Threat of Attention – The Beer
November 8, 2012
Some of you may remember that my friend Gordon named a home-brewed beer in honor of Alice when he first heard the hooch story. Photos of Gordon’s visit to Alice along with bottles of Alice’s Gumption appeared in Cheers.
Label
Recently, Gordon read the blog post about Alice’s transformation into a rising star at The Place with the publication of the stories she’s been writing for the monthly newsletter. (See Rebirth of a Writer.)
He took note of this paragraph about the onslaught of comments and compliments she was getting about her writing:
Linnea, her new dining room partner, came to lunch eager to say how much she’d loved (the story) and suggested that Alice put all her stories together in a book. “Then you’ll have them right there any time you want to look at them.”
“Why would I do that?” Alice asked her. “I already know them. I wrote them.”
Linnea shook her head. “Don’t you see how they’ll add up?”
“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be writing any more stories,” Alice said modestly. Here was the encouraging response she’d been hoping for from her writing, but she rushed to play it down. A solid Midwesterner is ever alert to the threat of attention. Should it appear, she must try to deflect it immediately, even if she’s been seeking it. God forbid somebody should turn around and look at you as if you might be good for anything beyond providing a helping hand.
And lo, from Gordon:
Pennington Brewing: Threat of Attention
Pennington Brewing label.
On Thanksgiving Alice and I will toast to Midwestern modesty with this fine coffee stout. Thank you once again, Gordon! Alice will be thrilled when she sees this.
More of Gordon’s original beer labels:
And one of my favorites for the coming season:
Pennington Brewing – Fruit Cake Beer
A side note: Gordon and I met several years ago when I started working at a job at which I knew not what I was reading (and supposedly editing), and Gordon wrote some of it. I still don’t know what it was I was reading, but it just goes to show that you can meet the best of people in the most unlikely of places and get paid for it to boot. He is a major contributor to this blog’s FAQ page, which started long ago in those cubicles with e-mails shooting back and forth. This made the confusing days in front of the confusing texts that apparently needed a confused editor simply fly by.
How do you make beer anyway? Well, here you go:
To all of us – Cheers!
November 8, 2012 at 11:58 am
I don’t even drink beer and I would try Threat of Attention – cheers! (Or, as we Scandahoovians might say, ‘Skoal!”)
November 8, 2012 at 12:07 pm
Your friend, Gordon, is amazingly talented. I’m still laughing.
November 8, 2012 at 12:40 pm
Love the beer story and how famous Alice is becoming
November 8, 2012 at 12:51 pm
Is the phrase “we met several years ago” considered rounding up or rounding down? Regardless of how many years it really has been, they’ve all been a pleasure!
November 8, 2012 at 5:06 pm
I LOVE Gordon’s beer names and labels!!! And so happy you two met so that he could be included in this blog – otherwise I’d never have known about his humor and good sense at honoring you and Alice with his products!! Yay!!!!
November 9, 2012 at 6:47 pm
I’ve always felt that beer and wine labels offered amazing canvasses, and as an artist myself, I’ve always wanted to design one. But Gordon is a master! I am smiling clear down to my toenails. And thirsty, too.
November 10, 2012 at 2:32 pm
“A solid Midwesterner is ever alert to the threat of attention.” How well you’ve captured the essence of a culture, Andrea. Brilliant.
And can we buy this fabulous beer? I love every one of those labels.
November 11, 2012 at 7:13 am
Okay, several things here. One, I want to meet Gordon. Two, I want to try some of his beer. Three, who does his fabulous labels? Four, this is possibly my favorite of your blog posts although that is difficult to determine. Five, Alice is a rock star! Six, rounding up or rounding down might need to be a beer. Seven, White House beer? Who knew! How did you find this? Eight, I love Obama more now. Nine, I love you more now, too, but that is always the case. Ten – let’s have a birthday party for you this year that includes a beer tasting!