June 7, 2015

Question: "Why is Barack Obama drinking beer at 11am?"

Answer: He's in Bavaria, acting Bavarian.
Angela Merkel... treated him to a full Bavarian breakfast of white sausages, pretzels and foaming lager... Bavarians don’t down a quick pint before heading to the office every morning. It originates in Frühschoppen — a local tradition of meeting for a drink late in the morning on Sundays and holidays. According to Bavarian custom, the sausages cannot be eaten after 12 noon, because no preservatives are used and they are made fresh every day. Therefore those who wish to wash their sausages down with a beer must get supping before that time. The local saying is that the sausages must not be allowed to hear the church bells chime noon.
I have too many Obama tags already and it's too late in The Story of Barack Obama to make an "Obama eats food" tag, so I'm just going with the closest thing I've got. It begins with "Obama eats..." anyway. Too bad I don't have "Obama drinks beer." There was that famous "beer summit" that maybe half of the people have forgotten by now. That would have been the time to create an "Obama drinks beer" tag. So I'm going with "Obama and drugs." Close enough, no?

61 comments:

Michael K said...

When did he learn to speak Bavarian ?

Scott said...

Lifestyles of the Powerful and the Uninteresting.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

My wife and I have this custom by which we split two different beers pretty much every dinner. Compare and contrast. That sort of thing. It's fun.

Just the other day banged this hefeweizen against this East Coast IPA. My pre-dinner anxiety was unwarranted, as the wheat beer held its own well against the IPA.

My wife considered it an extra bonus that there were cute animals on the labels.

So did I.

Anonymous said...

I have news for you. Bavarians drink beer on other mornings beyond just Sunday's. When I lived there, you'd see a crew out repairing cobblestone streets. At around 1000 AM, it would be time for a union mandated break, complete with a few swigs from a liter beer bottle.

PS: Beer in the 70's was delivered to Bavarian homes like milk was to US homes in the 50's. a beer truck did regular drops of beer crates to your door step.. It varied by brewery. 18-24 liters in a crate...

Acme of Evolution said...

Loyal readers demand the tag "Obama eats veal brains". Because those are the main component of Weisswürstel....

Anonymous said...

PPS: The no sausage after 12, is only for Weiss Wurst. White sausage, though the tradition dates from before Refrig.

Now, you get all kinds 24/7. My fav are Nuernbergers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bratwurst#/media/File:Bratwurst_Gl%C3%B6ckl.jpg

Acme of Evolution said...

Loyal readers demand the tag "Obama eats veal brains". Because those are the main component of Weisswürstel....

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

it's too late in The Story of Barack Obama to make another Obama tag.

There were a lot of things passed over for the sake of not ticketing Obamas ride to the White House.

As Bob Schieffer said.

Bay Area Guy said...

Nice photo of the Prez drinking a beer. He should do it more often. Loosen him up a bit.

Anonymous said...

Michael K said...
When did he learn to speak Bavarian ?


Ich spreche Bavarian.

Michael K said...

"Ich spreche Bavarian."

Ich spreche Österreichisch auch ?

tim in vermont said...

Here is a tag that could be used and it would be used only on rare occasions: "Obama does something of which tim in vermont approves."

tim in vermont said...

I don't even want to click on the link because there will probably be something there to kill the good feeling.

Anonymous said...

Stupidly, I haven't forgotten the beer summit.


Also: I worked in a German hospital some years back, and even the patients (quads and paras) drank beer in their beds.

The rationale was to help force urination, but from my POV they were just being Germans.

David Begley said...

He was drinking because he usually is drinking beer and playing golf at 11 AM on a Sunday.

Quaestor said...

When did he learn to speak Bavarian ?

When I read this post I thought, Oh goody, here's an opportunity to snark on Obama's curiously spotty knowledge of things in general. And what do I find? Doctor K has beaten me to the punch. Now I have little to say except I find the prevalence of IPAs to be distressing, especially since it has become fashionable lately to increase the hops to what I frankly consider insane levels.

