As always, the mayors of the World Series cities are betting local products on the outcome. The mayor of St. Louis is offering up Budweiser and Twinkies (I am not kidding, even though that sounds like what a sad lonely college student would buy to drown his sorrows after a breakup.). The Detroit mayor is offering up a much-better beverage, spicy Vernors ginger ale.
Which, of course, leads me to my favorite story about Vernors: When Rob was a kid in LA, his teacher asked the class if anyone knew what Detroit was famous for. Rob, raised by a dad from Pontiac, Michigan, waved his hand feverently, sure he knew the answer. "Ginger ale!" he crowed.
Well, she meant cars, but close enough.
About Me
- Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
- I'm an entertainment editor at MSNBC.com, and have maintained Pop Culture Junk Mail since August, 1999. The New York Times called the site "one of the best places to explore pop culture online," and Entertainment Weekly included it on their Top 100 Web Sites list. If you like weird food, strange products, and 1970s and 1980s nostalgia, PCJM is your home away from home.
I have a brand new BOOK, written with Brian Bellmont. "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s." Buy it online, and follow our retro reminiscing on our GenXtinct blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
1 comment:
We Detroiters sure love our Vernors, no question about that. I love my current home in New Jersey, but if there's one thing I would change about it, it would be to put Vernors in the grocery stores. Vernors has really spotty distribution, despite being owned by Dr. Pepper/7-Up. I guess they don't make it in places where it doesn't sell sufficiently or something. The nearest place for me to get Vernors is Maryland. They don't have it on the Eastern Shore, but once you cross to the other side of the Chesapeake, it's in all the stores. My other source for it is an annual trip I take to Ohio every August. I drive 500 miles there and 500 miles back rather than flying because that way I can fill the trunk of my car with Vernors. I can usually bring back enough to last me about eight or nine months. There used to be one beer distributor in Allentown, Pennsylvania, that carried it, and I could buy it in bulk instead of hitting a bunch of grocery stores like I have to do in Ohio or Maryland, but they can't get it any more. Sigh....
Did I mention that we Detroiters sure love our Vernors? :-)
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