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Thursday, August 05, 2010

International Beer Day

Surely you have big plans. I expect you'll be attending one of the many events around the country. I mean, today is International Beer Day, after all. What, you didn't know that?

Neither did I.

Inauspiciously, the website is currently down (9:09 am), but Wikipedia tells us this much:
International Beer Day (IBD) is an August 5 holiday invented in 2007 in Santa Cruz, CA. As opposed to Oktoberfest, which is in the cold months and largely European, International Beer Day is meant to be celebrated across the world while it's still warm enough for cold beer.

International Beer Day is celebrated by drinking beer, drinking beer with friends, and buying beer for others. While there are various other traditions, these seem to be the key attributes. The suggested way to greet someone on International Beer Day is to hand them a beer and say "I bring you the gift of beer". As a general rule, you can't refuse the beer.
I think "International Beer Day" was invented by students at UC Santa Cruz with rare and coveted access to the intertubes. Or maybe it's a put-on. This business about drinking beer "while it's still warm enough for cold beer" strikes me as ... suspicious. (The average high temperature in Santa Cruz in January is sixty degrees.) But if they are having us on, they've managed to get mass media coverage, so good for them. Hoodwinking a journo is its own reward.

In any case, I am prepared to be won over. I will accept gifts of beer all day long. Happy IBD!

4 comments:

  1. It's the complete failure to notice that it's currently winter on 50% of this planet that amuses me. Tools.

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  2. Accepting a beer given to you by someone else requires an international holiday? I thought that was Standard Operating Procedure...it is for me anyway! Cheers, Jeff and keep up the good work!

    Gary McMahon

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  3. Don't get crazy Jeff... Most readers probably thought Santa Cruz was in South America! Keep it local.... 30 miles perimeter. IN-Ter-Nation-al! That to far outside the comfort zone... ;-}

    Beer Nut must not be from around here, he knows something from outside the NW berm. ;-}

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  4. agree with you on some of this too. pretty sure international beer day was st arnolds day or belgian independence day. another reason to drink beer cant hurt, right?

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