August 1, 2008
Morning Roundup: Beer in Peril Edition
Welcome to Friday, D.C. Here at DCist headquarters, we're excited for our weekend plans, but that excitement is tempered by the collective mourning we're all doing for the hundreds of gallons of beer that spilled across the Outer Loop of the Beltway yesterday. A beer truck tragically flipped over right at the ramp to westbound I-66, sending all its cargo to an untimely grave. No one will ever taste any of that beer's delicious, hoppy flavor. No grilled meat will ever be complemented by it. No social engagement will ever be lubricated by it. It's a sad day for us all.
Barry Holds Up School Renovations: Ward 8 D.C. Council member Marion Barry is holding up nearly $200 million in contracts for school renovations and a major Southwest development, according to the Examiner. Barry says he placed the holds because he felt the Fenty administration did not properly vet them before submitting them right at the end of the Council session break. Mayor Fenty's office says Barry is just retaliating for the summer jobs program fiasco.
Group Accuses WASA of Bad Lead Testing Practices: The Post reports on a group of six D.C. area environmental organizations who says the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority's lead-testing procedure violates federal regulations and artificially lowers lead readings. Considering the history WASA has with lead, this doesn't sound good. The organizations sent a letter of complaint to the Environmental Protection Agency about WASA's instructions to pre-flush taps for 10 minutes before home testing for lead. WASA says that the pre-flush is designed to ensure standardization of the data they collect.
Briefly Noted: Green Party protests the Washington Post for lack of coverage ... Hostage situation ends peacefully in Columbia Heights ... Federal officials raid D.C. home belonging to former MPD Captain ... Mansion of Marriott heir burns down in Montgomery County.
This Day in DCist: Last year a robbery captured on video and uploaded to YouTube helped nab the suspects, and the year before that Metro was passing out free bottled water.
Photo by lmoore1118
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A group of about 15 D.C. Statehood Green Party protesters and candidates gathered outside The Washington Post building today, saying that The Post "routinely ignores or marginalizes the party's candidates.
That pretty much says it all. I think they had a better turnout at the Gay Native American Southpaws for Christ rally.
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it really depends on what kind of beer was spilt.
Guinness? absolute tragedy.
PBR? there really may be a God after all!
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yeah, i won't shed a tear if it was a truck full of an anheuser-busch product.
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Replace "PBR" with "Yeungling" and you may be on to something.
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Agreed. If it was Budweiser, they could probably just suck it all up with a Shop Vac and put it back in the truck with no noticeable difference.
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I worry that I am getting a bit jaded by by the near constant criminal activity in Columbia Heights. Last night, I was sitting at a bar in CH when someone said they saw the "SWAT truck" followed by a zillion police cars speeding through the neighborhood. We were all like, "Huh, interesting" then went back to drinking. It wasn't mentioned again.
We didn't have this back on the farm in Kentucky.
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and seriously, so the whole damn school revitalization is going to grind to a halt because of that idiot in ward 8? can we pleazzze put him out to pasture?
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oh, and i'm loving this American Apparel ad! especially what appears to be a burn scar near the model's bellybutton.
it's Friday! you ain't got not job. you ain't got no money. it's Pantytime(TM)!
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monkey: if you're going to rag on yuengling, at least spell it right, ok? ;)
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IMGoph, what part of "for life" don't you understand?
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I'm sorry. I drank too much Yuengling and it f***ed my brain up, particularly the part that distinguishes Good from Evil. And I had to rinse my mouth out with forty of Stale O' Horses Lite to get the "taste" out.
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how's this ian, whenever barry screws something up, just say IOKIYMB (it's OK if you're marion barry)
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How about whenever Barry acts like a race-baiting ass, you take a drink?
No Yuengling, please.
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how's this ian, whenever barry screws something up, just say IOKIYMB (it's OK if you're marion barry)
How about, "That's just Marion being Marion!" accompanied by a slight smile and an annoyed shake of the head.
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How about INOKUYMB (it's not OK unless you're Marion Barry). By focusing on everyone not Marion Barry we may actually save ourselves some time and effort.
Oh, and since when did it become "blog comment"-cool to bang on Yuengling? It's a cheap beer that is better than many mass-produced cheap domestic beers. It fills a void. And yet Yuengling has become the Shia LaBeouf of beers; I don't understand it.
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it's just monkey ragging on it for some reason. i sure as hell won't be saying anything negative about yuengling anytime soon.
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It was just Budweiser. NBD
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Look, all I'm saying is that there's good cheap beer, and there's bad cheap beer that only Hitler would drink. And it's a little-known FACT that the family of Rudolph Hess owns a controlling interest in Yuengling and are the biggest support of Nazi groups this side of the Coors family.
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that's the beauty of the internet. you can bang on anything you want and then watch people with bad taste disagree with you!
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how's this ian, whenever barry screws something up, just say IOKIYMB (it's OK if you're marion barry)
If I ever make the DC Council you can count on a tragic 'Frank Grimes at the end of that Simpsons' rant, substituting Marion Barry for Homer Simpson about 3 months into my term.
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Yuengling is palatable but all too often priced closer to class of beers in which it doesn't belong.
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SteaknEggs, is "Emergency Response Team" a code phrase for SWAT? I saw these vehicles and accompanying police cars heading east on U St while at Vinoteca last night, and that's what the big hulking ones were plastered with. I think it was about 9 pm.
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boondoggle's hit it. With the price of hops going through the roof, Yuengling is no longer a cheap beer. For what you're paying for Yuengling you're better off either spending the extra couple bucks for a decent ale, or downgrading to total rotgut and saving the difference.
It's the eternal question: More Carling or Less Stella?
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I don't know much about these things, but I think that would be a good assumption to make.
At any rate, I'm glad the whole hostage thing ended ok.
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For my peeps that passed away...
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ouch, hillrat. that hurts a little today...
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Ah beer... well, we'll never get a chance to disagree about those lost draughts.
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Sniff. I never had a chance to turn you into pee!
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i've always said yuengling was the best cheap beer out there. but it was cheap at penn state. you're right that it gets put in a more "premium" category around here, where it doesn't belong...
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Well we didn't have Yuengling at Michigan; until I learned to drink Bell's, it was Labatt's, Molson, or worse for our cheap beer options.
When I moved out here after college, Yuengling obviously jumped to the head of that class. But now Bell's has bridged the gap. Mmm... Bell's.
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i was a molson and labatt guy when i was in college in michigan, then switched to yuengling in pennsylvania. it took moving out to DC to find bell's and be converted. i was happy as hell to find bell's on tap back home in the thumb....a nice respite from the usual anheuser-busch crap.
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Michigan represent! My cheap beers of choice in college were also of the Canadian variety. I was in the UP, though, so no Bell's for me.
I did discover Leinenkugel's later on, though, and that worked for me on the quality/cheap scale. Unfortunately, most of the Leinie's on tap out here is the crappy summer wheat, and not their kickass amber ale.
As for the beer spill. . . I'm torn. On the one hand, feel free to spill all the Bud you want on to the streets of NoVA, but on the other hand. . . this totally jacked my commute home last night.
~EEE~
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Bell's Oberon... I've a minor addiction to.