Anheuser-Busch Still Doesn't Get It

In a market dominated, unfortunately, by bland beers churned out by corporate monoliths, the big fella in St. Louis is trying to put out some better beer. Well, sort of.

As the Post-Dispatch reports today, A-B is going to kick it "old school" with one of its signature brands, Michelob.

Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/business/stories.nsf/story/B29E9DAD87C0AC058625727C00135AFF?OpenDocument

I like that Michelob is going back to its signature bottle, but the reporter describes it curiously as a "teardrop" design. Huh? If anything, the bottle always reminded me of Mae West, and that's a good thing (Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mae_West). Besides some exceptional females, men still mostly drink "Michelob heavy," so the move to the old curvaceous bottle makes sense.

The Atkins-induced Michelob Ultra is a subject for different rant though.

Taking Michelob back to all malted barley is a move I applaud, but will this really make a dent in the craft brewers' rising market share? Part of the reason people drink Red Hook or Sierra Nevada or Pete's Wicked or Schlafly or Boulevard is that those beers have so much more flavor and body than the industrial brews.

Michelob will certainly have more body with all barley malt, but if the hops quotient and quality is not revised, it'll just be an industrial brew with a bigger body and simplistic flavor. It's not a revamping of Michelob as the article asserts; it's a feeble change to a beer that's not doing well.

Cool bottle though.

Hillary Clinton = Sarah Silverman

Below are links are two articles that talk about people's perceptions/reactions to Hillary and how women comedians, such as Sarah Silverman, create such harsh reactions from certain audience members.

"Harpy, Hero, Heretic: Hillary" by Jack Hitt
Link: http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/harpy_hero_heretic_hillary.html

"Are Women Allowed To Be Funny?" by Gloria Goodale
Link: http://www.alternet.org/stories/47657/

Hitt does an interesting job of discussing how we all have our own versions of who we think Hillary is or what she represents. To use the author's categories, I think she's a hybrid of Dianne Feinstein and Lisa Simpson, which I why I like her at times and am also revolted/exasperated by her from time to time. Of course, as Hitt asserts, the fact that she's a woman does play a serious factor, whether you're willing to admit it or not.

Likewise, people's nasty reactions to Silverman's brand of raunchy yet thought-provoking humor reveals that we still have this conception that women should be "lady-like." I don't think she's much different than Dave Chappelle in her type of humor and gags, but she's a white woman. There's the rub.

"Pick Your Poison"

In a world where ExxonMobil is willing to pay scientists and pseudo-scientists serious money (allegedly 10K a "researcher") to help criticize or raise skepticism about global warming, which contrasts to past global warming skeptics like Bob Inglis (R-S.C.), Pat Robertson, Frank Luntz, and Gregg Easterbrook finally waking the hell up about the effects of global warming, this link provides some advice on where to buy your gas.

Link: http://sierraclub.org/sierra/pickyourpoison/

As you can see, BP, Sunoco, or Shell are your best bets. Sunoco is the only American company.

Where you spend your gas money is a political statement.