That oughta hold

Let’s do this, a couple of times: Americans are expected to spend $310 billion on home repairs and renovations this year, upgrading kitchens, bathrooms and more.

Of course, only $100 billion of that will be by do-it-yourselfers, with the other $210 billion being spent to hire someone to fix what was messed up the first time.

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It’s the water, and not much else: Germany is marking the 500th anniversary of its beer purity rule that mandates that beer contain only water, hops, malt and yeast. Some want to ease the rule to allow ingredients such as fruit and spices, concerned that beer drinkers have grown bored with simple beer.

We gotta go with the German purists here; if you want another flavor when you’re drinking beer, that’s what the pickled eggs are for.

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Don’t know much about history: On this day in 1616, 400 years ago, English poet and playwright William Shakespeare died on what is believed to be his 52nd birthday.

An autopsy later attributed his death to eating a 100-year-old pickled egg he was enjoying with an imported German beer.

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