News Cut: January 8, 2008 Archive

Mystique madness

Posted at 5:33 AM on January 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts replaced its chief executive officer on Monday, reaffirming the danger of a marketing strategy that depends on the average American's desire for something being inversely proportional to his ability to get it.

The problem with the strategy, of course, is once you give us something we can't have, eventually we begin to wonder what the big deal was in the first place.

Nobody was better at the strategy than Krispy Kreme, a North Carolina regional franchise that eventually spread to Minnesota. From Maple Grove to Waite Park to St. Paul, each choreographed store opening featured long lines of traffic, and live radio broadcasts from stations that figured if a doughnut store was opening, it must be news.

And it was, until some months later when Minnesotans realized that they had sat in a traffic jam to buy... a doughnut. Two years later, the company shuttered its New Brighton production facility. Store closings soon followed.

You want ugly? This is ugly.

The company's stock, which was trading as high as $50 when there was still a Krispy Kreme mystique, is trading for a little over $3 at yesterday's close.

Minnesota's Krispy Kreme addicts learned the same lesson here that any beer drinker east of the Mississippi learned decades ago about Coor's beer (Former Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski used to load up the team plane with Coor's whenever the team played on the West Coast). It's called "mystique madness."

Sometimes, things taste better, when you can't have it.

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Sink it. Drink it.

Posted at 1:00 PM on January 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (3 Comments)

The sad reality of binge drinking on college campuses -- aside from the fact it leaves some kids dead -- is that few people realize the extent to which they're encouraged to drink themselves to death.

BPONG.Com, is lauding a successful, it says, World Series of Beer Pong in Las Vegas. It was sponsored by Southern Wine and Spirits, which claims to be the nation's largest liquor distributor, and also advises people to drink responsibility. (Neither bpong.com nor Southern Wine and Spirits has yet granted my request for an interview on the subject.)

Beer Pong (known in some quarters as "Beirut"), may be the single biggest reason that binge drinking has become even more popular on the nation's college campuses.

Here are the rules, according to a Web site called BJ's Beer Pong, which is more than happy to sell you all the equipment you need, organize tournaments, even sign you up as an official Beer Pong salesperson:

1. On a table shorter than 8 feet your elbow may not pass the back edge of the table. On tables 8 feet long your shoulder may not pass the back edge of the table.
2. If both teams are new to the table players must shootout to see which team goes first. Players must shoot at the same time while looking into the eyes of their opponent. Challengers always shoot second.
3. Reorganize cups at 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for an easier, faster game. Reorganize cups at 6 and 3 for a more challenging game. Another option is allow two re-racks per side at any point during the game, except mid-turn.
4. Cups may only be reorganized at the beginning of your turn. It is your responsibility to ask for a re-rack, your opponent does not have to re-rack unless you remember to request one.
5. Distracting your opponent is allowed as long as you are not obstructing your opponent's ability to see the cups.
6. If you and your teammate make both your shots consecutively you get both the balls back and you get to shoot again.
7. Teammates alternate drinking cups as they are made.
8. Bounce shots: if a ball goes directly from a player's hand to the table top and then into a cup it counts for 2 cups. If a bounce shot is attempted the defending team may grab or swat the ball out of the air before it reaches the cups. (pay attention)
9. If a ball drops in your cup for any reason the cup must be drunk and removed (this does not count if it was dropped in by a non-player, unless that person was giving a guest shot).
10. Once a ball bounces off anything (i.e. the beer pong table, rim of a cup, your forehead) you may grab it before it falls into a cup.
11. If you knock over a cup it is lost.
12. If you touch a ball in the air before it bounces or crosses the edge of the table you must remove and drink 2 cups.
13. Only girls can blow. If a ball is spinning around inside a cup girls can blow in the cup to try and get the ball out. However, if a ball is blown on in one cup, and then that ball goes into another cup, both cups must be drunk.
14. Last cup policy: if your opponent makes his shot into your last cup, you and your teammate have the opportunity to rebut. This means you and your opponent get one last chance to shoot till you miss. If you can make all you the remaining cups without missing both teams return to 3 cups.
15. If there are only 2 cups remaining and both are made consecutively in the same turn there is no rebuttal. If there is only one cup remaining and both teammates make their shots into that cup in the same turn the game is over.
16. No fist fighting (Fist fighting results in disqualifications).
17. All disputes will be settled by management / the house.

If you don't have the full Beer Pong equipment, you can always play online.

And make sure you start every game with the national Beer Pong anthem (note: parental discretion advised).

There's a ranking system for Beer Pong players, and a Minnesotan occupies the #4 spot, according to the Web site, Challenge the Champ.

Binge drinking is more ingrained in the target audience more than anyone could possible have imagined.

Are you a Beer Pong player? I want to talk to you.

Update: More information on the brains behind Beer Pong here.

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U.S warship video released

Posted at 3:57 PM on January 8, 2008 by Bob Collins (5 Comments)

The Pentagon has just released video of the confrontation Sunday between U.S. warships and high-speed boats from Iran.

You can view it here.

The Associated Press report says a heavily accented man could be heard saying, "I am coming to you. ... You will explode after ... minutes." See if you can pick it up.

From the Hopper's bridge, after spotting the approaching Iranian boats, a Navy crew member says over the radio: "This is coalition warship. I am engaged in transit passage in accordance with international law. Intend no harm."

Often uneven and shaky, the video condenses what Navy officials have said was a 20-minute or so clash. It ends with a blank screen, as only the audio of the Navy's final warning can be heard, just after the voice warns that they are coming.

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