What does this innocent looking child eat when her brother comes home from school and announces that he wants and after school snack.
The Madison House Chef explains.
"My feet are cold and my legs are turning purple."
Chateau Chantal, a favorite winery up north (in the Old Mission Peninsula) still makes a little wine the old fashion way.
Every fall, winemaker Mark Johnson recalls a 7,000 year old tradition of wine making using the simplest of tools: his feet. With this year's incredibly ripe fruit his wine stomp result will be bottled. His commentary and the accompanying video are worth a look. Cheers!
...And Now A Word From Our Sponsor
When it comes to the beer, I am a homer. I grew up in Wisconsin and came of drinking age prefering in-state beer (as well as a decent collection of German and Canadian beers (when I could afford to drink imports) and Guiness (which is in a class all by itself)), which, of course, meant Miller and G. Heilman products. This has not changed, although since the last trip to Europe included a trip to Belgium, Belgian beers (the Trappists know what they are doing) easily make the list.
I am not fond of Budweiser, never have liked it, I will drink Stroh's or Black Label before I drink Budweiser, but I do not wish the company ill. I recognize that a great many people enjoy the beer, I simply happen not to be one of them.
This all serves as prelude to the story of the day (and reveals my biases), Budweiser has launched a new commercial campaign of such glaring jingoism that it is dumbfounding. Miller has been whacking away at Budweiser for a few months now in their ads, poking fun at their status as "King" of beers and claiming that Miller tastes a great deal better. Budweiser, in response to these ads, has decided that they wanted to be just like politicians late in an ugly campaign, and has gone negative. Miller was purchased by South African Brewing last year, and this is what Budweiser has decided to highlight, painting Miller as a 'foreign' beer because their parent company is South African Brewing (home office is actually in London, England, not South Africa, but that hardly matters). The ad in the Chicago Tribune spoke of drinking a 'real American beer' this Memorial Day weekend, not a South African beer. Of course, Miller is still produced in Milwaukee.
It reminded me of the hacks in Washington D.C. who renamed the French Fries, calling them Freedom Fries. The joke in that instance being that fries were actually invented in Belgium. Of course, when people are bound and determined to act like jingoistic louts, facts rarely get in the way.
Budweiser chose not to respond to critical ads by treating the subject light-heartedly or even on the respective merits of their beers. Nope, they decided to poke the stick of xenophobia at a product in the hopes that all would be offended that such a foreign product would dare to speak against a real American product. What a joke. Trying to sell more beer by appealing to people's fear of foreigners seems to be the product of a different era, and not a positive one at that.
Patriotism is a positive understanding of love of country, and can create a sense of good will for the many things that our nation has done, can do and will do. If that feeling turns from a love of country into a fear of others, then we have lost our way.
I don't think that Anheuser-Busch was trying to be jingoistic or xenophobic, I think that they were trying to blunt a decently creative ad campaign. Unfortunately they went too far. Hopefully they will tone it down. In the meantime, drink Miller because we should never reward those companies who speak to our fears instead of our hopes.
And yes, I understand that this is just about beer, but sometimes we need to look at the larger issue because that is what we should do.
