Houlton-Gate: Fentimans Fight Back

If you've read a newspaper or a news website over the last couple of days, you've probably seen the stories about our good friends at Fentimans having their delicious lemonade branded an 'imitation liquor' by officials in the town of Houlton, Maine, in the good ole US of A. At the centre of the furore is the up to 0.5 per cent alcohol by volume that is created when Fentimans botanically brew their drinks.

The Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse, the Maine Attorney General's Office, and Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin (I swear this is true) have all got involved.

Officials from the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (ASAP) and the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse (MAPSA) have maintained that the beverage should be classified as imitation liquor since learning that a Houlton High School student brought a bottle of the lemonade to school several weeks ago.

The story trucks on today as the latest developments are that Maine's Attorney Generals office has banned the sale of the lemonade to under 21 year olds.

So, obviously it was our pleasure to help Fentimans with a suitable response, which is what you can see here.

Esquire Ricky Gervais Cover Reprises Classic

This months cover of the UK Esquire magazine recreates the original, iconic The Passion of Muhammad Ali cover with a jokey shot of Ricky Gervais by Rankin. The original, absolutely classic cover (below) was conceived by George Lois and shot by Carl Fischer in 1968.

By the way, if anyone ever spots an original Esquire with the Sonny Liston santa cover for sale, please let me know.

Unmasked

Following on with the Halloween theme, American cartoonist Chris Ware has created a smashing seasonally themed cover and four page cartoon strip entitled 'Unmasked', for The New Yorker magazine. He portrays the holiday in a modern day light yet still retains his classic comic strip cool. The cover sums it all up well, showing people absorbed, almost zombified by their iphones.

You can read more and see Mr Ware's 'Unmasked' strip here.

via +KN

Horrortastic

We decided to spook ourselves a bit today, to get us in the mood for Halloween this weekend, by making this week's top five our top five horror flicks. The films that make us quiver whilst hiding behind the sofa cushions. The most gruesome of gruesome. The scariest of the lot, well to us anyway. 

So without further ado, and in no particular order, we've got ...

1. Shining (film posters only, we're far too scaredy cat for clips)

2. Salem's Lot (bit of a left fielder but terrifying nonetheless)

3. The Omen

4. The Exorcist

5. And, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (gulp)

If we've missed any chilling films off our top five then let us know, but remember we scare easy.

Cassetteboy vs Nick Griffin vs Question Time

Cassetteboy is back with another comedy cutjob. This time it's Nick Griffin who gets the Cassetteboy treatment. The Apprentice one is here if you missed it first time round.

Friday Comedy Gold

This week we have a not quite so vintage clip of a BBC Wildlife cameraman getting molested by a rare parrot, the Kakapo. Funny yet slightly disturbing.

Speechbreaker

Fun, funny, mischievous, instinctive interface, quick, brilliantly simple design. Excellent stuff. Hats off to Lean Mean Fightin' Machine.

Have a go here.

VIA THE OBSTREPEROUS RUBBISHCORP