Hops is (Are? I find the word hops to be like grits, grammatically un-beautiful; when it sounds wrong its right.) almost a sine qua non of beer, yet beer is about much more than hops. It's like pizza and garlic. A pizza without any garlic would be pretty boring and quite un-pizza-like, yet a garlic pizza would be uneatable, at least I imagine it would be. (Must ask Meade, our resident garlic expert and aficionado.) These extreme IPAs have flavors that border on revolting; not only that the hops obscure the malt to the point that there's no reason to use the best ingredients in these brews. What we're getting is basically hops in solution with some alcohol.

I don't know what it is about my country, but there seems to be a consistent pattern of fixating on one aspect of some art and then pushing at that aspect obsessively. In some cases this is a good thing, in other cases not so much. In those instances the thing being obsessed about is mostly ruined for years until someone tries a retrospective approach. I call it the Twinkie effect. What is a Twinkie? It's a cake, or perhaps a pastry. A cake contains sugar and fat, but the Twinkie represents a cake that has abandoned all pretense of being anything other than sugar and fat.

Mark O said...

Just an observation. If Obama is toasting anything, why is no one joining in? Some in the picture are looking away.

Michael K said...

"yet beer is about much more than hops. "

I made beer all through medical school. I had a 5 gallon crock and made a tea from the hops in a cheesecloth. You could add as much hops as you chose. It was damn good beer. It tasted like Heinekens. More alcohol, through. Th worst part was washing bottles. We would have bottle washing parties at which considerable beer was drunk by all attending. Not Sunday morning, though. That was for mountain climbing.

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Greg Hlatky said...

Bavaria? What's he doing there? Doesn't he know that climate change is the biggest problem facing us now?

Jane the Actuary said...

Things I know about this topic:
1) you might as well say, "I speak Bavarian" as it is a pretty distinctive German dialect.
2) Weisswurst are not in the same category as bratwurst or currywurst; you have to remove the skin, which is an art, and the taste is, well, not in the same category as the other wursts and you heat them up in water (but don't boil them) rather than grilling them. Periodically, I'll buy a package from Valli Produce for my husband, as a treat.
3) The G-7 Summit is just a hop, skip and jump away from Mittenwald, home of a major German military base, where my husband did his compulsory service, back when that still existed.

Quaestor said...

I, too, had my home brewing stage. I used to frequent a store that sold brewing supplies. They had everything except the vessel itself. I remember prowling antique stores in search of a 5-gallon glass carboy, which I finally acquired for $85. The store sold brewing kits -- malt, yeast, hops, and sometimes other ingredients, together with instructions -- to make 5 gallons of some specific style. They also sold the ingredients separately so that you could be inventive. I concentrated on ales, and not lager-style brews. Finding bottles was a chore. The most desirable were the Grolsch bottles. Even today they still have this old-fashioned crockery captive stopper which is held in place with a self-locking wire bridle. This kind of stopper was common in the 19th century, but now is retained mostly as a curiosity. The same store that sold the brewing kits also sold virgin rubber grommets that fitted the Grolsch stoppers.

Since I'm not fond of Dutch-style beer I was reluctant to buy Grolsch. But I broke down and spent an ungodly sum on two cases, and then I threw a party. "Drink all you want, but don't break or steal my bottles," I told my friends. "If you do I'll make you muck stalls at gunpoint."

I discovered that some bottles are not suitable for home brewing. I retrieved about three dozen Guinness bottles from a pizzeria I frequented. I washed and sterilized them, and filled them with a Derbyshire nut-brown ale I'd made. To make a good stiff head I used to put a tiny smidgen of sugar into each bottle just before capping to "wake up" the dormant yeast. This ended up being a huge mistake when the bottle involved was an ex-Guinness; while aging I lost at least a dozen bottles to violent explosions!

Acme of Evolution said...

In addition to JtA's points:

4) to be eaten with sweet mustard only, never sharp mustard
5) the beer must be a wheat beer
6) Bretzel (soft pretzels) are optional, but if present must be freshly baked

Anonymous said...

We would have bottle washing parties at which considerable beer was drunk by all attending

an enterprising guy like you didn't use some industrial strength hospital sterilizer?

