stereotypes that surround the homeless are so far from the truth. I see myself every day in these people and I think it could be me so easily so I go and feed them.

“I started in 2012 making 20 meals every Sunday. What we did then is just go out onto the street. People were so grateful for fresh meals and prayers,” she continued. “We’ve gone from making 20 meals to over 200 every Sunday now. It’s just me and my husband. We believe God will provide for us and our needs.”

Gloria Lewis spends her weekends making 225 fresh dinners and 180 breakfasts from her two-stove, four-fridge kitchen after years of living on the brink of homelessness in her low-income job.  (SWNS)

Despite her hard work, the granny-of-three feels she is not making a dent in her locality’s homeless crisis, which still sees almost 2,500 people sleeping on the streets in Broward County.

“Even though I have tried so hard, I feel like I haven’t been able to make that much of a difference because there are still people on the streets and the number is growing and growing,” she said. “I keep hope that one day there will be no one living on the streets. I feel like I can only help people so far.”

Lewis says the growing rents in her adopted hometown of Fort Lauderdale make it very difficult for people to remain off the streets and she urged politicians to do their part.

“I’ve become close friends with a lot of the people I’ve met,” she said. “The worst thing about homelessness is that even when you get off the street, it’s so easy to end up back there. The cost of housing is so outrageous here. I have a friend who got off the street but she’s struggling to get the $600 a month to keep her bed in a room with three other people.”

“Politicians have to come up with affordable housing to end this crisis,” she added.

Lewis credits God’s help for her mission success, saying “I couldn’t do this without God.”  (SWNS)

However, the busy cook said she will continue her mission to help in any way she can, which she said was “God’s purpose.”

“I couldn’t do this without God, he called me and my husband to do this,” she said. “There’s such a stigma about homeless people but they are a group of people that are so helpful to one another and so supportive. It’s been my honor to do what I do.”

Trending

Woman dumps fat-shaming boyfriend who said she had a ‘beer gut’

Source: http://allofbeer.com/florida-grandmother-makes-over-75000-dinners-for-the-homeless-its-gods-purpose/

(CNN)The key to beating to the All Blacks is to believe you can beat the All Blacks. Or as England coach Eddie Jones put it in the build up, “We want to direct the movie, not just be in it.”

Follow @cnnsport

For 60 minutes, England was in the directors’ chair courtesy of tries from Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley, and but for a disallowed try at the end may well have pulled it off.

But part of the All Blacks’ magic is poise and patience, and the double world champions hit back to escape with a 16-15 victory under the drizzle of southwest London.

With the World Cup less than a year away it was a significant result for both sides.

For New Zealand, it added to its reputation as one of sport’s most dominant winning machines, and was, perhaps, proof that the recent defeat against South Africa was a blip.

For England, shorn of a raft of key players through injury, it was another step in the right direction following last week’s win against South Africa in the wake of a disappointing year that has put Australia’s Jones on the ropes.

“Sometimes the game loves you, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Jones, whose side got away with a controversial late decision which could have cost them the win against the Springboks.

“We really stuck it to them. It’s a really good step forward because you benchmark yourself against New Zealand.”

The All Blacks hadn’t been to the home of English rugby for four years, but like the opening chords of a long-awaited Rolling Stones tour, the hair-raising haka told you they were back.

Not that you could hear the warrior’s chants, such was the deafening rendition of “Swing low, sweet chariot,” English rugby’s anthem. The thunderous noise at Twickenham told you this was special.

READ: All Blacks on coping with pressure and why poppies are ‘special’

The match was also billed as a clash of styles. The All Blacks’ electric, attacking rugby — yielding an average of four tries in its last 12 games — against England’s tighter, more forward oriented game.

From the outset, Jones’ men were muscular, fired up, and precise. They met the Kiwi rapier with a cutlass and cudgel.

A flowing early move sent winger Ashton — also back for the first time in four years — over in the right corner.

As if on cue, the stadium PA pumped out the Stones’ “Start Me Up,” and it was clear England had picked up the challenge of the haka and run with it.

A second try followed, this time from a ferocious forward surge off a lineout to put co-captain Hartley over.

As England surged to a 15-0 lead it looked as if rugby’s axis was in full tilt.

‘Purring’

But like a wily hunter stalking its prey, New Zealand remained patient, prodding and probing.

And when opportunity knocked the men in black struck with clinical precision.

Slick handling in a pre-arranged backs move put full back Damian McKenzie under England’s posts. Beauden Barrett added the conversion and landed a penalty shortly after to go in at the break 15-10 down but on the up.

The All Blacks’ engine was purring again after half time, only for a rare dropped pass to scupper a certain try.

Undeterred, England had a near miss of its own, but despite hammering away near the Kiwi line it couldn’t quite find a way through.

As Jones admitted, those are the chances you must take against the All Blacks, because when Barrett slotted a drop-goal and then another penalty on the hour mark, New Zealand were suddenly in front.

‘Trust and belief’

The All Blacks are renowned for their ability to snuff out tiring opposition in the last quarter, but England hung on tight at Twickenham.

“New Zealand generally run away from teams in those areas but they couldn’t,” said Jones.

When flanker Sam Underhill turned Barrett inside out and looked to have scored in the left corner off a charged down kick with five minutes left, the majority of the 80,000 crowd erupted with roars that reverberated down the nearby River Thames.

But the referee opted for a TV review and England lock Courtney Lawes was adjudged marginally offside in charging down the kick.

All Blacks’ coach Steve Hansen claimed there was “no doubt” it was offside, but said later he was just worried the officials would be “brave enough” to make such a crucial decision.

“I thought England were very good, but I thought we showed a lot of character to be down 15-0 in a hostile environment, with 79,000 not being Kiwis, and the weather conditions — it wasn’t conducive to being able to play razzle-dazzle rugby — and the boys stuck with it,” said Hansen.

New Zealand captain Kieran Read added: “For us it’s about trust and belief. We just had to work things out.”

After talking to reporters, Hansen set off to find his old mate Jones for a beer.

They’ll have much to discuss over the next 12 months.

Visit CNN.com/sport for more news, features and videos

“It was a fantastic game of rugby,” said Jones.

“I tell you, we’re excited about where we’re going.”

England takes on Japan next week, while New Zealand moves on to face Ireland in Dublin.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/all-blacks-escape-with-win-against-england-at-twickenham/

(CNN)Throughout a long and storied career in one of the most famous rock bands on the planet, Keith Richards has made no secret of his love of drink and drugs.

After decades of legendary hedonism Richards has all but given up on boozing, he revealed during an interview with music magazine Rolling Stone published on Wednesday.

“It’s been about a year now,” Richards said. “I pulled the plug on it. I got fed up with it.”

Richards isn’t entirely teetotal, enjoying “a glass of wine occasionally, and a beer,” but this is still quite the change, given his famous penchant for outrageous benders.

