Add to the list of things about which I’m a self-avowed geek, Comic Books, which I read as a kid, of course, but started reading again as an adult about thirty years ago when I was living in North Carolina. I was one of the music buyers for a chain of record stores headquartered there called Record Bar (now defunct) and as a result got virtually every new release LP (remember albums?). After I listened to them, the ones I didn’t keep or give to co-workers I traded in at a local used book store to feed my reading habit. The store also carried comic books, which were just coming back into vogue with independent publishers that produced more mature and adult-themed story lines, and it reignited my passion for graphic storytelling. I still read a few titles today, and there are some wonderful writers that every bit the equal of print, such as Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Scott McCloud and Terry Moore, to name just a few.

Of course, some comic books, especially those in the 1960s and 70s, just plain sucked — bad writing, hokey plots, bad drawing and even worse publishing on cheap newsprint quality paper. There was a whole genre at that time (perhaps there still is) of comics books with “messages” for young people trying to use a child’s medium to teach them life lessons. I guess the idea was that they would want to read a comic book no matter what its content or quality and would fall for getting it’s message, be it stay off drugs, STDs or other “health” issues. Many used fake superheroes made up just for the message comic. There’s a great archive of these in Canada called Comics With Problems. Some of them are just hilarious, and they all remind me of Reefer Madness-style propaganda in comic form. But one stood out, and that was the exploits of Captain Al Cohol. Capt. Al Cohol, or “Al” to his friends, was produced in 1973 by the Canadian government of the Northwest Territories and targeted the Inuit (or Eskimo) people to teach them the dangers of alcoholism. It’s typical of genre, and unintentionally hilarious in places where it’s not supposed to be. Whether or not it was effective it doubtful, in my opinion.

That’s not to make light of the very serious alcoholism that was common with Native Americans since we invaded their shores and our ancestors committed genocide. There’s actually a recent theory to explain why alcoholism percentages are higher among Native Americans, and it has to do with evolution and when man began to settle down in the fertile crescent. Alcohol — a crude form of unhopped beer — was more than likely the initial reason that civilization sprang up and man began cultivating grains. As it was often safer than the water, people who could tolerate larger amounts of beer tended to survive to pass their genes along. Simply put, you and I are here because our distant relatives could tolerate alcohol. But some archeologists believe that Native Americans did not have the same line of ancestry and therefore did not build up a tolerance for alcohol that the descendants of Europe and the Middle East did. And it’s thought that it’s for that reason that many Native Americans have had difficulties over the centuries with alcohol.

Captain Al Cohol is a being from another world who crashed on Earth and was frozen in ice for one million years, until some Inuit peoples from Fish Fiord [sic] defrosted him. He’s so strong he makes people “shiver in their Kamiks.” After being subdued, a doctor gives him so medicinal rum and it turns out that alcohol is his Kryptonite.

One sip and Capt. Al Cohol goes stumbling around the Arctic until frozen again, he’s captured by the leather-skinned Billy Vermin, the “diabolically cruel, rum-running, fur snatching enemy of the people of Fish Fiord.” The comic portrays a single glass of rum as having the power to enslave a person while even their own rhetoric explains that alcoholism “creeps up on its victims and grows slowly but surely worse.” But is has that Reefer Madness vibe of danger from just one sip that’s common to all this type of propagandist literature.

A second story, “The Tale of the Fiery Tomb” then has Capt. Al recount his origin story. He’s from the planet of Barkela, millions of light years away. Their society was nearly Utopian with no wars … “but try as [they] might — [their] civilization could never learn to control the use of alcohol!” Gadzooks! Al ashamedly continues how “after dark one day [he] returned home drunk to find [his] wife and children …” — it’s too terrible to tell, I can hardly re-type it, oh the humanity — they were “already in bed!” So Al decided he needed another drink and headed out to the “space van” — where else would stash your booze? — but on the way accidentally blew up his house, killing everyone inside. Wracked with guilt, he volunteered for a 10-year space exploration mission that crash-landed him in the Arctic. But then then the evil Ravenmen (bird men looking suspiciously like the Hawkmen in DC Comics) appeared as he was having his tea.

