Stout is a dark beer made using roasted malt or roasted barley,hops, water and yeast. Stouts were traditionally the generic term for the strongest or stoutest porters, typically 7% or 8%, produced by a brewery.

There are a number of variations including Baltic porter, dry stout and imperial stout. The name porter was first used in 1721 to describe a dark brown beer popular with street and river porters of London that had been made with roasted malts. This same beer later also became known as stout, though the word stout had been used as early as 1677. The history and development of stout and porter are intertwined.

Porter was first recorded as being made and sold in London in the 1730s, the exact origins of which are unknown. Large volumes were exported to Ireland where it became very popular. Later with the advent of mild ale the popularity of dark beers decreased in Great Britain, but continued to flourish in Ireland where the breweries of Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish grew in size thanks to international interest in Irish (or dry) stout. In the 19th century, the beer gained its customary black colour through the use of black patent malt, and became stronger in flavour.

Ruth Stout (June 14, 1884-August 22, 1980) was an American author best known for her "No-Work" gardening books and techniques.

Ruth Stout was born June 14, 1884 in Girard, Kansas to Quaker parents John Wallace Stout and Lucetta Elizabeth Todhunter Stout. Her brother Rex Stout, also an author, was famous for the Nero Wolfe detective stories. Stout moved to New York when she was 18 and was employed at various times as baby nurse, bookkeeper, secretary, business manager, and factory worker. She was a lecturer and coordinated lectures and debates, and she owned a small tea shop in Greenwich Village and worked for a fake mind-reading act. In 1923, she accompanied fellow Quakers to Russia to assist in famine relief. She met and married Alfred Rossiter in June,1929. Rossiter, the son of an American businessman, was born in Germany in 1882. His family relocated to New York City in 1894. In March 1930, the couple moved to Poverty Hollow, Redding Ridge on the outskirts of Redding, Connecticut. Ruth would continue to use her maiden name as her pen name and Rossiter as her official name.

Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( /dɨˈdʒɛnərəs/; born January 26, 1958) is an American stand-up comedian, television host and actress. She hosts the syndicated talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

DeGeneres has hosted both the Academy Awards and the Primetime Emmys. As a film actress, she starred in Mr. Wrong, appeared in EDtv and The Love Letter, and provided the voice of Dory in the Disney-Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, for which she was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, the first and only time a voice performance won a Saturn Award. She was a judge on American Idol for one year, having joined the show in its ninth season. She also starred in two television sitcoms, Ellen from 1994 to 1998 and The Ellen Show from 2001 to 2002. During the fourth season of Ellen in 1997, DeGeneres came out publicly as a lesbian in an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shortly afterwards, her character Ellen Morgan also came out to a therapist played by Winfrey, and the series went on to explore various LGBT issues including the coming out process. She has won thirteen Emmys and numerous other awards for her work and charitable efforts.

Chris Stout (born 1976) is a fiddle/violin player from Shetland, now based in Glasgow. Stout grew up in Fair Isle, a small Shetland island, and lived there until 8 years of age before moving to Sandwick on the Shetland mainland, then on to Glasgow in the 1990s.

Stout has studied under prominent Shetland fiddlers including Willie Hunter and Arthur Scott Robertson and is adept at a variety of violin styles, drawing on a range of influences from folk, jazz, electronica and classical.

In 1990 he won both the Shetland "Young Fiddler of the Year" competition for his skills as a traditional fiddle player and the Shetland "Young Musician of the Year" competition for his classical violin abilities.