Slumming at the Barley House

"That'll be $5.25" said the bartender after he poured my bottle of hefeweisen into a large glass. A bit more than the Black and Tan I'd started with, but it's a 20 ounce beer so....he turned around: "at least, it was $5.25 two weeks ago, now it's $8.25". I'm not sure what Miss Manners would say about spitting a full glass of partially digested beer on bar staff, but fortunately good breeding and a keen dislike of arrest caused me to re-think my first impulse.

Needless to say, that was my last beer. I was sitting next to Paul Davis, a real parliamentary workhorse who's got lots of painful experience dealing with the brutal infighting common to fraternal organizations; Paul is starting a new micro somewhere in New Hampshire. I'll say where when I remember or Paul tells me.

So, Paul held forth like a champion, a veritable William Jennings Bryan of the beer table, for many hours. Finally, just before losing conciousness, blood burst from my ears and I fell to the floor, crawling away to the restroom to bandage my appendages. I only hope somebody recorded the performance for posterity because, Praise Jesus, I have no clue or memory of what was said.

After that, some of us went over to the office and sampled what we had on tap until we had to go forth in search of burritos. It was a great time, let's do that again!