A celebratory BYCU today: My tweaked TDE format appears to be paying off. Average daily visitors this week have exceeded 600. Traditionally, about 400 people come through (run through, accidentally click on site then swear "Catholic Fascist!" then log off, etc.). This week has seen a 50% uptick, with no discernible reason (my stat counter shows me where people are coming from, and no site is driving an inordinate amount of traffic here, like the time ESPN linked to TDE). I wish my content had been better this week, but it couldn't be helped.
I appreciate the support. This weekend, I'll hoist a beer for every visitor that comes today! After the first six, I may just lift the bottle, then put it back down, but I will hoist it.
Odd Beer Names
Old Speckled Hen, Shaftebury 420 Brilliant Lager, Hell for Certain. Those are three of the ten odd beer names, with nice bottle pics, that you can find here. The people who put it together have a juvenile sense of humor, but it's still worth checking out. "Moose drool" is my favorite. It reminds of that old joke: What's the difference between Virginia and West Virginia? In Virginia, Moosehead is a beer. In West Virginia, it's a misdemeanor (long-worn TDE readers realize I just posted my first truly dirty joke in five years, but I couldn't resist; it's been a long week).
The Other Brewed Beverage
I detest coffee: I hate the smell, I hate the taste. Thing is, it's one of those drinks I wish I enjoyed. I think a coffee mug looks cool, a lot of cool people drink coffee, I like caffeine buzzes, and I'm told it's good for hangover. Plus, the universal joy-killers have been trying to tear down coffee for thirty years by pointing out its supposed adverse health affects, with little or no effect (as a professor once commented to my class, "Coffee is so much fun to drink, it must be bad for you, but they can't figure out why"). Unfortunately, I just can't choke the stuff down, despite coming from a family of coffee drinkers.
Anywaaaay, this story about McDonald's caught my eye: McDonald's Corp. on Tuesday began a more than $100 million marketing campaign including TV, radio, print, online and outdoor ads for its McCafe line of espresso drinks. The drinks are now being rolled out to the chain's 14,000 U.S. locations. I've worked with quite a few McDonald's franchisees (thanks to a friendly referral source from Detroit). I smirk when I see stories like this because they don't reflect the huge cost McDonald's imposes on its franchisees as part of this roll out. McDonald's HQ will (if the franchise agreement works as normal) pay for the marketing campaign, but each restaurant franchisee had to pay the huge cost to put in the espresso machines and related equipment . . . and they would have been required to use a particular type of machine and related equipment . . . and the particular type is usually the very expensive type. Typically, big franchisors like McDonald's are about as cost conscious in such matters as a drunken military commander with an unsupervised budget building his own personal latrine.
Light Up
I also hate cigarettes. I've tried them twice, and both times I thought I would die. I also hate cigarette smoke, and I still harbor resentment from my days as a stock boy at K-Mart and my quotidian job of sweeping up scores of cigarette butts from the sidewalk (cigarette smokers, especially back in the 1980s, tended to think "just one butt" isn't really littering). The only thing I like about cigarettes: The stale cigarette smoke smell, as long as it's not in my house (I think the smell reminds me of frequenting bars in the late afternoon before they get busy, one of my favorite past times over the past 25 years). I've also enjoyed hearing my smoker brother telling my nieces and nephews (after they accost him with, "Smoking's bad. Why do you smoke?), "I smoke because it makes me look cool." For those of us who grew up with "Smoking isn't cool" propaganda in the 1970s and 1980s, it's hilarious.
Anywaaaay, even though I hate smoking, I hate the anti-smoking laws even more. I don't hate laws that prohibit smoking in public buildings. I think that's a judgment call that a local governing body can make. But I hate laws that prohibit smoking in privately-owned establishments that are open to the public. It's an unsettling intrusion into ownership rights. What's next, you wanna regulate the menu? Oh wait, that has already started, too. How about telling me who I can and cannot admit into the restaurant? Oops, that started in 1964. Maybe the State just wants to come in and become business partners in our biggest corporations? Ooops again!
Given my intense dislike of every State intrusion into property rights, I applaud this dude: A local bar owner who lit a cigarette Monday inside the Erie County Health Department to prove the state's smoking ban lacks clarity got a clear message from health officials.
