If you haven't had a chance to read Dwight Kidder's entry for August 30, please do so. Lots of good stuff there, one piece in particular I wanted to comment on.

The folks boycotting Sam Adams beer in Boston and New York for Jim Koch's studio presence during the much ballyhooed Opie and Anthony sex in the cathedral bit (if you don't know what I'm talking about with regards to Opie and Anthony, consider yourself lucky) should really be boycotting because Kock is such a sellout.

There was a time when you could consider Sam Adams a quality beer product. Now, it's still better than the usual megabrew BudMillCoors, but it's hardly the sort of artisan-crafted quaff that Koch wants you to think it is. Then there's the whole thing with Sam Adams Light, which is clearly trying to position itself with the younger crowd that usually drinks swill. Which may not be a bad thing if it helps wean them from Busch Light, but it strikes me as more of a market share/profit thing than part of a master plan to make "America's World Class Beer."

Then there was the whole lawsuit against the Boston Beer Works folks (BBW being a small local chain of upscale brewpubs), claiming that their use of the city name Boston could cause confusion with the Boston Beer Company, who make Sam Adams. The suit was as much about local competition as it was anything else. Thankfully, the Beer Works won.

I also miss the Honey Porter, and have no idea why they kept the Cherry Wheat. It's awful.

Anyway, long story short, drink Harpoon IPA. Or Tremont cask-conditioned IPA (or the regular stuff if you can't find the cask one, which is liquid heaven). Those are real Boston-area craft beers.

In unrelated news, I notice that I didn't mention that on the bus ride up to the retreat this week I was subjected to National Lampoon's Van Wilder. I was told by one RA that it would be better than Half Baked. Such a statement may qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records for Damning with the Faintest Praise.

Van Wilder is not a very good movie. It's not quite a train wreck, either. There are one or two moments of relative mirth, such as the interview that Indian exchange student Taj has to become Van's assistant. It's funny for the same reason that Burgess Meredith was funny in Grumpy Old Men: you don't expect to hear that person say what they say.

Otherwise, it's pretty lame. Ryan Renolds of Two Guys, a Girl, 37 Albanian Farmers, Six Geese, a Pizza Place, and a Squadron of AH-64s plays Van to little impact. Tara Reid plays the requisite "resistant at first but then becomes enamored" school paper reporter who's trying to get the lowdown on Van. That this could be Reid's second best film performance (after Bunny Lebowski) is sad. The Copacabana School of Acting is apparently still churning out grads.

I will say, though, that I will never eat another eclair again as long as I live. I won't explain the scene, but it's bad.