HOW BURT REYNOLDS SAVED THE AMERICAN BEER INDUSTRY

I’ve written elsewhere about the film Smokey & The Bandit, and the observation that, while it’s basically an excuse for car stunts, it’s also something of a snapshot of modern Southern culture circa the mid-late 70s (albeit one that Photoshops out all the guns, churches and pro wrestling).

But this BoingBoing article by Maggie Koerth-Baker reminded me that it’s also something else: a commentary on the state of the American beer industry.

Young people watching the film today might not get why Burt Reynolds and Jerry Reed would have to drive all the way to Texas for a beer run. The clue is in the specific beer they were getting: Coors.

I remember people in Nashville making a big deal about this, because at the time, Coors was in fact unavailable east of the Mississippi due to federal liquor laws and state tax regulations. One reason this was a big deal was that Coors had a rep for being a damn good beer because it didn’t use preservatives or stabilizers.

The BoingBoing article digs deeper, looking at the state of the US brewing industry at the time, and how home brewing eventually caught on as a response to the mass-produced swill that passed for beer at the time – the exception being Coors.

Which then, says Koerth-Baker, begs the question:

How many of those Makers were inspired to brew something amazing when they discovered that "not terrible" was a possibility? After all, Smokey and the Bandit was one of the most popular movies of 1977. After that, it was no secret that beer could be at least slightly better. Within three years, brewery consolidation had ground to a halt and begun to reverse. Today, there are more than 1400 breweries in the United States.

See? And you thought SATB was just a dumb, funny car-chase movie.

Okay. It was, really. But it IS true that when I moved to Colorado circa 1987, I drank a lot of Coors primarily because of that film.

East bound and down,

This is dF

YOU CAN LEAD A KANGAROO TO A BOWLING ALLEY BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE HIM BOWL

Or can you?



[Via Miss Bawdiness]

Tie me kangaroo down sport,

This is dF

AND THE 2010 LITERARY BAD SEX AWARD GOES TO ...

Rowan Somerville, for gratuitous use of nature metaphors:

"He unbuttoned the front of her shirt and pulled it to the side so that her breast was uncovered, her nipple poking out, upturned like the nose of the loveliest nocturnal animal, sniffing the night. He took it between his lips and sucked the salt from her."

The judges were also impressed by his description of pubic hair "like desert vegetation following an underground stream", and using the image of a butterfly collector like so: "like a lepidopterist mounting a tough-skinned insect with a too blunt pin he screwed himself into her".

There is controversy, as Alistair Campbell was a favorite to win until he went around saying he hoped he’d win.

Which disqualifies me from future contests, I suppose, as I’ve been hoping to win the Literary Bad Sex Award for years.

Which is disappointing, I can tell you.

That said, I write bad sex scenes for fun, not awards. So it’s probably as well.

Lick my decals off baby,

This is dF

DEFROG ON 45 #9: ER WAR SUPERSTAR / ER WAR POPULÄR

I’ve been neglecting this series, I know.

So seeing as how I just bought the 25th anniversary edition of Falco 3 ...

FUN FACT: Yes I really do have the 45 of this (well, the English version). And I used to have the album on cassette tape, but lost it decades ago. Which is why I now have it on compact disc.

Because Falco warrants repeat purchases. Yes.

Baby baby do it to me rock me,

This is dF