Someone in Ireland drove into the Guinness factory in Dublin with a truck, and took off with a trailer loaded with 400 kegs of Guinness, Bud, and Carlsberg beer. That’s an impressive beer run.

According to the article:

• “This is likely to be the largest carry out of drink this Christmas” I would hope so. Hmm, who’s up for 500 kegs! Anyone?!?
• “Police will be on the lookout for any large quantity of stolen drink flowing through Dublin’s traffic.” Yeah sure…finding “large quantities of drink” in Dublin will be a breeze. There’s only a bar on every corner.
• “They were able to find the trailer, but all the kegs were removed” Removing 400 kegs from a trailer without being seen…that’s impressive.

Obviously, the impact of the worldwide shortage of hops is starting to take its toll on the beer marketplace.

I would have left the Bud and Carlsberg kegs, but that’s just me.

I’ve been talking about it for years. Blimp Advertising…it’s such an untapped market. :-)

And finally, leave it to Presidential candidate Ron Paul to take advantage of this highly effective marketing opportunity.

As of this post, they have generated $300K towards the $350K goal to make this a reality. Lets hope that they don’t go Hindenburg on us.

In the spirit of the season, below is my Holiday/Birthday Gift list (my birthday is 12/12). I thought it would be easier to publish the list on the site in a central location rather than drafting an email and forwarding it all over the place. I am also not suggesting that I want everything on this list, but I just figured I’d put everything on the table for people to choose from.

Where possible, I’ve linked to the item/product that I’m interested in. In some cases, the link/reference to a product and/or retailer will be directional (meaning, this item or something like this from a similar retailer) and in those cases, I’ll call that out with the notation [sic]. Whether I know you or not, gifts are always welcome

And so, without further ado, Steve’s Holiday and Birthday gift list:

Clothing

Rugby shirts from L.L. Bean – XL-Tall, Atlantic Blue, Thyme and striped that includes those colors

Dress Chinos from L.L. Bean – Size 34″ W x 32″ Inseam, Cuffed, Natural Fit, Pleated, Dk. Khaki, Khaki, Olive, Black

Lambswool Crewneck Sweater from L.L. Bean – XL-Tall, Charcoal, Loden

Mock Turtleneck from L.L. Bean – XL Tall in black, and any other color except Navy Blue (have that already), Cream, White

Sport/Button down shirts from Brooks Brothers or their outlet line “346″. Or a gift certificate. Shirt Size: XL

Red Sox World Series Champs 2007 T-Shirt from MLB.com or other retailer

Sports

2007 Red Sox World Series DVD Set. Its $54 at MLB.com but feel free to grab it elsewhere for less.

2004 Red Sox Playoff and World Series DVD Set. Its $80 at MLB.com . If I had to choose, I’d want this one over the 2007 because it includes the comeback against the Yanks.

Red Sox related Sports Illustrated covers. The more recent ones are of most interest. But the older one of Ted Williams is also very cool.

Patriots related Sports Illustrated covers. The more recent ones are of most interest.

New England Patriots Super Bowl DVD’s. Various prices on NFL.com but may be available elsewhere.

Panoramic stadium photo from New England Patriots Super Bowls or Gillette Stadium

Bigger Golf Ball Display case [sic]

Books and Paper Products

Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm

Trancending CSS by Andy Clarke

What Sticks by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart

Start with No… by Jim Camp

Moleskine Notebook – Either the large hardcover black (plain paper), or the large cahier 3-pack soft cover black (plain paper).

Home Electronics and Computer

Roughly 42″ Flat Panel HDTV, preferrably Samsung. [sic] (This is a dream and I’m half joking here.)

Video Camcorder – I’d prefer the Direct to Hard drive type model but they are expensive, so Direct to DVD will work too. Sony, Samsung, JVC are good brands.

GPS Navigation System for Car – Not sure exactly which one to get. Garmin is a good line. I like the Bluetooth feature, but reasonably, get the most features for the best price. [sic]

Nintendo Wii

A smartphone like the Blackberry Pearl or Curve or the iPhone, although I am not to enthralled about the bad press surrounding AT&T network. I can get a new phone from Verizon in Feb. and I’m eyeing the Blackberry.

External Hard Drive – 500GB [sic]

Gift certificates from iTunes

House and Home

Storage Units for the Garage [sic]

A Storage Shed for the outside to house bigger items

Gift certificates from Home Depot or Lowe’s

Miscellaneous

A reading from James Kelleher

That’s it for now. If I have updates, I’ll add it to the list.