“It was time to quit,” Richards said. “Just like all the other stuff.”

Representatives for neither Richards nor the Rolling Stones have so far responded to CNN’s requests for comment.

Bandmate Ronnie Wood, 71, has been sober since 2010, according to the UK’s Press Association, and he told Rolling Stone that he has noticed a difference in Richards.

“He’s a pleasure to work with,” Wood says. “Much more mellow. He’s open to more ideas, whereas before I’d kind of grit my teeth and go, ‘He’s gonna give me some s**t for saying this.’ Now, he’ll say, ‘That’s cool, man.’”

And the new regime has been good for the music, according to Richards.

“It was interesting to play sober,” he said.

“We’re weaving (guitar parts) a lot more conscientiously now. We’re much more aware of the gaps and the spaces between. We’re in our seventies, but we’re still rocking like we’re 40-year-olds, you know?” added Wood.

After decades as one of the most recognizable names in music, the Rolling Stones are still going strong.

They have been nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning three, and recently announced a 2019 US tour that will start on April 20 in Miami, according to the band’s website.

However the group will not be returning to Atlantic City, where a 1989 gig led to bad blood with now US President Donald Trump that lasts to this day.

Richards told the BBC that Trump was their promoter for the show, and he recalled going red with anger when the future President’s name took top billing for their show as “Donald Trump presents the Rolling Stones.”

“I got out my trusty blade, stuck it in the table and said: ‘You have to get rid of this man,’” Richards said.

The feud continued to simmer when the Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” became a staple at Trump rallies, prompting the band to say they had not given Trump permission to use the song and asking the campaign to stop playing it.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/rolling-stones-keith-richards-almost-gives-up-booze/

What is the all-time best dive bar jukebox song? “I’m a Korean-American who’s spent 80 percent of her life working in hip-hop. So… I haven’t spent that much time in dive bars, but I’ve spent eons in karaoke bars and grimy clubs. In both of those settings, any Biggie song makes me feel at home, any Mobb Deep song off the album Hell on Earth makes me hype, and “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League makes me sing like I don’t know I’m off-key.”

Name the first good drink you ever drank and where you had it. “Oh, I didn’t even know what a good drink was for so many years. I’m lucky my palate wasn’t scorched by years of struggle cocktails: tacky gimmick mixers by celebrity mixologists, bottle-service beverages poured out in dark clubs, and expensive headache-inducing Champagnes. I think the first good drink I had was in a Korean BBQ. It was a very simple, very humble makgeolli, which is a Korean rice “farmer’s liquor,” homemade by the chef’s grandmother. More recently, I enjoyed a reddish Kawaba Beer with some extremely amazing omakase sushi at Cagen in NYC’s East Village. I guess what I’m saying is that the quality of a drink to me is tied to its context and not its name brand.”

What book on cocktails, spirits, or food is your go-to resource? “I became a fan of the Smitten Kitchen website after I had my son three years ago. I was desperate for easy to make, home-cooked meals that could be wrapped up and reheated, and Deb Perelman’s down-to-earth recipes were reliable and comforting. Her new cookbook is all of the same, but paired with beautiful photos and charming explanations.”

Do you have a signature drink? If so what’s in it? “I can make a very rudimentary Michelada—Mexican beer, limes, salt, hot sauce.”

What’s your favorite late-night guilty pleasure snack? “S’MORES! Why wait for s’more opportunities to come to you on vacation when you can just grab a couple takeout chopsticks, graham crackers, Hershey’s chocolate bars, and Stay Puft Marshmallows, and make the magic right there over your stovetop at home?”

Is there one musician dead or alive you’d like to have drink with? And what would you drink? “Soju in a scooped-out watermelon at a club in K-Town with Rihanna would be so fun.”

What’s your favorite shot and a beer combination? “Absolut Lime and Sapporo.”

Currently, which city has the best nightlife scene? “Hmm… Atlanta. Especially if you want to hit their legendary strip clubs. Great trap music, lemon-pepper wings, and superhuman dancers.”

What song gets a party started? “Anything from Bad Boy Records from the late ’90s.”

You’re featured in the new AbsolutTruth campaign about New York City nightlife and culture. Which old-school New York club do you wish was still open? “Moomba.”

Minya Oh, better known as Miss Info, was a DJ on New York’s landmark hip-hop station Hot 97 for a decade. She also worked as a writer and editor for MTV News, Glamour, Vibe magazine, Rolling Stone, and XXL, and is author of Bling Bling: Hip Hop’s Crown Jewels. She currently runs the blog MissInfo.TV, is the host of the video series “Food Grails” on Complex, is the co-host of the podcast In Real Life, and is style director at Stadium Goods.

Interview has been condensed and edited.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/going-10-rounds-with-miss-info-aka-minya-oh/

http://bit.ly/2Eq5KzI

Cataloged in Holidays

50 Thoughtful Last Minute Christmas Gifts For Procrastinators 

January Nelson Updated December 11, 2018

If you still haven’t finished your holiday shopping, you should think about buying these last-minute gifts suggested by Ask Reddit.

1. Mason jar + equal parts granulated sugar and veg oil + either a few drops of essential oil OR some lemon zest OR vanilla extract = boutique grade body scrub.

2. Buy tickets online for a upcoming play, dinner & show, concert, game, etc. Print out page of ticket confirmation and put it in a nice Christmas card envelope. It’s an awesome gift because people tend to love it more than clothing or other junk you usually give. And if you’re parents are like mine, they barely take the initiative to go to these type of events themselves or don’t even know about them. Experience > material goods.

3. Run to the grocery store, pick up chocolate morsels, butter, and cream.

Takes about five hours to make 200 chocolate truffles. Easy to make them different flavors as well. (Orange, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Cinnamon Honey are the good with milk chocolate. Peppermint, Khalua, and Matcha are good with dark chocolate. Peppermint and matcha are fantastic with white chocolate.)

4. At least for men, my go-to is always a beard or personal grooming kit. It’s likely something that they wouldn’t buy themselves, and many haven’t felt the exhilaration of a peppermint shampoo. Men deserve a little pampering and self care too!

5. I think mugs make a good last minute gift because they’re available at most stores, pretty cheap for a gift, and will actually be used by the recipient.

6. Socks. High-end, badass, toasty warm (if you live where it gets cold) socks. Smartwool/Darn Tough/etc.. They may “meh” at it early on, but will thank you later. Maybe even very later, but it’ll be appreciated (a lot) eventually.

7. Most people I know don’t have bluetooth hook ups in their car, FM Transmitters are absolutely fantastic, they’re relatively cheap and life changers for folks that like to listen to music while driving, Probably $15 and under.

One of those copper chef/gotham steel type skillets. They’re fantastic, less than $20, endless use.

8. Cookie/brownie mix in a mason jar with instructions on a card and a bow.

Or a visa gift card.

