When coming back from my parent’s house following a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, I took the Stupid SEPTA Broad Street Line, which I ride multiple times a day.  Today, something was different: the entire car was wallpapered to look like a Bud Light can. A garish, bright blue with condensation graphics, floor to ceiling. It looked like the walls were dripping with slime, and the phrase “TAILGATE: APPROVED” was stamped all over.

It was a Thanksgiving miracle! Not six hours before, this looked like a regular subway car, but now it has been transformed into a seizure inducing monstrosity. I’m sure the people who spent their thanksgiving applying the Bud Light decals were just thrilled with their life choices.

Normally I would say this is not a big deal. Advertising is important! Advertising raises product awareness (I probably wouldn’t have know that Bud Light was a shitty company if not for this) and helps fund public transportation (those new signing bonuses have to come from somewhere). But the bright blue, plus the orange seats, plus the harsh florescent lighting… it’s bad, man.

Happy Thanksgiving, from my ruptured corneas to yours!

Every year the wonderful BeerAdvocate puts together a little shindig called Extreme Beer Fest, designed to educate the world as to the virtues of extreme beer. It’s important to understand that beer of the extreme variety is not ordinary beer. There are various criteria that must be met before it can be certified extreme: beer that’s 20%+ ABV, beer that’s been barrel aged, or beer made without hops would be considered quite extreme. Miller Light would not.

This year BeerAdvocate has teamed up with Dogfish Head to do something a bit special. They’ve brewed an exclusive beer just for the festivities. Names were suggested by forum users and the top ten were voted on. The results are remarkable…

Get it? BA Select? BA meaning BearAdvocate? Genius. The attendees of Extreme Beer Fest will be drinking genuine Konami code beer. I’m guessing the ’start’ is when you tap the firkin. And after the festival is over this will be gone forever. Something tells me it won’t be popping up on eBay any time soon, either. The video game collector in me weeps.

After several years, I have finally managed to reconnect with Geary’s Pale Ale. I drank this stuff throughout college and haven’t been able to locate it in the wild since then. I thought I might have built the beer up in my mind a bit due to nostalgia, but it’s still damn good. The key is a high salt content, which somehow manages to enhance the grain and caramel flavors. It’s wonderful.

Interestingly enough, the retailer I found it at didn’t seem to know anything about it’s origin. There was just a single six pack sitting in the “to sort” rack and none of the employees could explain where it came from or if they usually carried it. The guy at the register even said “Hey! You found those here?”