It’s a post-Monday-holiday day but we’ve still got a full e-missive, with stuff about a local author’s dystopia novel rediscovered; the least-“Made in USA” plane Boeing’s ever made; employers who really didn’t like “A Day Without Immigrants”; and the Seattle rock roots of a late jazz legend.

The first locally-invented “tsunami survival capsules” are ready. We’re also onto still more Womxn’s March reactions and post-march plans; a different approach to this year’s homeless count; the closure of a gourmet-chocolate chain’s flagship café; and the death of a sports-promotion legend.

Following the holiday break we catch up with tales of hospital execs who really don’t want Obamacare to get gutted; the BBC discovering Seattle as a hotbed of the Resistance; Amazon’s potential future with driverless trucks; and the welcome, forthcoming return of King Donut-Teriyaki-Laundromat!

We’re still experiencing the effects of WWII to our region’s environment, and not just at Hanford. Also, as we count down to the solstice, we examine disputed tales of a protest at an Olympia park restroom; a possible alternative mode of housing for at-risk adults; the connection between both would-be arena developers and a former newspaper empire; and the end of one of our fave small-biz combos, King Donut-Teriyaki-Laundromat.

In our daily e-missive this day: Our state’s ex-first lady speaks out on sexual harassment and its apologists; the Ace Hotel founder’s kids demand their fair share; an architect suggests we put affordable housing on top of I-5 (instead of just a bigger Freeway Park); the landlord lobby successfully delays the move-in-fee cap; and a Pierce County institution comes to Seattle (spoiler: it’s a burger joint).

One of Seattle’s last indie pharmacies will soon reach its expiration date with no refills. We speak as well about a UW minimum-wage analyst’s alleged conflict-O-interest; public schools filled to overflowing (again); Marshawn Lynch talking more about social justice than about his own business ventures; another potential Boeing “tax windfall”; and the Storm season’s sudden end.

The Seahawks failed to (1) lose, and (2) fuel the ire of neo-racist hate mongers. Other topics of inquiry this day include unfortunate decor at the current North Precinct building; the anniversary of John Williams’ shooting; more banter about what hi-paid consultants said about homelessness; potential justice for “adjunct” college teachers; and a beloved restaurant coming to Seattle from exotic Fife.

We’ve been doing these weekday e-missives for a whole year! If you’re in town, come join us at a low-key fete tonight. (Details at the link.) In non-self-centered topics: Bellevue High football gets the proverbial book thrown at it; Ride the Ducks might escape some crash-victim lawsuits; Capitol Hill Pride might celebrate beyond what it’s been officially permitted; progress at last in a four-year-old rape case; and testing corn-based jet fuel on a regular passenger flight.

The Nooze-day for Tooze-day includes a victory for bike-share lovers; genuine Nancy Pearl ice cream; more fallout from the Legislature’s school-funding punt; a creepy Cobain art show (that doesn’t even show him); and someone who likes Amazon’s physical bookstore.

As the Obama Era’s final year begins, we discuss gated lots for people who live in vehicles; plans to legalize extant pot-delivery services; big expansion plans for the Victoria Clipper; and the UW’s plans to raze more of its brutalist old dorms.

In your midweek missive: Seattle is now Dick-less; environmental activist group or classic punk band?; how not to cover U.S. firms in India; an anti-concussion football helmet; and are law firms doomed?

Would you believe, this is the thirtieth MISCmedia In/Out List? Well, it is.

As we prepare to begin the pearl-anniversary year of this adventure in punditry, we present yet another edition of the most trusted (and only accurate) list of its kind in this and all other known media.

As always, this list compiles what will become sizzling and soggy in the coming year, not necessarily what’s sizzling and soggy now. If you believe everything hot now will just keep getting hotter, I’ve got some Sears stock to sell you.

1. Don’t pour cooking oil down a storm drain.
2. Having your city’s biggest bridge collapse can hurt civic self-esteem.
3. Sounders fans are heartbroken today.
4. HÃ¥agen-Dazs still exists.

There will still be four Elysian brewpubs in Seattle.

There will still be various Elysian beers on tap and in bottles at bars, restaurants, and stores in the region and beyond.