9. Fancy pasta, fancy jarred sauce, nice block of parm cheese, in a serving bowl with a kitchen towel. You can do this as expensively or as cheaply as you want.

I also loved a book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles by Jennifer 8 Lee (basically, a woman exploring Chinese food in the USA as well as her own Chinese roots, and the history of fortune cookies… really fascinating). She talks a lot about soy sauce in that book, so I’ve given that book with a bottle of “real” soy sauce many times. I love sharing things I love with other people, so that’s a gift I love to give.

10. Subscription box. Like coffee? Subscription box. Board games? Subscription box. Make up? Subscription box. Ties or socks or yarn or hot sauce or tea or beer or wine or Japanese candy or marvel or harry porter or fitness? Subscription mother-fuckin box.

11. Go to the dollar store and grab some over the hand oven mitts, then head to the grocery store and get cake & brownie mixes, hand write the baking directions on a decorated index card or slip of paper. Personalize each one with a message or somesuch. Bam.

12. If it’s someone you’re fairly close to, print out a photo of the two of you and put it in a frame. It feels thoughtful, but can also be done in less than an hour and is cheap.

13. Depends how well I know them, or if I’ve used the same trick before – but it’s probably a cast iron skillet. Costs $20 for a good one (rhymes with dodge), and I always get thanked for it, like a year later.

14. Aldi.

A million calories of chocolate for about twenty quid.

Enough to distribute to everyone.

15. Here is what I do every year.

I go buy gift certificates for my favorite restaurants, and gift cards from Best Buy. I then put them in Christmas cards with no name on them.

I keep some in the house and some in my car.

If someone gives me a gift, I say “Wait a minute, I have something for you too” and go get the card. I quickly write their name on it and hand it to them.

Its worked out perfectly for me for years. I give everyone that gives me something, and if I end up with extra gift certificates or gift cards, I just use them on myself.

16. I make them an elaborate Christmas card with an etymology of their name. It’s always a hit and has more meaning than a gift card.

17. Good pair of headphones.

18. I make very good gingerbread cookies and decorate them very elaborately, like I’ll draw a portrait of them in frosting or I draw a cartoon character they like. Im pretty good at it.

19. Chia pet. So many varieties. ‘Ironic’ gift for those recipients, awesome gift for the others.

Either way you are a hero!

20. Those soft-ass blankets you find in any store around Christmas time. And then I buy one more for me. Every goddamn year

21. For girls: anything from Anthropologie. They have a great gifts and the quality/craftsmanship is decent. That and they gift wrap beautifully for free! I use this for last minute birthday gifts quite often and it always impresses.

For guy: gift cards or booze. Guys appreciate utility.

22. Nail place… Women will go wild over a free mani-pedi.

23. A bottle of their favorite spirits, or for non-drinkers/kids, a book.

24. BOOKS!

There is a book on literally any topic ever.

Fan of Formula 1? Book.

Fan of Jujitsu? Book.

Like economic news? Book.

Porn? Book.

Lonely? Book.

Want to improve yourself? Book.

And you can get books everywhere. Online, in store, thrift stores, little free libraries, everywhere.

25. Houseplants!

I usually have lots of spiderplant babies and keep a few small pots on hand. Great for all occasions.

26. Those Hickory Farms meat and cheese gift boxes.

27. For a family – Get a tin bucket of gourmet holiday popcorn (caramel / chocolate flavored popcorn) to share.

For a dude – Get a bottle of fancy champagne or other booze like whisky or bourbon.

For anyone younger than 30 – Get an Amazon gift card.

For a kid – Give them a $50 dollar bill. They likely never handle money and if they do, the $50 looks so much better than the $20. Easy way to become the cool uncle.

For a girl – Get them a gift certificate to a local salon, a big blanket, or fun warm socks (not regular socks but those nicer holiday woven socks).

For your mom – Get her an ornament that has sentimental value, or, go to the mall (who does that anymore) and get them to hand paint an ornament on the spot with the family name & year on it.

For your dad – Get him NFL or NBA tickets.

28. Things that are consumable… everyone has way too many junk trinkets just because someone felt they had to buy something.

Ground coffee from a local coffee shop (if you know the person has a grinder, get whole bean, but not everyone does). They usually have fun Christmas flavors this time of year.

A bottle of dry wine or champagne.

Nice candles (go for ones that are soy based and have lids) or liquid hand soap.

29. Who wants lottery tickets?!?!?!

30. If we’re talking non-money gifts you know what’s a great go to? TJ Maxx. They are just a hodgepodge of random stuff and they have bailed me out so much when it comes to gift giving because with all the things they have you are bound to find something for everyone.

31. Home made egg nog, Irish cream, or Kahlúa. Most people will love one of the three, they are easy to make, made by hand, affordable, and our gifts that go away.

32. I’d bake a bunch of stuff or make fancy looking caramel apples. If I give people food, they seem to be satisfied.

33. I’ll do a blanket/candle/bottle of wine/nice beer and fudge,

OR a movie/board game and stop by the dollar store for a shower caddy, fill it with popcorn, movie candies, etc if it’s for a family. Do a caddy and filler per family member.

34. Starbucks gift card. Everyone loves Starbucks.

35. Lego. Lego for the nephew, lego for dad, lego for mom, lego for granny, lego for EVERYONE!

36. Spicery subscription for three months. Print out the confirmation and chuck it in an envelope. I’ve gifted this twice and both recipients said that they never wanted any other present from me – just for that subscription to repeat.

37. If it’s last minute, I tried to go to a clothing store I know they have clothes from. Throughout the year I’ll ask “bro, nice jacket, where’d you get it?” Then I remember their spot and get them a gift card.

Then to cover my ass cause some people are weird about gift cards I say “I saw a _____ while shopping but I couldn’t remember your size/didn’t know what color you’d like/etc.”

38. Magazine subscriptions. The New Yorker. Times Literary Supplement. New Scientist. Private Eye. Done them all.

39. Mom – Candles and epsom salts.

Brother – Steam/eShop card, or go to a second hand store and find a game I think he’d like.

Dad – Itunes Gift Card or some kind of sports paraphernalia.

Girlfriend – something that reminds me of her, or that I think she’d love (last Christmas it was a pair of socks that said ,”I’m a delicate fucking flower”).

40. I buy ten copies of the best book I’ve read all year and wrap em in newspaper.

Proof of success: I do this every year

41. A brick of batteries. Everybody needs batteries, nobody will say no to batteries, and they will think of you when they are in a pinch and realize you got them a BRICK of batteries.

Great practical gift.

42. Throw blankets from the 24-hour drugstore. They’re $15 and nice enough that I use them myself. This is also my go-to for any gift swap at the office/with people I don’t know super well.

