Susanna J. Sturgis   Martha's Vineyard writer and editor
writer editor born-again horse girl

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Beer Blues

December 28, 2005

Night before last, my beer goblet hit the edge of the sink just wrong and thin cracks fanned down the side. Bye, bye, beer goblet.

Till about a year ago I was content to drink my beer from bottles. One evening I spotted a typo on the label, so of course I e-mailed the Harpoon Brewery to say that "cinnamon" was misspelled on the Winter Warmer label -- they had it "cinammon" or something like that. The customer service lady who e-mailed back said apologetically that they couldn't fix the typo right away because they had 100,000 labels to use up but she would send me a complimentary Winter Warmer goblet. As the wages of proofreading go, this was pretty good, so I said thank you very much.

The goblet arrived within a few days and immediately became part of my evening ritual, even though I'd decided after one six-pack that the Winter Warmer brew was too obviously spiced for my taste. A couple of other Harpoons are in my regular rotation (regular ale and UFO; thanks for asking ), along with Sam Adams's Boston Ale, so I didn't feel ungrateful or anything.

Deprived of my goblet, I've tried other alternatives. An oversize Antique Power Show mug was the best of a mediocre lot. Going back to bottles was no good either: you can't sneeze into the foam when you drink from a bottle. So I just ordered a bona fide stein with the logo of my copyediting e-list, Copyediting-L, aka CE-L, aka the CELery, on the side. The online catalogue copy says it's for celebrating the completion of grueling jobs. Hah. It's really an editing aid, nearly as essential as red pencils and Post-it notes for completing jobs grueling or not. Editing while intoxicated and proofreading while plastered are not recommended (how can you spot typos when you can't read a straight line?), but with a bit of the bubbly at my left hand my tolerance for sitting still is much increased and I swear my editing improves.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it like a Post-it note. Can't wait till Ms. Stein arrives.

 

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