Apparently more issues were planned, but I can’t tell if they were ever published. Anybody have an idea what the symbol on Capt. Al’s costume is meant to be? I’m stumped. It appears to be a yellow chevron with a line at the bottom, but it doesn’t really look like anything alcohol-related.

Again, I’m not intentionally making fun of alcoholism, it is a terrible problem for many people (and one I’m intimately familiar with in my own life), but I’m pretty sure the transformation depicted here is not really how it works. I know their hearts were in the right place and were only trying to help, but propaganda this naked is too obvious to do any good, at least in my opinion. When you exaggerate the problems and effects of something to further an agenda or make a case, you damage that message. This is what neo-prohibitionists have done and continue to do in their efforts to convince the public that the worst case scenario is the average, ordinary result of alcohol consumption. It rarely is, of course, but you can’t scare people with the realities of moderate consumption by showing that problem drinkers constitute only a small minority of all people who consume alcohol. The vast majority drink responsibly but you never hear their stories. Moderation isn’t destroying our society, so neo-prohibitionists have to invent and embellish for effect and create imaginative fictions like Captain Al Cohol.

Anheuser-Busch announced today (though the press release is on the InBev website, not A-B’s nor the new ABIB website). The plan is to cut around “1,400 U.S. salaried positions in its beer-related divisions, affecting about 6 percent of the company’s total U.S. workforce,” three-quarters of which were at A-B HQ in St. Louis. Also, 250 vacant position will now not be filled and 415 independent contractors will also be terminated.

From the press release:

“To keep the business strong and competitive, this is a necessary but difficult move for the company,” said David A. Peacock, president of Anheuser-Busch. “We will assist in the transition for these employees as much as possible. The people of Anheuser-Busch dedicate themselves to the business, and we appreciate all of their contributions.” The company will provide employees severance pay and pension benefits based on age and years of service. Employees also will be offered additional benefits during the transition, including outplacement services.

The announced workforce reductions are in addition to the more than 1,000 U.S. salaried employees company-wide who accepted the company’s voluntary enhanced retirement program, which closed November 14 and provided special benefits for eligible employees retiring by the end of 2008. The retirements were part of planned cost reductions of [$1 billion dollars US], called project Blue Ocean, announced by Anheuser-Busch in June 2008. At that time, the company announced plans to reduce its company-wide U.S. full-time salaried workforce of 8,600 by 10 to 15 percent before the year end. The company’s other Blue Ocean cost reductions remain on track. Bargaining unit employees at the company’s 12 U.S. breweries are unaffected by the reductions announced today.

“Managing our costs is important in building and maintaining a successful business, especially in a challenging economy,” said Peacock. “We are pleased with our U.S. beer sales, we will continue to invest in growing our brands and we will always look for ways to become more efficient. Decisions like this are never easy, but they will ensure the long-term success for
Anheuser-Busch and our employees.”

The company anticipates that the aggregate pre-tax expense associated with the reduction will be approximately 197 million USD. Approximately 150 million USD of this expense will arise from severance arrangements with terminated employees and the remainder will arise from enhancements in the pension benefits required by the terms of the defined benefit plan because the terminations are occurring within three years of the change of control of the company. The company anticipates that cash expenditures from the reduction will be approximately 213 million USD. The plans announced today are an integral part of the at least 1.5 billion USD in annual synergies identified by InBev when it announced its combination with Anheuser-Busch in July. The company is confident in its ability to achieve against this synergies projection by 2011.

No surprises there, but with a mere 17 days until Christmas, it certainly feels like scrooge has arrived a little early this year.

Today was, of course, the 75th anniversary of the repeal of the 18th Amendment with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. The 21st Amendment Brewery & Restaurant in San Francisco, California held a Repeal Day Parade that marched from Justin Herman Plaza, near the ferry Building, to their brewpub on 2nd Street, near the Giants’ ballpark in China Basin.

Frequent stops were made along the parade route, such as Nico and Shaun dancing with a pair of flappers.

There were two messages on the day: “Repeal Prohibition” and “We Want Beer.”

For exactly 21 more photos from the 21st Amendment Repeal Day Parade, visit the photo gallery.
 

