The point is, people are giving up tap water for bottle water, which probably has nothing to do with how often people drink beer (or, more importantly, how often they drink beer with other people. this is to say nothing of the fact that bottled water is also replacing tap water in social environments like restaurants).

1. People have been terrorized for a generation about toxins in drinking water. It’s bogus but people do believe it.

2. The chlorine we put in tap water to make it safe also makes it taste awful.

3. The myth that we are all seriously dehydrated has only recently been debunked. I suspect many people still believe it, particularly young women who drink vast quantities of bottled water as an aid to dieting.

3. The Mothers Against Drunken Driving crusade against tipplers has banished the joy of going out for a drink in many areas of the country. I suggest you start “Mothers against Perrier”immediately! But seriously,the draconian crackdown of DUI enforcement has gone beyond all reason and, like the War on Drugs, is used by the authorities as a revenue source.

On a positive note, is the growth of local micro-breweries, and brew pubs. Craft brewing is reviving a great tradition and does encourage Localism.

Smoke, newspapers and spiritous liquors in decline……no wonder the economy is beginning to look like a Nevada Playa without the recreational chalets at yon end of valley. Perhaps the general obliteration of inhibitions in this congenitally amateur culture where sybaritic rites involve television, makes beer only good for hangovers.

I shall have the afternoon cheroot in honor of your August Good Sense Ms. McWilliams, before lighting the bonfire in our annual pagan ritual of burning of the Christmas Tree on the First Weekend after March 20. If only somebody had some Spruce Bud Ale now, we would attempt to pervert the general trends.

Methinks this all became way to precious a long time ago. Sorry, Anchor Steam. Gimme a Miller Lite.

But where was the obligatory Chesterton reference?