Globex Corporation Newsletter

It's Fette Dienstag today which the rest of the world knows by its French name of Mardi Gras. I don't speak French, but I understand that the meanings of the two terms are the same.

I really like the idea of Mardi Gras. It's the day before the start of Lent and good Catholics in Louisiana decided to have a big-ass blowout before the 40 days of repentence. It's changed from that, obviously. In New Orleans today, the idea of Mardi Gras has been completely lost, it's just a big party, but most people don't know why they're celbrating.

I've never needed an excuse to party. I'll drink and engage in debauchery whenever I feel like it. I'm drinking now. It's my day off, it's Fette Dienstag, I don't have anywhere to go, what's the problem? Having a drink or two before doing the whole 40 days of repentence thing I get. And that's what I'm doing.

For the fourth year now I'm giving up beer for Lent. I'm a Lutheran. We Lutheran's aren't really big on giving things up for Lent. I like the tradition, though, and as a guy who suspected that he might have a problem with alcohol I decided to give up beer for 40 days in 2004.

I'm not going to lie to you, it was hard. Really hard as I figured that I could just avoid going to bars for a month then. Surprise, two guys I knew wanted me in a band. Played in bars a lot during that 40 days. Opened for Abby Someone at Cheers during that time, the first big break for Patient 957. I thought about beer constantly that year and after our set, I had a shot with the other 957 guys. If God couldn't understand that I needed to share a drink with my bandmates, well, he wasn't a diety that I could really get behind.

The rules were somewhat redefined after that first year. The idea of Lent is to give up something that you like. I like beer. That first year I had a non-alcoholic beer or two. To me, that seemed like cheating. I was giving up beer, and just because the beer had it's alcohol removed, it was still beer.

Alcohol, on the other hand, isn't what I was giving up. So I'll have the occasional shot. I like bourbon, though not like I enjoy beer. I caught hell from the guys at work last year when, holding a table for them after work, they found me drinking a double bourbon.

"You gave up drinking for Lent." They said.

"No, I gave up beer. I love beer." I replied.

I give up what I love. For 40 days. For reasons that are religious and decidedly non-religious. Rest assured I will think about beer a lot over the next 40 days. Which is sort of the point. Easy to give up something you don't care about, more difficult to give up something that's sort of turned into a lifestyle.

In 2004, when I gave up beer for the first time, I decided it would be a cool idea to brew a batch of beer at the same time. That's my two sides, giving up beer, but making beer. Sort of like wearing my ECW Wrestling T-Shirt and my Jeopardy! cap at the same time. I'm brewing a batch of beer right now, an American style Cream Ale.

That's another thing about my tradition, the first beer, usually drunk around 12:01am on Easter morning is always a homebrew. That first year it was a Russian Imperial Stout (unbe-fucking-lievable!!!), the next year it was actually a homebrew made by TSA. This year it will be a Cream Ale. Made by my hands. On the day I gave up beer.

BOJ