UPDATE: 21st Amendmet now has some more photos from the parade, too.

Back in May I mentioned that Sapporo Breweries was “planning to brew a beer made from barley descended from seeds grown in space, specifically in the Russian section of the International Space Station two years ago.” Back then I wrote.

According to Reuters, Sapporo said in a statement. “By pursuing the infinite possibility that space has, we wish to present our customers with rich and enjoyable proposals to enjoy a new beer culture.” Sapporo will not sell the initial results, but instead will sample select consumers on the new space beer, which should be — ahem — launched this November. Working with Okayama University scientists, they will produce just over 166 gallons of beer (630 liters). I doubt anyone will be able to taste any difference, but I’d still like to be one of the lucky ones chosen to try it.

Well, it’s December now and still no sign of a tasting. But wait, there’s more news. Sapporo announced yesterday that in January the tasting will take place. According to Japan Today, “[a] total of 30 couples, who have been selected through a lottery, will be invited to the events at the company’s six plants from Hokkaido to Oita Prefecture.”

Presumably the barley she’s holding is the third-generation space barley they used in making the beer, named Sapporo Space Barley. The original plants were sent into space and grown in the International Space Station for five months.

Showing off the bottles at yesterday’s press conference.

Only 100 liters of the beer was made, far less than originally announced, and initial reports say — not surprisingly — that it tastes the same as any other beer.

My favorites quote from the press: From Technovelgy, “I’m guessing “out of this world” will be the most common response.” And from Dvice, “[u]ntil then we’ll stay tuned to see if the space grown beer microbes yield any gamma ray-like super powers.”

My friend Pete Slosberg noticed something different in a comic strip and sent it to me yesterday. It’s a recent Non Sequitur cartoon by Wiley Miller. Read it all the way down the last panel. Go ahead, I’ll wait. Meet you at the end.

 
That’s the first I know of a craft beer being mentioned in a nationally syndicated comic strip, in this case specifically Shipyard Ale from Shipyard Brewing in Portland, Maine. That’s pretty cool, in my humble opinion.

In case you missed this, a new brewery opened yesterday in Gresham, Oregon. The 4th Street Brewery will have five regular beers on tap, including Gresham Light, Demented Duck Amber, Black Roots Blonde, Powell Porter, and Eager Beaver IPA. John Foyston had the story in the Oregonian.
 

I don’t know who Neil Hamilton is, apart from a former British Member of Parliament — a hardcore Thatcherite Conservative — who’s been embroiled in one scandal after another for many years. He doesn’t appear to be the sort of politician I’d normally side with; he even once “strongly” supported lead in gasoline and opposed removing it, not to mention being anti-trade union, anti-immigration anti-child benefit, pro-free market and supporting capital punishment, privatization, and the right of people to sell their organs. So to say we’re polar opposites might be something of an understatement.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t find any common ground. He does have some interesting things to say about drinking and the economy. In an Op-Ed piece in the UK’s Daily Express entitled Why We Have To Save the Great British Pub, Hamilton says things that no politician in America would dare say. And despite everything else he stands for, I have to admire that about him.

You should read it all in context, as it’s about what the UK government is doing with regard to alcohol laws, many of which mirror our own foolhardy efforts. But with so many choice bon mots, it’s hard to resist listing some of my favorites.

We all need something to cheer us up. So, what does our killjoy Government plan to do? Ban happy hour in pubs, that’s what.

And here’s a question that American politicians are loathe to ask.

Quite apart from the obvious uselessness of this measure, what business is it of these interfering busybodies anyway?

And none will admit this truism.

We all know alcoholics can wreck their health; so can madcap drivers but we don’t require signs on all cars saying, “Warning: Death Trap.” There is no “drink problem” in this country; only a small minority of “problem drinkers.”

U.S. alcohol policy is also quite focused on punishing everyone, too.

Why should the rest of us be denied early evening happy hours after work just because a few idiots can’t control themselves in completely different circumstances?

Penalizing everyone because they can’t police a few bad apples.

If a pub or bar habitually serves drinks to drunks, it should lose its licence. If youngsters scream and vomit in the streets, they should be arrested and punished. Why penalise sensible drinkers by raising prices and restricting hours?

