The end

After staring at my computer screen for the last three days, taking innumerable breaks to nap, to run errands, to listen to reggae, the Gym Class Heroes, Holly Miranda and Hall & Oates, to track down Chinese drinking songs and attempt to make dark Muscovado brownies (failed, but succeeded in making a tasty potato casserole with gouda, garlic and thyme), I have come up with the framework for an ending to The Beer Flower Limited. It needs work - no doubt - but I like it. It works. Or it will with some jigging.

After a little more cleaning up of the outline, I should be ready to race ahead.

Chinese Drinking Songs

I figured if I'm going to write a book about beer in China, I should look into Chinese drinking songs. Thankfully Jerome P. Seaton edited just such a book, The Wine of Endless of Life: Taoist Drinking Songs from the Yuan Dynasty (1985). Most notably, I enjoyed the songs of Yun-K'an Tzu:

who envies you
oh high and mighty
all done up in purple
and dangling your badge of rank
my heart's at peace
I'm satisfied with me
there aren't many in the world today
to match this
crafty rascal.

*

when I'm drunk I sleep
and even when I'm not
I loll my head and
stagger east and west completely
shameless
there is no spring
there is no fall
toot-toot, woo-woo
this music
keeps me young.

Of course, there are at least caveats to Seaton's work. One, it's Taoist, not Phi Delt. Two, it's approximately 700 years old. Unfortunately, at the moment, I have little else to choose from, but I like Tzu's work.