If you're in Shanghai, by all means go visit the Embassy of Scotch Whisky Culture

Image via WikipediaVia PRNewswire/ —

JOHNNIE WALKER®, the world’s best-selling brand of Scotch whisky, opened The JOHNNIE WALKER HOUSE™ in Shanghai’s Sinan Mansions on May 19, 2011. The JOHNNIE WALKER HOUSE™ is the first of its kind outside of Scotland and marks a new chapter for whisky culture in China. Interactive sensory journeys, inspirational forums and luxury dinners make this house a unique experience for every guest.

“When we talk to people about blending, we don’t lecture or talk at them. We like people to gather round and have what we call a whisky conversation,” says the JOHNNIE WALKER® Master Blender, Dr Jim Beveridge. “The House is inspired by the ‘Whisky Conversation’, and is the first whisky embassy in China creating a new milestone for whisky culture and marking a new chapter in the epic JOHNNIE WALKER® story.”

Read in full here.

Coming up next -- the Scotch Whisky Ambassador? Hurry, the line starts over there ....

Related articles

• Scotch exports soar to £3.45bn (independent.co.uk)
• How the world fell in love with whisky (guardian.co.uk)
• 'Is this the whisky revolution?' (guardian.co.uk)

 

 

 

Quickie: Not Made in the USA Glass Stemware Causes Not-So-Diplomatic Protest

Image by kurafire via Flickr

The following is from the Columbus Dispatch. Apparently, a $5.4 million contract to supply glassware to US embassies worldwide was awarded to a US small business company which then subcontracted it to the Swedish company, Orrefors. Columbus-based Schottenstein Stores did not like that. And now politicians have joined the fray. Excerpt below:   

When diplomats and dignitaries rise for toasts at U.S. embassies worldwide, it soon will be foreign-made crystal stemware that is held aloft.

That has some Ohio lawmakers lodging a not-so-diplomatic protest with the U.S. Department of State.

The State Department says a $5.4 million contract to supply glassware for U.S. embassies was awarded last fall to an American-owned small business - an interior-design company in Washington. But that company, in turn, contracted with Swedish manufacturer Orrefors.
Steuben Glass of New York, which is owned by Columbus-based Schottenstein Stores, says an American manufacturer should have been allowed to compete for the business. It has taken its case to Ohio and New York lawmakers, who are complaining to the State Department.

"All we want is for the State Department to give a fair opportunity to businesses like Steuben Glass to bid on the contract and to help us maintain American jobs rather than sending them overseas," said Michael Broidy, a Schottenstein Stores spokesman.

Exactly, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

"The subcontract granted to Swedish-based Orrefors raises important questions about the right of domestic companies to bid for contracts in compliance with the Buy American Act," Brown said in a letter to the State Department.

A State spokeswoman said Systems Design Interiors is a small business that qualified for a non-bid contract through a federal Small Business Administration program. The company put on an impressive presentation of its capability to meet the State Department's needs, including a requirement for lead-free glassware, according to the State Department.

Read the whole thing here.

Last week AP reported that the U.S. crystal-maker will get a second chance at a contract to make glassware for U.S. embassies after the State Department agreed to do a better job seeking out and favoring American companies.  "The senators said the State Department had believed no American company made the lead-free crystal called for in the contract for U.S. embassies worldwide. Steuben and other companies will be able to bid on the remaining four years of the five-year contract, with most of the $5.4 million total yet to be paid."

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• US crystal-maker gets fresh shot at fed contract (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

April pain and suffering: Life is so Unfair!

Watch out for more DS ecards from someecards where you go "when you care enough to hit send." 

