ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ P.B.R. ME A.S.A.P.]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ P.B.R. ME A.S.A.P.]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
I love Pabst, so I guess that makes me an ironic hipster. Deal with it. It’s the best tasting beer for the financially unable ($2 drafts and $6 pitchers at the local watering hole!). It’s way better than the other economic beers: Tecate, Bud/Bud Light, I guess Black Label, certainly better than Natural Ice. Let’s just say it was the beer that was polished off first at my wedding last year (ditto for at least one other friends’ wedding). My reasoning: my guests know a good beer when they see one (that or my uncle wanted to relive his drinking years as a poor graduate student).
That’s not to say I don’t like other beers. Harpoon I.P.A. (really, almost every I.P.A.) is a favorite (gotta thank my old roommate for that one as he generally polished off some Sierra Nevada nightly). I try and make it a point to drink a couple locally brewed beers while I’m out and about jet-setting. Of course a Guinness every now and again is pretty good. (Liz, for the record, only drinks Amstel Light). But for the most part, I live a Pabst-only lifestyle.
It has not always been the cheap beer of choice my whole life. Way back in my days of Hip Tanaka the beer of choice was (wait for it) Red Dog! (Oh dear.) And shortly after I moved into Boston I stumbled upon probably the only $1 draft in all of Massachusetts, but I shudder to think what I was drinking, probably some mystery bugjuice concoction of whatever rolloff swill came from the other kegs.
Well anyway, even if you never drink “the Ribbon,” or any beer for that matter, this one shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. New puzzle on Friday.
Don’t go ripping on my Bud Heavy. Behind water and iced tea, it is third on my consumed beverage list. I have always felt that “sin” items are different than any other in this respect. Brand loyalty is stronger in them than in any other. Well, maybe behind people’s feelings toward Coke or Pepsi that is.
Now I will certainly have another beer from time to time. (anyone in the midwest have a Boulevard wheat for me, those things are FANTASTIC!) But if I were going to die in 24 hours, I would spend it with my old friend Budweiser.
FYI Brendan, many bars in Laclede’s Landing in STL have PBR for $1 draws before Cardinals games. The term draw is used for draft in the midwest. Seriously, they look at you funny if you call it a draft there, and vice versa in the north east. Anyway, if you ever make it to my favorite city, enjoy (and ask for a draw)!
My Dad’s from the St. Louis area, so I’ve certainly been out there a couple two three times. Old Style, I seem to recall, is the cheap beer out there (or maybe that’s Chicago?). Good times.
$1 drafts are non-existent in Boston where tapped beer can run you give or take $6/$7. Yikes!
is that photo borrowed from latfh.com?
Quite a source for laughs, mostly because I live in Chicago’s hipster neighborhood (one of ’em)
It most definitely is from http://www.latfh.com. And yeah, that site is pretty stunningly hysterical, even if “Vice” has been doing this stuff for years.
I hate myself for recognizing that one of their photos is Dan Deacon.
But I don’t hate myself for recognizing the Wil Wheaton clown sweater pic.
Same here. Kind of reminded me of when I saw “High Fidelity” and dorked out over the fact that some guys from Tortoise and Don Caballero had cameos.
I like my beer fun and fruity (which are words from the label of New Glarus’s Spotted Cow Ale). Buffalo Bill’s Brewery Orange Blossom Cream Ale is even fruitier than the Cow. Blue Moon with a squeeze of orange…are you sensing a theme here? (And not a crossword theme.) Amber ales, reds, dark beers—nothing too hoppy. Do not want too many hops. I.P.A. is a thing of horror to me.
Ahhhh “High Fidelity.” A friend of mine from college was the pink-haired shoplifter. I dork out in Chicago movies for recognizing actors that I’m friends with, as well as locations that I see on a regular basis (“The Dark Knight” didn’t even try to hide it.)
A theme has been sensed, yes.
Do you get Magic Hat in the midwest yet? It’s my favorite brand, brewed in Vermont. Try their flagship “#9” flavor for a light apricot-y beer. I’ll take the IPA…
Apricot? Meh. Can Magic Hat get me an orange version instead?
I live a block away from Gordon’s house in Dark Knight. I love the Windy City version of Gotham, I do. Is that Johnny Depp-as-Dillinger movie out on DVD yet? I need to holler at the screen when I recognize the locations in that.
Fun puzzle w/lots of great non-theme fill. And I love how you spiced up boring entries at 59- and 60-Across with the anagram thing. It’s those little touches that make a puzzle shine!
