November 16, 2001

it has potential, i promise

Second leg of Jazz Tour. Mark, Eric and I still proved ourselves to be liabilities on the conscience of Ryan Frane. Burger King crowns, Roman helmets and McDonald’s Play Place all had the potential to severely compromise UMD’s integrity.

Ryan’s friend Dennis made an interesting point today. People that study ancient civilizations look at alcohol production to gauge the amount of grain surplus in a society. It’s been shown that beer is not produced unless there is a surplus of grain available for fermentation, and the amount produced can reflect the productivity of the society. “That’s why America produces so much beer; has so many microbrews and such,” he said. Ryan noted that Germany apparently didn’t get the memo.

I got thinking. Afghans are starving, so they probably don’t have much surplus grain. You can’t walk down to the liquor store and buy imported Afghani beer. But now with the Taliban in shambles that all can change! They should brew and export Northern Alliance Ale. I… umm… I thought I had more ideas on this matter, but apparently not. It seemed really funny in the car, though, I promise.