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Fathers of American Beer: Adolph Coors

coorsadolphbio
Dude looks like Dr. Werner Klopek from The Burbs.

By: Billy BeerSlugger

For our next entry into The Fathers of American Beer saga we profile Adolph Coors, the patriarch of Coors Brewing Co.  For the first time in our series we profile a brewer who is not based in the Western part of the United States, Golden Colorado to be more specific.

It’s not common knowledge that Adolph Coors was actually born Adolph Kuhrs, the name changed to Coors after he immigrated from Germany to New York. Yes, just like every other Father of American Beer, Coors was born in Germany. Breaking the ranks from his peers Schlitz, Busch and Pabst, Coors did not marry into a family and eventually take over the brewery. He and another businessman bought a Tannery (a place where the tanning process is applied to hide to make it leather) in1873 and made it into his Golden Brewery.  In 1880 Coors acquired full control of the brewery and the rest is essentially history.

The Golden Brewery was converted to make Malted Milk during Prohibition as well as a de-alcoholized “near beer” called Mannah.  It was Prohibition that may have drove him to his death as he committed suicide in June 1929 by jumping out the a window in his room at the luxurious Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  Four years later Prohibition was repealed.

The Coors lineage had been known as workaholics and it is a testament to how the brewery grew over the years.  The Golden Colorado brewery is the largest on a single site and Coors Brewing Company (after it’s merger with Molson) now makes up the world’s 5th largest brewing company. According to the Coors website, Coors became the first American brewer to use an all-aluminum two-piece beverage can in 1959. Coors currently operates the largest aluminum can producing plant in the world in Golden Colorado, known as the Rocky Mountain Metal Container.

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The Rise of the Tater Tot

Tot's are so hot right now.
Tot's are so hot right now.

By: Billy BeerSlugger

Tater Tot’s are so in vogue right now it makes me want to boycott them, however, they’re just too fucking delicious. This simple food is served to you in a restaurant/bar essentially the same way they come out of your oven. There’s really no difference except the price and maybe some chives or scallions you’ll get when eating out somewhere that serves them.

So where did the popularity of the Tater Tot come from and why in recent years have I seen a steady increase in places offering them, especially the hipster places.

Notably, I worked at the Barclay Prime circa 2006 and noticed they were serving them there.  One of the more fancy and best steakhouses in the city and they’re serving the same thing that run down diners serve to their patrons (granted at a bigger markup).  Other places I’ve seen them on the menu is the Urban Saloon and North Bowl, so much so that when my friends and I go either place it’s always brought up how multiple orders of “tot’s” were going to be consumed that night.  My comrade has told me that they are available at Sonic Fast Food Restaurants but I’ve never actually seen one of those. My guess is that Sonic is a fictional corporation akin to one of those companies in the movie Boiler Room.

Where did this phenomenon come from?  Was it the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite that brought the tot back into mainstream America?  Has the tot in some ways always been part of large part of American Culinary Culture?  Americans consume approximately 70 Millions pounds of tot’s per year to the French Fries 2 million tons so the tot does have some ground to make up.  If the tot continues to be adopted as the potato product of choice for the hipster set and the trendy establishments they frequent, you may well see the tot challenge the fry for it’s dominance. Will we see McDonalds, Burger King and other fast food places start to carry the tot? Only time will tell, in the mean time grab yourself a big bag of tot’s at the supermarket, a pack of your favorite shredded cheese and get totted up!

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Digital 3D: Lousy name, Great experience

christmascarolposter-790607By: Sean Millski

I went into my first new 3D movie, The so-called Digital 3D, thinking it was going to be like the 3D movies of old, the ones I grew up with…Blurry, oddly colored images briefly darting off the screen, flying over the audience and into your face…. but I was way off, it wasn’t like that at all. It was much, much better.

As a movie buff, I would’ve ran to the theater to see this new technology if someone had come up with some cool, kick-ass new name meant to distance themselves from the old 3D format or to take a second and say “Hey man, This is something different” but they didn’t. They just added the word digital and I guess hoped that would do it. That monumental marketing failure has left me, and the rest of the movie-going public, slow to catch on to the new way to watch movies. It‘s no longer a momentary parlor trick that happens a few times during a hazy green and red colored flick. The new and vastly improved effect is an amazingly realistic depth with an even more amazing image clarity! I came away thinking “That was F’ing awesome!”. The digital technology offers a new viewpoint for the movie goer, a new perspective. It’s almost as if you’re in the movie! I don’t know how it all works, something about 48 frames per second and polarized ocular distance, but I know I like it!

