Alan – Page 162 – A Good Beer Blog

…And Mom Told Me To Come Home For The Weekend

Law suits can be fun and none moreso that over claims that someone who has become wealthy based on an idea or a widget or some such thing stole that thing. The Facebook claims, however, take it to a new level of corporate intrigue:

In September 2004, the ConnectU trio filed a claim that Zuckerberg stole their idea and dragged out their site’s launch so he could complete Facebook first. He was not paid, they said, but was a full member of their team and would have reaped any future rewards. Facebook countersued, charging ConnectU with defamation. Zuckerberg has said ConnectU asked him to do about six hours of work, and any delays were because he got bogged down by his studies.

I wonder if the counterclaim also mentions that Zuckerman, the Facebook wiz kid, was also bogged down with teen angst over being the geek who never gets the chicks and that that kept him from being of any use at the time. Should be easy enough to prove one way or another, however, as even if there is no theft in an idea, there is if the copyrighted code of another was lifted without colour of right. But can “a team” hold that copoyright?

Group Project: What Are you Doing With your Summer?

These group projects don’t always have to be so stodgy. Why can’t we lighten up and just tell each other what is going on this summer. This seems to be what we are up to:

Canoeing. I think I am terrified of lakes now. All I want to do is hug the shoreline. There are animals in lakes you know. Hidden ones.
Camping. We are planning to take the kids camping in a couple of weeks for the first time. Nothing rustic. There are animals in the woods.
Backyard. Having one for the first summer since 2002, we are BBQing plenty and have had a whack of visitors over the last few weeks. We have seven kids under eight right now. Help. Plus there are fewer animals in the backyard but they are still about. Gotta be careful.

Remember – Labour Day is only six weeks off. What are you doing to pack fun into those few days?

The Season Has Really Begun

The good news is that Boston is up by seven and a half and won their games over the weekend against the White Sox supported by 29 runs. The bad news is that the Yankees woke up against the lowly Tampa Bay hitting 21 in yesterday’s games. The Sox face Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Baltimore as well as Seattle, the Angels and the White Sox before they meet the Yankees again at the end of August. At least three strong teams and the rest weak. In the next month, the Yankees meet KC twice and also the Jays but two series against the Tigers and one with the Angels. All in all, probably similar schedules but a lot can happen in a week or two. This should be a dandy stretch.

The Ontarios Against The Excelsiors Circa 1873

It was a fantastic time except I had to assist a crank (fan) after a keener and later mortified muffin (person of little experience and skill) let a bat fly into the stands. All is well and you can rest assured that the ER at the Samaritan Medical Center is dandy and the Sacketsonians are extremely kind…but, other than a wicked warm-up of many solid contacts, I missed playing our game but still caught a bit of the senior game between the Sackets Harbor Ontarios and the Rochester Excelsiors. High neato quotient nonetheless and greater plans are in the works.

Sour Beer Studies: Gueuze Cuvée René, Lindemans, Belgium

I had great concerns about this beer given my whole Cantillon thing and my expectation of mouth puckering sourness. How wrong I was. While it is dry and even assertive in its acidity, this is no lemon.

On the nose there is fright fruit with some pear and berry. The beer pours a slightly cloudy deep straw with some lighter highlights. The head is a rich fine white with sheeting lace. In the mouth there is a creamy soft water aspect that frames the biscuity champagne blended with dry apple cider. Grassy notes with pear and even hints of strawberry. The acid is subtle, quite unlike Cantillon: gentle instead of strident. The Lindeman house style is definitely there – a minerally cream of wheat thing.

What did I learn? Sour beer can work with food. This would make a good strong counter point to a summer grill, fennel and prosciutto salad, herbed chicken or a lemony haddock bake. Strong but not universal approval from the BAers.

Vintage Base Ball Tomorrow

Some neato happening tomorrow as a small group of vehicles will leave Kingston filled with guys who are going to play a game in another country that they have never played before. Heck, even though we’ve had a batting practice, all nine players have not even been in the same room together yet. But tomorrow we play vintage base ball, sort of the logical extension of the Kingston Society for Playing Catch.

What happened was there was a call out from Sackets Harbor, New York to tourism folk in Kingston to get a team together to take on their team, the Ontarios, in a game using circa 1865-1875 rules as part of their Can-Am summer festival. A team from Rochester is also coming. Kingston’s inclusion is warranted. Some research shows that in 1875 and not much before and not much after Kingston had a club, the St. Lawrence Base Ball Club, that had two levels of players – the Reds and the Brown Stockings – that briefly played at the highest level. In 1875, they played the Live Oaks of Lynn Massachusetts as well as another a team from New Haven, Connecticut which appear to be the teams that the two pitchers who claim to have invented the curve ball and beat one of them. In that year, they also seem to have beaten the Canadian Champions Guelph Maple Leaf Club as well as the London Tecumsehs. The next year, they appear to have joined Canadian Association of Base Ball but also went on a ill fated tour of central NY which led to most of the team being fired for indescribable conduct of some sort.

