I Am Not A Flag Waver...

 ...but I do try to show respect for the American flag. After all, it is the symbol of our great nation from its founding, as expressed in the 13 stripes  representing the 13 original states, through today with the stars within the blue field, the Union, representing the union of all current 50 states (no Mr. Obama there are not 57 states). 

 

 So, when a merchandiser uses that symbol in an obvious attempt (as I see it) to solely attempt to increase profit  - on or around the founding day of our country July 4th -  I say fuck him I am not knowingly going to be buying a thing from that merchandiser. In this case, I specifically direct that opinion toward Troy Aikman.

Now that he owns a U.S. based brewery, he is placing American flags on the cans of beer he produces and trying to make it appear as if, or so it seems to me, he is being, and his beer somehow is, patriotic.

 

I do not mind businesses using images of our flag in advertising or on their products. What I mind is when they do it and then boast about doing it to appear patriotic when my guess is that the underlying reason they are doing so is to increase profit. The perfect example of such happening seems to me to be Troy Aikman appearing to be doing that right now just before Independence Day with his beer. More at the source. 

 

Mr, Aikman, in essence, has called out non US beer brands for doing so, putting an image of the U.S. flag o their products, but the thing is, he apparently is doing everything the same except that his company is based here within the USA. That, in my view, does not give him free license to exploit the patriotism, our flag or Independence Day.

 

I would think, a good and truly patriotic citizen, who knows how to respect our country, our flag and our Independence Day and who truly cares about them would never exploit them to such an extent as I think he is doing. I believe he is doing exactly that thought in order to increase his profit and to diminish the profits of other companies doing the same because their beers being made abroad. 

 

As an American citizen (and I am assuming he is one), who apparently considers himself a patriot, I think he should hang his head in shame because while those foreign companies should not exploit our flag, I am of the strong opinion that a truly patriotic American Citizen should not do so either because a true patriot should know better, know enough about flag etiquette and care about our country enough never to do so himself in the manner that Mr. Aikman appears to me to be doing it right before Independence Day! 

 

All the best,

Glenn B

 

 

 

 

THE SUPER BOWL 4:00 minutes left in the game

I DON'T CARE WHO WINS - BUT WHAT A GAME! Gotta love this game, pretty good defense on both sides. A true battle, a better game than any loud mouthed, obnoxious, Patriots fan apparently thought it would have been; and almost as good as any loud mouthed, obnoxious, Giants fan thought it would be. No matter what winds up being the final score, I like it.

Byt the way, this is only the third game I have watched this year. More this year than in the last two combined.

All the best,
GB

The Guzzling, the Grub, and the Games...

...were more fun for me than I had expected they would turn out. I limited myself to only 3 beers before the end of the first game (I would be driving home later), but I pigged out more than I should have done. That was not surprising for me, but maybe little risky since I had a case of medium heartburn, aka: GERD, when Brendan, Julia and I arrived at Onkel Hans' place. I was smart enough to ask Hansie for a heartburn pill, and he was kind enough to give me something, before I started to chow down and wash it down with the Hefe Weisse Bier.

Once we got to his house though, first things came first and we were off to pick up the food for the night at a local pizzeria, and Hans started cooking some meatballs he would be making for us. Again, thank goodness, and Hans, for the heartburn med. The television/gameside fare consisted of eggplant rolatini, baked ziti, and chicken wings from the pizzeria; meatballs and jalapeno poppers (jalapenos overloaded with a shrimp stuffing), mozzarella sticks, chips, pretzels and nuts. On the side there were a few assorted dips consisting of pineapple/jalapeno sauce, chipoltle (spellling?) sauce, hot sauce for the wings and maybe one or two others. There was a decent choice of beverages from orange soda, to coke, to Dr. Pepper, to Kentucky Whiskey, rum, vodka and a choice of a few different beers. Not a bad set up for free (for free for us anyhow, uncle Hans footed the bill).

As for the games, let me clear the air outright - I am no sports fan - though I used to watch football fairly regularly about 20 or more years ago. The last game I watched before this afternoon's was last year during the playoffs, also at Hans' place. In essence I had no real favorites tonight except for the local team - The Giants, though I will say that was a tough call to make because I used to be a Greenbay fan long ago. First things first though, and let me redirect myself to things as they played out in order. The first game between New England and San Diego could only be seen as a good game if you won money, and or if you were a new England fan. Otherwise it out and out sucked as far as it went in the excitement department. It was plain boring for almost all the game. Can you spell lackluster!

Game number 2 for the day though was a different story. From the outright dirty play of the jerk on Green Bay with the dreadlocks (trying his best to look either like a pumped up Bob Marly or a Predator from the film by the same name), to the poor calls or lack of calls by the officials (what offsides, what pass interference, what unsportsman like conduct, and so on), to the see-saw and always close score, to the multitude of turnovers, to the down to the final seconds suspense as to whether or not someone could get it through the uprights, to Brendan and Julia each ribbing each other over who would win (Julia being a Giants fan, and Brendan probably rooting for the Packers just to be the typical boyfriend), it was one hell of an exciting game. I don't care for whom you were rooting, or if like me you were not necessarily a fan of anyone, or even of football; if you watched that game and had a pulse, you know it was exciting. Man oh man it had my heart pounding and my vocal chords straining, as it did all of us. Of course, those 3 scantily clad babes, who were in the stands, wearing yellow bikini tops in -24 degrees temps warmed things up a bit too.

Uncle Hans go to the point of not really caring, but had the Giants gotten that field goal in regulation time, and had it ended there, without going into O/T, he and his brother would have been 3,000 points the better off. As it turned out they had won already one for a quarter in the first game, then another in the second game; so they did okay. Since Hans did not have to drive anywhere, he was already home, he also had the luxury of being able to get tanked, which he did with some abandon. All in all a fun night for all of us there.

I wonder, should I break my habit this year and watch the Super Bowl? Maybe, just maybe, it could be another good game, especially if the Giants play as they did tonight and give the Pats a run for the money. That would be exciting whoever wins.


All the best,
GB