Warning: Someecards.com is not intended for use by people under 18 years of age. It is as they claim - possibly to probably the best site on the Web for free, funny ecards. I can assure you that you won't find their bitey cards in your grocery aisle or anywhere else.  They have greeting cards for every occasion - from important to utterly pointless. Send greetings for apology, birthday, baby, breakup, congratulations, encouragement, farewell, flirting, friendship, get well, sympathy, thanks, thinking of you, wedding, workplace, and holidays. They suggest you e-mail them to friends, family, coworkers, loved ones, liked ones, and anyone else with fingers.

Be forewarned -- just like the Foreign Service -- it is not for everyone, people!

 

 

Da Devil Doesn't Like to Look Bad, Pat

NDS asked “is commentary even necessary?” He was, of course, referring to the Pat, and the Rush shows. You know … Pat’s thing about that deal with the devil ….see the twin videos here.

Now – what do you know? It turns out da Devil does not like to look bad; and writes a letter to a paper in Minneapolis:

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action.

But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.

Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"?

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best,

Satan

(LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS| Star Tribune)

In the Loop's Name That Flu Contest Winners

Photo source: Wikipedia

According to Al Kamen, In the Loop's Name the Flu contest was aimed at finding a moniker catchier than H1N1, neutral on Mexico and fair to America's pork producers.

Apparently many hundreds of entries were received – “from as far away as Afghanistan, Slovakia, El Salvador and New Zealand -- sifted themselves into broad categories: slams on 24/7 media hype; plays on the H1N1 name, some trying to work out anagrams that will be easier for people to remember; and creative ways to avoid defaming Mexico or speaking ill of pigs.”

CNN Flu, Fox News Flu, Ponzi Flu, NAFTA Flu, PC flu – were among the entries that got special mention in Al Kamen’s column on June 19. Not terribly exciting submissions or creative submissions I must say. A Foreign Service officer in El Salvador did submit "Y2K Flu," adding: "The same hype and senseless waste of money. Twice."

But -- none of the names submitted would remind you to run to the bathroom and wash your hands one more time. The PONZI flu may remind you to check your wallet. The PC flu may urge you to check your computer’s temperature … you know what I mean? We need something bulky, severe and scary like SARS; just saying it out loud is big thud, a sure attention getter. We need something solid like that.

Read the results here.

In the Loop Name the Flu Contest

Al Kamen over in TWP’s In the Loop is running a Name the Flu contest. He wanted a better name for this thing – something more accurate than "swine flu," less wonky than "H1N1," in case this virus returns big in the fall. I agree that the name should be “something bold like SARS,” perhaps even catchy (but short). It might help folks remember to wash their hands or cover their mouth when they sneeze.

The 10 winners are promised fine-quality, In the Loop T-shirts. Send your entries via e-mail to nametheflu@washpost.com or mail them to In the Loop, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071.You must include a phone number -- home, work or cell -- to be eligible. Just passing this along. Deadline for entries is midnight this Wednesday, May 13. Read Al's post here.

Doesn’t say anywhere that you must limit your entry to one -- so go for it! Can you come up with your top ten names for this thingy?

Save a Tree - Send an eCard

screencapture from mypunchbowl.com

I used to write those long, Christmas letters to send to relations and friends. I don’t know if it’s a function of age or something else but as the years went by, those letters seemed to be getting out later and later every year.

One year I’ve decided that we won’t send those anymore. Saving a tree would be the best excuse among the several that I did come up with. So one year we did an e-greeting on a mini-disc, another year we did photos in PowerPoint, another year via email -- just to tell friends we're thinking about them and we're fine. 2008 is perhaps the year of the e-cards.

The e-card studio of mypunchbowl.com offers hundreds of beautiful, free e-cards that you can customized with colors, fonts, or images of your choice. The studio provides a simple way to email your friends or even share your e-card on Facebook or Twitter. The company is reportedly striving for an electronic equivalent to the classier (but more expensive) sort of card that you might find in a real stationary store. The service makes use of an impressive card editor which features an intuitive tool along with a textured “virtual paper.” The designs are elegant and not at all tacky. Service is free but requires registration. Mypunchbowl is in the same line of business as evite.com which has its own holiday e-cards in addition to electronic invitations, but the e-cards from the mypunchbowl are just much, much nicer. Another option is called www.smilebox, but this one requires that you download an application in your computer before you can start using their service. So I decided to skip it; too many "live" things residing in my computer already.

