Wednesday, December 03, 2003

L and I had a very nice Thanksgiving week. We went to a very secluded cabin in southern Illinois for three days, then over to her parents' house outside of Boogie for the holiday. We even returned Sunday early enough to catch the Simpson's and unpack. Life is good. While we were at the cabin, we had the experience of driving down a one and a half lane road and having deer stand and eat on both sides of the road while we sat and looked at them. It was pretty cool.

CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

The Boston Globe ran a very good piece about the flip side of the Supreme Judicial Court's gay marriage decision. Namely, the application of divorce law to gay couples. The article makes it sound like it will be a real benefit. It will be, but only for the person in the relationship who has less financially. For instance, now if a couple has disparate financial resources and they split up, the poor one is on his own. If they are married and get divorced, the rich one will be paying support. Now THAT'S equal protection under the law.

WELL, THEY'RE BOTH F--ING CLOSE TO WATER

The Financial Times, which is barred from links because of their ignorant links policy, had an interesting article on the Budweiser controversy in Europe. As the learned among you must know, there is a brewery in the Czech Republic in the city of Česke Budejovice. It sells a beer in America called Czechvar. It is a quite delicious beer. What fewer of you may know is that Česke Budejovice in German is Budweis, and when Budweis was part of the Hapsburg Empire, beer in the Budweis style was called . . . Budweiser. This is parallel to the Czech city of Plzen, which in German is Pilsen, and beers in the style of Pilsen are called . . . Pilsners. Pilsner Urquell is the most famous exemplar from Plzen. I have read that just as Pilsner is a generic name for a beer style, Budweiser was a generic name for a style of beer before the Anheuser-Busch product monopolized the name.

In any case, the Czech brewery wants to use the name Budweiser for its beers, while Anheuser-Busch claims that such use would violate its rights. Thus, in Ireland a "Budweiser" is a beechwood-aged beer from Anheuser-Busch. In Germany it is a delicious beer from the Czech Republic. In England, you could get either. It all depends on the company that holds the trademark in the individual country. The Czechs are claiming that because Budweiser is a geographic indicator (like Parma ham, or Champagne), only beers brewed in Budweis should be allowed to use the name. On the other hand, geographic indicators are pretty unpopular in international trade circles, and Anheuser-Busch is an enormous company. Also, the Czech government owns the brewery in Česke Budejovice, and Anheuser-Busch keeps offering to buy it and produce the Czech beer there. Obviously that Czech beer would get a new name if that were to happen. It will be interesting to see what happens. In the US the issue is settled, but worldwide it is still in play.

By the way, the headline for this little piece is the punchline to this joke, courtesy of German cousin Paul Joswig: How is American beer like sex in a canoe?

NOBODY'S DREAM

The Chicago Sun-Times ran an article yesterday by a woman with Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome. This syndrome causes her to have, if she is not careful, 800 "orgasms" a day. I put orgasms in quotes, because it sounds almost more like a sort of cramp that mimics an orgasm that an actual orgasm. In any case, it sounds like a pretty miserable condition and I was feeling bad for the woman. Then I read further. The high points were:
• her male gynecologist told her she was "every man's fantasy" because she had what amounted to a debilitating condition. I am always a little mistrustful of women with male gynecologists. Could be L's influence, but what does a guy know about what you are experiencing?
• She could never get a diagnosis, but she was reading PEOPLE MAGAZINE and they described the condition. People f—ing magazine? Maybe she read it waiting to see Mr. Ob-Gyn.
• She attributes the onset of the syndrome to the stress of being bullied at work and thus having panic attacks. Oh boy. Now I am thinking this is Jean Teasdale from The Onion.
• Finally, she says the condition started in August 1995. She says her marriage ended in 1995 because of the stress. Hmmm. That was quick. Now I know she is Jean Teasdale.
So, the moral of this story? Unfortunate condition, crappy person to have tell the story. However, she did remind of Jean Teasdale, and that always cracks me up.

DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

There are no links for this. However, in the past month, I have heard Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, a politician in St Louis, and Senator John McCain all talk about other people spending money "like a drunken sailor." I have gone 32 years hearing that phrase about twice a year. Suddenly it comes up three times in a month. These people need to hire a wider array of thinkers and speech writers so that we don't have this sort of tiresome repetition. How about "spending money like a pimp with the Superbowl in town" or "spending money like Rush's pill supplier," or something else original and funny.

5 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

UGC NET Cut off Marks for the category wise list is available. for more details regading comedk Expected Cut off marks
Go here

1:30 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Click on the below link to get all the information regarding CBSE UGC National Eligibility Test Previous Papers.
Know more

11:56 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bits Pilani Cut off for Engineering Entrance are available, For more information
Go here

11:32 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

To get all the required information regarding Teacher Exam Pattern along with the Syllabus,
Go here

5:11 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Price list of all televisions in India with all features, review & specifications.
TV Price

11:01 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home