Craftworks Jirisan Moon Bear IPA . . .

At Craftworks

As far as I'm concerned, the Jirisan Moon Bear India Pale Ale, dry and hoppy like an IPA should be, is the best brew that Craftworks has on tap, and therefore one of the finest Korean-made brews!

I'm looking so happy -- yeah, that's a smile -- because I arrived at 4, expecting the usual, already low prices for drinks, only to be pleasantly surprised by half prices for Happy Hour! In fact, two hours of Happy Hour!! Extra nice surprise, so I was doubly happy. I drank alone and read the International Herald Tribune for over an hour, having arrived in time for that.

After a pint each of the other two Happy Hour brews, I stuck with the IPA and talked for a long while with my friend 'Sperwer', who arrived a bit after 5 and snapped this shot above by way of expressing agreement with me about the IPA, adding, because he knew that I'd be blogging this:

"You just might want to note my opinion that the Moon Bear is their best."

After that concurrence, we talked about all the Marmot's Hole folks who didn't show up. That took about five whole minutes . . . since we had a lot to say! I'd report on that, but I seem to have forgotten the very important details.

More memorable was Sperwer's anecdote about meeting an orangutan that was accompanying a park ranger along a path in Indonesia (I think). Sperwer was walking with his wife and daughter when the encounter occurred. The orangutan glanced at them, then at the ranger, then shrugged, and stepped over to shake Sperwer's hand, afterwards touching his daughter's cheek, as though to say, "Lovely child," before sauntering on. Sperwer was flabbergasted and said that this was far and away the most intelligent animal he'd ever met.

I felt insulted.

But I hid my hurt feelings and told him of an anecdote from a talk that I'd heard about orangutans while I was doing postdoctoral work in Australia:

"Give a gorilla a screwdriver, and he'll use it to scratch himself," the primatologist said. "Give it to a chimpanzee, and he'll throw it at you. But give it to an orangutan, and he'll use it to get out of his cage."

Sperwer nodded at that. We drank a bit more, then left around 8, our thirst quenched by the brews and our hunger sated by the food.

Life goes on, dear Marmot Hole folks, with or without you . . .