Pic(k) of the Week: Farewell, 44.

White House photographer Pete Souza poignantly posed this image of the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama, gazing at the Chicago, Illinois, skyline, as the conclusion of Obama's second presidential term was drawing near.

Wistfully, I and many Americans thank the Obamas for their eight years of White House service to our nation, and wish them a hale and hearty future.

And, you know, '44' —President Obama— is the nation's first President, since George Washington, to brew beer. He is the only President ever to do so at the White House —our first Brewer-In-Chief.

His successor-to-be will not. '45' is a lifelong teetotaller.

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• The photo of the Obamas is displayed here with all rights reserved. I've reposted it with explicit permission from the IIP Photo Archive.
• Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of complete personal abstinence from alcoholic beverages.

  A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler. The word teetotaler has nothing to do with tea. More likely, the "tee" that begins the word teetotal is a reduplication of the letter "t" that begins total, emphasizing that one has pledged total abstinence. In the early 1800s, ''tee-total'' and ''tee-totally'' were used to intensify ''total'' and ''totally'' much the way we now might say, ''I'm tired with a capital T.'' Teetotal and teetotaler first appeared with their current meanings in 1834, eight years after the formation of the American Temperance Society.

  —Merriam-Webster


• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of photos usually taken by me (although not today), posted on Saturdays, and often, but not always (as is the case today), with a good fermentable as the subject.
• Commercial reproduction requires explicit permission, as per Creative Commons.
• This is the first Pic(k) of the Week for 2017. See a retrospective of the fifty-two images from 2016: here.


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