To the last, Dos Equis, I grapple with thee...

Dos Equis has this truly amusing series of commercials out. They center around a man who is essentially a cross between Jay Peterman from Seinfeld and Ricardo Montalban ("Khaaaaaaaaaaan!" Sorry, couldn't help myself).

He is billed "The Most Interesting Man in the World." He usually has at least two (young enough to be his granddaughter) babes at his table, and a much younger and -we can safely assume- much less-sophisticated younger guy who, while resenting grandpa for squashing his prospects, can't help admiring and wanting to be the craggy ol' codger.

The tagline?

"I don't always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis."

Well, now. Let's just say the name of the beer is very appropriate: The first four letters of the second word are, obviously, E-Q-U-I. It is absolutely no coincidence that these are also the first four letters of the word "equine," which means "of, or pertaining to, or resembling a horse." As in "Dos Equis tastes like the drippings of an equine's bladder."

The Most Interesting Man in the World has yet again proven Justin's Beer Advertising Theorem, which states that the quality of a beer is inversely proportional to the quality of its advertising.

Frequent Flyin'

So in the past year, I've had:
-Four Qantas flights
-Four Southwest flights
-Three American Airlines flights
-One Delta flight
-One Jetstar flight.

Based on that, I can guarantee you that the passengers on the Qantas 747 that had a hole blow in its side at 30,000 feet still had a better experience than anyone flying the other airlines mentioned on a routine trip.

Lamenting my lost coffee

I came to a really horrible conclusion a few months ago - that I had to cut back drastically on my coffee drinking.

See, my french press had become my best friend. I was too much of a coffee barfly, to the point where John at Coffee Conspiracy knew what I was going to order before I did.

This is because I absolutely love good coffee (as I love so many good beverages). But it was making me jittery and nuts, and affecting my sleep. So I thought "hey, I gave up cheese and flour tortillas. Why not cut back on the coffee and see what shakes out?"

I throttled back to two coffee beverages a week, down from about 16 ounces daily. Well, it turns out I sleep better and I'm somewhat more calm (hey, I'm still me, after all!). And when I do get a hold of some good coffee, it's even better than it used to be.

Taking Responsibility for Your Words

I rarely see a pointed quote from someone that isn't followed a few hours later with an apology and weaselly, insincere, penitent hand-wringing. The topic doesn't matter: politics, sports, even celebrity nattering. State your opinion at your own risk.

Even if you're fairly on-target.

Let's applaud the exception to the rule - one General Wesley Clark. Given much of the online reaction to his comments about Senator John McCain, I expected his words to be far more inflammatory. But his thoughts echoed my own: Does five years as a prisoner of war qualify a person to be president of the United States? Does commanding a squadron equal military acumen? General Clark's answer was, "eh, not so much."

I'm a bit disappointed at Senator Barack Obama for distancing himself both from General Clark and his comments. I would certainly have awarded him leadership points for saying "General Clark is entitled to his opinions. He didn't make them at my behest, but he is qualified to speak on this topic and he has the same First Amendment rights as any other American."

I would've given Senator McCain the same props for making a similar statement. I'm disappointed that both candidates are playing the same apologist/outrage game.

Speaking of which, I've had many people bring up military experience - or Senator Obama's lack of it. It amazes me that people are making this such a big factor in their votes. No single candidate knows everything about how to form their policies. When considering a candidate, I think it's smart to not just evaluate them, but who they're likely to include in their cabinets. We have cabinets because no single person is an expert in every single aspect of policy making. Think about that awhile.