Given the news tonight of the passing of Steve Jobs, any rant bemoaning the death of innovation in America would seem to be overkill. Though certainly no devotee of the cult of Apple (briefly owned an iPhone before going permanently Android), even I have to admit we’ll likely not see another corporate figure with a personality so uniquely associated with “making stuff” (with the possible exception of this guy).

In the editorial spot normally reserved for my righteous indignation, then, I’d like to offer instead a commercial for beer.

A cycling friend of mine went out there and launched his own brewing company, Helltown Brewing, named after the original nickname for Mount Pleasant, PA, his location (once upon a time, nearly everything around here was shrouded in the Thick Black Fog of Industrial Revolution). Shawn bought multiple bikes from me, and Helltown is a labor of love for a really great group of guys who’ve either worked with me, ridden bikes with me, or worked at riding bikes with me. Here’s an interview he gave about the brewery and how it all began. Great story, great group of guys, and, as it turns out, some amazingly good beer. So far, I’ve only had the Mischievous Brown Ale, but it instantly ranks as one of the absolute best beers I’ve found. I’m drinking a mighty fine Rogue Dead Guy right now, but wishing I had more Helltown. It was very good.

If you’re in the general environs of Pittsburgh and the Eastern regions thereof, you can find an increasingly long list of places with Mischievous on tap on the Helltown news page. Or you can man up (like my wife did) and pick up a growler right from the source. Pretty freakin’ beautiful out here anyway right now, so consider making the trip. Tell Shawn that Chris sent you, and maybe he’ll hook me up with one of those kickass Helltown t-shirts.

That's Some Beautiful Beer Run Scenery

Meanwhile, back at the revolution . . . no, not that revolution–I mean, the big revolution, the one against cyclists: we have news now that Chicago is cracking down on the deadly menace of cycling while texting, a reckless activity that kills literally one tenth of one person a year.

Public Frenemy #1

It’s true. Thanks to a fledgling little smear campaign rearing its head out there, the unholy act of bicycle commuting is stealing some acid rain laced thunder from “the myth of global warming.” Think bicycle commuting is an unquestionably good thing? You poor bastard. How those godless Dutch and the liberal media have you brainwashed! In reality–or a variation currently being put forth by “certain interested parties”–riding your bicycle to work is roughly akin to burning 55-gallon oil drums in a school filled with puppies.

The Only Thing Worse than Texting While Riding in Chicago: Ordering Take-out While Playing Bike Polo

The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out that new studies that “appear to expose cyclists as an urban menace” while simultaneously showing “2.3 times the black carbon, or soot, in their lungs” are factually flawed, at best, though this hasn’t kept them from being picked up by the media. It’s an amazing read, and one worth clicking through to check out. And to think you thought you were a semi-healthy, good person!

While the article goes a long way toward refuting the origins of the “studies” and questioning their motivations, I think it says a lot about the state of Things These Days that commuting by bicycle can–in any way–come under attack. One really has to question the motivations of any campaign that sets out in opposition to something as positive as riding a bike. Given what we know about obesity in America alone–never mind the entire energy crisis and snooze alarm we keep hitting on the death knell for the environment–it’s tough to comprehend an opposition to cycling. That such a campaign–regardless of how small–could even exist, is proof these are truly the end times, ladies and gentlemen.