From: Patrick Sobalvarro <pgs@ai.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 93 23:03:02 EDT
Message-Id: <9308130303.AA07980@august>
To: all-ai@ai.mit.edu
Subject: GSB, Friday the thirteenth of August, 5:30 p.m., 7th floor playroom

                               IN PRAISE OF ALE

Ale is rightly called Nappy for it will set a nap upon a mans threed bare eyes
when he is sleepy.  It is called Merry-goe-downe for it slides down merrily; It
is fragrant to the scent; It is most pleasing to the taste; The flowering and
mantling of it (like Chequer worke) with the Verdant smiling of it, is
delightful to the sight, it is Touching or Feeling to the Braine and Heart; and
(to please the senses all) it provokes men to singing and mirth, which is
contenting to the Hearing.  The speedy taking of it doth comfort a heavy and
troubled minde; it will make a weeping widow laugh and forget sorrow for her
deceased husband... It will set a Bashful suitor a-woing; It heates the chill
blood of the Aged; It will cause a man to speake past his owne, or any other
mans capacity, or understanding; It sets an edge upon Logick and Rhetorick; It
is a friend to the Muses... It mounts the Musitian 'bove Eccla; It makes the
Balladmaker Rime beyond Reason, It is a Repairer of a decaied Colour in the
face; It puts Eloquence into the Oratour; It will make the Philosopher talke
profoundly, the Scholler learnedly, and the Lawyer Acute and feelingly.  Ale at
Whitsontide, or a Whitson Church Ale, is a repairer of decayed Countrey
Churches; it is a great friend to Truth, for they that drinke of it (to the
purpose) will reveale all they know, be it never so secret to be kept; It is an
Embleme of Justice, for it allowes and yeelds measure; It will put Courage into
a Coward and make him swagger and fight; It is a seale to many a good Bargaine.
The Physitian will commend it; the Lawyer will defend it, It neither hurts, nor
kils, any but those that abuse it unmeasurably and beyond bearing; It doth good
to as many as take it rightly; It is as good as a paire of spectacles to cleare
the Eyesight of an old parish Clarke; And in Conclusion, it is such a nourisher
of Mankinde, that if my mouth were as bigge as Bishopgate, my Pen as long as a
Maypole, and my Inke a flowing spring, or a standing fishpond, yet I could not
with Mouth, Pen, or Inke, speak or write the true worth and worthiness of Ale.

        	        			JOHN TAYLOR (1580-1653)
	        	        		Drinke and Welcome


Let that be a warning to you all.  And an invitation, as well, to this week's 

                      G I R L   S C O U T   B E N E F I T

to be held at 5:30 p.m. in the seventh floor playroom, tomorrow, Friday the
thirteenth.