In article , Richard Casady wrote:
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:33:31 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

"Richard Casady" wrote in message
news
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:17:38 -0400, "Flying Pig"
wrote:

"There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in
its hand. You seek problems because you need their gifts."

Bach's first book, Stranger to the Ground. was not bad. It has been
downhill from there. If the ****er tells me my cancer is a gift that I
need I will break his bones.

Casady

Hi,

Sorry to hear about your cancer... What is it, and what's the prognosis?

A spot on the tongue from forty years of smoking and drinking.

Sorry to hear about that. My mother has been undergoing chemo for pancreatic cancer - the **** has really hit the fan, but I'm not going in to it all here.

[snip]

Just got back from a trip to Amsterdam. Stayed at
the Hemp Hotel, and yes you can legally smoke weed at the bar. They
banned smpking tobacco specifically, in the bars, but hashish is still
legal. A no star, with a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 foot [ I measured] ****ter
serving the five rooms on three floors, but the room did have a shower
and a small icebox.

There y'go, silver lining in every cloud (of smoke).


The bar is seven feet wide[I measured] and about
sixty feet long. The place has a cat door. They don't own the cat that
comes and goes at all hours, they just let it hang out.

Fat Freddy's cat?


There is a
park across the street, a tram stop and cab stand 150 yards away, and
a couple of blocks of shops and bars a half block away. A dedicated
chocolate shop, a dedicated cheese store. A a tobacconist with English
newspapers. A bitty convenience market, with, of all things,
Budweiser.

It seems that it would surprise you how heavily they market (and how much they sell) of that crap this side of the pond. When in Amsterdam one drinks Amstel.


Heinekin is harder to find than in the US, and comes in
smaller bottles.

Why, why, why would you want to find Heineken?! Of all the beers, in all the world you had to search for Heineken!

In the UK, at least, there is very little demand for Heineken. I believe it's the same in much of mainland Europe. It might have been half decent once, but not in the time that I've been legal to drink alcohol (25 years). I don't know who owns it, but the marketing machine makes sure that it's available in many, many places, but it has a much smaller place on the shelf than most European beers.

The currently popular beers in the UK are Stella Artois (aka wife-beater), Fosters, and Carling. Of the three I'd only drink Stella (better taste than the others), but I've given it up (my wife and I noticed one evening why it gets it's alias, I'd not noticed before but it made me rather aggressive - not violent, but definitely aggressively tempered, I'm not touching it again - it certainly explains the fights late at night in many UK towns).

Marketing drives much of UK beer consumption, big breweries dictate what is available in man of the bars. Of the readily available lagers I'd go for Carlsberg, Carlsberg Export, or Holsten Export, but they're not as widely marketed.

WRT Heineken, I'm sorry, but if you consider that a good beer you need to get back this side of the pond and drink a *lot* more beer! Come to England I'll treat to to some wonderful stuff produced by Harveys of Lewes, Shepherd Neame of Faversham, and The First In Last Out, High Street, Hastings. .... mmmmm beer. Perhaps you'd care for some English Channel sailing first?


*******s. The bar has nothing but good brands, four
single malts, three brands of absinthe, several cannabis beers and
wines. No cheap stuff whatever. Two Euros for a Heinekin, eight[ten
bucks] for a

Your taste in Whisky is much better than your taste in beer!


Justin.

--
Justin C, by the sea.