It’s not beer!

I think everybody has one or two Pavlovian responses. You know, where somebody utters a certain phrase and you automatically, without conscious thought, reply with the same premeditated phrase. Back in Virginia, there was a waitress that would, without fail, say “You’re welcome!” when you acknowledged a soda refill or whatever with a simple “Thanks.” Grant had himself some fun with that if I remember correctly, testing the conditioning at the most unlikely places. I remember her collecting everybody’s menus one day and six instances of “Than…”"You’re welcome!”
Good times

I catch myself saying “It’s not beer!” every time a Budweiser commercial comes on on TV and ends with statements like “The king of beers”. I can’t help it. People usually think I’m being facetious, a roundabout way of saying that Budweiser is a beer of low quality. But that ain’t it, I literally mean that it’s not beer. Because by the Reihnheitsgebot, Budweiser is not beer. Budweiser is made with rice, and the German purity law mandates that beer is made from water, barley, hops – and nothing else.

If you suspect that that attitude is elitist, clings to semantics and is…well, German, you’re 100% right. But it’s fun, isn’t it?

P.S.: I’ve been known to drink Budweiser with various people when it’s been offered to me. Just don’t tell anybody!