RIP Michael Jackson

Dear readers,

As you toast the late lamented Michael Jackson, off and on, over the ensuing weeks and months and years, here's my favorite little interview for you to keep in mind:

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-001403.html

I think we can all see ourselves, for a moment, in the pro's and con's of being a professional beer writer, even if his commitment thereto is something to which we can only amateurishly aspire. As a kind of professional writer myself, I might say that Mr. Jackson, in addition to being a beer expert, a whiskey expert, and a bon vivant, was an under-rated writer. He wrote with a wonderful, very British reserve: elegant but not flashy; occasionally emotive but never sloppy; concise without being spare; witty without being ostentatiously clever. Everyone who appreciates the quality of beer available here (wherever that is) and now owes him a debt of gratitude.

Cheers,

JD