Lenoir, North Carolina. Living Proof

Lenoir, North Carolina is living proof that Alfred Hitchcock indeed is dead. For if he were still alive, scenes from Lenoir would undoubtedly rumble through the bedrooms of people across the world in the form of nightmare images. Memories rebroadcast in fitful dreams would crawl out of scenes etched from screens of television and movies that are part of the story that is told here - in that other universe called Lenoir.

The right word is somehow missing. "Wild" is not it. "Dangerous" completely misses the point. †here is the hint of another universe here that speaks of different laws and different measures of success and failure, different values of comprehension. Here there seems an air of finality. Somehow a judgement has been rendered. There is a sense of it all being over, of being tested and having failed, an understanding that the whole world is sinking into crumbles, falling from light down, down into darkness.

But then there is Pink here too. And the color Pink brings a counter beat, a ray not so much a hope of rescue as an intention to hit the bottom with dignity. No Drinking Please, and another pink bow. OK, so we go down. OK, but we will remember sunshine and I will still remember love, because it once was given to me. And somehow I do know this. That when it is all over, it will not be through. I will still smile at you. And when it is all over, then finally - maybe you will smile back at me. That's my love that I give to you.

And don't blame Lenoir. Go there and see for yourself. It is a nice town, a pretty place. There is beauty there and art and sunshine. It is not America but America IS Lenoir. It is good to see this in a small place where it can be comprehended and understood. And it is important that we know where we really are and can see where we are clearly headed.

Beer Tasting and Lecture in Hickory

Beer tasting at the Fireman's Kitchen. Pretty good event from about 7:30 till 9 p.m. Three lecturers pointed out some of the finer aspects of beer as the audience sampled some 7 or 8 different types. We began with a sweet light clear beer from the Caribbean, Then we went right into a brown ale, followed by an bitter beer, and on to an "export" Indian pale ale, then to stout followed by an Old Hickory Taproom stout, finally a Hefeweizen. At the end, they sprang a gluten-free mess on us that NO one drank but everyone acknowledged to be awful with wry faces.

The hors d'ouevs were smashing. All the way from roasted peanuts to pizza, including kielbasa, Italian sausage, chicken pieces, meatballs, cheese cubes, and little sausages cooked in drippy, salty, sumptuous sauce. And there was a LOT more including chocolate which went (I am told) extremely well with the last two stouts.

Lots of friendly people were present and conversations ran strongly all night long. I might point out that the beer samples were on the order or the two-ounce sizes, so there wasn't any singing or lampshade wearing - actually, it turned more toward an intellectual bent as indicated by many of the questions that were asked. We discussed things such as "original gravity", "•Plato", "apparent extract", IBUs, EBCs and EBCs.

Good evening, everybody learned a lot, and we all enjoyed the drinks, food, lectures, discussions and ambience.