Backcountry Notes

Columnist George Will, ordinarily a dour fellow, has brightened my day with a column titled, "Beer: Is There Anything It Can't Do?"  Just when we thought that no-news-worth-printing stupefaction was beginning to set in, just when we thought that we couldn't read one more ominously-toned political piece from Will or Fred Barnes or Michael Barone or Robert Novak, along comes George to explain why beer - - good ol' beer - - is responsible for the rise of civilization.

Will's piece was prompted Investors' Business Daily publishing a story which referred to beer as a "nonessential item."  Written, obviously, by someone who was not from the Backcountry, or the South, or the Midwest, or the Great Plains, or - - well, just about anywhere in the U.S.A. except for the tonier parts California, Washington Deecee, and metropolitan New York City - - some card-carrying member of the brie and Chablis crowd, someone who never goes to baseball games or NASCAR races or Fourth-of-July picnics.  "Nonessential item" indeed . . . crazy talk like that can get you pounded flat in these parts.

 Will rightly states, "The development of civilization depended on urbanization, which depended on beer."  Just like some dissolute L.A. urbanite, to turn on brewski.  Ignorance is not bliss, bubba.  Will, continuing:  "To avoid dangerous water, people had to drink large quantities of, say, beer."  And they learned to cook with it, too, as a perusal of my Cooking area on this Website will show.  George's wrap-up is a dandy:

So let there be no more loose talk -- especially not now, with summer arriving -- about beer not being essential. Benjamin Franklin was, as usual, on to something when he said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

And while we're mentioning founding fathers, let us not forget that Samuel Adams was a brewer, and a very fine line of beers now trades on his name.  Throughout the eastern states, one happens upon this or that Colonial-era "Such-and-Such Tavern."  What do you think they served there to bring in the travelers?  Buttermilk? To bone up on your history, see Brewing in Colonial America, American Colonial Beer, and Beer In America ("beer helped fuel American independence . . . Lured by free beer, colonial militiamen reported to their local tavern for drills").

Well, it's hot and humid outside, so I'm off to mow the lawn - - perfect excuse for a cold one.