The most noticeable and impressive change is the depth. you see things clearly that are in the foreground and in the background and as if they are, in fact, in front or behind each other. The characters have a realistic roundness to them. I can’t explain it, you have to see and judge it for yourself. The preview for the upcoming December release of Avatar, a combo Live-action and CGI animated film looked even more impressive! The effect on the Live action actors was flat out amazing! I think I will buy a ticket in advance for the first time ever.

So what did I go see? I went to a Loewes/AMC theater to see the IMAX presentation of Disney’s A Christmas Carol shown in Disney’s own Digital 3D format. I was Psyched but was disappointed to find that AMC’s IMAX screen isn’t the huge, 7 story wrap around I thought it would be. Instead it’s a flat, traditional screen that’s maybe a little bigger than normal. You also still need to wear 3D glasses. The new glasses aren’t green and red anymore, they’re both tinted black in a plastic, one-size-fits-all frame that you drop into a collection bin on your way out of the theater. They need to work on that end of things.

As far as A Christmas Carol was concerned ,I’ll give it a B-. It was good but we all know the story so no surprises there. Jim Carey’s face is flawlessly reproduced as a withered, bitter Ebenezer Scrooge. Gary Oldman, Cary Elwes and a few other actors are also easily recognizable. The facial details of some of the minor characters could use some work though. Also impressive is Jim Carey’s voice performances of Ebenezer and all three spirits. Gary Oldman also put in a great voice performance as Jacob Marley , Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim.

Over all, I think I expected more imaginative storytelling from Disney but the IMAX Digital 3D, albeit horribly named, made it all worth while.


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How To Secure Your Wireless Network

wireless_cablesBy: Billy BeerSlugger

First of all, I’d like to thank you for allowing me to steal your internet this whole time. I just feel kind of guilty now that I’ve downloaded all the porn on the internet using your signal that I thought I’d tell you how to put a password on your wireless network so that someone else doesn’t do the same thing to you.

Seriously though, if you have a Wireless Internet connection and it’s not protected by a password you may be opening yourself up to a host of security problems not to mention other people stealing your bandwidth so you can’t download your own porn as fast as you could be.  You definitely don’t want to be liable when the weird dude down the hall from you grabs some kiddie porn using your Wireless Network.  Everyone knows you don’t download kiddie porn on your own internet service, you go to your buddies house or you steal an internet signal from the stupid person with the unsecured network in your apartment building.

So I’ll assume that you can actually access the internet from your Wireless Router but never had to put a password in to connect to it (If you have secured your wireless network you can probably skip the rest of this article).

Here’s what you can do to try and set the password  but before I tell you I want you to know that I’m not liable if you fuck something up.

  • Using a network cable you should temporarily connect your computer to one of the open network ports on your wireless router (any port that isn’t labeled Internet, WAN, or WLAN). If you need to, turn your computer on. It should automatically connect to your router.
  • Next, open Internet Explorer and type in the address to configure your router.
  • You might be prompted for a password. The address and password you use will vary depending on what type of router you have, so refer to the instructions included with your router.
  • As a quick reference, this table shows the default addresses, usernames, and passwords for some common router manufacturers.
Router Address Username Password
3Com http://192.168.1.1 admin admin
D-Link http://192.168.0.1 admin *
Linksys http://192.168.1.1 admin admin
Microsoft Broadband http://192.168.2.1 admin admin
Netgear http://192.168.0.1 admin password

Internet Explorer will show your router’s configuration page. Most of the default settings should be fine, but you should configure three things:

  • Your wireless network name, known as the SSID. This name identifies your network. You should choose something unique that none of your neighbors will be using.
  • Wireless encryption (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), which help protect your wireless network. For most routers, you will provide a passphrase that your router uses to generate several keys. Make sure your passphrase is unique and long (you don’t need to memorize it).
  • Your administrative password, which controls your wireless network. Just like any other password, it should not be a word that you can find in the dictionary, and it should be a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. Be sure you can remember this password, because you’ll need it if you ever have to change your router’s settings.
  • The exact steps you follow to configure these settings will vary depending on the type of router you have. After each configuration setting, be sure to click Save Settings, Apply, or OK to save your changes.

That should be it.  You should now be able to connect to your wireless network using a password and thus thwarting the efforts of would be child pornography downloaders.

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lala.com: A Music Site a Step in the Right Direction

lala_logo_howitworksBy: Robby RipChord

lala.com is a site that streams music to you via your web browser.  They have over 8 million licensed songs to hear for free.  They have whole albums, singles, every genre and time period you could want.  You can even listen to New Releases the day they come out all over the internet. Well you’re waiting for the catch right?  Well here’s the catch, you can only hear them once in they’re entirety.  After that you get a 30 second preview. So say you want to listen to Dire Strait’s, Money For Nothing again, well you get a 30 second clip of it and are asked to buy the song (hint: if you go to a different computer you can hear the song again for free.).

