As the Cosmos Tilts.....

Coming up briefly for air (although not much air; I am sick sick sick and wheezing like a broken accordion) to comment on a news wire item in the New York Times:

For months, rumors have wafted hither and yon that InBev and Anheuser-Busch would merge. But -- it looks as though it may happen. Or that InBev hopes it happens. And that, again according to this wire report, A-B will resist.

Okay, so big deal, right? One big corporation tries to take over another. Happens all the time. Blah blah blah.

Except that -- it's A-B. And having spent five years of my life living, at least mentally, with A-B and knowing that it's survived all these years with a Busch at the helm and yeah it's a huge corporation but it started life as a tiny, no-account, not-very-good brewery and its history embodies the immigrant experience and here it still is all these years later -- well........ you can hate the beer (I don't, by the way), but unless you're a soulless jerk, you've gotta admire the tenacity, smarts, and ambition of the family that made that company what it is.

And yes, I know they don't control the company, at least not on paper or in number of shares. But they are still its heart and soul

. So should this merger come to pass, I will feel as if the planet's axis has shifted. As if the cosmos has tilted just a wee bit. Ridiculous to feel that way.

But there ya go. I'm a sentimental sap. (And no, for the five millionth time, A-B did not pay me to write the beer book. Indeed, as I've said many many times, the company was actively uncooperative.) And now I'm taking my sick lungs and aching head and runny nose back to bed -- so I can rest up for the next round of travel. I'll be back in mid-June.