:bday:

Born in 1980? God, what a baby! :cry:

Many happy returns. Glad to see you like Guinness; remember, "Guinness is good for you!"

See, guys, I might not always share my opinions, but I do remember birthdays! You boys play nice now, you hear? Mrs. Parker is watching you! :drink:

Happy birthday, and many, many returns of the day for you

Happy birthday, Dooky!

Remember--alcohol kills brain cells so. . .

drink up, kid! Here's to you! :drink:

Thank you for the Happy Birthdays. I had to put my hip waders on to find the thread through all the muck. Age is a number, experience is the deciding factor.

Happy birthday. :bday:

I don't know you, but a man who likes guinness and quotes "Slapshot" can't be all bad,

And how is this political?

Guinness is made by the Irish. The Irish are a very political people. Also, Paul Newman starred in Slapshot, and Mr. Newman is very active in politics.

Here is how Guiness came to be, in an excerpt from an article in Business Reform Magazine (a Christian Business Periodical).

Quote:<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'><span style='color:blue'>Top Ten Christian Entrepreneurs You've Probably Never Heard Of (Part 1)

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Arthur Guinness




The bitterness of success never tasted so good






Legend has it that Arthur Guinness, dismayed at the debauchery overtaking his native Dublin and destroying the family base therein, once prayed that God would give him the inspiration to concoct a healthy alternative to the whisky that flowed freely at the pubs throughout the city. Soon after, his prayers were answered and he developed an early version of the stout now sold in over two hundred countries worldwide. The genius of his premise lies in its simplicity: make it healthy, make it thick. The vitamin content was vastly higher than that of Irish whisky-so high, in fact, that even the New World doctors (before the discovery of fetal alcohol syndrome, of course) used to advise pregnant women to drink one glass of the stout daily. Guinness also designed the brew to be so thick that his fellow Irishmen would get full long before they got inebriated.




&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; All legends aside, the facts still remain. After receiving the equivalent of a $150 inheritance from his godfather the Archbishop of Cashel, Guinness apprenticed at a small brewery in Leixlip for several years. He then set out on his own, with his recipe, and founded the St. James street brewery in Dublin. And as far as looking to the future, from the beginning Guinness was attuned to his legacy; to secure the brewery for ensuing generations, he signed a 9,000-year lease. Water was a vital resource for the business and, although there were over 200 breweries in Dublin at the time, Guinness persevered and secured for himself access to the precious resource.


&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; His direct legacy lasted for 227 years. He helped his own cause a bit by fathering 21 children (10 of which survived) and his posterity carried out his entrepreneurial benchmark across centuries.


&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Among his most notable accomplishments are the employer-employee relations he fostered. He set wages at 10-20% above his competitors; guaranteed pensions for widows; offered paid vacations, free medical care, education, and housing, to name just of a few of the perks he offered his employees. Employment in his brewery was a prized position during his life and afterwards, and the magnitude of charitable work he carried out in his community reflects the faith in God and the attenuation to His principles Guinness maintained until his death.

<a href='http://www.businessreform.com/article.php?articleID=10335' target='_blank'>This is the entire article....</a>