43. Pictures! Take a picture of something the receiver will like, or find one you might already have, throw it in a cheap frame and WABANG

44. Go to CVS and get a gift card (they have Amazon, iTunes, random others). Swing buy a restaurant and grab a gift card for that place. Last ditch, don’t have time to get a hard copy of a gift card- just buy one online that you can email.

45. Luxury kitchen stuff.

There’s a great kitchen & dinnerware shop within walking distance of my home. I can get pretty dinnerware, flatware, glasses and linens in a range of styles, and they have durable, high quality cookware for the more practically minded people. It’s my go to gift-shop, because everyone eats.

46. Lava Lamp!

No one has one.

They’re 20$

Oh, and it’s neat.

47. I’d bring them all to a restaurant and pay for their meal-> easy way to make a party and present at the same time without having to worry about what to buy them since they can order themselves what they want

48. Pharmacies always have cheap last minute crap like travel manicure kits and hot sauce samplers.

49. You get a box of chocolate! You get a box of chocolate! And you get a box of chocolate! Everyone gets a box of chocolate!!!

50. Cash, candy, and/or alcohol.

0

Image Credit: Anthony Tran

is cataloged in Last Minute Gifts, Presents

What if kindness was cool?

What if you could live a life that would make YOU jealous? What if you could make just one person’s day better with a few simple words of encouragement?  is a book of inspirational words that will keep you fighting and ask you never to give up on life, yourself, or others. Open a page to start your day, frame a page that inspires you to keep living, share a page with a friend who needs support, or leave one behind for a complete stranger to brighten their day.

Join The Kindness Revolution

Source: http://allofbeer.com/50-thoughtful-last-minute-christmas-gifts-for-procrastinators/

It was the start of the summer. You were still recovering from your Memorial Weekend Hangover. You were still planning your basic but cute red, white, and blue Jell-O shots for the Fourth. One night, you got trashed  fell in love started a cute little summer fling. Summer’s the perfect time for a casual “thing” (because only old people actually, like, define relationships). Between the dinners and the occasional accidental sleepover, you sort of developed feelings (ew) for the guy. Now Labor Day weekend is over, the leaves are turning brown (in a proverbial sense, of course, since it’s still about a billion degrees outside), and everyone’s returning to school to study hard tailgate. Basically, it’s time for your summer fling to end. If you were lame and developed feelings for a boy you “hung out with a bit” this summer, here’s how to get over your summer fling in five easy steps.

Step 1: Evaluate Interest

It wasn’t supposed to be serious. You were just there for the free drinks a good time. But now maybe you’re secretly hopeful that he wants your “casual fling” to actually be a serious relationship. This is highly unlikely, but if you’re delusional optimistic, then here’s the test. It’s realllllly complicated. If he’s made zero attempts to contact you recently, then he’s either

a) incredibly insecure so EW dump him b) HE’S NOT INTO YOU.

His phone was not run over by a taxi, rendering him incapable of contacting you. Unless he’s in a freaking coma (which, NO, you should not verify by calling up every local hospital), if he’s not contacting you, he’s NOT interested. And texting you at 1am does NOT count. Duh. I didn’t need to get into Stanford to tell you that.

Step 2: Stop Emotional Masturbation

Betches (hi) wrote a super helpful book about relationships, and if you haven’t read it, you should (also you should pre-order our next book, duh). But anyway, we talk about this idea of “emotional masturbation.” This is where you get totally stuck on a guy because you keep imagining your honeymoon in Bora Bora. In reality, this f*ckboy wants to avoid you so badly that he’ll climb out of a window. (That’s, um, never happened to me personally, of course.) Engaging in happily-ever-after fantasies is totally counterproductive, not to mention pathetic, because it prevents you from finding a guy actually worthy of your love. Or from just happily existing on your own because you have trust issues.

So, don’t entertain yourself while you’re on the treadmill by imagining how cute your children will look in their little plaid tunics when you send them to Nightingale for kindergarten. Don’t draw angsty portraits of him over and over again as you cry over his newest Instagram. Definitely, don’t write creepy stories for your creative writing class that ends with the narrator marrying him. We all know it’s you.

Not only because you’ll never get over him, but also because that’s pathetic. You’ll get a reputation for being psycho. (You can also get this reputation by blacking out and confessing to all his friends about how you’re still in love with him and, like, totally don’t get why he ghosted you! And by lying on the beer-stained floor at a frat party and sobbing to a guy that you barely know that you “just don’t get why you’re still a virgin.” And then throwing up on him. Yeah, don’t be such a f*cking lightweight, Becky.)

Step 3: Reflect On All His Flaws

Maybe he had a bit of a dad bod (ew, join a gym). Maybe he was a condescending closet Trump supporter. Maybe he was a judgmental hypocrite that placed you on a golden pedestal that you didn’t want to even f*cking be on. Maybe he still seems perfect, but honestly, if he’s not into you, clearly he was dropped on his head as a child.

Step 4: Be Chill

When you see your ex-boy-thing in public, act totally normal around him. Be vaguely friendly, but also disinterested. Definitely don’t get so distracted driving that when you spot him crossing the street on his way home from practice you forget to check the intersection and almost run over 10 people while screaming hysterically. All while your previous fling is watching you with utter horror, wondering why he ever liked a girl so crazy.

Step 5: Hook Up With A Hot Guy

If you’re back at college now, there’s plethora frat parties and tailgates where you can get stupid drunk and fall into bed with him (or, like, hook up with him in an alleyway next to a bar because you’re totally blacked classy). If you’re not in college and don’t have access to a legion of hot athletes, then download Hinge or something and find a hot f*ckboy to forget your previous fling so now you can obsess over this new dude and why he’s ignoring you instead.

If none of this above advice on how to get over your summer fling works, I recommend downloading Spotify’s “Life Sucks” playlist, buying some Halo Top ice cream, listening to an episode of “U Up?”, and watching romcoms on repeat. There’s really nothing that Clueless can’t fix.

Images: Duri from Mocup / Unsplash; Giphy (2)

Source: http://allofbeer.com/how-to-get-over-your-summer-fling-in-5-steps-%c2%b7-betches/

Pulp Fiction star tells Sirius XM neighbor called 911 and said large black man was breaking into the house

Ving Rhames was held at gunpoint by police officers in his home after a neighbor reported that a “large black man” had broken in, the actor said on Friday.

“I open the door and there is a red dot pointed at my face from a 9mm [handgun],” the star of Mission: Impossible, Pulp Fiction and other films said on the Clay Cane show on Sirius XM. “They say, ‘Put up your hands’.”

Rhames said the confrontation happened earlier this year and was defused quickly when the police chief recognized him.

“He said it was a mistake and apologized,” the actor said, adding that he was still shaken. “My problem is, and I said this to them, what if it was my son and he had a video game remote or something and you thought it was a gun?”

Rhames said police told him a neighbor had called 911 and said a large black man was breaking into the house.