Garmisch-Partenkirchen has a fairly extensive American Army presence, but mostly of a recreational variety. If they actually wanted security Bad Tolz, the ex-home of the 10th SFG would be better.

as for:

The G-7 Summit is just a hop, skip and jump away from Mittenwald, home of a major German military base, where my husband did his compulsory service, back when that still existed.

I suspect in those days, it was a Gebirgsjäger base.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebirgsj%C3%A4ger#/media/File:BW_Dienstanzug_Heer_(Grundform_M%C3%A4nner_Gebirgsj%C3%A4ger).jpg

Anonymous said...

The most desirable were the Grolsch bottles.

Grolsch-type bottles. Lots of German beer used to come in them. Otherwise known as Flippies

Anonymous said...

The rationale was to help force urination, but from my POV they were just being Germans.

Denying a German, daily beer is a war crime according to the Munich Convention...

David said...

Jewish Industries.
It is, however, especially in industries that the Jews of Bavaria have earned recognition. Fürth, sometimes called "Little Jerusalem," owes its prosperity to its Jewish inhabitants. Here Gosdorfer founded his mirror-factory, George Benda his bronzefoundry, both of which export largely to the United States. Ullmann (died 1898) founded a large business in toys and hardware. The royal lumber industry of the Bavarian and Alpine forests was also organized by a Regensburg Jew of the name of Loewi. The Jews of Nuremberg, Fürth, and Bamberg control the hop business: in the first-named town, indeed, general export trade has in reality only existed since the Jewish settlement there.The cattle trade is entirely in the hands of the country Jews.

The 356 Jewish congregations of the kingdom contain 53,750 souls, or about 1 per cent of the total population.


--From the Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906 Edition

I am sure that the first Jewish President has this in mind as he sips.

SteveR said...

Non alcoholic beer, I've read.

Michael K said...

"We would have bottle washing parties at which considerable beer was drunk by all attending

an enterprising guy like you didn't use some industrial strength hospital sterilizer?"

No, but we did use quart bottles that cut down on the washing time. One crock produced two cases of quarts which then went under the house for aging. When the current case of quarts was down to a fraction, it was time to empty them, wash them and start on the aged case.

A good time was had by all. I estimated that the beer cost me about 25 cents a quart,

Anonymous said...

OT, My local PBS station is playing a show called: "American Experience: Last Days in Vietnam"

However the station description is: "As the war ends, the pushing begins for evacuating GI's and South Vietnamese Collaborators from Saigon"

Quaestor said...

However the station description is: "As the war ends...

The endless revisionism of the left, how pathetic. Send them a nasty, brutish, and short note about SV patriots, if you would Drill SGT. Their grandchildren, fully American now and famously enterprising, should know just what the PBS elites think of them and their families.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Obama should drink until he realizes he is as racist as the average American.

richard mcenroe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
richard mcenroe said...

Obama gobbling white sausage...you know, you hear the rumors...

Guildofcannonballs said...

I think it's cool Obama drinks and I distrust W. for letting his wife push him around. Turning 40 is a reason to get drunk and say shit.

But in Bush world, a world foreign to America, hence I for the first time like and support the Catholic JEB*, getting drunk and talking shit at 40 years old is cause for realignment of proportions feminine and stupid.

Send me to war, console the peoplemwhom might need consoling, thank God you g ave Ted fucking Kennedy the power to indoctrinate children while supporting the wholesale replacement of American workers to foreign workers because, rightfully so in many cases, everybody ain't always so evil.

*My understanding is Jeb believes in the true church, the Roman Catholic church. Did Jeb do this to make his life easier? Cannot he be a man looking at the "sepsis" of modern culture (as Buckley described it way back then knowing the worsity to come) and knowing, as do I and maybe you iffin' you're a lucky, that "I can do better."

You push me.

Do it.

I will make Bush POTUS again. This time cutting spending across the board, slamming critics of his immigration plan as racist (but Democrats this time are the racists, not me and my GOP voting fellow citizens), and killing China.

Gahrie said...

The more things change...

We won the Vietnam War, but a Democratic Congress betrayed our promises and commitments, and we lost the peace.

Sound familiar to anyone?

madAsHell said...

Bayern ohne Lederhosen?

Guildofcannonballs said...