Half-price beer at one local place on Thursday nights — Sierra, even. Thing is, it’s the bar where I’m most likely to run into students with fake ID’s.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Took me forever to see that 33 down wasn’t SKIP ____, but SKI ____. Then it fell.
As for the theme, the only way it could have been better is if you’d found a way to squeeze in the famous line from Blue Velvet. “Heineken? — Fu&% that sh%#! PABST BLUE RIBBON!!!!”
But great work as always.
I can’t help but think ENOTE started out as TWEET, especially since the latter shows up elsewhere in the grid. At any rate, ENOTE for “Short Internet message” is the kind of thing that makes me think the constructor is 90 years old and probably hasn’t been around computers much. Rest = thumbs up! I love three-word phrases in a 15×15 grid, and there were four great ones here, plus YLT, which was great to see!
One thing, though: Shouldn’t “Hit and run witnesses” have gotten a question mark? Or is that bush-league?
{Hit and run witnesses} was definitely sneaky but needs no ?, as it’s literally true, because “hit and run” is the name of a baseball play (“the worst play in baseball,” in fact, according to earl weaver, who would know). if we were just talking about the fact that UMPS get to see both hits and runs during the course of a game, then yes, it would warrant a ?.
Aha! The latter is indeed how I read it. Thanks for the explanation.
Much appreciated.
Can’t say I’m surprised with that.
Probably the only thing I liked about “Blue Velvet” was Dennis Hopper’s non-acting. Great stuff.
My favorite was Fat Angel, which had an orangy flavor, but they don’t make it anymore! Believe it or not, the one with beet coloring (Lucky Kat) isn’t half bad…
you should have included old Milwaukee. delicious!
good timing for me – i’m just killing time before going to the bar to have a $6 pitcher of pbr.
and i loved seeing yo la tengo in a puzzle, especially with such a cool clue choice.
hooray!
If you like your hops (and if you like IPAs, then you should), then you need to get your hands on Hopslam from Bell’s in Kalamazoo. Not sure if Bell’s gets out that far east, and the Hopslam is even less likely to make it there, but it is FAN-TASTIC. Actually anything that Larry Bell brews is great.
bars in NYC can run up from there, man. depends on the beer, obvs, but a $8-9 brew doesn’t raise my eyebrows.
My favorite local burger place, Bubba’s Texas Burger Shack in Houston, has Lone Star Longnecks and PBR for $2.00. The other stuff is $2.50, including St. Arnold (Patron Saint of brewer’s if you ever do a Saint theme). You can also get Buffalo burgers but they sound too healthy for me. Here’s a write up of the place.
http://www.texasburgerguy.com/2005/03/review-13-bubbas-texas-burger-shack.html
Sharpstown
Didn’t notice there was a theme till I filled in the last letter and looked at the title. It looks like a themeless and worked as a great as a themeless BTW. Having anagrams on the bottom two is eerily similar to the NYT (and way cool.) But I forget there is more than one type of sonnet and tried to jam COUPLET in there… Also tried to force PINGTESTS instead of LINE (intentional?) Haven’t heard of a POTTERYBARNRULE (or a POTTERYBARN for that matter) but it sounds cool…
Oh, Trying to convert dollar prices into rands is doing my head in, and the short answer is expensive. Don’t drink beer if I can help it but a beer is 6-10 rands as a general rule.
The one and only time I saw Yo La Tengo, they played my alma mater my senior year to about 25 enthusiastic souls. I might go see them as the Condo Fucks next month, tho.
Will totally check that out whenever I make it to Kalamazoo.
Buffalo burgers and $2 P.B.R.? You’re making me jealous.
Pottery Barn is a chain store that sells home furnishings. The “rule” was proposed by Colin Powell.
Rands? Is that South Africa?
When I spent a month in Jo-Burg in 1984 the exchange rate was 2 Rand per Dollar. It sounds like it’s still in that ballpark. During that trip I stopped into Benny Goldberg’s Liquor Store, billed as the world’s largest liquor supermarket, they had rows and rows of the best beers in the world. When I remarked to a clerk that I didn’t notice any American beers. He asked me if I was a Yank and when I replied in the affirmative, he said I shouldn’t feel insulted but America didn’t brew any beers worthty to be sold by them.
Sharpstown
Correctamundo, I’m not sure if I’m the only Saffer around, probably. It hasn’t been 2 rand to the dollar in a long time. Was around 10 till recently when strengthened to 8.50… which sucks cos I’ve got a cheque due soon :), from Rich Norris.