WALKING THE DOG … … Is the electronic newsletter of FOSSILS (Fermenters of Special Southern Indiana Libations Society); a home brewing and beer appreciation club located in New Albany, Indiana. It will be sent out on the first of each month from now on. Visit FOSSILS on the Web at www.fossils.org Since 1990 … FOSSILS: Carbonated – Not Carbon Dated! The newest compiler of "Walking the Dog" is I, Scott Boyer (admin@fossils.org). Don’t hesitate to contact me with anything you like, dislike, or want to see changed about the newsletter or web site. Submissions for the Dog will be credited to the author of the submitted material, but please be sure to get yours to me early; I need some time to get everything together. Fossils is generously supported by the following beer friendly businesses (In no particular order): • Youngstown Cigar Shop - Tobacco lovers will find cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, lighters, humidors, and many other accessories at Mike's fine establishment. The shop is located behind Regions Bank, East 10th Street in Jeffersonville, 1 mile from I-65 (exit 1). • RichO's & Sportstime Pizza - Roger & his crew have always been an integral part of the Fossils Club. They graciously host many of the club meetings and have always given us their support. His establishment has the best beer selection in the area, and his food is excellent. As for the beer brewed there: Indiana State Fair's professional best of show '04 - Bourbon Barrel Stout. What can I say; we know it, we love it. Keep it up Roger & company! • Cumberland Brews - Matt Gould has some great beers on tap. The atmosphere is great, and the food is very tasty. Our club meeting there was a lot of fun, and I know we will all be back again, again, and again! 1576 Bardstown Rd., Louisville, KY. (502) 458-8727 • Memphis Meat Processing - These are the guys who donate the very cool buffalo femurs we make into lamps. They offer great quality buffalo meat at good prices. Click here for their contact information & a full price list. • Old Mill - These guys have a great selection of both beer & wine. They are so good that they made '03 best of Louisville. Old Mill is in the modern shopping center at Blackiston Mill and Charlestown Roads, just off I-265 south of the Charlestown Road (IN 311) exit. (812) 941-1350 • Destinations Booksellers - New to Southeast Indiana, the store is located just west of St. Mary's Catholic Church, at 604 East Spring Street. The owner is Randy Smith, and he helped us out with our new library cart & some nice additions to our brewing library. Randy has a nice selection of beer and beverage books, and out-of-stock customer orders are usually filled in a day or two. Call the store at (812) 944-5116 or e-mail. FOSSILS members are especially welcome. • Sarah Ring with Harrison Realty - Understanding the needs of beer drinkers since 1993 through Bluegrass Brewing Company, Now wheeling and dealing houses for FOSSILS and Friends in Southern Indiana. Referrals always welcome, Call 502-550-9503. • The Keg Liquors, located in Clarsksville, now carries a nice selection of micro and imported beers. Over the past several months Todd Antz has brought in the selection of beers that "FOSSILS" drink. Check some of the beers out at 617 East Lewis and Clark Parkway, Clarksville, IN (812) 283-3988 FOSSILS sponsorship is an effective way to reach discerning and intelligent readers who are your friends and customers. Not Dog advertising is bartered for goods and services donated to the club. If you are interested, please contact me (admin@fossils.org). ISSUE NUMBER 182 - January 2006. As many of you know, the Fossils web site is in the process of changing. Be sure to check it out (www.fossils.org). If you see anything you would like to add or modify, feel free to contact me (admin@fossils.org). You will be seeing significant expansions & additions in the future as I get the time. In addition, I need help rebuilding the email list of all of our members; much has been completed, but I want to make sure I have not omitted anyone. Have anyone you know who should be receiving the newsletter contact me at the address above. If you see anything that isn’t working or needs to be updated on the web site, please let me know; I’m an amateur webmaster doing this in between a lot of other activities. Message From Your FOSSILS President: Hello Folks, I wanted to start things off by thanking Bob and Maureen Capshew for hosting the Christmas party again this year, Brad Maddox for grilling some of the best pork BBQ and beef brisket I have ever had, and Denny Berry for all his work brewing 3 yummy beers for the party. Also, let us raise a glass to Dave Pierce and the folks at the BBC Tap Room for giving us