Beer Here
Due to various impediments, including an angry wireless card and trips to a corner of Germany and a country that someone once tried to make into another corner of Germany, my blog has been neglected a bit. I wrote these in the last couple weeks, but haven't been able to get them off my computer until now.
I guess I haven't said much about beer, which I'll agree is an oversight. But while there are many things that are different about beer here and beer there, I'm not actually sure that they're interesting. But in the interest of not obstructing the Truth, here is some information about the Germans' favorite drink:
Beer here comes in 1/3 and 1/2 liter bottles, a sixpack of which costs 3 or 4 Euros. Or, you can buy a flat of 20 bottles in a plastic crate, and then bring the crate and all the empty bottles back to the store to get back your deposit. Beer in restaurants ranges from 2.50 to 2.50 per half liter, and is almost always served in the correct glass (tall and slightly fluted for Hefeweizen, tall and straight for Bock, gobletey for Belgian-type ales). Once I saw someone drinking a beer in a plastic bottle, but I have never seen anyone drink anything from a can.
There isn't a ban on drinking in public, or at least, it isn't enforced: people, teenagers especially, walk down the street with bottles in their hands, and drink on the subway, in train stations, on stoops. The Beer fact that was most exciting for Jeremy to learn, and that frankly he won't stop talking about, is that it is available everywhere, from takeout pizza places to the Cinemax movie theater. When we went to see Wallace and Gromit (in the original English - at the Sony Center, almost all films are shown in original language), I went to buy the tickets (only 4.50 on Tuesdays, all day, which almost makes it worth it to fly to Berlin just to see a movie) and sent Jeremy on a mission to find out if there was anything good at the snack bar. It wasn't hard to interpret the maniacally happy look on his face as I came downstairs with the tickets: the movie theater sells beer, and what is more, half liters of Paulaner Hefeweizen, and what is more, they give it to you in a glass. And you can take your beer glass into the theater. And the cupholders are especially tall, to ensure that your very tall, special hefeweizen glass doesn't fall over.
[Jeremy posits: is there such a thing as "un-maniacal happiness?" I mean, basically, the utilitarian school's bread and butter is the assumption that there is a difference between manaical happiness and more educated, enlightened happiness. But let's face it - I don't care why Everybody Loves Raymond is the best television show ever. I don't care if my love for it is enlightened, or if John Stuart Mill, the schmuck, "approves" of my love for the brought to life musings of comic Ray Romano. In conclusion, love is war.]
Jeremy is happy with himself for making me add that to my blog, but I can pretty much undermine everything he just said by pointing out that he, in fact, very much scorns and dislikes the show Everybody Loves Raymond. As, I am fairly sure, do most Americans of my generation. But now we've gotten pretty far off the subject of Beer, and since I don't really have anything else to say about it, it seems that Jeremy has once again gotten the last word.
I guess I haven't said much about beer, which I'll agree is an oversight. But while there are many things that are different about beer here and beer there, I'm not actually sure that they're interesting. But in the interest of not obstructing the Truth, here is some information about the Germans' favorite drink:
Beer here comes in 1/3 and 1/2 liter bottles, a sixpack of which costs 3 or 4 Euros. Or, you can buy a flat of 20 bottles in a plastic crate, and then bring the crate and all the empty bottles back to the store to get back your deposit. Beer in restaurants ranges from 2.50 to 2.50 per half liter, and is almost always served in the correct glass (tall and slightly fluted for Hefeweizen, tall and straight for Bock, gobletey for Belgian-type ales). Once I saw someone drinking a beer in a plastic bottle, but I have never seen anyone drink anything from a can.
There isn't a ban on drinking in public, or at least, it isn't enforced: people, teenagers especially, walk down the street with bottles in their hands, and drink on the subway, in train stations, on stoops. The Beer fact that was most exciting for Jeremy to learn, and that frankly he won't stop talking about, is that it is available everywhere, from takeout pizza places to the Cinemax movie theater. When we went to see Wallace and Gromit (in the original English - at the Sony Center, almost all films are shown in original language), I went to buy the tickets (only 4.50 on Tuesdays, all day, which almost makes it worth it to fly to Berlin just to see a movie) and sent Jeremy on a mission to find out if there was anything good at the snack bar. It wasn't hard to interpret the maniacally happy look on his face as I came downstairs with the tickets: the movie theater sells beer, and what is more, half liters of Paulaner Hefeweizen, and what is more, they give it to you in a glass. And you can take your beer glass into the theater. And the cupholders are especially tall, to ensure that your very tall, special hefeweizen glass doesn't fall over.
[Jeremy posits: is there such a thing as "un-maniacal happiness?" I mean, basically, the utilitarian school's bread and butter is the assumption that there is a difference between manaical happiness and more educated, enlightened happiness. But let's face it - I don't care why Everybody Loves Raymond is the best television show ever. I don't care if my love for it is enlightened, or if John Stuart Mill, the schmuck, "approves" of my love for the brought to life musings of comic Ray Romano. In conclusion, love is war.]
Jeremy is happy with himself for making me add that to my blog, but I can pretty much undermine everything he just said by pointing out that he, in fact, very much scorns and dislikes the show Everybody Loves Raymond. As, I am fairly sure, do most Americans of my generation. But now we've gotten pretty far off the subject of Beer, and since I don't really have anything else to say about it, it seems that Jeremy has once again gotten the last word.
posted by Katherine at 11:19 AM
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