We're up for an award
Plus a note on a Founding Father.
What’s this? Two newsletters in a day? Something big must have happened.
No, not that. I’ll leave that to the political experts to pick over between now and inauguration day.
This is, as LinkedIn would put it, “some personal news”.
The shortlist for the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards came out this morning. And I’m on it!
I’m up for Best Citizen Beer Communicator for my work with Edinburgh Pub Reviews over the past year.
Here are the other nominees in the category:
Beer Fridge Podcast
Tori Powell (Joanne Love)
Jessamy Queree
Tom Smith
The category is for people who talk about beer in a non-professional capacity. All of us on that shortlist don’t write (or podcast) about it because someone’s asked us to, or given us money to. It’s but because we want to. It’s done on top of a normal job, out of passion and a love of beer and pubs.
As I wrote in my recent look back at the past year, Edinburgh makes it very easy to get passionate about pubs:
My list for future reviews is more than 60 entries long. A testament, I think, to the staggering choice in this magnificent, wonderful, glorious city, and to the pubs and people in it.
The awards will take place in London on 27 November, and if you’re interested you can find a full list of categories and nominees on the British Guild of Beer Writers website.
The chaser – The honest man is king of men
The Best Citizen Beer Communicator category is sponsored by Harvey’s Tom Paine beer. I’ve not tried it, so this is no endorsement of the beer, but it does give me an opportunity to make some links between the real Tom Paine and Edinburgh. I’ll take any excuse to crowbar a bit of history into the newsletter. And today of all days, it’s worth talking about one of America’s Founding Fathers.
Thomas Paine was born in England, but his radical ideas took him over the Atlantic in 1774. His ideas influenced not only the American Revolution, but also the French Revolution later on.
Meanwhile in Scotland, Enlightenment thinkers – we’re talking David Hume, Adam Smith and their mates who hung out in the Edinburgh taverns discussing big ideas over Claret and brandy – looked on with interest. It was a two-way exchange of ideas. Some of the key American revolutionaries had spent time in Edinburgh, and were undoubtedly influenced by Scottish Enlightenment ideals: Reason, rationalism, improvement, progress and equality.
On the whole, the Scottish Enlightenment thinkers were not as radical as Tom Paine. But we know the Founding Fathers had ongoing dialogues with the Scots, in particular Benjamin Franklin and Hume, who got on famously and became frequent pen pals.
Rabbie Burns reflected Paine’s book The Rights of Man in his 1795 song A Man's A Man For A' That. It became an anthem of the dignity of the people, a prayer that honesty, truth and sense are the true measures of a man’s worth.
What though on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, an’ a that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;
A Man’s a Man for a’ that:
For a’ that, and a’ that,
Their tinsel show, an’ a’ that;
The honest man, tho’ e’er sae poor,
Is king o’ men for a’ that.
I’ll continue to supply you with new reviews for free, as long as you’re a subscriber. Though if you wanted to leave me a wee tip, you can do by hitting the button below.
Well deserved