Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1936. In this ad, the headline reads “Imagine Washing Your Face For 36 Hours!” I can, and it’s the equivalent of listening to or reading about American Politics for five minutes. So try to wash away the noise. With only three days to go until “E-Day,” please make sure you to do exercise your right and make your vote count. Don’t wash it away.
The 117th Session, is hosted this month by Csaba Babak, who writes the British beer blog Beer Means Business. For his topic, he’s chosen More, More, More, by which he’s asking us all to “paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.”
Here’s his full description of the topic:
I have always been obsessed with asking what happens next or what is still ahead instead of simply embracing what is in the present. Ever since I heard about Beer Blogging Fridays, I have been toying with the idea of hosting a Session to paint a collective picture of what the future related to beer will be like.
This month, Beer Means Business has the honour to host The Session and to make this happen. The final picture of Beer Future will be based on what you think we will see MORE of.
Over the last 10 years, numerous topics have been presented and the bloggers who discussed them expressed a rich diversity of perspectives or specific areas of interest. Therefore, I refrain from giving you further ideas or examples. There are no limits in time, space or nature either. I would like you to let your imagination free, and capture ONE thing you think we will see MORE of with an explanation of the idea.
So this month’s Session will be short, both by necessity and because I think the answer to this month’s question has a relatively short answer.
So, looking into my crystal ball, I have two observations.
1. Predictions are a fool’s errand. None of us can really say what the future will hold. Oh, we can make educated guesses, even back them up with charts, history or trend indicators. And I’ll even admit it can be fun to try. But in the end, the future rarely ever looks anything close to what think it will. To wit: where is my flying car that folds into a briefcase? A great quote that illustrates how off predictions can be comes from Joe Owades. Owades, in addition to creating low-calorie diet beer (a.k.a. light beer), helped several early small brewers with their recipes. In April of 1987 he said. “No microbrewer in his right mind should make wheat beer. Five years from now it will be dead (as a commercial product).” Wheat beers of all kinds seem to be doing very nicely, thank you very much. Though not beer-related, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once quipped that “no one will ever need more than 64K RAM.” And these were both smart people who were well-respected members of their industries, knew a lot about their subject matter, yet failed utterly to grasp where the future was heading. I also happen to think (a hunch really) that even most predictions that turned out to be correct were the result of blind luck. So lots of predictions continue to fail, and will continue to fail, and maybe a few will turn out to be correct, but not enough to know who you should listen to and who to ignore. So I think it’s best to ignore them all and follow what you personally like, what speaks to you. At least that way you’ll be happy. There is, however, one thing I believe I can safely predict for the near future, and even the distant future. Then again, maybe I’m wrong.
2. People will still be drinking beer, and with a little luck, more of it will be beer with flavor.
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1971. In this ad, Ed McMahon is asking you to Pick-A-Pair, or threatening you that if you don’t he’ll start tap-dancing … with his twin brother. Please don’t let that happen. So which pair will you pick? With only four days to go until “E-Day,” please make sure you to do exercise your right and make your vote count. Don’t dance around it.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1964. In this ad, it’s election time once again and time to Pick-A-Pair, whether it be six-packs or a new leader. The ad even suggests we should “be sure to vote twice.” Which pair will you pick? With only five days to go until “E-Day,” and one of the most important ones in my lifetime, please make sure you to do exercise your right and make your vote count. But only once.
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1984. In this ad, a poster really, it shows Wrigley Field and congratulates the Chicago Cubs for being the National League Eastern Division Champs. Tonight the Cubs won their first World Series in a very long time. When I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, they were up 4-1, and when I work up this morning in Belgium, it looks like I missed a barnburner of a finish.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1984. In this ad, a baseball player is arguing with the umpire, usually a foolish exercise in futility. With the Cubs big win tonight, perhaps the next game will be full of such arguments. Certainly it should be a very exciting game.
Today in 1904, US Patent 773573 A was issued, an invention of William Koedding, assigned to the William J. Lemp Brewing Company, for his “Automatic Filling Machine.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
My invention relates to machines for filling bottles and other receptacles with liquid, and has for its principal objects to fill bottles from a tank containing liquid undergaseous pressure, to open communication between the bottle and the gas-filled portion of the tank before the liquid is admitted and to continue it after the liquid is cut ofi’, to regulate the admission of gas under pressure to the tank, to fill bottles automatically, and other objects hereinafter appearing.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from the 1950s. In this ad, a man dressed as the Scarecrow for Halloween appears to be ignoring all of the other guests at the party in favor of concentrating on the beer. I think he’s trying to go home with the beer tonight.
Today in 1899, US Patent 635925 A was issued, an invention of William J Gindele, for his “Machine For Preparing Finings.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes these claims:
My invention relates to a machine for preparing that form of gelatin which is known as finings and which is extensively employed for clarifying beer and other beverages; and the object of my invention is to provide a simple, efficient, and inexpensive machine by means of which finings may be prepared by a simple and direct process and without the employment of the heavy manual labor now ordinarily required.
Sunday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1952. In this ad, two ghosts are checking out their favorite haunts. Which, of course, is a bar. How could anyone’s favorite haunt not be a bar? Happy almost Halloween.
