Last night an enterprising group of folks were going door-to-door in our neighborhood polling people on their thoughts about topics for the upcoming election. At first, I thought it was generic, but it became obvious that they were pushing for health c…
The Library has just announced their summer music series which kicks off June 2nd and then continues every Monday night rain or shine. Should sprinkles be in the forecast, they plan to move indoors to the stage at the library. Bring a chair or blanket,…
A couple of years ago I took a trip to Wales and decided to sample beer from the famous Brains Brewing Company, the unofficial national beer of Wales. But I realized I had a problem. I thought for certain the word Brains was not pronounced like I thought it was. You see, for those of you who haven’t been to the UK, many things, especially place names, are not pronounced at all like they are spelled and you have to hear somebody say it first. Common examples are Gloucester (glaw-ster), Nottingham (drop the ‘h’), Thames (tems, rhymes with gems or stems), Leicester (lester), and Edinburgh (impossible to explain in writing). I’d been burned many times before this Wales trip, so I was wary. It’s not worth the embarrassment of having everybody think you’re a dumb American tourist to risk pronouncing incorrectly (if you think I was being too sensitive, try spending a lot of time with British people as the only American). Not only that, but Welsh is even trickier because sometimes their words look like English words but are something else entirely. Anyway, I went a full day with no Brains because of this. By this point I had convinced myself that the traditional pronunciation could not possibly be correct, not only because it was too obvious but because what kind of a brewery calls itself Brains? I thought it had to be a Welsh word. Finally, on day two, I got to overhear a local ordering one. He pronounced it exactly as you would think, just like the internal organ. Well, at least I got to try it.
So is it any good? It’s okay. Their specialty beers are better than their plain ales. But who am I to argue with Welsh national pride?
Hi everybody,
We will be performing at the Washington Folk Festival this Sunday, June 1 in
Glen Echo, MD.
The festival is held in Glen Echo Park on the grounds of an ancient amusement
park – very cool space.
It’s a two…
Guess the SPC has made it official for Saturday, altho’ the buzz for several days on various weather forums has been that the Mid-Atlantic is in for some severe weather on the last day of May. The Sterling WFO forecast discussion this morning backed o…
I want to thank Kim for picking up the slack in blogging here over the last couple of days. Things have been a little hectic for me. We had a bit of a medical emergency in my family, that commanded a lot of my time over the last several days.
In the interim, Kim posted a […]
I have been working with a client that is looking to buy a home in the Fredericksburg real estate market. He has a definitive financial plan for his future, and from it a few tips can be shared with our readers.
After looking at Fredericksburg homes for sale, he found the one he wants to purchase. […]
She left a comment and I felt it was my civic duty to send a little traffic to a homeschooling atheist with a star wars themed blog.
I received word from Jim Justice at the Virginia Brewing Company that they have finally received their brewery license from Virginia ABC. This news means we’re one step closer to seeing beers coming out of the Winchester brewery. “It has been a long t…
The smoking gun to Jim Gilmore’s “I’m a pro-life guy, I always have been” stump speech he gives.
The 2 minute segment about abortion is here, cut for brevity and repeated for effect:
(Note the nervous laugh when he mentions the North American Union… “absurd” he says. That’s a different topic though.)
Recorded April 26, 2008 at the 5th District […]
