Regional Talk > Chicago > Bump

Bump

I'm here.

Maybe everything is going nicely and nobody feels like griping.

reply to jsinaiko
Plans for the weekend: check to see if the Oktoberfest beer fermented, settled, carbonated and tastes good. Bottle the Pale Ale brewed in August. Brew and set for fermentation some pumpkin ale. Bike up the Fox River Trail, which has some of the best scenery in the area. Take the dog to dog park forest preserve for a couple miles' unleashed exercise.

reply to jsinaiko
Yeah, we're here.

No skunks burrowing under the front porch this year, have pretty much given up on being entertained by this season's "pro" sports, finally got both kids off to college, and no weird weather to speak of for a while.

So the Wife and I are enjoying the peace and quiet for a change. I hope everyone else is doing likewise!

I got nuthin going on this weekend either. Gonna be nice to sit around and do nothing or at least whatever the hell I want.

reply to jsinaiko
My emissions test saga.

Plates expired 8/31. Forgot - too damn busy. Run out to 99th and King Dr. "Can't get the sticker till you do the emissions test."

Doh! Done plumb fergot.

So - schlep out to 73rd near Central to get the test. Car running great - never a problem. But wait! Check engine light is on! Oh no! But I was almost there so I gave it a shot. Flunked. Of course.

So, off to the mechanic. Replace oxygen sensor. Back to the emissions test place. Flunked again! Takes almost 24 hours for the car computer to re-set.

Finally passed today. Started at 49th and Greenwood. Off on LSD to I-55 to Cicero, to 73rd St. to Leamington. Pass test. Then on up Cicero in late PM traffic to 87th, east on 87th to King Dr., get my flippin sticker, and then back to Hyde Park. The great circuit of the South side. Exhausted.
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reply to jsinaiko
huh what? leave me alone I'm trying to nap here after drinking a whole keg!

reply to Dennis
Maybe I should write something really abusive or start a fight and make you moderate instead of nap!

On second thought that would be mean - now go and drink some of that fru-fru beer of yours. I'm gonna find me a Stroh's! Or a Drewry's. Maybe a Canadian Ace or a Meister Brau. Fox's Premium?

Seriously Dennis, did you ever encounter Gill's Beer, "the beer that won't go flat?" Came in 1 gallon cider jugs. Cost about $3 per gallon.
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Meister Brau? Holly crap. I haven't hear that in a long time. How'bout some Mickeys big mouths?

My uncle drank Hams by the vat.

That's Hamm's. Two M's.

A distant relative of mine who was an ad-man in Minneapolis supposedly invented the Hamm's bear, a Yogi-like cartoon character who fronted the Hamm's beer ads for decades.

"From the land of sy-blue waater...waaters...Hamm's, the beer refreshing, Hamm's..." was the jingle.

Drewry's had a pic of a Canadian Mountie on the label. It and Canadian Ace (obviously) were prohibition-era marketing; if it was Canadian it was real, as opposed to bathtub gin and bootleg swill.

Canadian Ace was one of Capone's legal businesses. It was around as recently as the 70s.
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reply to jsinaiko
Do you mean Fox Deluxe? The name has been reborn by a brewer in Oswego, who has microbrewers in Wisconsin produce some outstanding bottled beers.
I can remember the Fox Deluxe billboards on the west side 40 years ago. My dad said that the brand killed itself when it tried to pose itself as an upper-class beer, thus alienating its commomer base. I also remember seeing the Drewery's mountie, though I never had the beer.

I stand corrected!

Drewry's was OK, as was Meister Brau. Stroh's was decent too until they bought the by-then tanked Schlitz and used their crappy new breweries to try and go national.
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reply to jsinaiko
None of you beers are worthy unless they are made by blind virgin monks locked inside a castle that only I can pronounce!

reply to Dennis
I too have been to Castle Nthwrppwyndkbe, in the wilds of Flanders.

18%, consistency of maple syrup, and made by the nuns who deflowered those monks!
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reply to jsinaiko
Yeah, I just figured it was quiet here because Dennis induced everyone to get drunk on beer. Remember Buckhorn beer? That was some nasty stuff.
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What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?

Ever heard of Buckfast wine? From the UK? Makes Robitussin
sound tasty.
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I've heard Brits talk about yobs drinking their Buckies, but I had assumed it was cheap beer. Probably more along the lines of Richard's Wild Irish, or MD 20-20, etc?
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What if the Hokey Pokey really IS what it's all about?

Wine. Sort of. Made by Benedictine monks (maybe). Out of grapes (or something else).

Thick and brown and cheap.

Supposed to be medicinal.

I had one swig of it once. Perhaps the foulest liquid I have ever ingested.

If you read the Wikipedia article, the stuff I saw was the "brown bottle" stuff, because I was in Ireland. It seems to include caffeine. Yikes!

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckfast_Tonic_Wine
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