And it doesn’t work here, either.

That will do nothing to reduce alcohol abuse or smoking. Addicts of either will just stay in, drinking and smoking more cheaply in front of the TV. Youngsters will tank up at home on cheap vodka before sallying forth for a night on the pull in some raucous bear-pit bar.

So instead of praising beer consumption over higher alcohol drinks like cocktails or wine, our neo-prohibitionists target beer and leave the rest alone.

The paradox of this is that beer is a low-alcohol drink and pubs are a controlled environment, tailor-made to prevent alcohol-related problems.

I presume what he’s saying is perhaps part of normal conservative rhetoric in Great Britain, or he wouldn’t be saying it in a general circulation mainstream newspaper. But over on this side of the pond, it would be positively extreme and radical, the kind of opinions that almost never grace our media outlets, print of otherwise. If one of our conservative politicians said even some of this, they’d be hounded by religious, conservative and neo-prohibitionist groups from now ’till doomsday.

Personally, I just like hearing them from someone other than myself.

Not necessarily everything to come out of Belgium is as wonderful as their beer. Witness The Smurfs, which were created by Belgian artist Peyo in 1958. Yup, you read that right. The Smurfs are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. They made our way to America in 1981, when NBC debuted that annoying Hanna-Barbera animated series.

But I may have to rethink my dislike of the Smurfs based upon this collectible figure that was made in 1974, well before the U.S. TV series. According to the Mushroom Village, a website about collecting Smurf stuff, the Smurf holding a mug of beer is designated “20078 Beer” and the “mold was introduced in 1974.” They describe it as follows. “Big smile with hands out, frothy beer mug in his right hand.” It’s considered only slightly uncommon, garnering a 2 (out of 5) rarity rating. It was available only in Hong Kong and West Germany, as far as I can tell, though I found one on eBay from Canada. (Yes, despite my hatred of the little blue people, I ordered myself one just because he’s holding a beer mug.)

It was just too completely weird not to, especially with that shit-eating wide grin. I can only assume that this particular one was never sold in the United States. Can you just imagine the hue and cry from certain parents upon finding this one in the toy bin? That fact alone makes me want one. According to Wikipedia:

From 1959 on until the end of the 1960s, Dupuis produced Smurf figurines. But the best known and most widely available Smurf figurines are those made by Schleich, a German toy company. Most of the Smurf figurines given away as promotional material (e.g. by British Petroleum in the 1970s and McDonald’s in the 1990s) are made by Schleich as well. New Smurf figures continue to appear: in fact, only in two years since 1969 (1991 and 1998) have no new smurfs entered the market. Schleich currently produces 8 new figurines a year. Over 300 million of them have been sold so far.

Okay, somebody took the idea of “beer goggles” to another dimension. Here’s a company, Urban Spectacles, that figured out a way to make actual “beer goggles,” that is prescription eyewear in which the frames are made from used, recycled beer bottles. They’ll even make them out of whatever beer bottles you want. They may not make the people in a bar look more attractive, but they are pretty cool looking all the same.

Here’s the description from the website:

Made by reusing empty beer bottles, these goggles are a playful take on eyewear. Pick out your favorite beer, or even make the selection based upon and interesting glass (think Delirium), then either drink it down or send it to me and I’ll take care of it, and the construction of Beer Goggles will begin. Then I will fit any prescription or tint of lenses into the frames and they will be ready to wear out to your local pub.

And beyond the beer goggles, the main website, Urban Spectacles, has some very unique, one-of-a-kind, frames, many hand-carved wood.

This one still has the label from Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale on it, and the pair below has the etched Stone Arrogant Bastard and Rogue’s Dead Guy on it.

One warning though: “beer goggles come with disclaimers as they are made of glass and rest near your eyes. While I have worn them out on the town and will be doing so fairly often, I am claiming Beer Goggles to be novelty items that should be worn with caution.”

In Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle there was a nice little overview of four breweries in Reno, Nevada that includes basic information about each of them. If you’re planning a trip to Reno in the near future, you check this out before you leave the house.