“Myself, the sergeant and one other officer, we went over to that house, which was across the street from my place, and the person denied it,” Rhames said.

He continued: “Here I am in my own home, alone in some basketball shorts. Just because someone called and said a large black man is breaking in, when I opened up the wooden door a 9mm is pointed at me.”

Santa Monica police did not immediately respond to a request for information about the incident.

Rhames was a responding to a question about his experiences with racism.

“I’m sure you hear about all the reports of black men being attacked by police,” Cane said. “You are a big star, but how does racism show itself in your life?”

Rhames’ story was reminiscent of recent high-profile incidents in which black Americans have had the police called for innocuous activities like leaving a short-term rental property, working out at a gym, or sitting in a Starbucks.

It was also similar to an incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2009, in which Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was detained outside his own home.

The resulting national conversation about race and policing culminated in Barack Obama hosting Gates and the arresting officer at the White House, for what was dubbed the “beer summit”.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/actor-ving-rhames-says-police-held-him-at-gunpoint-in-his-own-home/

Since its inception in 1990, the World Wide Web – invented by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee – has revolutionized humanity. We now shop online, order take-out online, study online, look through photo albums online, make travel arrangements online, game online, talk, gawk, and stalk online!

In fact, I couldn’t imagine having to do so many daily tasks without the internet. I wouldn’t have survived university by actually reading books, and I could never get through my Christmas shopping without Amazon. But perhaps the biggest change is the way we communicate with one another.

From email to MSN to MySpace to Skype to Facebook – it is now easier than ever to start a conversation with somebody on the other side of the planet. Social Media has allowed us to chat with our friends and family, keep up-to-date their lives, and even plan parties and events without sending one thing in the post. It’s truly made the world a smaller place.

And following the rise of social media in the noughties, we have seen many “trends” come and go – with some becoming iconic, and others more… moronic. For example, everybody out there now converses using emojis, and every year people genuinely get excited to see what new emojis the next updates will bring (here’s looking at you redheads). We’ve seen positive challenges, such as the Ice Bucket Challenge, raise millions for charity, and we’ve also seen a slew of idiots eat detergent in the Tide Pod Challenge.

But if there’s one thing that has stayed around far longer than anybody would have ever imagined, it is the humble meme. If you’re truly out of the loop, a meme is defined as “an image, video, piece of text, etc, typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations”.

Basically, they’re funny pictures and videos of relatable things, often with a funny caption. And over the years, the subjects within these memes have become unintentional celebrities… for doing absolutely nothing except having a sharable expression. Now, we’re taking a look at these very modern stars have changed since being immortalized on the web.

1. Success Kid (Sam Griner)

Never before has a child epitomized the feeling of success more than Sam Griner. After his mom, Laney Griner, uploaded the picture to Flickr in 2007 (yes, it really was that long ago), she never thought she would have turned her young son into a viral star.

Sam was actually trying to eat the sand when the picture was taken, and Laney originally captioned the image ‘I Hate Sandcastles’, but his triumphant expression soon transformed him into the ‘Success Kid’.

2. Side-Eyeing Chloe (Chloe)

In one of my favorite videos on YouTube, Chloe and older sister Lily are surprised by their parents with a trip to Disneyland. However, whilst Lily starts to cry in delight when the camera pans to Chloe, she stares straight into the lens with a “WTF is going on?” expression. It is hilarious.

Amazingly, Chloe’s expression transformed her into “Sid- Eyeing Chloe”, the perfect meme for when people wanted to express their unimpressed disbelief to whatever was going on in the world.

3. Disaster Girl (Zoe Roth)

She could have been a cast member from Village of the Damned with that demonic expression. However, a young Zoe Roth was not taking sick pleasure in the destruction of a house she had just burned to the ground, she was just enjoying a training drill by the local fire department two blocks away from her home in Mebane, North Carolina.

The picture was taken all the way back in 2004 by her father, Dave Roth, and now that Zoe is looking to complete college, she said: “I’d love for the meme to help me get into or pay for college somehow. But I ultimately want people to know me for me.”

4. Trying To Hold A Fart Next To A Cute Girl In Class (Michael McGee)

On March 2, 2014, Redditor aaduk_ala submitted a humorous picture titled, ‘Trying to hold a fart next to a cute girl in class’ to the /r/funny subreddit. It wasn’t long before his strained expression was seen across all of social media.

When asked whether he had any regret about his unexpected fame, McGee responded: “My take on being ‘internet famous’ is cool and all. But I regret not copyrighting the picture right away because I could have made a lot of money there!” Ironically, his expression would be my face if I were to discover that I could have made thousands of dollars by copyrighting one silly picture.

5. Scumbag Steve (Blake Boston)

I have so many personal memories of using this meme whilst at college. In fact, I became a “Scumbag Steve” after waking up my dorm friend every two weeks at 6 am because I needed to use his printer.

The first known time this image was posted on Reddit was January 21, 2011, and it wasn’t long before a commenter in the Reddit thread identified the young man in the pic as Blake Boston (also known as “Weezy B.”)

In an interview with Know Your Meme, Blake revealed that the picture was originally taken by his mother. “I have no regrets in my life… no matter what I do. I can completely f**k up on something and I still don’t regret it. Because at the end of the day, that makes me who I am, so I wouldn’t go back and erase anything, if I were to go back in time.” I think we can all agree that Weezy B. is a very cool guy…

6. Overly Attached Girlfriend (Laina Morris)

Back in 2012, Justin Bieber asked his dedicated followers to enter an online sing-off competition in order to promote his celebrity perfume ‘Girlfriend’. In response to this, YouTuber Laina Morris uploaded a simplistic webcam video in which she performed a parody version of Justin Bieber’s single ‘Boyfriend’, with her own personalized lyrics.

Morris’ over-the-top expressions immediately led to her face being used to symbolize the ‘Overly Attached Girlfriend’, but sadly, she did encounter several issues regarding her fame: “Strangers were finding my personal Facebook page and talking to my friends. They were finding where I worked and trying to access my college records”.

7. Good Luck Charlie (Mia Talerico)

Actress Mia Talerico’s exaggerated “I don’t know” face from an episode of Disney’s Good Luck Charlie has taken comments sections by storm. And thanks to her charismatic acting, the nine-year-old now has over 1 million followers on Instagram.

I’m 26 and have under 400. Where did it all go wrong?

*I don’t know*

8. Bad Luck Brian (Kyle Craven)

Fake News! Did you know that the guy in the picture is not actually called Brian? His name is Kyle Craven. Used to symbolize bad luck, the very first use of Craven’s image was first posted on January 23, 2012, by his long-time friend, along with the caption “Takes driving test .?.?. gets first DUI.”

9. Ridiculously Photogenic Guy (Zeddie Little)

I think we can all agree that we have never looked this good whilst exercising. When I’m at the gym, my expression closely resembles that of when I’m perched on the toilet.