When you care enough to hit send That's the motto of someecards.com. If you want irreverent e-cards without the the warm fuzzies, the only place to go is www.somecards.com, number 36 in Time Mag's 50 Best Websites of 2008. One of the top five sent says: “When work feels overwhelming, remember that you’re going to die,” the rest of that most-popular group are a tad too much for this blog. Here's the blurb in its website:

Someecards.com is possibly to probably the best site on the Web for free, funny ecards. We have greeting cards for every occasion - from important to utterly pointless. Send greetings for apology, birthday, baby, breakup, congratulations, encouragement, farewell, flirting, friendship, get well, sympathy, thanks, thinking of you, wedding, workplace, and holidays like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We suggest you e-mail them to friends, family, coworkers, loved ones, liked ones, and anyone else with fingers.

No registration required, and you can cc: your own email for every e-card you send. Just note that someecards is not intended for use by people under 18 years of age. Here's one of the tamer ones:

screencapture from someecards.com

Just a quick note if you are with State. E-cards may still fall under the unacceptable category of materials received in your government email account (clogs up the system and all that) so you might think about these e-cards for private email accounts.

Quickie: Protectern Launched!

© artwork licensed by clipart.com Protectern (Includes tilt adjustable protective shield. Only $459.95 On sale for $259.95 + shipping)

I'm wondering if the shoe-throwing incident has any economic significance for the serial entrepreneur. Something below from my 7Dwarves supplier:

Our beautiful post-modern titanium lectern with protective shield, as seen many times on national TV:

Ultra-contemporary, good looking and light; the massive 25 inch leg diameter adds strength & stability; high desktop at 20 3/4 wide X 15.5; 26 inches minimum to 47.5 inches maximum height; generous two-inch book stop for holding large amounts of paperwork; smooth and easy to use ergonomic round knobs; rolled edges on desktop for comfort while speaking; protective feet insure all floor surfaces remain damage free; easy to transport and/or store.

Above all, this lectern 2.0 design has fully adjustable tilt protective shield made of toughened glass. Supported with 100% assurance to keep the person behind the lectern safe. Say goodbye to duck and cover during press conferences, and other public events. Buy Protectern now!

Same or next business day shipping always * Free customer pickup in SW Michigan eliminates shipping fees * Discounted shipping for multiple units * We have in-stock replacement parts * Not sold in stores *

Note: Proprietary design. All Rights Reserved. Design your own, please.

Quickie: Shopping Anyone?

Get your own - Open publication

I turned another year older, so I thought - why not open an online shop? It used to be that you run away during a mid-life, make-over or whatever crisis; I guess, now, you just open an internet store. If you want to check out the shop, click here or copy this link in your search bar: http://www.cafepress.com/diplopundit. You're not obligated to buy but if you are looking for gift items or giveaways anyway or just want to help restart the economy, please take a look at these stuff. Your purchase would help support Diplopundit's nasty choco/coffee habit while blogging and writing that evasive break out novel of the year. Of course, if you have no use for these junk, just keep reading ... we won't be offended if you pass up.

6 Random Things About Me: Abridged Version

I've been “tagged” sort of, by Jill at The Perlman Update (who writes because it's cheaper than therapy). She was tagged by Earth to Danie, who was in turn tagged by a friend in the Netherlands. I read Jill because it’s also cheaper than therapy:-) I don't have much to say about myself but I'd like to give this a try for Jill...

