Crap, I need to kick it up! This was a cool prize -- I should could use it 'cause I am an habitual late night reader ... drives my wife nuts. I've got a slew of little reading lights, but this one might be the least offensive yet. I'll have to put it on my Christmas list!
Wow, Samuel Adams makes its beers "too heavy"? The majority of the Sam Adams beers are pretty tame, especially the fruity wheat ones -- a bit "ginger beer" to me if you get the rhyming slang -- nothing like a tasty Guiness or even a Bass Ale in any event!
It sounds like you might need to stick to Milwaukee's Be(a)st, Meisterbrau (a.k.a. Mister Beer), Budweiser, or Miller! Or how about Shaeffer? That is the "one beer to have when you are having more than one" (so the jingle used to go...) Maybe Pabst Blue Ribbon? Iron City beer? The list of dying weak swill "old grandpa style" American beers is seemingly endless, but fortunately growing shorter as more of us acquire taste.
Back to the main subject, though ... how can it really be "beer" if it's 54 proof? At that alcohol content, it isn't just fermentation -- there is clearly some distillation involved. I'd try it, but not on my dime.
H. Peaceably Assemble anywhere don't I. Fulan Gong permit don't J. Roman Catholic allow don't K. Free Tibet ever don't L. Abide Copywrite laws anywhere don't M. Produce leadpaint-free toys ever don't N. Respect intellectual property don't O. Write freely can't P. Protest anywhere don't Q. Pollute freely must
@Catherine- World Health Organization = United Nations = loss of sovereignty. Ugh. Count me out.
As for Down himself being a "horrible person", that is the first time I've heard that. Curious, I looked him up on Wikipedia. It makes no such claims and in fact says: 1. He quite liberally supported the higher education of women. 2. Was concerned that all children with any mental incapacity were regarded as beyond help. 3. During the American Civil War, he refuted apologists for Negro slavery and supported the concept of unity of mankind.
Yes, he used terms like "idiot" and "Mongolian Defective", but these were legitimate medical terms of the day, not perjoratives!
Perhaps he did have some feelings of racial difference which would be today be considered bigoted, but nearly EVERYONE felt this way in that day, including the most progressive supporters of reform. It's really quite unfair to judge people on the standards of our era, over 100 years later. If we do, we should likewise impugn Washington, Lincoln, Gahndi, Churchill, and other great men of history. People must be judged in the context of their own time.
If you have some specifics on his "horribleness", you ought to back it up. As near as I can tell, he worked to help "idiots" at a time when everyone thought him daft for doing so. What horrible things did he do?
As for "Trisomy 21", I didn't know the term! Thanks for educating me on that, but it simultaneously confirms my hypothesis about the unending name-changing. Now parents can tell friends that their kid has "trisomy 21". It sounds better because not many people are familiar with it yet. In 20 years we'll call it something different (again). If liberals can't cure a disease/syndrome (or end crime & poverty), they rename it and feel better about themselves for making the original problem go away. Better to spend the effort helping the people with it live normal, rewarding, productive lives than doing linguistic semantics.
#24 (sickb*stard) - Apparently, you aren't too hot at reading comprehension, either. Read my first paragraph in which I wrote: "I thought it was only we Americans who are so retarded in basic mathematics."
Let me explain the complicated irony here... I recognized that the article was about math-morons in the UK and was saying basically "hmmm... I thought that was only a problem in the US", and then expounded further upon that. Hope that helps. Thanks for playing.
I find it amusing that the term for the medical condition changes every 25 years or so to avoid offending somebody. In the US, it is now "Down Syndrome" whereas we formerly called it "Down's Syndrome", which most of the rest of the English-speaking world still uses. As a kid growing up, it was the same genetic condition (not a disease... I'm surprised the American Journal of Medical Genetics considers it a disease!), but those with it were respectfully called "Mongoloid" even by their loved ones -- the term was not in the perjorative. Before that, medical books in the early 20th century used "Mongolian Idiot", something that would make our politically correct modern selves cringe, but was perfectly accepted and not considered offensive.
I'm not taking sides on what the term should be, but ANY classification of people in what is perceived to be suboptimal or least-favored conditions (economic status, minority ethnicity, race, mental intelligence, whatever) soon gets morphed into some new term that lasts for a couple decades until people decide that the new name doesn't truly cure anything or even alleviate any suffering, so they try yet another NEWER name. And so it goes... You can bet "Down Syndrome" will be replaced by something else in 20 years...
As another note, many folks justify the switch from Down's --> Down, because Down himself didn't actually have the syndrome, and merely described it in a scientific manner. Well, that applies to Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Crohn's Disease, Asperger's Syndrome, Kleinfelter's Syndrome &c. Are we going to rename all these as well? The number of medical conditions named for those who first studied them is endless! What foolish semantics -- an utter waste of effort on meaningless feelgoodedness.