George Segal, Depression Bread Line (1999), Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ

A worldwide shortage of hops will mean higher beer prices worldwide for the foreseeable future. This definitely provides more leverage to repeal the beer tax but weakens this argument.

Today my wife and I took a road trip to New Canaan, CT to visit Philip Johnson’s The Glass House, his highly influential work from 1949 that some consider his masterpiece. The beauty of this structure was its minimalist design and the way its glass walls blurred the lines between the interior and the exterior spaces. And remember, he designed and built this in 1949, 4 years after World War II ended.

The concept of a Glass House set in a landscape with views as its real “walls” had been developed by many authors in the German Glasarchitektur drawings of the 1920’s, and already sketched in initial form by Johnson’s mentor Mies. The building is an essay in minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and the effects of transparency and reflection….The house sits at the edge of a crest in Johnson’s estate overlooking a pond. The building’s sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel; the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground but sits about 10 inches or so up. The interior is open with the space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling. Johnson built several structures in his estate.

Today’s tour was the last of this season and the tour guide said that next season is almost sold out. If you get the opportunity or the motivation, I’d make the effort to go. Its a really neat tour.

Boston Red Sox – World Series Champions 2007!!

This is the second time in the past four years that the Red Sox have won the World Series. I waited a lifetime for their championship in 2004 and now this! This never gets old!!

Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox stole a base last night in the Red Sox 2-1 Game 2 victory in the World Series. That means that Taco Bell is giving away free tacos to everyone in America on Tuesday, October 30th between 2-5PM.

So after Stephen Colbert’s recent announcement that he was running for president, he went on the TV show circuit, including a stop on Meet the Press with Tim Russert. A nice outtake of that interview was a talk with Russert out of character. I’ve never seen him out of character. Interesting.

The Red Sox are in the World Series for the second time in four years, the Patriots are undefeated at 7-0 and looking like they are well on their way to a very special season, and (shudder) the Celtics are looking like a formidable team to beat in the NBA Eastern Conference. In fact, William C. Rhoden of the NY Times wrote a piece about how its such a good time to be a New England/Boston sports fan.

Now about that Syracuse University football program.

Cool, Ridley Scott’s director’s cut of Blade Runner has been released. Hope it makes it to the NJ suburbs on the big screen. Otherwise, may have to pick up the DVD to watch it.

This is a great video. And be sure to go to Morgan Webb’s WebbAlert site to see the links to the actual videos, pages, and classic Internet stars.

If you’re having a bad day or if you are just down, take 20 minutes and watch Professor Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. It will put a lot in perspective.

Sometimes, things happen that make you wonder if there is a larger master plan in place.

A bit over a week ago, I was in Chicago at the Inc. 500 Conference, where my company announced the launch of a new product The Plum Card. I was honored to be a last (but not least) minute addition to the team that manned the booth at the conference as we announced this innovative product.

The minor logistical problem was that prior to being added to the Chicago Plum announcement team, I had planned and booked a trip to attend the Conversational Marketing Summit hosted by John Battelle and Federated Media that was being held early the following week . So I had to adjust my travel plans to fly from Chicago right to SF, which unfortunately meant connecting flights in….Houston(Chicago is not a Continental hub). I dreaded the idea of connecting flights but did it none the less.

Fast forward to Houston…no, we don’t have a problem. I’m sitting on the plane waiting for it to shut the doors to take off to SF. And as I look forward in the plane, I see the one guy get on the plane at the very last minute. As I look at this person more, I realize it was my friend Joe from business school. My friend Joe lives in Mexico City, Mexico. I ended up trading seats with a woman sitting in Joe’s aisle and we caught up most of the ride to SF.

So lets think about the chain of events here: I was added to the team from work that was in Chicago, thus prompting me to change my travel plans. I wanted to stay in Chicago longer, but when I could not find an equitable direct flight to SF from Chicago on that Sunday, I reluctantly traveled through Houston on Saturday. None of my flights got delayed and I was able to make a seamless connection. On the other side, Joe was traveling from Mexico City to SF to visit his sister, and after battling through customs, barely made the same connecting flight I was on to SF. Two friends who attended the same business school in NYC, who live on different ends of North America, run into each other on a connecting flight in Houston, TX traveling to San Francisco.

We ended up hanging out a couple of times while we were in SF. It was great to catch up.

Circumstance. Fate. Luck. All of the above.

Is it me, or does this image remind you of “Big Brother” from Apple’s 1984 ad?