Google Tag Manager icon Darker than Grey Skip to main content

Featured

Starkweather Beer Company

 When I moved back to Madison to attend law school in 1987, we moved to a crappy little apartment near the banks of Starkweather Creek on the unfashionable east side.  Today, the east side is booming, and one of the newer brewpubs is called Starkweather Beer Company. It was Saint Pat's Day.  While Guinness is a decent light-bodied stout, I opted for Starkweather's dry Irish Stout, named "Jamestown Jackdaw." Coming in at 5.9 ABV, it had a malty chewable backbone.  It's a new favorite stout for me.  Julia had Late Winter Haze, a New England IPA that didn't have as much fruitiness as she likes in a hazy.  It was still well-executed. We walked down the street to the Harmony Bar, where Julia enjoyed a complete corn beef and cabbage dinner.  I opted for the Reuben sandwich.  Mine was washed down with an Edmund Fitzgerald porter from Great Lakes Brewing.  Julia enjoyed her Chaos Pattern IPA from 3 Sheeps Brewing.  Both are great beers. Justin update:   After a long h

Darker than Grey

 It was a grey day in Clinton, Iowa. Not just the weather. Things I saw on my long walk with Callie put me into a somber mood. 

We walked from downtown to the Lyons’s business district on the walkway along the Mississippi River. Early into the walk, I saw this.


Someone vandalized this fence in the name of American freedom. And for what? To access a flooded backwater where the trail ends just beyond the fence.

I walked several miles contemplating this angry, misguided act before turning west into Lyons. In fairness, I later saw attractive, thriving blocks. But this was my first impression. 


This was an empty city block, except for the last apparent business remaining: a gun store.

I walked up a few blocks, returning to downtown via what had to be its most prosperous street—many years ago.  Huge homes that must have been the pride of their owners at some point.


Continuing my walk, I saw some well-kept homes, large and small, but I couldn’t shake my feeling of American decline. Calling it great doesn’t make it so. Sometimes, it’s just a turd floating in the water. When we accept lower standards, something is lost.

“combined sewer overflow”



Comments

Popular Posts