Stay Current (Day 31)

A selection of current newspapers (Post-Dispatch to arrive soon as well), The New Yorker, The Economist and Beer Advocate will be available every day at the pub.

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Every good pub should have a couple things.  First of all, it should have good beer.  Second, it should have good beer. Third, it should have good beer.  4th It should have things to read in case you end up strolling in and while you are drinking beer you feel the need enlighten your mind as much as you are enlightening your liver.

There are already a few regulars who routinely show up with something to read.  Over time, I expect and hope this Civil action continues to grow.  If I am venturing into a bar by my lonesome I often do the same thing.  I’ll show up with a copy of a book I am reading and set it on the bar.  I’ll read as I eat and in between chats with the bartender or patrons.  Sometimes it provides a nice segue into a conversation and most of the time, if you find the right conversationalist that is all you need.  

I have always thought the best pubs are the pubs in which you can just show up by yourself or with others...it shouldn’t much matter.  Here, you will always know or at least recognize someone behind the bar and that should give you the comfort you need to come by whenever the mood strikes, whether or not you can find a comrade in drinking.  We have kind likable chaps working behind the bar and if the business grows we can hire more.  Back in the year 2009 when I was doing my drinkabout, I would wander into a pub daily for eats, for a drink and a little field research.  Pubs are grand places to meet people and when they are run well they are the most accepting places on earth.  We are constantly striving here at the Civil Life to improve upon what we are doing, to make our space more inviting and more comfortable for everyone except jackasses. Pardon my english. 

Reading in a bar also shows fellow patrons that you are a regular patron of a drinking establishment.  For bartenders, it is a sign that you are content with our place and also most likely a regular at either our place or a slew of places.  It shows that instead of feeding sitcoms and flashing lights into your brain you have chosen the time honored tradition of deciphering choice letters formed into words and then crafted into sentences that gradually culminate into a story.  This process is called reading and comprehension.  You are doing it right now...good on you.  

So come on down to the pub.  Have a pint.  Read something about the crazy world we live in.  Discuss it with someone.  Repeat as necessary. 

Cheers!