Brands We Like... Vermont's Bag Balm

A while back, I picked up a case of plantar warts. They are stubborn buggers and numerous treatments have failed to beat them so far.  Most times they are just mildly annoying, but on a few occasions they have cracked and really caused discomfort. During one of these periods last year, I stopped by our local CVS looking to stock up on fresh doses of sialic acid.  Spent a few minutes getting guidance from the pharmacist. When I showed it to him, he said to hold off on the acid treatments and that he had just the thing.  He took me across the store and pulled a square green metal can off the shelf.  I was introduced to a great 100+ year old broduct from Vermont, Bag Balm.

Bag Balm was invented over 100 years ago in Vermont to help dairy farmers deal with the effects of wind, cold, rain and snow on their livestock.  It has used the same branding and packaging for all that time. It is a wonderful American-made product.

Tuesday's Cool Tech: YippieMove

In the process of restructuring my personal, family and business email accounts.  A couple of years ago, I had consolidated all my mail accounts into one Google Apps account.   I stored 10+ years of saved personal and professional emails from multiple sources and set up GMail so I could send and receive from all my active accounts.  After years of struggling with corrupt Outlook .pst files, it really was easy to have everything in one place, in the cloud, searchable with Google ....

Of course, there were some complications like how to back things up, how to insure I would have access to my data if I lost access to Google and how to work with Google services like Voice and Reader that did not work with my Google accounts.  Google recently announced a new offering that is transitioning Google Apps accounts to "full" Google accounts.  WE are an early tester and, while there are some limitations, it is really a major step forward for Google services.   I will write more about what is and isn't working with Google Accounts later ...

As part of this effort, I had to split up the 15GBs of mail in my primary account.   Google has some built in tools, but none of them let you keep the same labels/tags after the move.   I looked around and fould some solutions.  The one I settled on was YippieMove.   It lets you move your mail with all data, tags etc intact from one mail account to another.  They support almost all major mail sources as both the source and teh destination.  They also let you select which mail will be move to which source. For $14.95 per mail source/destination, it is a very good deal.   The migration takes anywhere from 3-8 hours depending on how large your stores are.  If you are moving lots of different accounts, they have a batch mode as well.  Our moves completed this past weekend with no issues.   I did have some questions during the process and their help desk was very responsive.

Here's a short video that shows the whole process...

That's the cool tech for this week.   Everybody have a fabulous day!

 

 

 

Sunday's "Mad" Perspective: We Drink Because We Are Men ...

This video has gotten some play around the web the past few weeks. It's hard to watch and not want to get up and want to make a martini or a mojito...

It includes one of Roger's great one liners ... We drink because it is good... We drink because we deserve it... We drink because we are men... Have a great, mad Sunday night everyone ...

Mad Men Sunday Reflection - The Fight That Shook Up The World

February 25, 1964...

The fight that changed the face of boxing and forever became part of American culture ...

"Clay comes out to meet Liston and Liston starts to retreat, if Liston goes back an inch farther he'll end up in a ringside seat. Clay swings with a left, Clay swings with a right, just look at young Cassius carry the fight. Liston keeps backing but there's not enough room, it's a matter of time until Clay lowers the boom. Then Clay lands with a right, what a beautiful swing, and the punch raised the bear clear out of the ring. Liston still rising and the ref wears a frown, but he can't start counting until Sonny comes down. Now Liston disappears from view, the crowd is getting frantic and our radaring stations have picked him up somewhere over the Atlantic. Who on Earth thought, when they came to the fight, that they would witness the launching of a human satellite. Hence the crowd did not dream, when they laid down their money, that they would see a total eclipse of Sonny."

Cassius Clay on CBS show "I've Got a Secret"

Brands We Like: Matusalem Rum

A few years back I was down in Key West for a weekend and stopped in to one of the nicer places on Duval Street for a light dinner.  They had a small bar in the back that was quiet, so I decided to sit there for dinner.

