Names

Considering last night's cider fiasco these two blog posts about cider caught my attention. First, This Week in Germany (TWIG) posted about a fight over the right to call a German cider Apfelwein. It seems that an EU commission received a proposal to limit usage of the word wine (wein in German) to products made from grapes only. The next post I read, from Deutsche Welle (DW), explained how a campaign from Germany defended the traditional name of the drink. Last Tuesday the EU commission announced their intention to allow Apfelwein and other fruit wines to be marketed as they are now. So the great Apfelwein War of 2007 has been avoided.

The amusing bit to me was reading how the naming conflict on one post and the resolution of the conflict on another post. The discrepancy comes from the fact that TWIG posts once each week and DW is constantly updating their news reports. I don't fault TWIG since they're not really a news organization. As a branch of the German Embassy in the U.S. their purpose is to promote information about Germany. They just got caught by a quick response from the EU commission.

In other news a Czech brewery named Budweiser Budvar (BB) won a case against Anheuser-Busch (AB) to keep their name. BB started brewing beer in the 13th century, 1265 to be exact, 200 years before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. AB claimed that it has the rights to the name Budweiser which Eberhard Anheuser chose because of its reputation in his homeland and was registered as a trademark by AB in 1878. There are still cases pending over the names "Bud" and "Budvar."

Speaking of beer there I've had some interest about going to the Winter Beer Fest. The festival is Friday and Saturday, but my company is hosting a party on Friday so I'll only be attending on Saturday. I'll start early because as a member of Washington Beer Lovers (WABL) I can get in an hour early at noon.

The fiasco? Since Monday Three Lions has been out of Strongbow. The waitress told me last night that their distributor hadn't made their delivery. On Monday I had some Woodpecker which was good. Last night they were even out of that and I had a few bottles of Magners. It was definitely my least favorite of the three. I didn't hate it as much as loba did, but I wouldn't order it if I had a choice.

So many questions.

As one who gleefully welcomes our new Martian overlord I have been struck with an idea. One that might end up leaving me with a ton of work. You see I've been reading The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell and I was thinking about how the armies of Arthur and Gundleus were decked out with the emblem and colors of their lieges. So I wondered what emblem and colors I should be wearing to show my alliegance.

The problem is it doesn't stop there. What titles would the various officers and enlisted ranks use? What sort of rank insignia would we have? What is the official name of our forces? Do we have a salute?

As a defender of the faith I need to know so I can stamp out heresy and spread the word!