Now That's What I Call Public Service

Yes Austinites, that's a picture of me receiving a beer from my City Council member (and former Rockdale High School Cross Country teammate) Mike Martinez. My newspaper, The Austin Chronicle, recently hosted a mayoral candidate forum, and Mike — who is not one of the candidates — served as a "guest bartender."

Yes, he worked his way up through the ranks of the firefighters union and fought his way into Austin politics … just so he could get me a brew. But hey, how many of you can say you get that kind of service from your elected representatives?

Except that all he would serve me is Lone Star. I dunno, Mike — I think if you want my vote in future elections, you'd better learn to pour me a Live Oak Big Bark. (Actually, there's a story behind his only serving Lone Stars — we had a dollar-beer "vote with your liver" contest, where you showed support for your candidate with either Miller Lite or Lone Star, and Mike supports the Lone Star candidate.)

(Photo originally appeared in The Austin Chronicle; copyright John Anderson, do not republish without his permission.)

Drinkers of the World Unite

So tonight I went downtown to the annual AFL-CIO Labor Day Fish Fry to cover it in my duties as a political reporter, always a fun event provided you like Democratic politicians and fried fish. Fortunately, I'm pretty partial to both.

But damn, my ability to connect with the common working man has its limits. I know those union guys are all about keepin' it real and blue-collar, but does the beer selection always have to be a choice between Miller Lite and Miller High Life? C'mon, throw us beer snobs a bone – I don't expect a Belgian tripel or anything, but could we at least get a keg of Shiner Bock?

Even I'm appalled

I was doing some dusting here in the office, and this long-forgotten trophy from my running days caught my eye, and I realized it needed to go on the blog immediately. It's from a 5K race that was held in Bastrop State Park, and as you can probably guess, Miller Lite was the major sponsor.


The trophy might strike you as merely amusing, but here is what's appalling about it: I was only FOURTEEN YEARS OLD when they awarded it to me! They gave this trophy to a TEENAGER.

I mean seriously – don't you think it's just wrong to promote beer this lame to a minor?

WOW: Miller and Coors to Merge!

As an upstanding beer snob, I don't normally concern myself with what either of these two crap brewers are up to, but I admit even I'm impressed by the notion of these two companies combining. It's quite a business story, even if it won't affect my taste buds in the least. They say the move is to help them better compete with Anheuser-Busch.