My drink of choice since my divorce had been Gray Goose vodka martinis (OK, you don't have to ask why...), but since I had relocated to the Keys, I decided it was time to explore new things.   I am a big Hemingway fan and had tried a mojito before, but it never seemed to be "right" until I had one made with Havana Club.  Of course, that is pretty hard to get here in the States. I decided to try anyway and asked the bartender how good her mojito was.  She said "Trust me"...   How could I say no???

She brought out a bottle of Matusalem Clasico and said "I know you will really enjoy this...".   She put some sugar, lime juice and fresh mint in a glass, muddled it, added ice, the rum and some soda water.  I tried it and was hooked.

Two brothers who emigrated from Spain founded Matusalem & Co with a local partner in Santiago de Cuba in 1872.  They used the Solara system which had been developed to correctly age fine cognacs to make a unique rum. The name “Matusalem” was chosen to impart to connoisseurs a sense of the aging process necessary to achieve the rum’s unique flavors. It is from the popular Spanish proverb “Esto es mas viejo que Matusalem,” meaning “It’s older than Methuselah.” 

The brand operated in Cuba under family control until the Cuban Revolution in 1959.  Members of the family emigrated to the United States and re-established the company, but due to infighting, the brand languished for almost 40 years.  In 1997, Claudio Álvarez Salazar, great-grandson of one of the founders, gained control and returned the brand to its roots, making premium rums. Today they make three very unique spirits, Matusalem Clasico, Platino and Gran Reserva. The premium rum market has grown dramatically and there are a number of great brands competing for market leadership. Matusalem has been an aggressive and creative competitor in this market.  This video series they launched is lots of fun.

So before you fire up the grill this weekend, remember to stop by the store and pick up some cane sugar, fresh limes and mint, club soda and a bottle of Matusalem to add the 'spirit of Cuba" to your summer.

    

Mad Men Sunday Reflection

OK, so I am a week early, but I am really looking forward to seeing Season 4 of Mad Men.  Big reset for the series. Hopping for good things...

Of course a huge piece of the draw of the show is how well they do the time context. Season 4, aptly, is set in 1964.  Lot's of interesting things politically and culturally...

Here are a few to start off ...

At the movies, Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers explored the dark fears of the Cold War ....

LeCarre's The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, released in 1963, hit number 1 on the Times bestseller list and  showed the reality that both sides played an amoral game ...

Vic Perrin, as the Control Voice, took control of the horizontal and vertical and was scaring the daylights out of kids like me during the second half of the initial season of the Outer Limits

And of course, popular music and a generation were forever changed with the release of this album ...

Meet the Beatles released January 20, 1964

 

Side one
  1. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" – 2:24
  2. "I Saw Her Standing There" – 2:50
  3. "This Boy" – 2:11
  4. "It Won't Be Long" – 2:11
  5. "All I've Got to Do" – 2:05
  6. "All My Loving" – 2:04
Side two
  1. "Don't Bother Me" (George Harrison) – 2:28
  2. "Little Child" – 1:46
  3. "Till There Was You" (Meredith Willson) – 2:12
  4. "Hold Me Tight" – 2:30
  5. "I Wanna Be Your Man" – 1:59
  6. "Not a Second Time" – 2:03

 

 

We now return control ... to you ...  

 

Kick off the week: Great advice from Art of Manliness... Dance Like Zorba the Greek

Another great post by Brett McKay on The Art of Manliness.

If you are a father with a young son like me, there are takeaways on A of M almost every week that will help you be a better father.

For all my other friends, just take a moment today to enjoy Zorba showing his "wild man".

As Zorba says "A man needs a little madness to cut the rope and be free..."

 

Have an awesome week!!! ...john

With anticipation November 2010

He thought we should be ready after 100 years... What do you think?

Stuck for something to say? Check out Plinky!

Plinky is a cool little service that was just acquired by Automattic, the guys who do Wordpress and some very other cool software.

It sends you a new "question" to think and talk about every day.  Definitely can be a conversation starter...

 

 

Recommended: 1000 Awesome Things

I missed 1000 Awesome Things when it first started.  It is pretty cool and definitely worth adding  to your daily feed. 

Recent post about someone sharing their pizza crust with you really "hit home" as I am cutting back on carb intake.

I haven't checked out the book yet, but will probably download it this weekend!