However, Zeddie Little, AKA “Ridiculously Photogenic Guy”, was snapped running in the 2012 Cooper River Bridge Run whilst looking impeccable. Literally better than I’ve ever looked in my life.

When asked about his newfound fame, Little responded: “I really don’t know, but I kinda feel honored to be part of a joke that’s in good spirit because sometimes the Internet can be a little vicious or jokes can get bent the wrong way. But these are all kinda, for the most part, positive. It’s funny that everybody is kinda taking like to it. It’s, I guess, the most flattering way to get spread across the Internet.”

10. Ermahgerd (Maggie Goldenberger)

For those of you out of the loop, “ermahgerd” is a rhotacized pronunciation of “oh my God”, in order to recreate the speech of a nerd (sorry Maggie).

This meme first emerged on March 14, 2012, along with the caption: “Just a book owners smile…”. The girl in the meme, Maggie Goldenberger, said that the picture was created in fourth or fifth grade when she and her friends seriously got into playing dress-up. It’s good to see she’s got a sense of humor about the whole thing, because I can think of about 734 pictures of me from high school that could have been used in the exact same way, and it would have destroyed my life.

11. Grumpy Cat

There’s a face only a mother can love.

Grumpy Cat – the appropriate nickname given to Tardar Sauce – is an always-moody-looking snowshoe cat that rose to fame after several pics of her annoyed facial expressions were posted to Reddit in September 2012. According to Huffington Post, Grumpy Cat now has a reported net worth of $100 million! That’s right, this cat has more money than you ever will.

12. First World Problems (Silvia Bottini)

Amazingly, this is no bog-standard stock-image model. Silvia Bottini is actually a relatively successful Italian actress.

13. Blinking White Guy (Drew Scanlon)

This perfect GIF originally came from a live stream shot back in 2013, when Drew Scanlon was a video producer at the popular gaming website Giant Bomb.

During one of the team’s weekly “Unprofessional Fridays” shows, Scanlon watched as the editor-in-chief played Starbound, a two-dimensional action-adventure game.

However, things got a little awkward when Gerstmann said: “So I’ve been doing some farming… with my hoe.” Scanlon reacted with the bewildered expression now known as the “Blinking White Guy”.

14. Hipster Barista (Dustin Mattson)

Even though this meme has become more appropriate for every year it has existed, it was originally uploaded to in August 2011! However, the guy in the picture, Dustin Mattson, has not seen the funny side:

“I do find it discouraging and disappointing that there was so much exposure brought to an attempt at making a joke of a culinary industry and the professional barista. To me, it’s very telling on how we laud farm-to-table food, craft beer, cocktail mixology, but it’s ok to have no respect for the specialty coffee world and the people who are committed to it. On the other hand, the whole thing only makes me want to work harder at my job, make better coffee, serve my customers better, and bring more positive exposure to both the company I work for, the barista profession, and specialty coffee as a whole. If anyone were to see my and my coworkers’ work in the café, they’d see that it doesn’t quite match up to most of the jokes made against the ‘Hipster Barista’.”

15. Doge

I’m just going to put this out there: I love Doge.

Back in February 2010, a Japanese kindergarten teacher called Atsuko Sato posted several photos of her rescue-adopted Shiba Inu dog Kabosu to her personal blog – it is something we have all done. However, unlike with me and my Yorkshire terrier, Sato’s photos went viral and the world fell in love with the side-eyed confused pup. The best of boys!

So there you have it! And although so many of these unintentional internet celebrities have changed so much since their images were originally posted to the web, there’s no doubt we’ll always remember them for the hilarious memes they spawned.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/heres-what-the-stars-of-the-internets-most-famous-memes-look-like-in-2018/

The last time we looked at drinking songs we divided them into two kinds, the upbeat, celebratory hymn to Bacchus and the introspective, dirge-like ode to alcohol as (to quote Homer—the Springfield one, not the ancient Ionian) “the cause of, and solution to, all of life’s problems.”

Our choice for the greatest drinking song of them all, Roger Ferris’s “The King is Gone (So Are You)” as cut by the mighty George Jones, fell firmly in the latter category, as do many of the greatest drinking songs. But the Bacchic hymns, packed as they are with exhilaration, disorder and anarchic freedom, have their moments, too.

Many of those moments are found in a subdivision of the category, the one devoted not to praising alcoholic beverages collectively or individually or to extolling drunkenness in general, but rather to celebrating and chronicling one particular drinking session. Call it—to use German, the language of genre theory and excessive drinking—the Sauforgienepos; the “swill-session epic.”

There are countless fine examples of the genre, from the Hibernian hilarity of the Dubliners’s “Finnegan’s Wake” (as cited in our previous article) to Virginia O’Brien’s jaunty toe-tapper, “Did I Get Stinkin’ at the Club Savoy,” from the 1942 film Panama Hattie, to “Drunk,” Jimmy Liggins’s monumental military-spec floor-pounder from 1953.

My favorite example, however, is “Peter and Paul,” a 1931 rarity by the Gene Kardos Orchestra that is both hotter than a shot of upcountry corn shine and also one of the weirdest songs ever recorded. The weirdness lies not in the music itself, the instrumentation or even the performance, but rather in the fact that it was recorded at all. Read the lyrics, given here in full, and you’ll see what I mean.

One summer day it came to pass

That Peter and Paul upon an ass

Went up to town to take a glass

And bum around Jerusalem

O Jerusalem,

O Jerusalem,

O Jerusalem,

Jerusalem the golden!

Then Peter started falling in:

“Come on, let’s have a hooker of gin.”

“Brother,” says Paul, “it would be a sin

To liquor in Jerusalem.”

O Jerusalem, etc.

But when they got into the bar,

Says Paul, “O look, Pete, here we are—

We must have followed the Hennessy star*

Instead of that of Bethlehem.”

[*Until the 1960s, a Cognac’s age was generally indicated by the number of stars on the label—ed.]

O-o Bethlehem, etc.

The barmaid had an ankle neat;

It soon began to get to Pete,

He grabbed her right behind the seat—

The seat of old Jerusalem.

O Jerusalem, etc.

Says Peter, “Paul, I have a notion:

Time to tend to my devotion.”

Says Paul, “you’re rolling like an ocean—

You’re all wet in Jerusalem.”

O Jerusalem, etc.”

Indeed. It’s not often you encounter scurrilous fanfic about the Apostles. What gives?

About the song itself, little is known. It was copyrighted—or at least the melody was—in November, 1931, by one “F. Arnold.” The label of Kardos’s recording—the only one the song has ever received—expands that “F” to “Florence.” After extensive searching, I believe that this is also the only song Florence Arnold ever copyrighted or published.