one heck of a price on a keg of porter beer. In addition, we certainly don't want to forget all the fine FOSSILS who donated kegs of yummy homebrew. Before we turn our sights to 2006 let's all congratulate Scott Boyer, 2005's FOSSILS of the year award winner. This year we had the best turn out we have had for the Christmas party for a long time, and thanks to all the cool raffle items the raffle almost paid the whole bill this year. Jumping ahead to January let's all get funked up for the Pungent and Funky appetizer competition. I am planning on having an entry; and I hope all of you are, as well. See Beth's article elsewhere in this issue for all the Pungent facts! UPCOMING MEETINGS: In February we are planning our meeting to be off sight at the BBC Tap Room on Clay and Main St. (More info to follow soon on this). In March we are planning to showcase the beers of the newly updated NABC brewery. April will be the magical mystery brew competition, and May will bring us the annual Brewerania sale and President’s Choice competition (This year I'm thinking British mild ale!). Well That's All For Now Folks.... Cheers, Dave Howard FOSSILS Items and News for January Happy New Year FOSSILS!!! Here’s to health, happiness and prosperity to us all in 2006. Before we move on to new business and new items let us take a moment to pause and reflect on last year, or at least our last FOSSILS event: the annual Holiday party. Firstly, big thanks to the Capshews for hosting the holiday happening again this year. Their hospitality was appreciated and heart-warming. Also a HUGE “Thanks” to Brad “The Meat Man” Maddox for his expertise and hard-work manning that big smoker and putting out the meat for this year’s party. It was yummy. Scott Boyer, our hard-working Internet scribe, webmaster, and real-life Teddy Ruxpin, deservedly won our FOSSILS of the Year award. Thank him, congratulate him, and give him a cigar next time you see him, cause he’ll also be a new daddy by then. Thanks to everyone for coming out. It was a packed house, we had a lot of raffle items, and lots of participation enabling us to put a little money in the plus column even after paying for the food and Brad’s time. Now on to 2006: First official FOSSILS meeting is this Sunday “SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY” the 8th at RichO’s “We’ll sell you the whole seat, but you’ll only need the edge” for Funky and Pungent 2006. Time to bring out your beef parts, pig parts, bird, amphibian, reptile, heck, any kinda’ parts (after all parts is parts) to impress our judges and members with your funkiest, stinkiest, spiciest, weirdest, strangest, most pungent, off the wall, yet, most delectable dishes. Don’t miss it. Your madam secretary is looking up recipes for cow udders and spam shakes as this goes to press, so be prepared. You may want to bring some Rolaids or Pepto too. We will have judges in four different categories and some great prizes. More information is forthcoming from our First Lady, Beth Howard, in this edition. Resolve not to miss! Also January is officially the time to renew all FOSSILS memberships so please bring your membership dues for the new year. As always, bring raffle items and money to purchase many tickets for said raffle items. Without the raffle, it would be hard to operate this dog and pony show. Upcoming events: In February, we will be meeting at the BBC Clay and Main. March’s meeting will feature NABC brewer Jessie Williams at NABC. We’ll see you there. Goodbye, goodnight, and thank you for your support. Your Honorable (don’t snicker!) Madam Secretary, Michelle Kennedy Wycoff Annual Pungent & Funky Appetizer Contest: In the January FOSSILS meeting we will be hosting our annual Pungent & Funky Appetizer Contest Sunday, January 8 at RichO’s. Trek into the culinary abyss with the ever-creative and courageous members of FOSSILS as we bravely voyage beyond customary hors d'oeuvres... far, far beyond the world of mozzarella sticks and potato skins. Entries should embody the spirit of pungency and funkiness in which this contest was fashioned by the founding members of FOSSILS nearly 15 years ago, yet be edible (by most, anyway). Interesting presentation may net additional points. Awards will be presented in four categories: • Most Pungent • Funkiest • Brew Food (pungent, funky & beer as an integral ingredient) • Best of Show We're anxiously awaiting confirmation from this year's panel of guest judges - judging will begin promptly at 6:30 PM, so please sign in with your entry/entries before then. Do you have questions about the Pungent & Funky contest? Contact Beth Howard at beersnobs@msn.com or (502) 541-1984. First Lady, Beth Howard Our president, Dave Howard, will introduce me as the