The Southern Festival of Books ended yesterday, but I went to a reading and signing this evening at our local Davis Kidd bookstore, just down the road from work. Author Stephen Mansfield, who has written a variety of books about religious faith, including books on both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has written has a new history of Guinness.



Here's a little bit from the publisher's description: "It began in Ireland in the late 1700's. The water in Ireland, indeed throughout Europe, was famously undrinkable, and the gin and whiskey that took its place was devastating civil society. It was a disease ridden, starvation plagued, alcoholic age, and Christians like Arthur Guinness-as well as monks and even evangelical churches-brewed beer to offer a healthier alternative to the poisonous waters and liquors of the times."

Mansfield commented tonight that many people of faith find alcohol reprehensible, which has not always been true for a great many Christian denominations. However, he is not encouraging people to drink.

The more important thrust of the book seems to be, in the wake of the financial crisis, the Enrons, Worldcoms, Bernie Madoff's, and AIG's of the world, that Arthur Guinness founded a company on Christian principles that made money, appreciated its workers of whatever faith, and promoted proper morality and respect. Many of the benefits Guinness put in place for his workers would be unheard of even today.

As an added bonus, the author adjourned after the Q & A to the bookstore's cafe where the first round of Guinness draught was on him. I had to drive home, so one round was more than enough. Huzzah! I really liked him, and not just because he bought me beer.

I'm looking forward to reading it.

Arrogant Bastard, for those who don't know, is a wonderful beer. Many of my friends and I agree on this issue. (If you're not a beer drinker, you won't like it.) Anyway, I have turned their logo into my icon for this entry. And their motto, appropriately, is "You're Not Worthy."

Today, rosepurr decided to walk around an area of town we weren't very familiar with, full of cute boutiques and working-class houses. We needed the walk, the time together, the excuse to get out of the house on a chilly day. We discovered a wine tasting sponsored by a wine store but held in the formaggeria behind it. Since they do that, cheese is available for tasting as well. Today's tasting was syrah and shiraz. Yum. We liked some of the more expensive wines, of course.

Anyway, after the tasting, we explored the store and stocked up. They didn't carry much beer, but they had Arrogant Bastard. And OAKED Arrogant Bastard. That is, Arrogant Bastard aged with oak chips. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's bigger and bolder and, indeed, I'm not worthy. :) I also found Jefferson's Reserve, a bourbon barrel stout from the Bluegrass Brewing Company. I'm enjoying one as I write this.

I believe we have found our new local wine store. We spent a lot of time talking to one of the staff there (Geoff, who you see on the home page holding the glass - nice guy). He made great recommendations and we restocked our supply. w00t!

We found some great consignment shops as well. We drove a bit and found Grimey's, a music store I'd heard lots about but still hadn't managed to make it to. Needless to say, we both dropped some money there. I bought the latest Hold Steady (we saw them open for the Drive-By Truckers on Halloween; a fun party band), Los Straitjackets' Christmas album (the perfect soundtrack for a drunken Xmas party), Hayes Carll (you can hear and see the video for "She Left Me for Jesus" on the website) and a used Dave Alvin I didn't yet have. Yes, I'm the last guy still buying CD's. Perhaps the RIAA will bail me out. :)

I'm not worthy of this whole day. I've enjoyed quality beer, wine and cheese. I've bought more music. I had the best company a man could ask for. I came home to a fabulous dinner of pork, brussels sprouts and taters that was fantastic.

I couldn't possibly ask for more. Well, I could, but that would just be greedy.

So rosepurr teasingly commented to me that I haven't been praising her enough in LJ. I don't dish out enough praise to everyone, actually. It's too easy to got on a blog or in some other type of journal and complain about something. It's much harder to write about the good things. It's something I should work on.

My sweetie got me a wonderful ring and contributed to renting a cabin over the 4th of July as part of my birthday celebration. She's good to me in so many ways, like sharing her fabulous cooking. Last night, on her suggestion, we attended the Frist Friday, which was fun, feeling more a part of the Nashville cultural scene while looking at the current exhibits - one of genuine Tiffany glass, one of some American abstracts, and one of four contemporary Southern artists.

Then we walked across the street to Flying Saucer, which I knew nothing about (she'd heard about it from her coworkers) and which immediately established itself as one of my Nashville favorites, even though it's apparently a chain. YAY, beer! I had the Sierra Nevada Torpedo, which I admit knocked me on my butt a little. (Our waitress warned me it had a high alcoholic content; she was not lying.) Afterward, we came home, turned on the TV, and got completely sucked in to an infomercial for Time-Life's Country Romance Collection. Sometimes we are an old married couple.

We slept later this morning than we have in a long while. A great start to a day dedicated to being lazy.

My fabulous sweetie also saw to it that my LJ was bombarded with birthday greetings earlier this week, which was nice. (Hello and thanks, all!)

I got wonderful gifts from family, too. I'm in T-shirt accumulating phase right now. My sister, mrsbowlert sent me a couple of neat ones from Threadless. Here's the one I'm wearing as I write this. Meanwhile, my dad sent rosepurr and I matching ones from the Harley-Davidson dealership in Woodstock, NY. We can match like all those other biking couples. Well, except for the bike part.

So, life is good. The newspaper told me so.