Previously reported, Short’s beer was recently spotted at the London Olympics. Today, I met with Matt Drake, Legal Counsel, and Scott Newman-Bale, Chief Financial Officer, to find out why and how this happened.

Scott’s British accent was my first clue. He is originally from the London area, not far from the Olympics. But it turned out there is much more to the story…

A certain Dane who  imports Amercian craft beer into Europe has been wanting to sell Short’s beer abroad for quite some time. But it is only sold in Michigan. So recently he came to Elk Rapids and bought three palettes of brew, sending it  refrigerated to Denmark. From there, it has been spotted first at the Olympics and subsequently in Rome, New Delhi and Mumbai. Street price for Short’s beer in Mumbai is $100 a bottle.

So that’s how “Huma Lup Olympics” came to be offered at the Olympic Games. But you still can only officially buy Short’s beer in Michigan, prompting Matt, Scott and I to eagerly discuss “beer tourism” as an Elk Rapids asset. Perhaps we should create a “Pure Michigan Shorts” ad with voiceover by Tim Allen.

Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday signed legislation authorizing grants for nearly 100 recreation and land-conservation projects across the state, including $3 million a piece to buy land near Lake St. Clair and in the River Raisin area in south-central Michigan.       MLive

List of Projects

There is no Antrim County project on the list. Looks like we missed out on some available funding.

Friday, August 3, 8 p.m. at the Elk Rapids Cinema. Proceeds benefit our local Zero Hour Jazz Band.

Not a good thing:

Rising income inequality has led to a growing number of Americans clustering in neighborhoods in which most residents are like them, either similarly affluent or similarly low-income, according to a new study detailing the increasing isolation of the richest and the poorest.

A report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center said the percentage of upper-income households situated in affluent neighborhoods doubled between 1980 and 2010, rising to 18 percent. In the same time frame, the share of lower-income households located in mostly poorer neighborhoods rose from 23 percent to 28 percent. The percentage of neighborhoods that are predominantly middle class or home to a wider mix of income levels shrank.      WaPo

Most neighborhoods in America are still middle income or mixed, but the trend is disturbing.