Although I am a fair-weather sports fan, I love the Super Bowl. The drama and spectacle always grab me, even if the Steelers don’t happen to be in it. However, beyond the game itself, my devotion to the Super Bowl largely springs from the party my old college roomate and her husband throw every year. The party has been going on for more than a decade at this point, and the rules are simply:
- All beer must be domestic and in cans.
- Empty cans are to be hurled at the TV at Suitable Moments.
The same people show up year after year, and now that we’ve aged to the point of spawning, our roaming, unsupervised pack of offspring has taken up the latter item with gusto. Overheard while they were hunting for empty cans: “I wish the grown-ups would drink more.”
Anyways, this year was particularly festive, given the amazing first return, the fabulously sloppy ball during the downpour in the first half, the glow-in-the-dark Tron marching band during the half-time show, Manning’s quick perky dance that he squeezes between yelling at his squad and the snap, and the deep pleasure of the announcers soberly discussing the fine work of the Colts’ defensive tackle Booger McFarland.
And any event where I can dust off the crockpot and whip up mexican velveeta dip is all right by me.
February 5th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
What’s with the “domestic” beer imperative?
February 5th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
seriously, I wish you didn’t have to drink American beer.
February 5th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
I think it’s a purity thing, You don’t drink Budweiser at a fancy restaurant, and you don’t pound back Beaujolais Nouveau at the Super Bowl.
The quality is really limited by the can requirement, rather than the domestic requirement. Specialty brewers in the US make phenomenal beer. For example, at the most recent World Beer Cup, american breweries nearly swept the gold medals in “German Style” beer events (Categories 24-29, at the link). Take that, foreign beer snobs!
We just don’t export the good stuff.
February 5th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
This wouldn’t really be in the spirit of the thing, but Dale’s Pale Ale, from Oskar Blues brewery in Lyons, CO (a bit outside of Boulder) is actually a fantastic beer … that comes only in cans.
Not that it could hope to compete with High Life (aka, “the Champagne of Beers”), etc, but you should try it sometime.
February 5th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
I think Beaujolais Nouveau is rather equivalent to a can of PBR.
February 5th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
Actually, someone at the party moved heaven and earth to find some Dale’s Pale Ale! However, by the time I finished my Rainier tall-boy, they were all gone.
February 5th, 2007 at 10:06 pm
Strange, to demonstrate all those gourmet credentials one might have thought the Velveeta is a better target…
February 6th, 2007 at 1:05 am
And it is high-visibility orange.
Note that this joke may only make sense if you grew up in a region where school is cancelled on the first days of deer hunting season (buck and doe).
On the other hand, Velveeta may only make sense if you grew up in a region where school is cancelled on the first days of deer hunting season too.
February 6th, 2007 at 8:24 am
On the other hand, Velveeta may only make sense if you grew up in a region where school is cancelled on the first days of deer hunting season too.
I grew up in such a region*. Velveeta still does not make sense.
(*More precisely, I grew up very close to such a region … my school district remained open, but a few to the north in my part of PA would close.)
February 6th, 2007 at 10:07 am
I’m so old…I can remember when an empty beer can could put a serious ding in the wood cabinet of the telly….
February 6th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
lol, no intention to put down the american beers, just thought it’d be nice not HAVE TO drink american beers.
“Take that, foreign beer snobs!
We just don’t export the good stuff.”
how about drinking inside america? where do they put the good stuff?
on the other hand, remove world from “world beer cup” just as in “world football series”. no offense, yankees.
February 6th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
on second thought, Julianne was totally right, american only exports bad stuff to the world. that’s the right attitude.