A pup named "Too Much"?!?

   A couple months ago LEGO released their Scooby-doo line of LEGO sets. I always enjoyed watching the re-runs of the TV show when I was a "little". (I was going to say "kid", but lets be serious... I still am a kid.) I have always know that Scooby is one of Victoria's favorites, so it was a no brainer to pick up the Mummy Museum Mystery set for her. Then of course because the Mystery Plane Adventures has the Headless Horseman, I knew I need to get her that set. What would Scooby-doo be without the inclusion of The Mystery Machine, so that set was next. Now we have Scooby, Shaggy and Fred. Can't leave the gang incomplete, so the Mystery Mansion was acquired to complete the gang with Daphne and Velma.

   With this trip started down memory lane to our childhood, the logical step would be for us to go back and watch the TV episodes. I *cough,cough* acquired copies of the original three seasons of "Scooby-doo, where are you?". The last week or so, every couple of nights, we have plopped down in front of the TV and watch a couple episodes... or five. The animation is of course dated, but we have learned long ago that it never looks as good, as it does in your head, remembering the first time you watched it. The plots can be silly and repetitive at times, but some of the jokes still work and dog-gone-it they are just fun to watch.

   Watching the episodes, we have noticed where LEGO took inspiration from the show to create the LEGO sets. At this point I have also picked up, and started playing, the LEGO Dimensions video game, which has a Scooby-doo level that you play through. Again you could see the inspiration from the show through the whole level and the the subsequent world level you unlock when you pick up the Team Pack: Scooby-doo. (Do I even need to explain? Who doesn't want to run around a haunted island as a LEGo Scooby-doo?)

   So here we are picking up LEGO sets, watching old episodes of the TV show, getting to play as Scooby in a video game and reliving the fun of Scooby and the gang. Then we notice the number of episodes in season one is only 17 episodes, the second season is only 8 and the third is 9. What?!? That seems odd. Why such short seasons? Time to hit google and find the Wiki about the show. Which turns into a rabbit hole of information that you never knew. The gang is basically the main characters from "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"? (That makes "Shaggy" the Maynard Krebs character played by Bob Denver who also played Gilligan on Gilligan's Island, that the kids meet in an episode of "The New Scooby-Doo Movies"(circa 1972). Wrap your brain around that!)  The gang was supposed to be a band called "The Mysterious Five" that solved mysteries when they weren't playing gigs? Wait, five? There was supposed to be a fifth gang member named Mike? Scooby was supposed to be a sheep-dog named "Too Much"? Zoinks! And to think we owe it all to a CBS studio exec who was inspired by Frank Sinatra's scat "doo-be-doo-be-doo" at the end of his recording of "Strangers in the Night". Otherwise we would be singing "Too Much, where are you?". Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Oh, and one more thing... Shaggy's full name is Norville "Shaggy" Rogers. 

"Not every beer is for everyone, but for everyone there is a beer." - Dana Knudson

I am a self proclaimed and and peer validated “beer geek”, or as others will call me “beer snob”.  I started drinking as most 40 somethings in the U.S., with light lagers and wine coolers. (Don’t deny it you drank them too!) Post college, when I had money to spend on “good” beer, I slowly expanded my horizons to some imports and the few craft beers I would come across. Up to this point I wasn't really into the hoppy beers, as I later understood them as India Pale Ales, or IPAs. However as with any one who drinks coffee will understand, typically you don't start drinking your coffee black. You kill the bitter with cream & sugar and as you become more adjusted to the flavor you eventually can get to a point when you drink it black. I feel the same holds true for hoppy beers. The more you become accustomed to the bitter, over time, the more hoppy you want your beers. But like with coffee, some people just enjoy their caramel white chocolate macchiato, and that's cool too.

I really started to come into bloom as a beer geek, when I started to brew my own beer. I eventually started to enter my beers into homebrew competitions and started judging beers in said homebrew competitions. At this point I wished I had payed more attention in biology and chemistry classes in school. I started to look at beer in a whole new way and began to appreciate the subtle nuances in crafting a good beer. The malts, the yeast, the hops all blended to create a variety of styles. For me, as with many, the IPA stood out as a favorite over time.

Sometime I get people who will ask me, “What kind of beer should I drink?”. I look at this in the same way as someone asking me, “What kind of person should I marry?”. How should I know? Do they like blondes or brunettes? Short hair or long hair? Tall or short? Skins color, intelligence, sense of humor? What does someone look for in a mate? There are just as many questions to ask when choosing a style beer that one enjoys. The same way I feel that someone should date several people before deciding on a mate, the same can be said for choosing the style of beer that suits your tastes.

What started this thought thread, was an article about the top IPAs in the country. The list of beers hand MANY that I have tasted and many more that I hope to one day taste. What got me was the comments that were posted. There were many negative comments about the tasters who judged and subsequently ranked the beers. As a beer judge I can say that every time I have judged beers I was surprised by the results. I found that I was able to appreciate beers for their style and quality, but they were not beers I would ever consider drinking. They may hit all the qualifications for a perfect example of a style that I enjoy and I still would prefer a different beer in that style, over that well crafted beer. Even when given a criteria in which to judge a beer we still all have our preferences to what we enjoy. You could almost say that the “flavor is in the mouth of the drinker”. So before you stand back and criticize someone for what beer they drink or rate over another, just remember my motto: “Not every beer is for everyone, but for everyone there is a beer”.