Now compare

Now, it’s only been two years since the brand unveiled the “Vortex Bottle,” a seemingly useless and unnecessary bottle design feature that has somehow lasted 23 months longer than anyone expected. Undoubtedly, the success of the swirly bottle neck has influenced the powers that be at Miller Lite to carry over their brand of “science” to cans. I can only imagine what the supporting market research looks like: “In our study, seven out of 10 brospondants said that when they shotgun cans of cheap beer to the amusement and horror of their friends, they opt for Miller Lite. Of those that answered positively, four out of five said that they have been wounded by the jagged aluminum the occurs in the wake of puncturing the can with their car keys, which reportedly ‘hurts like a bitch.’”

Lawsuits ahead? Sure why not? 1. Campus and underage drinking events mean someone will get alcohol poisoning or get hurt after drinking from these cans. Of course as the industry says Drink Responsibly (and in the ad, “Great Beer, Great Responsibility (with a TM it seems, so don’t go talking about great responsibility even if you are Spiderman’s uncle or maybe Marvel will sue. Hey I found another lawsuit!); but they offered the tool, so go get ‘em. Oh and other shot gun tools are available just search for beer shotgun under images in Google for an example. 2. How about a patent suit? Maybe. It seems Coors tried this innovation path a couple years ago. OK not really. It was a joke as far as I can tell. But one comment said no one would do it. And now the joke is real.

Innovation, as in beer!

Other fun things about the song came up while I poked around. I thought that the style and voice reminded me of something or someone, namely Sting. The voice and the lyrics “have your friends collect your records and then change your number” thorws me back to “I see you’ve sent my letters back and my LP records and they’re all scratched”. It turns out that others agree (per the great Wikipedia). (another video below Gotye vs. The Police apparently thought so too). The Goyte video (below) also has throw backs to Peter Gabriel’s breakthrough videos of the 1980s (like Sledgehammer and Big Time), and Gotye has been compared to Gabriel as well. Throw on top of all that source or inspiration a connection to Ba Ba Black Sheep which connects to Twinkle Twinkle little star (circa 1780 for the Mozart tune) (yet another video parodying Gotye and its source NOTE: this one is a little coarse) and holy copyinspirationcreation Batman! So on a rainysunny weekend, enjoy the music and try not to parse who, what, where, how copyinspirationcreation happens. Just revel.

PS the female singer, Kimbra is great. I pasted one of her videos below too. It’s called Settle Down. More on her in another post. Again just enjoy for now.

Chapters include:

• Contracts Concerning Horses
• Horsedealers, Repositories and Auctions
• Horse Stealing, and the Recovery of Stolen Horses
• What Diseases or Bad Habits Constitute Unsoundness or Vice
• Fraudulent Contracts
• Pleading, Evidence and Damages
• Innkeepers, Veterinary Surgeons, Farriers, Horse-Breakers, Trainers, etc.
• Livery-Stable Keepers, Agisters, and the Hiring and Borrowing of Horses
• Carrying Horses
• Negligence in the Use of Horses
• Racing, Wagers, and Gaming

From the Preface to the First Edition:

The object of the present Treatise is to lay before the profession and the public, in as short and convenient a form as possible, the Law of Contracts concerning Horses, whether it be in buying, selling, hiring, or in any other manner dealing with them; to ascertain the liabilities incurred by parties either on “the road,” through negligent driving, or in “the field,” by riding over the lands of another; also to explain the present state of the law with regard to Racing, Wagers, and Gaming, in connection with the recent alterations effected by the Act of Victoria. The Appendix contains some very late cases, a few important Statutes, and other information which may be found useful for general reference. An attempt has been made, by a judicious division of marginal notes, to make the text as accessible as possible.

Reserve your review copy today!

Darth Vader? Good. Bag Pipes? Good. Darth and bagpipes put together with a guy in a kilt and on a unicycle? I leave that judgment to posterity (and you all).

Bay Area radio struggles to have decent music. I tend to cycle through the few stations that may have something of interest. A recent addition to the dial focuses on 60s. 70s, and 80s. As a competitor points out, the new comer tends to repeat the same track several times a day. Recently the song Escape (The Pina Colada Song) has been playing quite a bit. The funny thing to me is that yoga and health food seem to have been dating and compatibility differentiators for more than 30 years. The style of the song and especially the attire, however, may not be as timeless; just reminders of the end of the seventies and the start of eighties (It was the last number 1 of the seventies and first of the eighties). Oddly that decade seems a bit more sane regarding taxes.

It took more than two years to produce that tax code overhaul. During that time, Reagan went on the road to plead his case for the plan. At a high school in Atlanta, Ga., in 1985, Reagan said they were going to “close the unproductive loopholes that allow some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share.”
Meanwhile in Congress, Democrats and Republicans worked together to merge competing proposals for tax reform. Still in office today, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont was there during the passage of the bill. He says it was a different era.
“We had a lot of grownups in both parties, people who actually wanted the government to work,” Leahy says.

All of which makes me wish there was a world where I could write a personal ad seeking a new politician and find that the one who turned up was already in place. Now that is a fantasy.

Anyway, enjoy the song. Oh as moment of who knew: The song was released on September 21, 1979. The movie “10” which is a rather similar story and also a huge hit of the era was released October 5, 1979. As far I know they were not connected directly; yet they stuck together in my head because of the story lines.