I think it would look great embedded into the counter of a home bar. Does anyone have any other creative uses for bottle caps?All the extras on the bus were post doc geologists and geophysicists from the UCLA lab that I used to be a tech in when I was a working actor trying to enhance my income. Note that the guy at the bar and the guy napping in front of me on the bus is the same person (Ed Ruth) who I had worked with analyzing moon samples from one of the Apollo missions. The spot was shot on Wilshire Blvd, near Westwood, on one of the coldest days of the year. Vega and I were made to look hot by oiling our faces and then spritzing water on us. A best boy rigged a dichroic light on the end of a long pole that he hung out the window in front of me and then shined the light on my face so that it looked like searing hot sunlight (despite the freezing cold air blowing on my water splashed shirt). The commercial aired on all of the televised Dodger games that year (Oly was Dodger Stadium's beer that year), so that whenever I attended a game, I was instantly recognized...and often cheered. It was my "season of fame".I love the old pop tops, the kind that blew out Jimmy Buffet's flip-flops.
If you happen to work for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, your office has a bar, and all "two dozen employees gather there every Friday at 4:30 for 'beer education,' which involves sampling Belgians, pale ales or any other themed liquid buffet."There's no getting around it: South Jersey is a Beer Wasteland.Oh, yeah, there's plenty of BudMillerCoors along Route 70. And there are several outstanding take-out stores.
But try to find a bar that pours double bock or cask-conditioned ale or a West Coast micro. Hell, try to find a Flying Fish, brewed right in Cherry Hill.
"It's true," said Gene Muller, founder of Flying Fish and an advocate of Jersey's beer scene. "We sell more in Philly than South Jersey."
...Muller and others believe South Jersey is hamstrung by incredibly expensive liquor licenses. Paying $500,000 for a license is not unusual: Last summer, one in Cherry Hill went for an astounding $1.6 million. (By comparison, you can get a license in Philadelphia for about $65,000.)
Licensing experts point to the real-estate market, speculation and the scarcity of licenses, which are doled out by municipalities, based on population. More than a dozen South Jersey towns (including Moorestown and Haddonfield) are dry, which further inflates the prices in neighboring communities.
As well as having a neat geographical fit, the two brewing giants would also enjoy better terms when negotiating over the price of hops, barley, glass and aluminium, which have been rising fast. Together they would be better placed to confront flagging sales in the developed world, thanks to a more extensive distribution network. And they would be able to hedge growing but volatile markets in developing countries against the steadier but slow-growing American market.While the Busch family seems determined to hold off the takeover, they only control 4% of the company's stock. Salvation for A-B may come in the form of making its own offer for Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona "that would make Anheuser too big for InBev to swallow."
Two of the world's biggest glassware makers, Libbey and Cardinal International, say orders of smaller beer glasses have risen over the past year. Restaurateurs "want more of a perceived value," says Mike Schuster, Libbey's marketing manager for glassware in the U.S. Glasses with a thicker bottom or a thicker shaft help create the perception. "You can increase the thickness of the bottom part but still retain the overall profile," he says.
Dedicated beer drinkers are fighting back, with extra vigilance about exactly how much beer they get for their buck. They are protesting "cheater pints" and "profit pours" by outing alleged offenders on Web discussion boards and plugging bars that maintain 16-ounce pints, in hopes peer pressure will prevail. And they are spreading the word about how to spot the smaller glass (the bottom is thicker).
Of course, the same thing has been happening with other goods for years, and not all bar owners are so unscrupulous:
Portland's Raccoon Lodge recently started serving pints in 20-ounce glasses, up from 16 ounces. The 16-ounce glasses held only about 14.5 ounces, says restaurant manager Lisa Crombie; the 20-ounce glasses hold about 18 ounces. "We just thought it was fair," Ms. Crombie says. "People were paying for a pint, so they should get a pint."We couldn't agree more, Ms Crombie!
