"WHY DO YOU PEOPLE DO THIS?"

My Canadian boss yelled at my crazy American ways again yesterday, for the way we write the date (the title of the entry is what he actually said. I had no idea what he was referring to at first).

America writes the date: July 16, 2008.
Canada and Europe writes the date: 16 July, 2008.

He tried to change my naughty ways, and explained that in a decade there are 120 "16th", 10 July's, and only 1 2008. So we should be writing the date in descending order of how often the numbers appear in a decade.

I'll concede that the Canadian way does make more sense, but I'm not changing my ways now. I'm a stubborn Ugly American. I do find the tiny culture differences fascinating though. How did every western country start doing something one way, except one? America writes the date "weird," England drives on the "wrong" side of the road. What happened in history to account for these differences?

Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Bonnie, of the Drexel "Bonnie & Clyde" identify theft case, has pleaded guilty.

As a Lithuanian, I'm glad she's going to jail. Not because of the identity theft, not because of how pretty she is (in fact, I'm rather amused by the suggestion that the only reason this case made national news and they got caught was because the press thought she was really hot and kept running her picture), but because she claimed to be Lithuanian when she wasn't. Apparently she would wear purple contact lenses and tell people that all Lithuanians had purple eyes, and that her Lithuanian background was why she spoke fluent Russian, because all Lithuanians speak Russian.

Anyone with any knowledge of the Lithuanian fight for Independence from the Soviets knows why that last comment made me want to punch her in the face. Yes, a lot of Lithuanians speak Russian, but that's because they had to learn it or they'd get shot. Lithuania has its own language, thank you very much.

I'm extremely proud of being Lithuanian, and dealing with all the things that comes with it (most people not knowing where or what the country is and think I'm making it up [which is why she got away with lying about it. Learn your geography, people. It's in Europe! Europe should be easy!], a built-in fear of big governments, an urge to slap well-meaning college hippy friends who think Communism is awesome and works every time, etc).

I read this morning that "Bonnie and Clyde" got 6 years in jail, but now that I'm at work I can't find any sources to repeat that. Good riddance, I say.

Newsflash: InBev buys Anheuser-Busch for $49.91billion

I'm not sure how I feel about the sudden beer monopoly in America, especially as the new company in charge is based in Belgium. On the one hand, Prague destroyed me, and the only American beers I can stand now are Yuengling and PBR, so this doesn't really affect me.

On the other hand, monopolies in general give me the willies. And Anheuser-Busch's leg-up on the competition was that it was an American-owned company.

I was made fun of yesterday for revealing that I only found out recently (like, in the past few months recently) that Yuengling was a local brew and not a national brand. It's just always been in every bar I've gone to state-side, so I never had reason to think people outside the tri-state area wouldn't be blessed with $8 pitchers of something not brewed by Anheuser-Busch.

Support your local breweries, kids. Fight the monopolies. Drink Yuengling and Victory products. Damn the man, save the Empire, and all that jazz.

P.S. for all you fellow nerds out there, Victory makes a beer called Hoptimous Prime. Be forewarned: my friends love all of Victory's products, but I find them to be too hoppy for my taste, so it depends on your preference. I do recommend (for those of us who don't enjoy the taste of hops) their Golden Monkey.