The Magical Power Of Beer

It's long been known to brewing aficionados that beer boosts intelligence. Unfortunately, it does so by inducing an idiot-savant condition in it's users- after a liberal dosage most of what beer drinkers think and say is idiotic, if not entertaining, but occasionally a bolt of brilliance shoots out from the fog of drunkeness. Such was the case tonight during a discussion of why Upstate, and the Utica-Rome area in particular, is in such dire straits.

After much talk of demographics, regressive taxation, self-selection of an incompetent political class, and lots of other stuff, including an impressive array of statistics that sounded extremely convincing while we were under the influence, our little group's token neo-hippie boiled it all down to it's essence:

"You know what happened to Upstate? Atlas shrugged, dudes. Atlas. F***ing. Shrugged. And moved to South Carolina."

It's something so obvious in retrospect that it's amazing it took a self-described stoner hippie freak to point it out. Even more shocking is that he had the patience to slog through the damn book in the first place. For both achievements he drank free the rest of the night.

Update: If you haven't read "Atlas Shrugged" you really should. Or at least rent "The Incredibles", which has a similar message and is far more entertaining.