What we’re about
Profs and Pints (https://www.profsandpints.com) brings professors and other college instructors into bars, cafes, and other venues to give fascinating talks or to conduct instructive workshops. They cover a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, popular culture, horticulture, literature, creative writing, and personal finance. Anyone interested in learning and in meeting people with similar interests should join. Lectures are structured to allow at least a half hour for questions and an additional hour for audience members to meet each other. Admission to Profs and Pints events requires the purchase of tickets, either in advance (through the ticket link provided in event descriptions) or at the door to the venue. Many events sell out in advance. Your indication on Meetup of your intent to attend an event constitutes neither a reservation nor payment for that event.
Although Profs and Pints has a social mission--expanding access to higher learning while offering college instructors a new income source--it is NOT a 501c3. It was established as a for-profit company in hopes that, by developing a profitable business model, it would be able to spread to other communities much more quickly than a nonprofit dependent on philanthropic support. That said, it is welcoming partners and collaborators as it seeks to build up audiences and spread to new cities. For more information email profsandpints@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your interest in Profs and Pints.
Regards,
Peter Schmidt
Upcoming events
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Profs & Pints Philadelphia: What Awaits the Naughty
Black Squirrel Club, 1049 Sarah St, Philadelphia, PA, USProfs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “What Awaits the Naughty,” a guide to supernatural beings around the world who keep kids in line and Christmas weird, with Linda Lee, lecturer in folklore and fairy tales at the University of Pennsylvania.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profs-and-pints-black-squirrel/philly-krampus .]
The song says “Santa Claus is coming to town,” not “Santa Claus is coming specifically to your house.” In many parts of the world, children who misbehave expect visitors of an entirely different sort, in the form of unwelcome bringers of punishment and fear.
Come to Fishtown’s Black Squirrel Club to get the lowdown on strange beings that prowl the long nights during the Christmas and Yule season. Linda Lee, a scholar of folklore and fairy tales who has taught at Penn and other universities throughout the region, will discuss a host of entities who appear at this time of year to make the naughty rethink their ways.
High on her list will be Krampus, the goat-like, devilish being from Central and Eastern Europe who carries chains and punishes naughty children with a birch rod.
Looking to Iceland, Lee will tell us about that nation’s Yule trolls and its monstrous Yule Cat, Jólakötturinn, known to devour those who don’t receive new clothes to wear on Christmas Eve.
We’ll also get to know La Befana, an Italian witch who rides a broomstick and visits homes on Epiphany. Turning her attention closer to home, Lee will discuss the origins and ways of Pennsylvania-famous Belsnickel, a sketchy-looking import from southwest Germany who prowls these parts handing out candy or coal.
We’ll learn about the traditions associated with each of these figures and how each one fits into celebrations of Christmas, Yule, or the winter seasons. Among the questions we’ll consider: Why do so many of them enforce good behavior? Should we be worried?
Lee’s audience has loved this talk when she gave it in the past. You’ll be glad you have survived Krampus long enough to be on hand for Lee’s return to discuss him. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after 5:30. Talk starts at 6:30.)
Image by Canva.12 attendees
Past events
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