A pet peeve of mine

Kelly’s post from the other day reminded me of a pet peeve of mine – the age check on beer and brewing sites.

Now, I know this is all a result of silly lawsuits alleging that breweries market to the underage. Let’s face it, many of the underage are dying to have a beer whether it’s hawked by a comical gecko or a sincere-sounding comedian. Whatever the merits of the age check, the real point is that you can put in any age you want! That’s right, any age! Any age, any birthdate, any birth year, whatever they ask you can answer incorrectly. In fact, I never put my real age or birthday on those things, because it’s none of their damn business.

The whole thing reminds me of an anecdote in Chuck Thompson’s smile while you’re lying, a book about travel writing. In the book he finds himself in a place he shouldn’t be (as I recall, a Thai whorehouse) being asked for his name. He promptly answered “Ulysses S. Grant,” which the madam dutifully wrote down and, apparently, believed. You’ll have to read the book if you want to find out the rest of the story, but ultimately it’s the same principle – if you have no way of verifying the answer then the question is largely pointless.