Off subject, but my rememberance to OKC:

http://lithiumlite.com/OKC1.jpg

Everyone who complains that KU isn't letting them drink should remember all the places in and around that they can drink. All they're saying is they don't want to sell beer in the Union.

OMB: Could you meet someone halfway in, say, OKC? (That's just a guess. I don't know exactly where "halfway" is.) And with the price of gasoline, how much beer would we need to exchange to make it worth the expense? There should be some way to ship bottles of non-flammable liquid. We just have to find out what it is. That, or put "Reading Material" on the outside and ship it at the book rate.

e_m: once again, you made me laugh!

omb: A friend once told me of a microbrewery in Houston that she liked called Saint Arnold (I googled to get the name correct). They have a wheat beer on the menu, so if you haven't been there your assignment is to check it out and then report back. However, I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. Texas isn't exactly known for its beer -- Lone Star and Shiner. Yuck. Not that I want to mess with Texas, but all y'all can drink it, but I'll pass, thank you.

e_m How did you know?

English & European roundabouts have one advantage, the average car is smaller and the average roundabout is larger. uh oh, I got serious for a moment. Sorry.

The path taken:

http://lithiumlite.com/rndabout.jpg

But of course, theatREs. On stage in London, there are always the finest actors, too. There isn't the division there as there is here between Hollywood and New York, so you can see people like Maggie Smith and Judy Dench on stage on any given night. Fabulous.

The pub grub - yum. Fish and chips, where you have one big piece of fish, chips, usually served with a huge helping of green peas.

The one thing I have never been brave enough to do in England, however, is drive. I always leave that up to the locals. Talk about scary roundabouts!

Oh, and on today's topic, I don't think it is that big of a deal if the university chooses not to sell beer. Since most undergraduate students are still under the drinking age of 21, there becomes a liability factor of making sure only those old enough are given access, and that they aren't slipping it to the youngsters. Besides, there are plenty of other opportunities elsewhere.

l_e, your words are lyrics.

Can you play guitar?

We should sell beer everywhere. My first good beer drunk was in a college union...I was 16. It was beautiful. I puked over the roof balcony of the cafeteria, to the horror of everyone eating breakfast and watching through the all-glass side of the cafeteria

We should have beer.

We need to reinstate the draft and make America strong and the world safe.

Then we need to use nukes in the mideast, Iran, Syria, Jordan, Afganistan, parts of Pakistan,Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia (especially mecca). We need to deport everyone from those countries before we nuke them first though.

Bring back the crusades!

As for Ms Sheehan, germ warfare should get rid of her. We don't have to kill her, just sprinkle her with Lyme ridden ticks while she sleeps.

Oh, but THOSE are theatREs. Just ask ms_c. Yes. One stands while the orchestra plays "God Save the Queen" moments before the curtain rises.

Don't worry about language differences. It's doable if you have enough stamina (chutzpah?). Very glad you enjoyed the short story. Fortunately, there are more where that came from. :)

After Crystal-from-San-Luis-Obispo and I got off the train in Salzburg, Austria and completed our 'de rigeur' time standing in line while still at the station to exchange currency and obtain current city maps, we wandered around town talking about Crystal's uncle in Zurich whom she had plans to visit in a couple days. Immaculate weather for enjoying being outdoors, we wandered past the buskers belting out their wailings, replete with that thrashy guitar strumming clearly expressing angst of youth played from medieval cloisters (with acoustic resonance no American movie theater has a snowball's chance in hell of ever replicating), we arrived at a cordoned-off area next to some nondescript brewpub where folks were gathered at picnic tables under leafy trees. A hint of squeezebox was yammering in the background.

This gathering, apparently some beer fest that wasn't on the map, had a queue of folks lined up to receive one of those big-handled glass mugs, drawn from fresh cold water flowing through a galvanized cattle troth of some sort, mugs the type which are heavy before even being filled. Dressed in the traditional Austrian gathered cotton blouse, embroidered a bit about the collar, vest and skirt-the standard stuff-a busy woman filled the chilled mugs with some magic golden lager, complete with a significant foamy top just rolling over the edge, and handed them to us. I cannot remember even if money was ever exchanged.

Now that was beer.

l_c, I'm in complete agreement with you. It does make for a double standard, especially since KU also allows alcohol to be served at the Boots building and in the Art museum.

Perhaps the thorn in the lion's paw is the fact that the tragic alcohol-related death just outside Bullwinkle's a couple years ago is just down the hill from the Union.

Hey, e_m: What do American beers and having sex in a canoe have in common?

They are both f#@%ing close to water.

newsreader: You fail to point out the other major difference between 3.2 beer and 5.0 beer -- a thing we humans like to call taste. Of course, I prefer the local brew Ad Astra and the british brew Youngs.

I don't know about this. We're adults here and don't need mommies and daddies to impose their moral standards on us anymore. We can vote and sign up to die for our countries... but we can't be trusted around 3.2 beer.

