Stunt beer and stunt politics

Putting fire in my belly: Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner. Jim Cook's beers, and more importantly, his fantastic marketing (those hops commercials are brilliant), have helped the cause of craft brewing. I've of late come home to the pilsner style, and I've been a hop head for a long time, so I really wanted to like Cook's tribute to Hallertau hops. Unfortunately, lacking a solid malt backbone the beer just overwhelms with hops to the point of astringency. Noble hops taste is all but lost.

And, man, here's some pork for you. We are in a economic downturn, and Oak Park is bringing up a pork barrel project that doesn't seem to die. I live close to the expressway, and would love to have less noise and air pollution around my house. And, I would think that adding greenery--both around the road and perhaps as overpasses filled with air-cleaning plants--might be worth the money. But capping the road seems like a colossal waste of resources. First, the construction would slow the already brutal traffic, and cause even more pollution and delays. Second, not only a road, but El train and freight train traffic runs through the corridor. It would seem that making the road into a tunnel would make work on any of these an expensive proposition. Finally, and most importantly, we just happen to be the richest neighborhood that the sunken expressway cuts through, so this extremely local project that benefits only a few would be effectively taking money from the poorer communities. If the Oak Park aging, affluent hippies really wanted to something for the environment, they should instead lobby for better public tranist, road improvement (more efficient traffic pollutes less), and clean energy.