Latino wives, Sopheia Vergaria speak up, are better than American women like Michelle Obama.

Latino wives are better than any wives have ever been.

Whom but idiots support the unLatino-wife candidates?

Guildofcannonballs said...

Sonia and her wise decisions she hopes for...Well I hope those same hopes too.

That wise Latinas make better decisions than others is... our hope. The wise Latinas and I, to be clear.

Anybody feel/follow me here?

Seeing the obvious superiority of all the things Justice Scalia (can legitimately take formal adherence-like too as is his want) learned from the greatest Justice, Thomas, gives me all the hope the word has ever known we won.

Justice Thomas won us what we need for America to be as she was meant.

That.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

There's this bus I sometimes find myself driving behind on my commute to work. On the back is an ad for reruns of Modern Family on the local affiliate.

Illustrating the ad is a photo of Sophia Vergara.

She's about nine feet tall.

Seems about right.

Jane the Actuary said...

Drill SGT, yes, it was the Gebirgsjäger, though one landed there either because one wanted a marines-like experience and/or wanted to be a career soldier, or through chance; my husband was there by chance, and when they were looking for some additional office help, he jumped at the chance.

Dance...dance to the radio said...

He's a doughnut!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GaDAjHKYC4

Anonymous said...

Jane the Actuary said...

so did you or Hubbie look at the link?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gebirgsj%C3%A4ger#/media/File:BW_Dienstanzug_Heer_(Grundform_M%C3%A4nner_Gebirgsj%C3%A4ger).jpg

Jane the Actuary said...

Oh, yeah, that was his uniform all right. Or am I supposed to be deriving something else from that link?

Anonymous said...

no, just thought it might stimulate memories for at least one of you...

Guildofcannonballs said...

Holy Cunt, what fucks of you considered The Real One Andy Kaufman's output after having lived a life to the shit/scat that replaced him and his' "humor" pederastic Letterman (when joking at the level of 14-year-olds) and his angry tiredness.

Carter Wood said...

It's not a foaming lager, as the headline asserts. It's a Hefeweizen, which is an ale.

A nice tradition, in any case. Semmel, weissbier, weisswurst. Mit suessem Senf. Lecker!

Carter Wood said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carter Wood said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Guildofcannonballs said...

"She take a swing;
BUT SHE CAN'T HANG."

- Jane

*

*jane's addiction for crying out loud.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"you were out of my league"

They speak of God with DMT.

You don't know and I shalln't ablesness-wise be telling after shortly' evermore.

But "Fitz and Tantrums" chemically musically think they surpassed the great Gram(!) Fuccunting Horsecock Parson's.

They mistake, as have those before them, even without the lack of dignity nor reconginiton of sin to enable the healthy process of embitterment.

I am something only because I hate Fitz, not because as a born-on-Mozart's birthday Sui geniuses' perfection of a gift owing some entity whether of the flesh sort or other.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Michael K: "We would have bottle washing parties at which considerable beer was drunk by all attending. Not Sunday morning, though. That was for mountain climbing."
This is what brings me back to Althouse.

walter said...

That doesn't sound like a Michelle approved meal...

Scott said...

Ewige blumenkraft!

Guildofcannonballs said...

Dido.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Burn one down for me.

I guess you're off to have your fun, another ending just begu, and I know what I don't see, really shouldn't bother me.

So go on...

GOON Go on.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Thine



,Clint black lyrics unbenighn.

J said...

Flippies for us was called Bauerbier.Ich spreche Mannheimerich mit ein kleinesverstandedSchwabisch

J said...

Und fruhstuck mit milch brotchen,butterkase, und Weisswurst mit scharfisches Senf. unglaublich Lowensenf.

Jason said...

Bavaria? Gut. Ich nicht wünche, das unser Prezident wie einen Fischkopf zu sprechen.

Jane the Actuary said...

A while back, there was a German dialect test, similar to the one floating around in the US. I took it but the system couldn't figure out what to do with my mix of Hochdeutsch, Swabisch, and Bayerish.

The link is here: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/dialekte-quiz-wo-spricht-man-so-wie-sie-a-1030362.html

if any of you are still following this thread.