There will still (probably) be an Elysian Brewery on Airport Way South, not far from the old Rainier Brewery.

But they’ll all be owned now by AB InBev (doing business in this country as Anheuser-Busch).

The Belgian beer conglomerate that bought Budweiser (and commands 47 percent of the nation’s total beer sales) is now buying up craft brewers around the country. Just weeks ago, it snapped up Oregon’s 10 Barrel. It already owns 32 percent of the now-merged Redhook and Widmer Brothers.

And now, Elysian has joined the empire.

The craft brewers’ national trade group, the Brewers Association, automatically expels any member company that sells out to AB or MillerCoors. (However, the group altered its rules a few years back to allow Boston Beer (Sam Adams) to remain in the group.)

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For almost 19 years now, starting with a single (albeit spacious) brewpub in the Pike/Pine Corridor, Elysian has steadily become a big fish in the no-longer-so-small pond of regional craft brewers. Its product line has included over 350 different brews over the years, many of them short-term and seasonal (like its annual pumpkin ales). Its products are distributed in 11 states and two Canadian provinces.

One of those products is Loser Ale, originally introduced as a promotional tie-in with Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary in 2008. Its slogan (based on Kurt Cobain’s hand scrawled T shirt on a Rolling Stone cover, which in turn was based on SST Records’ old slogan): “Corporate Beer Still Sucks.”

Many “craft beer” drinkers see their choice of drink as meaning a lot more than just a matter of quality product. They think of indie beer (just as many think of indie music) as a crusade of the Regular Folk fighting back against a bland, monolithic corporate culture.

But should they?

As Kendall Jones writes at the Washington Beer Blog:

The sky is not falling. This is not a sign that the end is near. There are still over 3,400 breweries in America that Anheuser-Busch does not own…. As craft beer lovers, we’ve been taught that Anheuser-Busch and the other big beer companies are our enemies. So what gives? Is Elysian now evil? Not in my mind, but that’s a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.

Another view on the Elysian sale comes from Jeff Alworth at the Canadian blog Beervana, who ties Elysian’s past success to its savvy local management:

It’s long been my favorite Washington brewery, and it’s always my first stop when I hit Seattle. It has always seemed the most Seattle of the Seattle breweries—an extemporaneous brewery that could be equal parts gritty and urbane and credibly support local sports teams or indie bands. Elysian always seemed to be right where Seattle was at the time….

Just because a brewery is local doesn’t mean it can channel the local mores, culture, and zeitgeist. Elysian could and did—which is a big part of why they were so good. Can they still do that as a division of AB? In the short term, almost certainly. But I fear we’ve lost a little bit of what made Seattle Seattle.

If, as Elysian’s owners publicly insist, joining the big boys was the only way to support the company’s continued growth and to fund further expansion, maybe there’s a natural business limit to how big a microbrewer can be and still remain independent (if no longer truly “micro”).

neonsign.com

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In other news:

• Chop Suey, the venerable live-music club located not far from the original Elysian brewpub, may remain open (or rather, reopen) after all.
• Here’s how out-of-it (locally) I’ve been: Richard Hugo House, the city’s premier writing and literary-arts center, is getting demolished and rebuilt at the same site. Didn’t even know.
• The Seattle City Council and City Attorney Pete Holmes apparently believe sex workers will be less abused by pimps and traffickers if we just create harsher penalties for sex-work customers. Uh, no; it doesn’t work that way. Try again. This time, try to work on the pimps and traffickers themselves (and on support services for the workers).
• There’s still no real replacement for the still-mourned Fun Forest amusement area at Seattle Center. But we may be getting a 1,000-foot water slide this summer.
• Our pal Lindy West remembers the cool stuff found in the now-bankrupt SkyMall catalog, and also ponders whether its fate is that of all that is fun and quirky.
• Hershey, which owns all U.S. rights to Cadbury products, is moving to stop the grey-market imports of the British-made chocolate goodies.
• Print books are bouncing back, according to recent sales figures. The “literature is doomed” crowd will, I’m sure, simply ignore these figures and continue its wailing-and-gnashing-of-teeth.