The beauty of this is that it’s all licensed content and there’s tons of it.  There’s 8 million songs.  You could listen to a couple of albums a day for free.  If you really like the album, you buy it.  If you really like a particular song, pick that one up for .89 cents or so.

Go back to the 60’s and listen to some great music from that decade. Find the albums that defined the 70’s.  Listen to the entire Phil Collins catalog from the 80’s.  Recheck the Fugees, The Score. It doesn’t matter because there’s so much music on there that you may never get to listen to all of it in your lifetime.  So check out Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, find an album you’re interested in and listen to it on lala.com.

Studies have found that people have to problem paying for music they really like.  In fact, Illegal Downloaders spend more money on music than people who do not download illegally.  Why is that you ask, because more than half the time someone will illegally download an album just to hear it. If it sucks they simply delete it, but if it’s good a person is more inclined to go out and purchase the album or download it legally.  lala.com takes the illegal downloading step out of that equation and lets you hear the entire album once for free. Enjoy it and download it, if not move onto another album or artist. It’s that simple. Grab your headphones, take them to work and plug them into your computer audio jack.  You just got yourself an all day music fest friend. Enjoy!

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Andre Agassi Book Backlash

A Mullet can't really get more bad-ass than this.
A Mullet can't really get more bad-ass than this.

By: Bones

I’m tired of people jumping all over Andre Agassi about his recently released autobiography, ‘Open’. As you probably have heard, his book reveals that he hated tennis most of his life, his famous lion mane of a haircut in the early ’90s was a hair piece, and that he used meth while still an active player, and then lied about it to the ATP, tennis’ governing body.

Since its release, it seems that anyone and everyone has condemned Agassi- one of the most common refrains I’ve heard is that he is being incredibly selfish in tarnishing the reputation of tennis though his book. Are they kidding? The only reputation that he is tarnishing is his own. I don’t feel anything less or more towards the sport because it turns out that one of its players has had some serious issues. It seems to me that those saying that are the ones being selfish- attacking someone that seems to be telling the truth about his life and saying that he should’ve sat on the information, no matter how that affected him further, in order to save the sport’s reputation. Another thing I’ve heard a lot is a knee-jerk condemnation of his meth use, and subsequent lying about it. Martina Navritilova, a tennis legend in the women’s game, went as far to say that Agassi, to her, was on the same level as A-Rod in terms of his drug use. That statement is so ill-advised that it is embarrassing for Navritilova-the difference is not even comparable. A-Rod and a bunch of other baseball players busted for steroid use willingly took substances that were intended, and if you go by the numbers, were in most cases seemingly effective, in enhancing their abilities on the field.

Agassi took, at a very low point in his life, one of the most addictive, damaging substances on earth, something capable of incapacitating people to the point where it would be difficult to hold down a job manning the fryer at McDonald’s, let alone play world class tennis. To compare the two is a joke, and Navritilova, as well as other tennis stars who have come down on Andre including Roger Federer, Raphael Nadal, and Marat Safin need to take a serious look at the way they view what Andre did. Safin said he should forfeit his titles. To quote John McEnroe, “you CANNOT be SERIOUS!”. Yes, he lied about his use to the ATP- but honestly, who would’nt? Once again its a case of people getting on their high horse and claiming they would do things differently if put in situations they know nothing about. Its sad that everyone’s reaction is always to pile on someone who is down. I watched Agassi’s interviews, and to me he seems like an eminently likable, straightforward guy who actually has gotten something that helped him by coming clean about a life full of lies. It seems that the debate is whether he did it for money, but trashing your own reputation by revealing all these personal items, when you don’t need the money whatsoever, seems unlikely.

Personally, I admire the way that he went about it, and I think that all those condemning him should cut the guy a break. He’s far from perfect, and so are you. Honestly, if all professional athletes wrote a book about their lives, and were completely honest with it and didn’t hide anything, I think 90% would have some pretty shocking things in it. The road to becoming a professional athlete in this country isn’t like everyone’s else’s lives. It involves dedication, temptation, money, sex and a million others things on a level most of us will never know. To assume that athletes should or would be perfect is ludicrous.

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Mr. T vs. Chuck Norris

norristBy: Billy BeerSlugger

I was having a conversation with someone at the bar on Friday night about who would win in hand to hand (or foot) combat, Mr. T or Chuck Norris?

It’s one of those amazing questions that you cannot readily answer given that both men are immortal.

Here are some well known facts about Norris and Mr. T.

  • Mr. T and Chuck Norris once encountered each other on a lonesome British path. Before the inevitable battle could begin, the earth shit itself and created Scotland.
  • Mr.T once punched Chuck Norris at the exact moment he roundhouse kicked Mr.T in the chest. The result was the 80’s.
  • Mr. T once shook hands with Chuck Norris, or so it appeared, in actuality, their combined power caused an earthquake, which gave their hands a look of shaking to any onlookers, who were probably too scared to accurately testify anyway.

