The 26th Annual Chesterton Conference will take place June 14-16th. Follow the link for details.
What you won't see at the link, however, is an email I received from Sean Dailey last weekend. If this doesn't make you want to go, well, I'm afraid you're either a teetotaler or devoid of a soul or both:
Tonight -- about 20 minutes ago in fact, I began brewing the beer -- and English-style pale ale -- that I'll be bringing to the Chesterton conference this year. This being the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Man Who Was Thursday, and that being the theme of this year's Chesterton conference, I decided to call it Gabri-ale in honor of Gabriel Syme, the hero of Chesterton's great masterpiece. Hope as many of you as possible can make it to the conference. And remember: "Your thumb on the blade, and strike upwards."
11 comments:
Thanks for the plug, Eric!
An update: I pitched the yeast at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday (brewing is time consuming). There was no activity all of Sunday or Monday morning, but at lunchtime I noticed that a nice krausen (the foamy, dirty head of bubbles, yeast, and fermenting byproducts) on top of the beer in the tank, and by Monday evening the fermentation was in full swing, with the airlock dancing away.
This is the first homebrew I've ever brought to the conference, so I'm a bit nervous. If it is even half as good as Nathan Allen's homebrew, then it'll be ok.
Perhaps it will end up being half as good again as Nathan Allen's homebrew, the result of which being that all present will attain a legendary status simply by grace of having imbibed it. Songs will be sung of them.
Now hear of the hundreds so hearty and hale
Who drunk of the dregs of the Gabri-ale;
Who shouted for glory and clenchèd their fists,
And cried out, "good heavens, that flavour persists!"
They quaffed it like water and praised it like wine;
They called it exquisite; they said it was fine;
They toasted the Pope and the Infant on high,
And they fought with the earth and eloped with the sky.
And each man, sincerely, who had drunk so well:
"I alone have escaped to tell."
Hi, I'm new to Blogger. It's nice to know there are loyal Catholics like yourself posting blogs at Blogger.
Ed
Hello, Ed, and welcome! I hope you have a good time in the world of Catholic blogging, which is just as wide and robust as one would expect it to be.
You should check out such luminaries as Amy Welborn, Mark Shea, Jimmy Akin and of course our own Eric Scheske to get a feel for the land.
We look forward to hearing from you again.
Whoa, Nick, that's an excellent song! Are you coming to the conference? If so, will you sing it? If not, may we sing it?
Sean, I regret that I won't be able to be there. Regret it very heavily. More than anything I want to see that undergraduate panel in which the subject of Borges and Chesterton will be discussed. But I can't, because I have to graduate from university instead.
However, you are quite welcome to use the song towards whatever purposes you see fit. I'd be happy to expand it a bit, too, if you'd like.
I will sorely miss you, Nick, but if you must graduate from college, then,ok, I guess I can live with that.
Be sure to come next year, however! And thanks again for the delightful drinking song in praise of my homebrew -- which you haven't even tasted yet. Feel free to expand it if you like. I'd be happy to send you a bottle or two in the mail so you can judge for yourself whether it was worth a song.
Too bad it always comes at the end of the school year. I am grading exams, calculating final averages, attending graduations and moving up ceremeonies at that time.
Any chance of ever moving it to the end of June?
Sigh.
I agree with Lee. It is also the weekend I take my youth group to the Youth Conference at Franciscan U.
I wish I could be at the Gilbert fest. Lift a tall cool one for me.
Alan
I took the liberty of adding a few lines
Nick Milne said...
Perhaps it will end up being half as good again as Nathan Allen's homebrew, the result of which being that all present will attain a legendary status simply by grace of having imbibed it. Songs will be sung of them.
Now hear of the hundreds so hearty and hale
Who drunk of the dregs of the Gabri-ale;
Who shouted for glory and clenchèd their fists,
And cried out, "good heavens, that flavour persists!"
They quaffed it like water and praised it like wine;
They called it exquisite; they said it was fine;
They toasted the Pope and the Infant on high,
And they fought with the earth and eloped with the sky.
To the memory of their hero, they hoisted a few
To his stories his poems his articles too
They admired his wisdom and laughed at his wit
All the while savoring delicious sip after sip
They listened to speeches and wrote new ones too
All the while partaking of this marvelous brew
It pleased the palate, was smooth on the tongue
And made the old once again think like young
They reviewed the knowledge of long past ages
Discussed the writings of the greatest of sages
Sought out wisdom in all the old tales
While sharing of the best of all the best ale
And each man, sincerely, who had drunk so well:
"I alone have escaped to tell."
Gilbert
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