Category Archives: Drinking

Paffgen Brewery

Last evening I dined at Paffgen Brauerei, the last family brewery in Cologne. The beer served at this establishment is called “Kölsch” once the most popular beverage in the city. Once a dark beer, the draught’s color was changed to resemble a pilsner. It is still served from the keg at Paffgen and I ordered […]

Live Long and Prosper In Iowa

Wilbur Harrison had a hit with KANSAS CITY. My schoolmate, Joe Fielder, traveled to the Paris of the Plains in 1965. The police caught him in St. Louis. He escaped through the bathroom window. The 14 year-old reached KC the next day. He ordered a steak and then rode a Greyhound to the South Shore […]

ROUGH ROAD by Peter Nolan Smith

Peru sucked in 1995. The capitol city Lima sucked even more. I had spent the better part of two days trying to score a bag of cocaine. The airport police had fingered me as a user. They weren’t wrong. An undercover squad had tailed my ventures into the slums. Their obvious presence had scared off […]

LOVE Charles Bukowski

The Death of Cars

The population of the world was well under a million in the 17th Century. A horse was the fastest means of travel. China was the most populous nation. The Celestial Kingdom was ruled by the Qing Dynasty. Europeans sought favor with the Manchu court and a Flemish Jesuit supposedly presented the Chinese Emperor with a […]