Two draught beers diverged in a pub; and the GABF.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two draught beers diverged in a pub, and I—
I took the one less commonly favored,
And that has made all the difference.

With apologies to Robert Frost, but which one did I choose? Either way, on to the news.

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Great American Beer Festival

The Great American Beer Festival officially begins tomorrow (Thursday, 20 September 2018) in Denver, Colorado, and continues through Saturday (22 September). The GABF is both a festival and a competition, the latter in which judges putatively select the best beers in America in 102 (!?) 'style' categories. First held in 1982, this is the 37th annual GABF. Murk will be a big winner.

Not there this week? You can follow vicariously at:

• Website: greatamericanbeerfestival.com/
  
• Facebook: TheGreatAmericanBeerFestival
  
• Instagram: @greatamericanbeerfestival
  
• Twitter: @GABF
  
• Hashtag: #GABF
  

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Pic(k) of the Week: Summer vegetable grilling.

Vegan grilling ... that is, grilling FOR (not OF) vegans. And some beer cookery.

• Foreground:
  Guinness-marinated vegetables, ready for the grill.
  
  
• 'Midground':
  Corn, ready to be grilled in-husk.
  
  
• Background:
  Mayo-free potato salad (not for the grill!).

For this Labor Day 2018 grill, there were also veggie frankfurters (Field Roast) and veggie burgers (Beyond Meat), both soy-free. Other folk brought fried chicken. Can't win 'em all.

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Hurricane Florence

Wishing good fortune to all in Hurricane Florence's path. For the rest of us, here are some ways in which we can help.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Maggie reclines.

Not mine, but Maggie agreed to pose for a portrait, nonetheless. Was she, however, delivering an apophasistic gesture with her left paw?

31 August 2018.

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Today, don't forget to thank your local brewster!

Today, don't forget to thank your local brewster or brewer.

☞ According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 59,000 people work in breweries across the United States.

☞ The [U.S.] Brewers Association —using different methodology— finds 135,072 brewsters and brewers (and brewery and brewpub employees) working at the 6,372 "small and independent" breweries across the country.

☞ And, according to the Beer Institute —compiling data that include everyone associated with the U.S. brewing industry, directly and indirectly— the beer industry employs nearly 2.23 million Americans ...

... many of whom are working today, Labor Day, to provide your daily beer. Yeast never sleeps.

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Pic(k) of the Week: Stone bridge 'keyhole'

Photo of a 'keyhole' —in a short-span stone bridge built over a usually-dry storm-runoff culvert— in Grant Park, Atlanta, Georgia, taken on 29 August 2018.

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Grant Park

Grant Park —Atlanta, Georgia's first city-owned public park— was named, not for nemesis Ulysses S. Grant, but Lemuel P. Grant (no relation), an Atlanta businessman who donated over 100 acres of his personal property to Atlanta in 1883. Grant was a railroad engineer who designed the fortifications for Atlanta during the Civil War.

In 1903, the Olmsted Brothers (sons of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who planned New York City's Central Park) were hired to design the park. It included Lake Abana, large enough for boating, since paved over as a parking lot for Zoo Atlanta within the park.

The surrounding, eponymous neighborhood had also comprised Grant's estate. His three-story mansion, now headquarters for the Atlanta Preservation Center, is one of only four extant antebellum houses in Atlanta.

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