Three Beautiful Things 09/11/17: Short Rockland County Beer Tour, Grilled Pizzas, Writing about Shakespeare AND A Wedding Photo

1. After a morning of lounging around, the Deke and I headed out to the Ambulance Brew House, a handsome, cozy taproom in Nanuet. I enjoyed a 12 oz pour of an IPA from Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont and I can't remember the name of it. It was an earthy, hazy, complex beer, sort of epitomizing just what I'll miss when we leave the East Coast. The Deke and I also ordered a delicious cheese and meat plate that offered us a variety of tastes: heat in the cheeses, salty goodness in the cured meats, and sweetness in the orange marmalade and raisins, along with the more neutral flavors of the crackers and nuts.

After one beer, we ventured over to Defiant Brewing in Pearl River. We each ordered a Fake News IPA and it was an odd and satisfying beer. It was, to me, a hybrid beer, combining the strength of an IPA with the taste of pilsner or Helles lager. I sat at the bar and texted back and forth with Stu about 1970s basketball in Kellogg, CdA, and Spokane -- he is also diving into the archives -- while the Deke visited one of her favorite yarn stores, The Stitchery.  The Deke returned, finished her beer, and we returned to Adrienne's after a relaxing afternoon in Rockland County, NY.

2.  Soon after we returned to Adrienne's apartment, I head back to Nanuet to shop at Fairway for some pizza ingredients: meats, a goat cheese log, tomatoes, and pesto along with picking up some bagels, lox, and a four pack of Dirt Wolf Double IPA.  I brought it home and Adrienne, Jack, the Deke, and I each built a pizza on an individual size round of naan bread and Adrienne grilled each pizza. Adrienne also made a killer chickpea, cucumber, and feta cheese salad, a perfect compliment to the pizza.

3. I paid tribute to the time Scott Shirk and I spent drinking Dirt Wolf in the Blind Tiger in the West Village by cracking one open this evening a writing Scott an email that continued our discussion of Shakespeare. I tried to explain what I see going on in the very dissonant tones and the deeply troubling subject matter of two of Shakespeare's comedies, The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure -- and wondered if, in these plays, Shakespeare was working out critiques of the genre of comedy, work that might have led him to write the kinds of comedies (or tragicomedies or romances) that concluded his career, namely The Winter's Tale and The Tempest.

I really don't know, but it sure is fun to think and write about these things outside of academic life, not as a teacher or a student.  I've really retired.

*****

Julie and Curtis Rockwell are beginning to make some of their wedding pictures public, and here is one of my favorites, taken after the ceremony, of Curtis, Julie, and me.