One: I Heart Books: I was a bookworm before I knew there was a name for it. Some of my contemporary favorites are: Einstein’s Dreams, Griffin and Sabine Trilogy, Book of Embraces, Refuge, A Sand County Almanac, The Coming Anarchy. I enjoy the Robert Parker series and almost all of Carl Hiaasen's stories. They can be an expensive habit, since we like carting them around as we move. But some of my best friends are books. I know - weird. Two: Western Sci-fi Pick: I'm a big fan of Firefly and Serenity. Does this make me a browncoat and a nerd? Firefly, the series is set in the year 2517, after humans have arrived at a new star system, and follows the adventures of the renegade crew of Serenity, a Firefly-class spaceship. The ensemble cast portrays the nine characters who live on Serenity. Created by writer/director Joss Whedon, the series was canceled by Fox after only eleven episodes to my utter dismay. A good series to study on what makes people follow their leaders.

Three: Eating Lamb: I learned to eat lamb in Turkey although I still wrinkle my nose at mutton. My favorite lamb dish is called tandir kebab, cooked in an underground brick oven. The best one I’ve tasted was prepared in Konya, a city in Turkey also famous for the tomb of Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, the Persian mystical poet commonly known as "Mevlâna" and founder of the Sufi Mevlevi order (famous for The Whirling Dervishes). I have tons of pictures but they’re now in storage somewhere, not to be seen again until who knows when.

Four: Favored Fruit: Mango, a fruit that belong to the genus Mangifera, consisting of numerous species of tropical fruiting trees in the flowering plant family Anacardiaceae. I like mine green, sour and spicy, preferably the Mexican variety.

Five: Night Owl: I can stay up until 2 am but don’t ask me to get up at 6:00 am because I get bitey and cranky; not only that, my head is not quite screwed tight in the early morning, and as a consequence, I can’t remember anything before 9 am especially without a bucket of dark coffee to fire me up (a mild impairment generally, unless one has to speak at an 8:00 am meeting). I suspect that I am a night owl anywhere on earth, and elsewhere in the solar system and outer planets. I did not realize that this condition actually has a nice name, Delayed Sleep-Phase Syndrome - sounds like a dream, doesn't it?

Six: The Way I’m Wired: My Strengths Finder 2.0 results indicate strengths in the following themes: achiever, intellection, strategic, learner, input. How much of me can anyone actually change? Maalesef, not much. Beyond a certain age (and I’m long past that age), nothing much could be rewired in my brain. My best managers used my strengths to their advantage. A few worse ones, made me sit still in a corner with duct tape on my mouth (you get the idea).

That's it!

I don't feel comfortable tagging anyone at this time, so I'll take a page from Jill and just recommend the following blogs for you to check out, if you are so inclined:

Political Humor Baghdad Observer is written by Leila Fadel, the Baghdad bureau chief for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered the war in Iraq for Knight Ridder and now McClatchy on and off since June 2005, as well as the 34-day war in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006.

Global Voices Online Global Voices is a non-profit global citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think-tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

Marc Andreessen Silicon Valley "whiz kid," successful entrepreneur, startup coach, blogger, investor, and a multi-millionaire software engineer best known as co-author of Mosaic, the first widely-used web browser, and co-founder of Netscape, the browser; also co-founder of Ning, a platform for social-networking websites.

Freakonomics Their book Freakonomics has sold 3 million copies worldwide. This blog, begun in 2005, is supposed to keep the conversation going. Has six other recurring guest bloggers in addition to the two author. They always have a different take, so its often fun to read.

Danielle Crittenden Author of What our Mothers Didn't Tell Us and the recent Washington novel, Amanda Bright @ Home. Recently she writes about aging: “In my case, I look fine for a 45-year-old. I'm a tired 40-year-old. I'm a haggard 35-year-old. But I'm an astonishing 50-year-old. Go on, check the seams: the jaw-line is pillowing slightly so no intervention there; there are crinkles at the eyes, topography on the forehead. I defy you to detect signs of insurgency.” She cracks me up with posts like this and her presidential IMs. And don't miss her plug for netpets :-)