Beer and a car-free diet

There was a a "car-free diet" booth Saturday at the Mid-Atlantic Oktoberfest.

Set up by the County of Arlington, the program has a companion website at www.CommuterPage.com. Subtitled "Transportation options for the Washington, DC area", it's a trove of public transportation schedules, maps, links, 'how-to advice', and other resources.

I'm a beer and wine salesman. I transport beer and wine and kegs. Thus, I may not be able to go 100% car-free at work. But a side-consequence of my recent job change should be the reduction of my annual car mileage by 2/3. At the least, that's a start.

There's another way to be kind to Mother Earth.

Drink beer, be it local, sustainable, or organic!

Award-winning author and local businessman Chris O'Brien has written the book on that topic —literally. On Wednesday, 15 October (5-7 pm), Chris will be at Busboys and Poets @Shirlington in Arlington, Va. to present a short lecture on organic beer and to sign copies of his book — Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World.

Representatives from Clipper City Brewing of Baltimore, Md. and Wolaver's of Middlebury, Vt. will be on hand as well to discuss their respective breweries' organic beers. The beers will be priced 'Happy Hour'.

There's more information at Beer Activist.

[UPDATE 2008.10.15: Photos here.]

In the spirit of Vegan Mofo —Vegan Month of Food— I'll add that beer is a wonderful foodstuff. And, except for some cask-conditioned ales, it's vegan.