Class Action Listings

"Good men drink good beer," said Hunter S. Thompson, a fellow who had some experience of intoxicants. If you'd like to become better, Prospect Heights has just seen the launch of Bitter & Esters, a storefront designed to help you hop to it. Its slogan: "See what you can brew." Classes for novices include Brewshop 101: Home-Brewing Essentials; offerings for pros will include all-grain brewing, brewing chemistry, and yeast lectures. bitterandesters.com

Health/Body/Wellness

Has downward dog got you down, or does child's pose only leave you feeling cranky? If your yoga practice needs a lift, perhaps it's time to try aerial yoga at YogaWorks on the Upper West Side. While suspending yourself from cloth bolts that resemble brightly colored hammocks, you'll complete your practice as though hanging from a soft trapeze. Other opportunities to shake up your sun salutations include Candle Yoga, Dance Flow, Sculptworks, and Urban Zen. yogaworks.com

Has downward dog got you down, or does child's pose only leave you feeling cranky? If your yoga practice needs a lift, perhaps it's time to try aerial yoga at YogaWorks on the Upper West Side. While suspending yourself from cloth bolts that resemble brightly colored hammocks, you'll complete your practice as though hanging from a soft trapeze. Other opportunities to shake up your sun salutations include Candle Yoga, Dance Flow, Sculptworks, and Urban Zen. yogaworks.com

Having your flesh pierced with needles isn't everyone's idea of a good time, but it's one of the few alternative therapies that mainstream medicine accepts as effective. If you have an unusual degree of pin-terest, you can take acupuncture classes at the New York College of Traditional Chinese Medicine's midtown location. Students can also attend courses and workshops in tongue and pulse diagnosis, herbology, and "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine." nyctcm.edu

Computers

You can now find applications for checking flights, making dinner reservations, finding bathrooms, creating virtual voodoo dolls, altering your voice, scanning your fingerprints, identifying the phases of the moon, or antagonizing those furious birds. "There's an app for that" has become a cultural meme. But what if there isn't yet? Cooper Union might have the answer. In the fall, it will offer a course in "Building Apps for Mobile Devices," covering programming, as well as financing and marketing. cooperunion.augusoft.net

Computers boast increasingly impressive speeds, memories, and capabilities. But when was the last time your laptop told you a good joke or mixed you a really innovative cocktail? If you'd like to encourage your PC to behave more creatively, you can bring it to some of the continuing-education offerings at the School of Visual Arts. The computer-arts department includes classes in desktop publishing, Web design, motion graphics, and computer animation, as well as basic operations for Mac and Windows. sva.edu

Crafts

Are you finding adulthood insufficiently playful? Do you long for the entertainments of early youth? Perhaps the Fashion Institute of Technology can help. In the fall, its School of Continuing and Professional Studies will offer a class in toy design. This introduction to the discipline will prepare you for more advanced courses in game design, model-making, hard-toy design, and soft-toy design. Dolls, too. Some drawing skills are needed. Sounds plush! fitnyc.edu

Oh, that sinking feeling when you step into the L train or take a stroll down Graham Avenue only to realize that someone else is already wearing the ironic T-shirt you thought was so unique. Happily, the young men at the Brooklyn Treasury in Williamsburg have a solution. On September 22, Justin Horowitz will teach a workshop on the process of silk-screening your own T-shirts. Although you won't have a chance to make a shirt of your own during the two-hour class, you're invited to take home one of theirs at the end. brooklyntreasury.com

Writing

Benjamin Franklin advised us to either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. If the former seems more attractive to you, you can do our founding father proud with a six-week seminar at the Manhattan Writers' Den on the Upper West Side. Through a combination of lecture, discussion, and supervised in-class writing, students learn "story craft," "the creative process," "universal plot forms," and "self-coaching and self-editing." themanhattanwritersden.com

Languages

Learning Latin won't help you navigate a menu in a foreign country, and ancient Greek isn't any use for charming cute tourists. But if you want to enroll in graduate programs in ancient history, art history, philosophy, religion, or medieval studies, or merely impress your friends during Rome and Spartacus reruns, Columbia University's School of Continuing Education proffers a Classics Certificate program, offering intensive language instruction and extracurricular activities and events. ce.columbia.edu

Sports

If you're like most New Yorkers, your idea of a dive is a dimly lit bar with sticky floors and $3 PBR. But if you're looking for a loftier and more sober alternative, you can consider weekday lessons and weekend clinics at the New York Diving Club. Based at Fordham University in the Bronx, the club boasts three-meter springboards, one-meter springboards, and a trampoline and spotting rig to practice those somersaults and twists.

nydiving.com