As the official vice president of Asher Agency and the unofficial “mayor of West Central,” Larry Wardlaw is undeniably adept at making friends and influencing people.

In fact, he may not always be fully aware of how much of an impression he has made on someone.

At a recent Civic Theatre event, Wardlaw befriended Rosalyn Isch, owner of a local steel fabrication company.

A week later, Isch called him and said she wanted to give him a 4-foot-tall sculpture she’d designed and created that paid tribute to the city’s confluence of rivers.

Wardlaw was flattered and thrilled.

The sculpture looked great on his property but he couldn’t help but wonder if it was destined to be more than a glorified lawn ornament.

He believed it was a piece of public art that deserved to be placed where more of the public could view it.

After calling around to a number of his clients, Wardlaw found an interested party: Don Hall’s Old Gas House.

The sculpture was to have been installed there near the riverfront deck Friday.

Isch is pleased with these developments but also a little embarrassed.

“When we made it, I really was thinking that it would be displayed in a quiet little garden,” she says.

Isch says the sculpture is a nice way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her company, Precision Fabrication Inc.

The letters were cut using a water jet cutter, she says, and the sculpture is designed to look better as it ages.

Isch says she offered to make an even bigger version for the Hall family, but “they loved it just the way it was,” she says.

Germanfest opens

The point of having German heritage festivals in the fall, presumably, is so people can have one last blowout before a seemingly endless succession of dreary winter days sets in.

The point of having our Germanfest in early June, presumably, is so people can have one last spring blowout before a seemingly endless succession of summer blowouts set in.

I like the latter strategy better.

Fort Wayne’s Germanfest opens today with a German Mass at St. Peter’s Catholic Church and several traditional concerts at Park Edelweiss and Trinity Episcopal Church.

You can find a full schedule of activities at www.germanfest.org.

Less traditional is Alec Sanders, a Berliner who headlines Köstritzer Night at Club Soda on Monday and Bitburger Night at the Fort Wayne Sport Club on Tuesday.

Sanders performs blues, rock and country in a voice that is reminiscent of Jim Morrison.

Köstritzer Night showcases Köstritzer Schwarzbier, a black lager.

According to the late British writer Michael Jackson (no relation to the late pop star – except for the “late” part), Köstritzer Schwarzbier kept author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (“Faust”) alive when he was unable to consume anything else because of illness.

Faust sold his soul to Satan and Goethe saved his soul with Schwarzbier.

Now that’s a hearty lager.

I cannot, however, promise that Köstritzer Schwarzbier will sustain you if you are unable to consume anything else because of an unwillingness to consume anything else.

Bitburger Night celebrates the brewery of the same name.

One of its advertising slogans used to be “Bit in the evening, fit in the morning,” which would seem to imply that drinking lots of its beer won’t leave you feeling the next day like your blood has been replaced with sumac sap.

That is an experiment I will leave to others and the sober friends of those aforementioned others.

The festival tent at Headwaters Park opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

According to Germanfest treasurer Bob Anweiler, a new game can be found at Headwaters this year called Ferkel Wurst Stufin.

It is not a sausage-stuffing contest, but a remarkable – if non-disturbing, meat-free and inedible – simulation.

Contestants are expected to show how quickly they can stuff pig toys into a faux casing.

Of course, the fest tent is mostly about drinking beer in the open air.

A few years ago, I met a bunch of friends down there in the midst of severe storms and we had a lovely time getting mildly spifflicated and majorly soaked.

We were liked storm-tossed Vikings, only dumber and happier.

Also, we had better grog.