Silflay Hraka

A Fed weighs in on the Bonner Bridge replacement.

The U.S. interior secretary says he supports building a bridge over the Oregon Inlet parallel to the existing span and deciding the issue of rerouting the connecting highway later.

“I believe the best way to proceed would be to separate the replacement of the Bonner Bridge, a project whose delay could constitute a clear and present safety issue for all concerned, from the more difficult and less urgent issue of the realignment of the road,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne wrote in a July 5 letter to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and Gov. Mike Easley.

Lindeman’s Peche Lambic

Last night, we did make the effort. Then we pulled out our “beer of the week” and cursed ourselves, because we needed a corkscrew for the damn bottle. Such is the case when drinking a Lindemans lambic.

Lambics are great for any season. The history of lambics goes back 500 years, to the Belgian working class. Like Chicagoist, they also sometimes craved a beer without all the work. Lambics are brewed using a process called “spontaneous fermentation”. Back in the day, after the wort (the extract produced from malted barley) was cooled to ambient temperature, it was exposed to the open air and the yeasts that were floating in the atmosphere. This gives lambic its dry flavor and sour aftertaste. Then a faerie rode into town on a unicorn and sprinkled faerie dust over the beer, to aid in the fermentation, and protect those who sipped from the cask from the evil, marauding Gauls.

Government mandated changes may force the addition of hither-to unknown ingredients to beer labels.

Proposed government rules unveiled Wednesday would require the labels on alcoholic beverages to list fish and any other common allergens included among their ingredients.

However, the rules also apply to ingredients that contain proteins derived from the list of allergens, which are more commonly used. Fish protein, for instance, is often used to clarify wine or beer before bottling.

I bet Natural Light is one of those with fish in it. Not because I have evidence one way or the other, but rather because it would be a lovely ironic twist, given that the person I know who consumes the most of it won’t eat fish.