So we are holding ourselves out as the echo of the mighty St. Lawrence. It is an exploratory game, not only to see if we are any good and even if we are not to learn the rules and exactly which rules are to be used from the quickly moving post-Civil War period but also to check out the sort of uniforms and equipment might be needed to do this right. For tomorrow we are dressing something like Mennonite cricket players but I did buy a bat as well as a couple of lemon peel balls from the Phoenix Bat Company of Columbus, Ohio. The lemon peel has no core and is a bit bigger than a modern ball which makes it a bit easier to handle – which is good because we do not wear gloves.

So likely some photos tomorrow. Best of all, it is being sponsored by the Sackets Harbor Brewing Company, the good folks of which I have had the pleasure of getting to know through beer blog work. This bodes very well for lunch, whatever the score.

Is Wisconsin The Continent’s Beervana?

Slumming around the internet, I came across this article about beer and Wisconsin which made me wonder whether it is the beer friendliest jurisdiction in North America.

From handing out free samples at grocery stores to shunning a proposed tax increase, Wisconsin lawmakers love their beer. One of the first bills they passed this year made sure bar patrons didn’t lose drinking time when the clock jumped back an hour this spring. Other pro-beer bills are brewing.

Free beer at the grocery store! Good Lord. There are places in Canada where they hold exorcisms for folks who think like that. But then there is this: “Wisconsin is also one of only a handful of states that allows parents to purchase alcohol for their children to consume in their presence.” Holy Moly. I had no idea. Well, sure, this is progressive and good and all – especially if you believe like most conservatives that the family is the source of the best instruction and all that stuff…but I had no idea. Who knew?

Chitchattery Fridayesque

Another week is gone. It was a good one except for the Red Sox starting their August collapse a little early. In other sporting news, apparently there was a move to press gang the Chilean U20 soccer team for the Hudson Bay fleet last evening. And I play vintage base ball this weekend in another country. Who knew? Sunday sees me and the other member of the Kingston St. Lawrence Base Ball team taking on Sackets Harbor, NY in a game that will use rules somewhere between 1860 and 1875. Gary may even be seen tomorrow but we are still uncertain as to what the day will bring. I may, too, be in a canoe. What a wonderful week. Here is the linkfest:

Constitutional Update: Where is the balance of powers when one branch asserts autonomy?

Update: The Flea guides us to the new enemy – New Victorians.

I caught a good story from Reuters about a journalist embedded with Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.
I haven’t read any Harry Potter and boycott the movies due to the lack of claymation so I see not reason to give a hoot about spoilers and the release of a page or two early. Doesn’t there seems to be an over-enlistment of the authorities in the propping up of a franchise?
Are we entirely over 9/11? It appears that travel has hit a high but are we forgetful or confident. Americans are staying home we assume due to the dollar…but is that it? Why does no one come to Canada?

Americans are coming to Canada much less than they used to…”Canada needs to add more fun and adventure to its image,” the report, released by Deloitte and the tourism association, said. “We need the right product — the right active tours and adventure experiences. And most importantly, we need to promote them.”

Soon lighters will return.
It has been announced that a father and son team of metal detecting nerds hit the motherload with a Viking treasure trove being announced in England this week. Did you know that metal detection is really cool? That you can get a Bill Wyman model metal detector? I wish I metal detected.
Acquitted conduct. I was listening to CBC Ottawa last evening on the drive home and there was a “sentencing consultant” from the US being interviewed who said that Conrad Black faces the prospect of facts relating to the charges he was acquitted upon being still included in the sentencing on the charges he was found guilty. That makes no sense and I am sure, ten years past any criminal work, that it is entirely unknown in Canada. Wow. I actually feel a little bad for Connie this morning.

That is all for now. I wish I were in England where I could spend some time watching for ocean-going rubber floaty toys. I bet I’d meet up with Bill Wyman if I only spent more time doing things like that.

Group Project: Federal Poll Breakthrough!!!

Just kidding.

Please provide your ideas for any party to make a change, capture the national imagination, bust out of these doldrums. Maybe the Greens should come right out and promote attacking Yemen. Maybe the Tories should promote a useless infrastructure project in a dumb place like the Arctic…oh, they did that already. Or is national vision even needed? Maybe the NuGovernment has invented UnPolicy as the NuVzn?

Shake the tree.

Yankees As Yankees

All my big talk about the Sox is just a front. I know that. You know that. Sooner or later the giant awakes and begins the march to October. Did it happen last night?

There was an urgency to last night’s game, the Yankees said, because of the opportunity it presented. They were facing Roy Halladay, who is probably tougher on them than any other starter. A loss would have been understandable, but a victory could make a statement. After losing this month to Dan Haren, Johan Santana and Scott Kazmir, the Yankees still needed to prove they could outlast a team with an elite starter. Andy Pettitte matched Halladay for seven strong innings, and the Yankees won the kind of tight game they have lost far too often.

Conversely, attentive readers will recall that last year, the Sox sucked in September losing to Tampa Bay and Kansas City. To be fair to that season, August saw seven of none starters on the DL but losing to Kansas City is a huge warning sign even though many good people and much good music and good BBQ come from there. Last night, the Red Sox lost badly to Kansas City.