Michigan Man Asks Strangers For Free Beer And Gets It; In Unrelated News, The Takeout Really Likes Pizza

Maybe there's a grain of truth to the axiom that you won't get anything in life unless you ask for it. Sam Hoats, better known around Grand Rapids, Michigan, as "Third Floor Sam" is living proof: He put a sign in his office window requesting beer—and kindhearted people have so far bought him 85 beers. In completely unrelated news, The Takeout is having a rare all-staff meeting in Chicago this week and could really use some pizza. Just throwing that out there.

West Michigan news station Fox 17 reported on Hoats' success, which started when he put up a sign in his window that read: "Please send beer to Sam on Floor 3 Thank You!" Hoats is a digital marketing strategist whose office is located, critically, above the Knickerbocker, a brewpub operated by New Holland Brewing. (So Hoats has been gifted some pretty tasty beer.) So far, Knickerbocker management says, he's received 85 free beers; the brewpub is even planning to brew a special beer in Hoats' honor.

Amusing, odd, or artistic signs in office windows are, of course, part of city culture. (The Takeout shares offices with The AV Club and The Onion, whose employees have engaged in a game of office-window Battleship with a nearby office building for years.) Again, completely unrelated to the story, The Takeout's staff has been thinking about pizza today, maybe even pizza and beer. We don't need 85 beers, though. Just a six-pack would make us happy.