As to who she was, besides an impressive wiseass, I cannot say. There was a Florence Arnold, alias “the Irish nightingale” and “the blonde pony,” who sang and danced in vaudeville in the 1900s and 1910s and then married Charles Koster, the king of American circus publicists. Koster was a famous wiseass himself, and it wouldn’t be surprising if he married another one, but beyond that there’s no proof we’re talking about the same Florence Arnold or even if that was the composer of the song’s real name.

We know a little more about the song’s performers. Yugin “Gene” Kardos (1899-1980) is not one of the great names in jazz. He was neither a paradigm-shifting soloist nor a brilliant composer nor a flamboyant, larger-than-life personality. He was a Hungarian Jewish kid born and raised on the then-tough Upper East Side of Manhattan who lived with his parents. He talked with a thick, dese-dem-and-dose New York accent and had worked as a bookkeeper. But he could play the violin and the saxophone and he knew how to lead a band; how to keep it together; how to focus its energies; how to make sure everyone zigged when they were supposed to zig, zagged when they were supposed to zag, and went BRAP! BRAP! BRAP! with their horns precisely when they were supposed to go BRAP! BRAP! BRAP!

On the strength of that, Kardos got his Orchestra—any band too big to fit in the back of a taxi was an “orchestra” back then—a long-running gig at the Gloria Palast, a German dance hall on East 86th St., a contract with Victor records and a weekly half hour on national radio. In the depths of the Depression, that wasn’t nothing—indeed, those were the kinds of things that made most normal bands who had them famous.

That didn’t happen with these guys, although at first glance, Kardos’s band seemed perfectly normal. In its instrumentation, it was the standard eleven-piece dance band of its day. Two trumpets, a couple of guys who doubled on alto sax and clarinet, a tenor sax, a trombone, a rhythm section—banjo, tuba, piano and drums—and, of course, Kardos, who mostly waved a baton.

Most of the band’s material was pretty standard, too, at least on record: the way things worked, the A&R guy gave you the song and you played it, and most of those songs were corny, “synco-pep” (as it was sometimes called) dance numbers with novelty “vocal refrain.” For records, Victor even teamed the band up with Dick Robertson, their A-list vocal refrain-suppliers and a star in his own right.

It should have worked. I can’t say why it didn’t, but I think the recording session Gene and the boys held on October 23, 1931; the one where they cut “Peter and Paul,” gives us a pretty good clue, as does a band photo taken eight days later. The photo, which can be seen here, was admittedly taken on Halloween. But the band, although dressed in suits like everyone back then, come off as a bunch of stone punks.

One guy’s drinking a beer, a couple appear to be munching on sandwiches, all are disheveled and there is a disconcerting number of flat, “yeah, so?” stares into the camera, including from Kardos. The guy next to him, trumpeter Sid Peltyn, who appears drunk (and he’s not the only one) is pointing a toy gun at his head and leaning on a cane. He had the cane because he got shot in the leg during an affray at the Gloria Palast a few weeks before. Yeah.

During the session, they cut five songs, four of which were released. The one that wasn’t was a ditty called “Sweet Violets,” a novelty number where the verses set the listener up to expect the word “shit” only to have it replaced with “sweet violets.” Not funny, but indicative of the way things would go that day. I suspect the regular A&R guy, who was supposed to keep a tight leash on the proceedings, was hungover or out with the flu that day. In any case, the band did at least plod its way through an utterly forgettable ballad of the most commercial sort. But that left three songs: a college number, a thing called “You’ve Got to Sell It,” and our biblical Sauforgienepos.

They play “a Hot Dog, a Blanket, and You,” the college number, for laughs, throwing in a couple of made-up college cheers, one in a ridiculous falsetto (“Riddledy tiddledy tootsy toot / We are the boys of the institute / We are not rough, we are not tough, / But we are detoimined”). The other cheer, however, gives a clue to the amount of fuck you that the band, made up of nine Jews and two Italians, had in reserve:

Ikey, Moses, Jake and Sam

We are the boys that don’t eat ham

Baseball, football, swimming in a tank

We’ve got the money but we keep it in the bank!

At this point, Kardos closes things off by adding, in his East Side honk, “The only way to make us cheer / Is to give us back our prewar beer.”

“You’ve Got to Sell It” is a fast-tempo flag waver, as they used to be called, with the band riffing while Kardos explains the realities of the band business (“Now most people don’t know a good band when they hear it, good or bad / They most always say it’s the last woid when it’s really very sad … I’ve hoid some coahny bands who knock ‘em off theah seats / And I’ve seen Paderewskis kicked out in the streets”).

And finally, “Peter and Paul.” You don’t need electric guitars, leather jackets and bangs to play punk rock. With the right attitude, a mess of brass and reeds, a piano, a banjo and a drum kit will make plenty of noise. The blisteringly fast double time here, the chords punched out at maximum volume, the blaring trumpet solo, the shouted choruses, the scurrilous, even blasphemous subject matter, the drinking and the sex—pure punk. The Ramones didn’t come from nowhere.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/the-roots-of-punk-drinking-songs/

A new study, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has come to a conclusion that may frustrate many: your gluten-free diet (GFD) may not actually be gluten-free at all.

First spotted by the American Council on Science and Health, this meta-study, which looked at pre-existing clinical data sets, wanted to find out how much gluten is accidentally consumed while on a GFD. They did so indirectly, using measurements of indigestible gluten byproducts in stool and urine samples, as well as assessing changes to the intenstine.

The average inadvertent exposure to gluten by individuals with celiac disease on a GFD was estimated to be anywhere from 150 milligrams to 400 milligrams per day. If accurate, then it’s not clear where the extra gluten is coming from.

In any case, the team – led by celiac-focused biopharmaceutical company ImmunogenX – conclude that “many individuals following a GFD regularly consume sufficient gluten to trigger symptoms and perpetuate intestinal histologic damage.”

If you have celiac disease, this will clearly impact your life. For all others, here are some important caveats.

Celiac disease involves the inflammation of the small intestine upon eating gluten-based foods or drinks (beer, for example) – anything that contains wheat, barley and rye. This renders you unable to absorb nutrients, which leads to a range of symptoms, from uncomfortable digestive problems to fatigue, coordination problems, and even nerve damage.

Celiac disease is a diagnosable autoimmune condition, not an allergy or an intolerance to gluten, a dietary protein. Genetics and the environment play a part in its development and, as pointed out by the NHS, there is no cure. A gluten-free diet for life is necessary, which is why this latest revelation if corroborated with further research, is somewhat disconcerting.

Then there’s the issue of non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). Some people eating gluten foodstuffs can experience symptoms similar to celiac disease, but they vary wildly and there aren’t signs of intestinal damage. There are no associated antibodies indicating that this apparent sensitivity is an autoimmune condition.

In some cases, it could be a misinterpreted version of something else, like a wheat allergy. Coeliac UK notes that “gluten sensitive” people that go on gluten-free diets may feel better, but this may be a placebo effect.