new treasurer at the January FOSSILS meeting, and I will be prepared to collect dues for the New Year. Please try to take care of your dues payment at this meeting. The amount is still only $18. For anyone who cannot attend, you may send payment to me. Denny Stapp FOSSILS treasurer 7037 Haynes Rd. Georgetown, IN 47122 Just a reminder of what a great bargain it is, your membership entitles you to attend the meetings, vote on club issues, participate in the raffles, bring a guest, compete in the brew and food competitions, and enjoy complimentary beer. I hope to see many of you there! Thank you, Denny Pizza Box Wisdom and The Little Purple Fuzzy Book - Beth Howard, apparently FOSSILS’ unofficial historian It all started with The Donner Party. No, not the ill-fated group of emigrants crossing the Sierras in the 1840’s, but a moniker adopted by a group of us gathering at RichO’s on occasional Friday or Saturday evenings and reserving the “big table” by the front bar at 7:30 p.m. The legend goes something like this… As The Donner Party’s leftover pizzas and sandwiches (now there’s some irony) would make their way into to-go boxes, we’d mark them with the name of the person to whom they belonged. After a while, it seemed only natural to expound upon the simple name adorning the box. Thus began the custom of decorating these containers with a customized selection of descriptive phrases, random doodles, overheard one-liners and witty quotes from various Donner Party members and guests. We’ve all done it – heard or said something either so amazingly profound or freakin’ hysterical that you swear you’ll never forget it, only to realize that it’s gotten lost in the laughter or that your memory’s dimmed after tipping the last pint of the evening. Collecting these gems of insight and hilarity by inscribing them on to-go boxes assures that The Donner Party’s collection of witticisms – appropriately dubbed “Pizza Box Wisdom” – will be preserved for future generations. Now for a while, it was rumored that Ben Tash (Ed & Kira’s son) stashed these boxes away under his bed as fodder for his memoirs entitled, “All I Ever Needed to Know in Life I Learned From The Donner Party at RichO’s.” God, I hope not. But if he did and Cameron Crowe makes Ben’s book into a movie, I want to pick who plays me and have a hand in the soundtrack. Over the years, media for collecting Pizza Box Wisdom diversified to include coasters, margins of the most recent edition of LEO, Palm Pilots and, most famously, my Little Purple Fuzzy Book. I kid you not – it really is a tiny notebook covered in purple faux fur, on a key chain, no less. Seldom do I arrive at RichO’s or a FOSSILS event without the Little Purple Fuzzy Book and a pen, because you just never know when inspiration may strike. For example, see if you can remember or guess the origins of these clever remarks: “La Chouffe…La Chouffe…La Chouffe is on fire!” “Being married has nothing to do with what you really like.” “You guys have a higher level of alcoholic knowledge.” “The last time I went to a fraternity party, I ended up on crutches.” Find out who said what (and in some cases when, where and why) – plus more Pizza Box Wisdom and Purple Fuzzy Book entries – in future editions of the FOSSILS newsletter. Hurricane Relief Raffle As we did with the 911 tragedy, FOSSILS decided to donate an entire raffle to the hurricane relief fund. The raffle was held during the October meeting & raised $370. Your generosity was greatly appreciated. Here is the thank you that we received from the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. If you would like to contribute again or if you didn’t get a chance to participate in the fundraiser raffle, here are a few links to assist you: http://store.yahoo.com/redcross-donate3/ http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org/ As some of you already know Rich O's and the BBC Tap Room have sold pints of Abita Gold and Abita Purple Haze to raise money for The American Red Cross. At this time Abita Brewing Co is New Orleans' largest craft brewery with distribution across the country. Their web site is http://www.abita.com/. On it they are selling items who's profits go to disaster relief. FOSSILS dues are $18 a year for an individual, with the privilege of bringing a guest to meetings. The dues-paying individual only is considered to be an active member for the purpose of voting in elections and other member benefits (sale-priced t-shirts, for example). Dues are $18 a year for a family: you and your husband/wife/significant other. Both designated adults are considered to be active members for the purpose of voting and other member benefits. Make sure your dues are current. The End.
No comments:
Post a Comment