Secrets of carbonation and other weekend reading

This week a group of scientists reported they’ve discovered how mice taste carbonation. Feel free to wonder why you should care about a bunch of Champagne-swilling mice. Not light reading but the relationship between carbonation and how we perceive sour tastes certainly pertains to beer.

– Philadelphia beer writer Don Russell visits Baltimore Beer Week and further examines “the sudden emergence of the Beer Week phenomenon.” He’s one of the founders of the first and biggest, Philly Beer Week, but that possible bias doesn’t change perfectly valid positives: Beer Week is a tourist attraction; Beer Week spreads the gospel; Beer Week honors the tavern; and Beer Week promotes civic pride. You need to go look, if only to confirm that Boog Powell is no longer Mr. Miller Lite.

– UK writing heavyweights (but not big-waisted fellows) Roger Protz, Pete Brown, Zak Avery and Jeff Evans describe “the 50 best beers” for The Independent. Only bottled beers, but not limited to Britain (at all). Curious that The Independent files this under “gadgets and tech.”

– Not sure how I missed this before, but from the Rogue Ales Wire Service that Sarah Palin did not seek the Rogue Nation approval in choosing to call her new book “Going Rogue.”

We are proceding on 2 tracks:

1. The matter has been referred to Brian Schweppenheiser, the Attorney General for the Rogue Nation.
2. Led by Captain Sig Hansen of the Deadliest Catch and the Newport fishermen who ply the Alaskan waters, we are investigating where she was born and other issues of character.

– Just in case you hadn’t noticed, Lyle Lovett has a new recording coming out Tuesday and it includes a song by Townes Van Zandt. This follows recent releases by Robert Earl Keen and Guy Clark that have Van Zandt songs (of course earlier this year Steve Earle recorded one with nothing but). Which is an excuse to point you to this story about Kerrville, Texas, even though its in the “homes” section of the New York Times because Keen talks about song writing: “The refrigerator there is full of beer and Big Red. I’ll spend several days writing and eating bologna sandwiches. Every man should have a shed.”