Now, now, K2, that isn't very nice. I wasn't going down that path... We are all animals (speaking zoölogically) after all. I was just saying that since Massachusetts is permitting other "alternative" marriages, it only makes sense that man:animal is coming soon. Keep your fingers crossed... maybe you'll even get man:man:man or man:child:animal:man or whatever. Plural interspecial intergenerational relationships abound you know. The possibilities are endless! Why keep those that love each other apart?
Yeah, you got me there. I was thinking back to that Yoda Einstein post. Too much multitasking!
Wow, Samuel Adams makes its beers "too heavy"? The majority of the Sam Adams beers are pretty tame, especially the fruity wheat ones -- a bit "ginger beer" to me if you get the rhyming slang -- nothing like a tasty Guiness or even a Bass Ale in any event!
It sounds like you might need to stick to Milwaukee's Be(a)st, Meisterbrau (a.k.a. Mister Beer), Budweiser, or Miller! Or how about Shaeffer? That is the "one beer to have when you are having more than one" (so the jingle used to go...) Maybe Pabst Blue Ribbon? Iron City beer? The list of dying weak swill "old grandpa style" American beers is seemingly endless, but fortunately growing shorter as more of us acquire taste.
Back to the main subject, though ... how can it really be "beer" if it's 54 proof? At that alcohol content, it isn't just fermentation -- there is clearly some distillation involved. I'd try it, but not on my dime.
Add your own!
Join in at home!
H. Peaceably Assemble anywhere don't
I. Fulan Gong permit don't
J. Roman Catholic allow don't
K. Free Tibet ever don't
L. Abide Copywrite laws anywhere don't
M. Produce leadpaint-free toys ever don't
N. Respect intellectual property don't
O. Write freely can't
P. Protest anywhere don't
Q. Pollute freely must
World Health Organization = United Nations = loss of sovereignty.
Ugh.
Count me out.
As for Down himself being a "horrible person", that is the first time I've heard that. Curious, I looked him up on Wikipedia. It makes no such claims and in fact says:
1. He quite liberally supported the higher education of women.
2. Was concerned that all children with any mental incapacity were regarded as beyond help.
3. During the American Civil War, he refuted apologists for Negro slavery and supported the concept of unity of mankind.
Yes, he used terms like "idiot" and "Mongolian Defective", but these were legitimate medical terms of the day, not perjoratives!
Perhaps he did have some feelings of racial difference which would be today be considered bigoted, but nearly EVERYONE felt this way in that day, including the most progressive supporters of reform. It's really quite unfair to judge people on the standards of our era, over 100 years later. If we do, we should likewise impugn Washington, Lincoln, Gahndi, Churchill, and other great men of history. People must be judged in the context of their own time.
If you have some specifics on his "horribleness", you ought to back it up. As near as I can tell, he worked to help "idiots" at a time when everyone thought him daft for doing so. What horrible things did he do?
As for "Trisomy 21", I didn't know the term! Thanks for educating me on that, but it simultaneously confirms my hypothesis about the unending name-changing. Now parents can tell friends that their kid has "trisomy 21". It sounds better because not many people are familiar with it yet. In 20 years we'll call it something different (again). If liberals can't cure a disease/syndrome (or end crime & poverty), they rename it and feel better about themselves for making the original problem go away. Better to spend the effort helping the people with it live normal, rewarding, productive lives than doing linguistic semantics.
Apparently, you aren't too hot at reading comprehension, either. Read my first paragraph in which I wrote: "I thought it was only we Americans who are so retarded in basic mathematics."
Let me explain the complicated irony here... I recognized that the article was about math-morons in the UK and was saying basically "hmmm... I thought that was only a problem in the US", and then expounded further upon that. Hope that helps. Thanks for playing.
I'm not taking sides on what the term should be, but ANY classification of people in what is perceived to be suboptimal or least-favored conditions (economic status, minority ethnicity, race, mental intelligence, whatever) soon gets morphed into some new term that lasts for a couple decades until people decide that the new name doesn't truly cure anything or even alleviate any suffering, so they try yet another NEWER name. And so it goes... You can bet "Down Syndrome" will be replaced by something else in 20 years...
As another note, many folks justify the switch from Down's --> Down, because Down himself didn't actually have the syndrome, and merely described it in a scientific manner. Well, that applies to Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Crohn's Disease, Asperger's Syndrome, Kleinfelter's Syndrome &c. Are we going to rename all these as well? The number of medical conditions named for those who first studied them is endless! What foolish semantics -- an utter waste of effort on meaningless feelgoodedness.
They implied it was really heavy as well, so unless the air trapped under its skin is particularly dense, that would seem not to be the issue.