I like helping people. Say what you like, I am a people person at heart. I helped people today. I have been helping people so much this week, I have snapped at an old pal in my business life and been living on five hour sleeps. I made a lamb sausage curry tonight, too. So it is with some discomfort but for more giggles that I read Simon's post today entitled "Reluctant Scooper regrets that..." about his regrets over not being able to respond to all the demands made of him including regrets that he can't:
- read your blog just because you tweeted me to do so in BLOCK CAPITALS
- write 500 words for free in the next two hours for your magazine because the writer you usually pay to do it has got delayed at an airport with no wifi / is face-down in a vat of custard / has caught VD
- recycle your press release into an "innovative yet commanding" blogpost
- do any kind of RT / Like / +1. Even if you say 'please'. Even if you didn't ask in Comic Sans. Because you asked for it
- attend your bar opening which is three hundred miles away. On a Tuesday night. With 24 hours notice. Because all the proper beer journos have got gastroenteritis. Or a better offer...
It does remind me of my latest policy update. It appears that Simon has a lawn, too, but he is able to sum up the point of beer blogging succinctly with a "[i]f it isn't for shits & giggles, what to we do it for?" Perfect. Exactly. This week I have been working through Shakespeare's Local by Pete, perhaps his real breakthrough book. I have assisted with comments on the draft of another book. I got 16 beers worth of samples dropped off. I helped a household of seven stay sane. I thought a lot about Albany, NY in the 1600's and how it is just possible they were exporting beer out into the larger Dutch West Indies colonies. I drove to Ottawa and back Thursday night. I worked at my job, too. I was told there was "a bunch of young beer people who follow you questioning your relevance to your face" and knew how important it was to not give a rat's ass in any way whatsoever.
There is so much fun in all of this. So many shits and giggles. Why bother with the rest?
Comments
The Beer Nut - November 11, 2012 1:48 PM
Oh what a thing it is to have one's relevance questioned.
The only appropriate response is a fart which lasts long enough to change note three times.
Alan - November 11, 2012 9:28 PM
Do you have an emoticon for that? Perhaps this =>
>;-P
Chris - November 12, 2012 12:24 PM
I'm a young person following your blog and I can say your writing has been extremely relevant to me. And you're, obviously, completely at liberty to not give a rat's ass about that. Just thought I'd mention it for the sake of mentioning it.
Alan - November 12, 2012 1:58 PM
See, I like you. Here is a picture of a five pound note for your troubles.
Simon H Johnson - November 12, 2012 5:18 PM
I've always admired those beer bloggers who exemplify Reithian values. The education of Martyn Cornell and Ron Pattinson. The information from Pete Brown. The entertainment from Tandleman, Boak & Bailey & yourself.
Me? I'm the whoopee cushion of beer blogging. Others have valuable things to say about history, about social mores, about technical understanding. I'm great at the knob jokes.
I'm the dropped stitch in beer's rich tapestry.
I can *only* do the shits & giggles. Coz I'm a shits & giggles kinda guy.
Alan - November 12, 2012 5:29 PM
And that is why you are great. Know your strengths. Work at what you love and you'll never work a day in you life. See the ball. Be the ball.
Martyn Cornell - November 13, 2012 12:40 AM
I do it for the warm glow, of course, but I do feel sometimes that even ten pence each from the 2,400 people who looked at my blog yesterday (admittedly high but not that unusual) would have been nice.