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Showing posts from November, 2015

Four pints watching the telly in Kladno

TVs at pubs. I'm not their biggest fan. I can tolerate them when when they're set in mute—you can ignore images a lot better than sounds, and most the sounds coming out of the telly, at least the stuff they put on at pubs, is the acoustic equivalent of the effect food poisoning has has on your bowels—but only barely. And yet, there are times when a TV on, even with sound, can be a force for good. The last place a visited for the second edition of Prague: A Pisshead's Pub Guide was Starokladenský Pivovar . It was a chilly, rainy afternoon in early October; I hadn't been there for at least four years, nor had I seen their beers in Prague, at least not at the pubs I frequent, or that I had been to while doing the fieldwork for the book, and I was curious. The place hadn't changed much, or at least not significantly. There were few patrons at that time, and most were drinking Gambrinus, I think. I sat at the bar and ordered the house's desítka, fantastic! Abso

Why it is OK to say "Their Beer Sucks"...

… If that is what you think. The way I see it, when you bought that beer, you also earned the right to express your honest opinion about it in any way, with any words and through any channels you see fit; whatever that opinion might be. There are people, though, who disagree, like this bloke here . Fortunately, he isn't nearly as ludicrous as to believe that beer is a privilege and not a birthright , but still. He gives several reasons why you should never say 'Their Beer Sucks' , let's see what they are: It's biased I don't quite get where he's going with this. It seems to come from the objectivity delusion most reviewers suffer from. And shouldn't that apply also to "Their Beer is Great", or that opinion is never biased? Whatever. He explains it saying that Even though you may think that a beer isn’t good, there are most likely others out there that do like that particular beer. So? They are free to disagree with my assessment, as