+1 On Nov 19, 2011, at 7:44 AM, J Cruit wrote: > I'll bring my kids, mandolin, and friendliness to Keegans anytime. > Let's just say there is hanging out with people drinking to get drunk > and then there is hanging out with folks just having a beer. Big > difference. > > In any case I think the point is we simply need to change the name > from beer meeting to "Drink whatever you like but I'm going to have a > beer meeting" > > On 11/19/11, Yaron <tclug at freakzilla.com> wrote: >> On Fri, 18 Nov 2011, Ryan Coleman wrote: >> >>> Bars are not pubs. >> ... >>> And you don't have to drink beer. My roommate who is 17 years sober >>> comes down with me on a regular basis. >> >> A few years ago I spent a couple weeks in Ireland. Most of that time was >> spent being intentionally lost, in small village kind of situations. When >> asked where one might find some food, the ONLY answer was "Down the pub". >> Ok, occasionally the answer included "We have two restaurants but they're >> only open between May and October". And don't get me started on the answer >> to "Any place I can get WiFi around here?" >> >> My point is, I know what a pub is. I know how it differs from a "bar", >> which, granted, my sample-size for is very small. >> >> Now, I've been dragged to what were described as "Irish Pubs" in the twin >> cities. They are nothing at all like pubs in Ireland. For one thing, >> nobody was particularly friendly. Second, there were no children. There >> were also no people who brought their mandolins from home and were having >> a go and didn't mind letting a foreigner have a go even though he defiled >> their mandolin by playing guns'n'roses songs on it, but I digress. >> >> Pubs in Ireland have atmosphere. And frankly if I never go back to one of >> THOSE, I'm good. >> >> >> You say your roommate is 17 years sober? I've been sober for 37 years. As >> in, my entire life. I've never had a drink, and I've never wanted one. >> Drinkers (and ex-drinkers), you guys just don't realise that for some >> people, being around people who are drinking is just absolutely not fun. >> >> >> Now, to be clear, I am not trying to convert the TCLUG to the Twin Cities >> Teetotalers & Temperamce Users Group. I think it's great that the tclug >> has social gatherings and they should definitely continue to happen, and >> I'm sorry I went off on a rant on this. >> >> The only way I can even begin to describe the perspective I have on this >> is imagine you used a very uncommon operating system, and everyone else >> used Windows, and people would all get together and talk about Windows all >> day and you just couldn't understand why people were even doing that to >> themselves. >> >> That's what it's like for me to hang out with people who drink. >> >> >> -Yaron >> >> -- >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> /and yet I consider posting rants at 5am to be perfectly normal. >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list >> > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list