ON THE SCENE: Hammering the Frog

The wall was stripped of its normal décor and covered with Sharpie-pen graffiti. Carmer got the whole demolition project started with two swings of the sledge that landed squarely between the statement, "Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer," and a vaguely phallic doodle. Soon thereafter, everyone was getting their two swings in.

Perhaps it was the energizing power of beer or the wall's taunting glimpses of the room next door, but as the hour wore on, the sledgehammer swings grew more ambitious. Within 45 minutes, the wall was reduced to twisted metal studs, a pile of yellow insulation and cardboard debris, and a dusty cloud of what we all hoped was not asbestos.

As people poured into the freshly excavated room, Carmer announced, "We're going to 1,000 beers!" And now the joint will be big enough to house them.