10. are

ARE is a verb form of the irregular verb “to be.” A verb is irregular when it does not follow the typical conjugation of most verbs. Compare “I see,” “you see,” “he sees” (regular) with “I am,” “you are,” and “he is” (irregular).

During William Shakespeare’s time, “you are” was “thou art.” The most famous use of “to be” in Shakespeare’s plays is the soliloquy by the title character in the 1603 tragedy Hamlet. “To be, or not to be: that is the question,” says Hamlet, deeply depressed over the death of his father and contemplating suicide. Hamlet muses on the life’s suffering and wonders whether death, with the mystery surrounding the afterlife, is a better alternative. Later in the soliloquy, he relates:

But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

One of the more notable misappropriations of “are” is in the name of the store chain Toys “R” Us. In the store logo, the “R” is backward, further infuriating English teachers already upset about the grammatical incorrectness of the name.

Toys “R” Us was the extension of a business started by Charles Lazurus in post-World War II Washington, D.C., called Children’s Bargain Town. Although initially only stocking baby furniture, Lazurus ultimately listened to customer demand for toys for older children and changed his business to accommodate their wishes. The spokesgiraffe for the company, Geoffrey, was introduced in 1960.

“All your base are belong to us” is a poorly translated phrase from a Japanese game manufactured for Sega called Zero Wing. The phrase received exposure in 2001 after Flash animation montages of the phrase in various fonts and locales appeared on the Internet, notably on the Web site Something Awful. The phrase regularly appears in Internet chat exchanges among gaming and pop culture enthusiasts.

8. ale

8. All beers can be classified as ALEs or lagers. Ales use ale yeast, a top-fermenting yeast suited to warmer temperatures. Ales tend to have a fuller body.

A lager is a beer that uses lager yeast, a bottom-fermenting yeast suited to cooler temperatures. Modern lagers are fermented in refrigerated rooms, but in earlier times, beer was fermented in caves. Lagers tend to have a crisper/cleaner taste.

A stout is an ale and is not easily distinguishable from a porter. Some barkeeps use the terms without much distinction. Both beers are dark due to the dark roasting of the grains. The primary distinction between the two beers centers on porters using just roasted malt and stouts using roasted malt and roasted barley.

A cream stout is a stout that has had lactose added to it for sweetness. Adding other sweeteners like sugar or honey the yeast would simply convert that into alcohol. Yeast cannot convert lactose into alcohol, so the sweetness remains.

Stouts and porters are often served in pint glasses, with either a smooth or a bulbous design.

The brewer Samuel Adams has designed a modern pint glass with the help of Tiax. The new glass features laser etchings in the bottom to stimulate bubbles and continuously deliver carbonation to the beer, a rounded middle to capture the beer’s aromas, and a bead around the inside of the lip to agitate the beer as it is drunk.

A pilsner is a light stout. Most light American beers are pilsners. They gained popularity because they were light enough to be enjoyed after a long hot day at work, offering an alternative drinking a heavy beer. Pilsner glasses, which are thin and conical often hold less than a pint of beer and are designed to spotlight the color of the beer and create and maintain a lasting head.

An IPA (India Pale Ale) is an ale created by the British. Regular beer would spoil on the six-month trip to India, so brewers created a beer with more alcohol and more hops, each of which helped to preserve the beer on the long hot journey.

Steam beer is a beer that uses lager yeast, but at warmer temperatures. Old San Francisco brewers lacked refrigeration and caves so they were forced to make their lagers in warm temperatures, resulting in steam beer. Anchor Steam beer has been brewed in San Francisco since 1896.

A wheat beer uses wheat malt.

A mead isn't a beer, but is one of the earliest alcoholic beverages. A mead is basically water, yeast, honey, and maybe some fruit juice. It is not cooked, but rather left to sit and ferment.

The phrase “cakes and ale” describes that which can be afforded by the good life. It appears in the Shakespeare play Twelfth Night. “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?” A translation of the moral to Aesop’s fable The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse is “Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear.”

W. Somerset Maugham titled a 1930 novel Cakes and Ale; or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard. Some charged that the story's unflattering characters were based on contemporaries such as novelist Thomas Hardy, but Maugham denied the connection. The work is regarded as a roman à clef, a thinly disguised fictionalization of real life.