Arrack

At the risk of being way off topic ... well, I suppose it's all about  
Apache community, hmm?

Hey, can one of you Sri Lankan gentlemen who is coming to ApacheCon  
bring me a bottle of Arrack? I'd be glad to compensate you for your  
cost and trouble, and buy you a couple drinks in Oakland. I've spoken  
to my wife glowingly of the evening in Kitulgala when we drank Arrack  
in the coal-black darkness, lit only by the gentle glow of cell  
phones, with the roar of the river so loud we had to shout to be  
heard, and, well, she wants to try some.


Arrack in Kitulgala
October 12, 2009



As the old saying

doesn’t go, but should,

experience is the best seasoning.



One can’t expect arrack to taste the same

in a quiet, well lit parlor

as it did in the coal-black night,

lit only by a few stars

and the gently glowing cell phones

of a dozen new friends,

with the roar of the unseen river

drowning all but shouted conversation.



Nor will стандарт remain the same

as one gets farther and farther

from Arbatskaya, chill the throat

as it did in the garishly lit,

painfully loud bar, football blaring

from ten different screens,

the men drinking while the women

wept at the Holy Friday service.



Do visitors to the Bluegrass

sit at home, drinking Ale 8 and Kentucky Ale,

shake their heads deprecatingly,

say, sorrowfully, "it just doesn’t taste the same

as it did in Lexington."