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Michael Rand started RandBall with hopes that he could keep lies from conquering the minds of the weak. So far, he's only succeeded in using the word "redacted" a lot. He welcomes suggestions, news tips, links of pure genius, and pictures of pets in Halloween costumes here, though he already knows he will regret that last part.
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Posts about Beer
The Hold Steady's Craig Finn now has his own brand of beer. Your move, hipsters
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: March 15, 2012 - 2:53 PM
Per NME.com:
The Hold Steady's Craig Finn has teamed up with Signature Brew to launch his own brand of beer called 'Clear Heart'. To see the singer sampling the brew, click on the video above.
In a statement, Finn said of the beer: "When I set out to make this beer, I was going for something with a clear taste and a full flavor. Instead I got a pretty decent buzz. We had a great time creating this beer and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Enjoy!"
The beer apparently contains "a melody of bitterness and citrus notes, the fresh hops and malted barley are in harmony within this golden brew, a full-bodied taste with an easy finish."
Click here for the full story and video. Your move, hipster hopsters!
TFD: Today, Clarence Swamptown considers himself the luckiest man ...
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: February 24, 2012 - 5:32 PM
---------
I’ve been wrestling with this decision for quite a while, but regretfully I need to retire from writing a weekly Clearance Clarence post for the RandBall.
As you know, it hasn’t been a “weekly” post for quite some time. My kids' activities continue to grow and my responsibilities at work continue to expand, and I just keep finding it harder and harder to give a weekly post the time it deserves. ... I made a commitment to write once a week, and as silly as it may sound, it makes me feel bad to continually break that commitment. I know it’s just a goofy weekly post and it shouldn’t take a lot of effort to Photoshop a kestrel holding Matt Tolbert in its razor-sharp talons, but I’m not a writer and I’m not very smart to begin with, so drafting these things takes me more time than it should.
I’ll continue to comment from time to time; that’ll never change. And I know there are people out there that would absolutely kill for the opportunity to write whatever they want on a major-market newspaper’s web site once a week. But it’s time to retire from this thing before I start just going through the motions every week and overstaying my welcome and then Al Davis tries to resurrect my career but I simply have no explosion off the snap anymore and I become a shell of my former self and have to join a dance competition reality show and then inexplicably end up on Larry the Cable Guy’s Comedy Central Roast.
Anyway, it’s been an absolute blast doing this for the last few years. And it’s just so incredibly cool that you ever decided to give a weekly space to this weirdo in the first place. I can’t thank you enough.
Wednesday (Commenter draft: Pub crawls) edition: Wha' Happened?
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: April 13, 2011 - 8:31 AM
You start thinking about vacations. When you're not thinking about vacations, you're thinking about outings. And when you're thinking about outings, plenty of you are thinking about pub crawls.
So on this day -- when we're attempting a rare day-night sports doubleheader involving the Twins and Timberwolves -- we start things off by asking commenters to "draft" their ideal pub crawls.
Veterans of pub crawls know that the events require a delicate mix. You don't want to rush people from place to place, but you don't want to linger too long at one spot. You need organization, but you also need to adapt and be spontaneous. You need a good route that factors in proximity, but you also don't want to exclude good stops just because they might be a little further out of the way. You want people to have a good time if they are drinking, but you don't want them to be stumbling halfway through the thing.
Agree? Disagree? Let's hear it in the comments, along with (mainly) your itinerary for the ideal pub crawl. Feel free to extend beyond the Twin Cities, though it might cause you to need to explain your answer even more.
Mid-day talker: "Hockey fans are the biggest beer drinkers of any major sports league."
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: February 22, 2011 - 12:30 PM
From the New York Times (h/t to Jeff for the link):
The N.H.L. often boasts about improving business measures like higher TV ratings, increased use of its Web site and the success of the annual Winter Classic.
Another area where the league has bettered itself — corporate sponsorships — is receiving a significant boost in a new beer deal with MillerCoors in the United States and Molson Coors in Canada worth nearly $400 million over seven years. It is the biggest corporate sponsorship in N.H.L. history.
It is more than twice as much as what the incumbent sponsors, Anheuser-Busch in the United States and Labatt in Canada, which are owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev, will have paid through this season. The deal will be announced Tuesday.
“Hockey and beer go together,” said Andy England, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer for MillerCoors. “Hockey fans are big beer drinkers. In fact, we have data that shows hockey fans are the biggest beer drinkers of any major sports league.”
On the other hand, we have absolutely no data. But our mid-day talker asks: Are hockey fans really "the biggest beer drinkers of any major sports league." Because we've seen some baseball, football and soccer fans that can put 'em away with conviction.
Why you don't play chess while drunk
Posted by: Michael Rand Updated: September 4, 2009 - 3:13 PMA leading French chess player turned up drunk and dozed off after just 11 moves in an international tournament in Kolkata, losing the round on technical grounds, domestic media reported Friday.
Grandmaster Vladislav Tkachiev arrived for Thursday's match against India's Praveen Kumar in such an inebriated state that he could hardly sit in his chair and soon fell asleep, resting his head on the table, Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
Indian papers carried pictures of the world number 58 sleeping and the organizers' futile attempts to wake his up. The game was awarded to the Indian on the technical ground of Tkachiev being unable to complete his moves within the stipulated time of an hour and 30 minutes, the paper said.
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