Published on: May 7, 2012
...with brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary...• The
GlobeGazette.com reports that four Iowa communities in which Hy-Vee operates - Mason City, Cedar Falls, Spencer and Waterloo - have been designated “Iowa Blue Zones,” which means they “will receive assistance from national experts to develop and implement a blueprint for making permanent environment, policy and social network changes that transition people into healthier behaviors.”
Hy-Vee has been highly supportive of the Iowa Blue Zone movement, which has as its goal making Iowa the healthiest state in the country by 2016. It currently ranks 16th.
•
Reuters reports that PepsiCo is being sued by the heirs of Richard Ritchie, who developed the formula for Pepsi-Cola back in 1931.
The Ritchie family is looking for undisclosed damages and assurances that they can "tell their father's extraordinary life story without interference or the threat of litigation" from Pepsi; the story says they want to be able to share his documents “with historians, collectors and film producers.”
PepsiCo has not commented on the lawsuit.
•
Advertising Age reports that Cee Lo Green - known lately for appearing on NBC’s “The Voice” with his cat, has re-recorded the old Meow Mix jingle ... and you can listen to it
here.
According to the story, “Meow Mix is pledging to donate one pound of cat food for each download to PAWS/LA, a group that provides assistance ‘to low-income seniors and people disabled by a life-threatening illness, in order for them to keep and care for their pets’.”
• The
Miami Herald reports that Prestige Lager, from Haiti, won the Gold Award for American-Style Cream or Ale at the 2012 Brewers Association World Beer Cup competition in San Diego.
I’d just like to point how that almost two months ago, I wrote about having a fabulous roasted duck sandwich at a bar in Cambridge, massachusetts, and washing it down with Prestige, which I raved about. If you don;t believe me, check it out.• Meanwhile, the
Denver Post reports that “Colorado breweries on Saturday night brought home 27 medals - 13 of them gold - at the World Beer Cup ... Longtime Denver brewery Bull & Bush had an outstanding showing, getting called to the podium four times. The brewery and pub, which has been brewing since 1997, won gold in the English-Style India Pale Ale category for its Man Beer and gold in the field/pumpkin beer category for Turnip the Beets.
“The 9th annual competition included 799 breweries from 54 countries and 45 U.S. states entering 3,921 beers in 95 beer style categories...”
• The
New York Times has a piece about Bend, Oregon, which like a lot of communities has been enduring its share of economic problems: “Just four or five years ago, Bend was a New West boomtown, one of the fastest growing municipalities in the United States, luring Californians and others rich with real estate equity to buy relatively inexpensive homes here. Then it all fell apart. The housing market collapsed, employment plummeted. People who had been wealthy enough to live off investments and rental income no longer could.”
What has helped bend survive the troubles, the
Times suggests, is beer - a large number of craft breweries is a magnet to tourists, and the environment has proven to be a magnet to entrepreneurs. Jobs get created ... beer gets brewed, bought and consumed ... and the circle of life rolls on.
“While places like Seattle and Denver and Brooklyn and Delaware can claim impressive craft brewing scenes, and a weirdly large number of people nationwide now speak of hop fetishes and beer crushes, Bend is a per capita powerhouse. With 80,000 people surrounded by not much of anything - with no Interstate, no university, and the closest major city 160 miles away across steep and snowy mountains - beer has had room to make a difference.”
Last Friday, when I mentioned that I was moving to Portland, Oregon, for a month this summer to teach at Portland State, I almost immediately got an email from an MNB user who invited me to come to Bend. After reading the Times piece, I may have to take him up on his offer...