What I'll do for beer

There I was, last Monday evening, speaking on Clipper City's Winter Storm Imperial ESB, describing its flavors to the 125 people assembled at the Winter Beer Tasting at Hard Times Cafe in Bethesda, Maryland.

I like to use props — at the half-century mark, I'm not much of eye-candy myself — so I grabbed hold of a Heavy Seas metal sign, and held it aloft.

In full throttle, preaching on the beer, I was interrupted by an insistent young lady a few feet in front of me. "Do you know you're bleeding?", she asked. I had apparently sliced my finger on the sharp edge of the sign; there was a bright crimson stain quickly spreading on my white turtleneck sweater.

I clasped my hands tightly together to stanch the flow, and continued on. Darned if I wasn't going to give the folks their moneys' worth. The show must go on.

All is well now.

The Hard Times Cafe in Woodbridge Virginia hosts its Winter Beer Tasting on Monday, 17 December. I'll be there, bandaged, with a fresh cask of Winter Storm Imperial ESB.