What We Mean When We Talk About the ‘Death’ of Flagship Beers

This Is Why I'm Drunk

Not once, but twice last week I read about a presumptive sweeping movement in the beer industry: the death of the flagship brand.

First, it was Chelsie over at Stouts and Stilettos, followed by Derek at Bear Flavored. Two different takes and perspectives on the cultural rejection of the notion that breweries, as a business, might have One Beer to Rule Them All.

Is there truth to this? Maybe a little, but no more than what we could glean from when Andy Crouch wrote about this same topic in 2012 :

So in the end of an era for some pioneer brands, where consumers appear ready to fully embrace their long-developing beer brand promiscuity, the first era of the flagship is over. The ultimate result of the evolving craft beer consumer’s fickle palate is the end of relations with these former beaus, only to be replaced with a…

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Dave Douglas Golden Heart Quartet “The Music of Don Cherry” – Jazz in Marciac 2007

My Diary: Making Promises Inside A Tree Many Feet Above The Ground

Gerald's Rather Strange Diary

June got up songbird early to hang the washing on the line‭ ‬-‭ ‬in the distance another lady was doing likewise with what looked like centurions from a Marian legion of the Late Republic.‭ ‬I looked up to write an invisible poem which started with an angel in sunlight and ended with an eagle of the heart escaping‭ ‬-‭ ‬I vowed to never leave cage door open again and then resurrected my alternative self:‭ ‬he/I danced an aboriginal ceremonial dance to the passing of a friend.‭ ‬That evening I stood outside a deserted house and pretended I could see conversation uttered decades before rise like smoke.‭ ‬On the walk home I lit up a pen and circled sad thoughts floating above a row of laughing heads that I had strung like beads around a multistorey neck‭ ‬-‭ ‬June got the clothes off the line‭ (‬they were dry‭)‬.

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CSRM

Grumpy Railroad

Last weekend on our way to Lake Shasta,  we made a slight detour and ended up at my favorite museum!  I know I am a train geek, I cannot help it!   If you are one of the few that hasn’t been here you really do need to stop and visit. It is in Old Town Sacramento with is a gem in itself.

There are a number of permanent displays,  but the cool thing is the trains in the roundhouse change often,  you never know what you might see.    Also upstairs on this trip,  they had a huge display of photographs!   That was fun and different.    Below are a few of my favorite pics from this trip.   

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Watch “Vintage 1954 Hotpoint Appliances ~ Animated Ozzie, Harriet, David & Ricky Nelson” on YouTube

Miss Back In The Day USA

History
Formation in California
Hotpoint was founded in 1911. The name of the company comes from the hot point of the revolutionary first electric iron of 1905, invented by the American (Wisconsin) Earl Richardson (1871–1934) having formed his Pacific Electric Heating Company in Ontario, California, in 1906.[1][2] It was known as the Hotpoint iron, with its hottest point at the front and not the center. In 1912 the company began making electric irons, and electric cookers in 1919 in the USA. Earl Richardson also invented the first iron that switched off automatically when a maximum temperature was reached.

Hotpoint sign in Great Barrington, MA
It is claimed to have developed one of the earliest electric toasters in 1908, known as the El Tosto, and later, under GE, the Hotpoint brand name became one of the most popular brands of toaster in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s. Richardson founded…

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Springsteen, Bowie, Richard Thompson & The EasyBeats all have Friday on their minds!

The Immortal Jukebox

Damn that alarm! Always too early. Every day. Every day.
 
Funny how I know the alarm is bound to ring yet somehow it’s always a surprise.
 
Another day. Here they come, rolling out their carpet of misery.
 
Mournful Monday. Terrible Tuesday. Woeful Wednesday. Tormenting Thursday.
 
Still, still … I got Friday on my mind. Friday on my mind.
 
Guess Mama was right – I should have listened in School.  
 
Maybe then I’d have a job that meant something to me instead of this endless grind where I’m treated as if I’m no more than a cog in a wheel.
 
Got to get through.

Monday morning punch the clock.
 
Monday night punch the clock.
 
Tuesday morning punch the clock.
 
Tuesday night punch the clock.
 
Wednesday morning punch the clock.

Wednesday night punch the clock.
 
Thursday morning punch the…

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The Star Spangled Banner

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

Many Americans think that we play “The Star Spangled Banner” at the start of baseball games because it is our National Anthem. In reality, it is our National Anthem largely because it was played at the start of baseball games.

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NY City’s Infatable Plugs Could Keep Subway Tunnels From Flooding

New York City already knows the potential risk first-hand. In 2012, superstorm Sandy ripped through the city and flooded its subway system. To prevent future flooding, the city hopes that giant inflatable “plugs,” made of interwoven Kevlar belts and waterproof fabric, will save its tunnels.New York City already knows the potential risk first-hand. In 2012, superstorm Sandy ripped through the city and flooded its subway system. To prevent future flooding, the city hopes that giant inflatable “plugs,” made of interwoven Kevlar belts and waterproof fabric, will save its tunnels.

Throwback The ’90s – Berry Lips And The Choker Necklace

vivalaViv

There was a Chanel make up advertising picture in the ’90s (see the image below) which hugely inspired me back at the time. The model had straight dark hair – middle parted (as you do in the ’90s); she wore a white shirt and the black blazer… The colour of her berry lips popped from her snow white skin and I just couldn’t move my eyes away from her strikingly beautiful face and those attention drawing deep; dark; rich berry lips…

The funny thing is, after over a decade long wearing plum coloured lipsticks, I lately discovered that the coral red is actually a much more suitable colour for my skin tone. So I guess I’ll give it a miss this time knowing that plum/dark red/berry lips are back in again.

The choker necklace, is an accessory which I embraced in the ’90s and I still have’t gotten over the…

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