[poll id=”9″]

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9-11 Suspects To Have Days in Court

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Ron Jeremy? You decide.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or Ron Jeremy? You decide.

By: Billy BeerSlugger

According to this article on Reuters the alleged masterminds behind the 9/11 bombings will be tried in New York. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others will soon be “subject to the most exacting demands of justice”, Obama said.

Correct me if I’m wrong here but wasn’t Osama Bin Laden the mastermind of this whole thing? I mean, yes there had to be other people involved but hasn’t the media, the government and every other organization been pushing the ultimate blame on Bin Laden since two days after the bombings?  So how is this guy one of the Mastermind’s when it’s been pushed on the American people that Bin Laden is the guy?  If Bin Laden makes the decisions doesn’t that make the guys that are getting tried Knights, Rook’s or Pawn’s in this Chess match to Bin Laden’s King?

How are these people expected to get a fair trial in the city that they are accused of blowing shit up in?  Seriously how do you get an impartial jury in the City of New York even 8 or so years after they lost 3,000+ of their fellow New Yorkers allegedly to the actions of the guys on trial.  Just not going to happen, you might as well execute these guys before they get airlifted off of Guantanamo.  We couldn’t have had this trial in Omaha, Nebraska where there isn’t nearly as many high profile buildings/targets to hit by potential terrorists seeking to make a statement during the trial?

Doesn’t Khalid Sheikh Mohammed look eerily like Porn Star Ron Jeremy?  What’s up with that shit?  Does anyone else smell a conspiracy here?
Casino41

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Selling out for DJ Hero

It Doesn't actually teach you how to be a DJ. Much like Guitar hero doesn't teach you how to play Guitar.
It Doesn't actually teach you how to be a DJ. Much like Guitar hero doesn't teach you how to play Guitar.

By: Robby RipChord

I’m not really mad at Eminem or Jay-Z for selling out to do DJ Hero but there must have been some serious postulating on both sides before they committed.  Something like this, as a hardcore rapper, can seriously hurt your street credibility in terms of fan base and the ability to sell records in the future.  Maybe they are both worried about record sales for the industry in general and are trying to make as much money as possible right now, who knows.

There’s something different about DJ Hero as opposed to most of the other “Hero” games in that Jay-Z and Eminem are still in a position to sell a major amount of records any time they drop an album.  They could debut at number one just from name recognition alone for the most part and one or two singles on the radio. With the popularity of Guitar Hero and Rock Band it’s an easy progression to try and make money off of hip-hop too and what a better instrument than the turntable.  But while Guitar Hero and Rock Band are highlighted by back in the day bands like The Beatles, Aerosmith, Metallica and others who really haven’t had a viable hit in years (or decades), the makers of the game chose to go with current rap/hip-hop stars instead of going with back in the day talent.  They didn’t even get DJ’s to front their product they got rappers instead of DJ legends.  Why not pick out The Beastie Boys, Run DMC, Wu Tang, Public Enemy, Rakim, Salt N Peppa, Nas or one of 50 other artists who deserve to be kind of honored (and compensated) for their role in Rap and Hip-Hop?  We’re these people approached and told the Video Game Company to fuck off, “We’re not going on a video game”?

Do Jay-Z and Eminem really need the money that bad? Jay-Z is always rapping about how much money he has and he’s a mogul but how do you justify all this to your “street” fanbase and becoming overly commercial?  Eminem I don’t really see with the same problem because I’m not sure anyone ever took him for a Gangsta but doesn’t this cheapen his work as an “Artist”? I’m all for people making money but at what cost to your reputation?

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The League

By: Billy BeerSlugger

The League is flat out hilarious.  It’s the sort of entertainment you’ve come to expect from the network that gave us It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The plot lines of the episodes revolve around a Fantasy Football League, the members of that league and the interactions with wives, girlfriends and one night stands.

It comes on right after it’s Always Sunny and this is now considered my favorite hour of television each week.  Any show that has a woman say to her husband “I have confidence in my pussy” while drunk at dinner deserves a full season of episodes ordered. During this same conversation a member of the league (Nick Kroll) notes that his fellow league members’ wife may have a little “Vaginal Hubris”.  Later a music video about it is made by another League Member is shown and posted on the League website.  Eventually the “confident” wife views the league message board and sees the video and more hilarity ensues.

I’ve followed Nick Kroll for awhile and he’s definitely of the brand of Jewish humor that I’m buying at the Supermarket. Check out some of his stuff on Funny Or Die. He shares my affinity for Ed Hardy T-Shirts.