“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” – Benjamin Franklin

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline — it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.”  – Frank Zappa

This week (Jan. 24) in 1935 the world changed forever.  That is when the Krueger Brewing Company, partnering with the American Can Company, delivered the first canned beer to thirsty beer drinkers in Richmond, Va.  Two thousand cans of Krueger’s Finest and Krueger’s Cream Ale were soon traveling down the throats of those grateful denizens of Richmond, eventually reaching their livers, bladders, and then toilets throughout the city.  As Archie Bunker once observed, you don’t buy beer, you rent it.

Of course beer drinkers had been drinking beer for centuries, including draught beer in saloons and even bottled beer, but beer in cans had many distinct advantages over bottles.  Cans chilled the beer faster; cans also were cheaper and disposable so there was no deposit on cans as there was on bottles.  Also, cans didn’t break and were lighter.  As a result, beer was more affordable and accessible — cans made beer more democratic!

Credit the American Can Company, which finally solved the problem of making a pressurized can, while also inventing a special coating that prevented the beer from chemically reacting to the tin that is a key ingredient in cans.

But also credit Krueger’s for taking a chance on canned beer. Although those Richmond beer drinkers generally gave those cans of Krueger’s a thumbs-up, sales started out slow.   But Krueger’s stayed the course and after several months sales skyrocketed, cutting into the market share of “The Big Three,” Pabst, Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch.  Soon those three brewmeisters also were producing canned beer, and by 1936 some 200 million cans of beer had been sold.

Interestingly, while the beer can itself has not changed dramatically, its top has.  The original Krueger’s can had a flat top with no opening, necessitating development of a device to puncture the lid — today’s can opener or “church key.”

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This week (Nov. 1) in 1512, the world got to view what is arguably the most famous work of art in human history as Michelangelo’s frescoes on the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican in Rome were first revealed to the public.  The work was actually the product of two men, Michelangelo, the great sculptor and painter, and the man who commissioned him to paint the Sistine Chapel, Pope Julius II.

Theirs was a rocky relationship.  Michelangelo originally refused the commission, both because he considered himself a sculptor, not a painter, and because he disagreed with Julius’ vision of what the painting should look like.  It was only after Julius agreed to let Michelangelo paint the chapel his way that he took the job.  And even then, Julius constantly complained about the slowness of Michelangelo’s progress, while Michelangelo constantly complained about the slowness of Julius’ payments.  Granted, Julius often had other things on his mind.  Nicknamed “The Warrior Pope,” when he wasn’t warring with Michelangelo he was warring against France, the Papal States and any other real or perceived threat to his authority.

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This week (Oct. 4) in 1927 work began on one of the largest and most famous sculptures in the world, as sculptor Gutzon Borglum began the 14-year project to carve the faces of four American presidents, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt, into the side of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The original idea for a giant sculpture was Doane Robinson’s, a local historian who thought an imposing historic monument somewhere in the Black Hills would attract tourists, and although South Dakota state officials originally wanted sculptures of western heroes such as Lewis and Clark, Borglum convinced them that national heroes such as U.S. presidents would be more appropriate (and attract more visitors).

Originally, Borglum had just three presidents in mind — Lincoln, his favorite president, whom Borglum credited with saving the Union; Washington, who won the revolution that created our nation; and Jefferson, whose purchase of the Louisiana Territory had made much of the west, including South Dakota, part of the United States.  However, Borglum soon realized there was room for one more president, so he chose Teddy Roosevelt, whom he considered the nation’s first environmentalist.

It was Borglum who also ultimately decided on Mt. Rushmore as the site.  He liked Rushmore’s tall granite peaks and he liked that the mountain faced southeast, meaning the sun would be on the sculptures most of the day.

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