If KU wants to take a moral stand against drinking, that's fine. It seems inconsistent at best, then to allow beer for football tailgating.

Bowling and 3.2 beer shouldn't be such a big deal, in my opinion.

Why is that I used to have a horrible hangover/headache after drinking 3.2 beer?

How about that easy nights, mellow days wine? ewww...oh those were the days!

Hey news. Yah, I'm aware of the minute difference between the alcohol content of 3.2 v 5.0. And I'd heard about one being by weight and the other volume.

I just basically hate the Bud / Miller Lite crap. :(

Extreme_Makeover;

Since you have no idea what you are talking about, the difference between 3.2 beer and 5.0 beer is very small as one is measured by weight and one by volume. The difference, actually, turns out to only be about 1 beer in a 30 pack.

mffftt. I just woke up. Left the computer on so here I am ms_c.

The beer they served at the bowling alley was that awful canned 3.2 p*iss anyway. I hardly doubt it will be missed.

Canada - I have a pregnant wife who was annoyed by my snoring. So I came down here last night to play some chess. These other cats up that late/early... they just crazy.

Wonderful for you, beikers. Let's protect people from themselves. How is the Union bowling alley not selling beer, which closes at 10anyhow I believe, keep college students from drinking? It won't.

I do reiterate that this isn't a college student responsiblity issue, KU wasn't making enough money from beer sales too put up with the bull$%#. Smart decision from that point of view.

The fact that a sophomore knows that beer and bowling go hand in hand is a good reason not to have it. KU and Lawrence already turn the other way all the time when it comes to underage drinking, drinking and driving, and noise complaints.

I have been a student at KU for 5 years. In my first years in the dorms I went to some parties and witnessed some pretty awful things. When a party I was at got broken up by the police I saw a cop literally shove my friend toward his car when my friend was underage, drunk, and in no way capable of driving. The officers could have cared less. I've had to hold friends hands while they cried the morning after drinking realizing that they slept with someone they didn't even know.

Until the students can prove that they are responsible enough to handle it and the police show they are responsible enough to enforce related laws, the campus at least needs to stay dry (not that the dorms are anyway... I did more drinking when I was in the dorms and underaged then I ever have now that I'm older and living on my own.)

I never had a single drinking experience that I couldn't have lived without. In fact, if it hadn't been for peer pressure to drink the two years I lived in the dorms, I wouldn't be starting my 6th year as an undergrad. A lot of kids coming to school don't know how to show control yet. I experienced it in myself and saw it happen to countless others. Don't make it even harder to resist temptation.

Not to mention... a lot of kids got in trouble for pot. Yet my friend who was a pothead in the dorms had a very high GPA, kept all her scholarships, and is doing graduate work in Europe now. Not saying anything... just food for thought about which substances we say are evil in this country and which we allow without second thought....

do you think KU would've allowed beer sales if it was shown to be profitable? i wonder how many kegs they went through when they used to sell beer - i bet not very many.

could that've been the real reason to not sell beer? of course not, what am i thinking.

I kind of suspect there are potential liability issues which KU understandably wishes to avoid. After all, isn't it 'officially' okay to BYO to tailgate events prior to football games?

OB, you are absolutely right. I am not Fangorn. I've been called worse, though ;)

imagine that KU doesn't listen to a student led proposal...is this something new?

Oh well given the strange pricing policy of some products in the Union, I'm sure the Wheel and the Crossing would still be cheaper than the Union. Also the pizza at the Wheel is much better...so even more reason not to stay at the Union.

Also just because there is beer in the Union, it does not mean everyone will go to class loaded. KSU and Colorado sell beer on their campuses....oh well just have to keep going to the Wheel.

EM - Sorry. You're obviously not Fanghorn.

Times are a changing... but it has more to do with you getting old. :)

My point is that since The Wheel and the other 2 bars are 2 blocks downhill and The Crossing is 1 block away, whether or not the Union serves beer is moot... if you're look at this from at this from a "keep the college students sober" point of view.

However, this is the safe and easy decision for KU. It's not like they made a whole lot of money of selling beer at the bowling alley. The negative publicity from the minority would cost more to counteract than the loss of a few beer sales.

Fall of 1980 I was surprised to find the Union served beer. Cool.

Times have changed since then and it's appropriate that KU officially supports sobriety.

Bowling just won't be quite the same though...

With our uptight attitudes about alcohol and sex, I'm surprised that we Americans don't asphyxiate. We'll let five-year-olds watch cartoon characters bludgeon each other, but heaven forbid that we let young adults make decisions about their own bodies, especially those young adults upon whom have been conferred the right to vote and the right to pledge themselves to kill people for a living.

The French edited "The A-Team" for content. Our government blows a gasket over an errant nipple and underage tipple. Guess who I think is more enlightened.