The jury is out on whether NCGS is a bona fide condition or not, and it’s deeply unclear whether gluten is even causing its symptoms. It cannot currently be diagnosed. Their symptoms could also be due to something else in wheat – such as short-chain carbohydrates – but at this point, we simply can’t say for sure.

In sum, if you think you have NCGS or celiac disease, don’t just assume you’re right and suddenly take on a GFD. See a clinical practitioner first for advice.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/we-have-some-bad-news-for-you-about-your-gluten-free-diet/

Image copyright Getty Images

Gin has gone from a drink for posh parents and old buffers to the hippest spirit in the UK – but is it on the wane again?

Friday night at the House of Hortus bar in London’s Soho is shaping up nicely.

There is a choice of themed rooms with lighting, furniture and even scents matched to the colour and flavour of the drinks being served, and there’s groovy music, too.

There’s a good choice of cocktails, different ones in each room: rhubarb and ginger, plum and cinnamon, pomegranate and rose, all mixed with sparkling wine and garnished with mint or rose petals. But there’s one thing they have in common: the alcohol in all of them is gin.

Image caption The Lidl House of Hortus pop-up bar in Soho

The night is in fact to promote discounter Lidl’s Christmas gin range.

The chain is banking on it contributing to a bumper Christmas – its sales of the spirit are already 40% higher this year than last.

This isn’t just the fashion at Lidl, of course. Aldi’s gin won joint silver (with Lidl’s) at this year’s International Wine and Spirits awards and Asda reports a mind-blowing rise of 76% in gin sales this year.

Lidl says 1.5 million more adults drink gin today than four years ago.

And this week saw the launch of a £4,000 bottle of gin. Available only at chic department store Harvey Nichols.

Gin’s popularity isn’t just found in a glass these days.

Essence of gin runs through a startling list of products: body butter, scented candles and lip balms, tea bags, advent calendars, popcorn and gin-flavoured cheese and chocolates.

Have we reached ‘peak’ advent calendar?

Botanical library to aid Scottish gin makers

Gin’s journey from grain to grass

How gin could help the night time economy

All this would have bemused the late Queen Mother’s generation, for whom gin aperitifs marked the spirit’s last high popularity mark sometime around 1970.

Juniper, the defining aromatic that gives the drink its name, may not now even be discernible among the flavours featured. Roasted white sesame seeds, seaweed, hibiscus and sansho (Japanese pepper) have all been pressed into service for flavouring gin.

Image caption Is there anything you can’t put a gin theme on?

How has it come to this? And can it continue?

The answer to the first question is a simple policy tweak by the government. Before 2009, the law meant no distillery under a 1,800-litre (400 gallons) capacity would be granted a licence. It did this to try to stop small-scale hooch makers.

But then the government’s tax collector, HMRC, at the urging of Sipsmith Gin, changed its policy to allow small, craft distillers “as long as they had good business reasons and strong security could be evidenced to protect excised duty revenues”.

The number of stills rocketed. HMRC says there are currently 419 licensed distilleries in the UK; in 2009 there were only 113.

Image copyright Nick Cook

Image caption Nicholas Cook of the Gin Guild hasn’t (quite) called peak gin

Two brands in particular stand out for whetting the trendsetters’ appetite, says Nicholas Cook, director general of industry body the Gin Guild.

“Bombay Sapphire was a revolution at the time with its lighter, more botanical style and the other one was Hendrick’s, which marked itself out with what were then novel botanicals, in the form of cucumber and rose.”

Another trailblazing feature of the two brands were their “inspirational, individual and stylish bottles”.

But with 500 gins in the UK alone, uniqueness on these two fronts is no longer enough.

Peak gin, it seems, is nearing.

A major report on the UK white spirits market, by market research firm Mintel, will be published in December. Its author, analyst Alice Baker, says gin is by far and away the fastest-growing of the white spirits with sales across the board up by around 25%.

“Gin could have another few years of growth – but then it could plateau. As with any trend, it has its limits.”

Even the Gin Guild comes close to acknowledging this although it’s hardly going to call time on its own product. It prefers to say it is at “peak brand”.

“It would be hard to enter the market now,” admits Nicholas Cook. “You’d be hard pushed to find room on a retailer or bartender’s shelves.”

And although the Guild may not want to acknowledge it too strongly, its parent body the Worshipful Company of Distillers’ annual debate, will in fact be: “This house believes that the gin boom has reached its peak.”

But it holds this in May, so we won’t know what they think about that until then.

Image copyright Scott Garfitt

Image caption Pink gin is reborn

It is hard to see where next the gin market could go but Mintel suggests manufacturers distinguish themselves by using “colour outside the bottle”.

In Lidl’s House of Hortus pop-up a whole room was glowing pink, with those pinkish-type gins of pomegranate and rose on offer. Other rooms were also colour-themed.

And Mintel says this could go even further. “Pink rules now, but there are even ones that change colour. Social media users are a key target – vibrantly coloured gins lend themselves well to photos and videos and that sort of thing does help reach those precious under-40-year-old consumers.”

A short history of gin

Image copyright Getty Images

Image caption Hogarth’s Gin Lane: idleness, squalor and oblivion

Gin was invented in Holland in the 16th Century as a medicine, the English caught on to the “Dutch courage” habit when fighting with the Dutch in the Thirty Years’ War

King Charles I gives the Worshipful Company of Distillers the sole right to distil spirits in London, partly to help English farmers by using surplus corn and barley

More royal help from King William III (a Dutchman), he actively encourages spirit production to raise money for wars. Gin becomes cheaper and more popular than beer

Overuse of gin in the 1730s becomes a scandal as portrayed in Hogarth’s Gin Lane – idleness, vice and misery, madness and death

The “gin palaces” of the Victorian era are built, bright and glamorous giving the new industrial working class a place to spend their money

Gin falls from fashion, becoming the province of the posh and elderly until in 2009 a change in the law makes it easier to open a distillery and the new boom is unleashed

Meanwhile, all those who have joined in the gin party may like to consider what they can turn their hand to if the party is indeed winding down.

All those gin stills could be turned in a trice to another spirit.

Paul Jackson, the founder and editor of the Gin Guide, expects it to be rum.

At least he won’t be out of a job. He is currently laying out the pages for the first edition of the all new Rum Guide.

Mintel’s Alice Baker agrees that rum could be a contender. “It has the provenance potential – the story of which Caribbean island it originates from, and it doesn’t dominate the drink, if you had the right sort of marketing campaign that could start to improve again.”

Either way, HMRC won’t mind as it will still get its cut.

It takes a hefty payment from any spirit sold. For a litre bottle of 40% alcohol by volume that is currently £11.50.

Related Topics

Gin

Alcohol industry

Source: http://allofbeer.com/how-long-can-gin-stay-in-high-spirits/