beer church

I expect a FULL FOLLOW-UP report on this, DAMNIT!!!!

Longnecker is actually a pretty common name up there--well, OK, let's just say that it's a name that's common enough that, as a Pennsylvania native (from Amish territory no less), I instantly think of people rather than beer when I see that name.

However, I may be more respectful of names than most. I had a school classmate named Crystal Glass (no kidding). I paid not one iota of attention to the pun/juxtaposition; if I tell anybody else of her today it gets a bemused smile at best and Beavis-and-Butthead laughter at worst.

"Longenecker" sounds Germanic (duh, for Amish country especially), and while the word looks coincidentally similar to "Long Neck" and the beery associations you could (I suppose) derive from that, it's more likely derived from German words "Lang" and "Eck," and probably was spelled "Langenecker" at one time. "Langeneck" means something like "Long Corner," and is just a simple place or presonal name; there are a couple of villages called "Langeneck" in Bavaria, for instance.

It definintely is spelled "Longenecker". I bet the Amish teens get it too. They can really put down the beers! We saw an amish guy pasted out the other day in his buggy. Apparently his horse new the way home. (Which happens once in a while, I guess)

Anyhow, I do not want to put down the Amish in anyway. We have Amish neighbors and friends and they love beer just like anyone else. They just don't post on newsgroups.

-David