Monday afternoon report.

This might be the first Internet epidemic.  I posted a http://birdflu.gov link on the header.  It goes to the government info on the pandemic and birdflu.gov is easier to remember and spell than "avian" or "pandemic".  http://www.drudgereport.com/ is also covering it well.  I had talk radio on assorted channels when I was driving around today.  A lot of chatter but not much misinformation.  

At the stock market close the Dow is down under two-thirds of one percent.  Not bad considering everything.  

The Aldi three pound rice supply was still good.  That is my benchmark.  I went out to the burbs to stock on on the $8.69 per case Mountain Crest Beer.   Suffice it to say I have enough of this "necessity" to ride out a quarantine .  This "Damn good beer" keeps well in a basement so I will probably get more this weekend.

The Mountain Crest beer story has an odd Mexican angle.  Young Ravinder Minhas set out to market more affordable liquor in Canada.  He locked in the price of Tequila just before there was a huge shortage of the plant used to make Tequila.  (or maybe Jimmy Buffet greatly increased the demand for Tequila).  He then went on to purchase the second oldest continually operating brewery in the US in Monroe, Wisconsin, south of Madison.  A side effect of NAFTA was the opening up of the Canadian beer market.  Before this, Canadian beer had a basically fixed price of $25 to $30 per case so quality, image and advertising were heavily used.  Minhas does little advertising and relies on "word of mouth" and their website.  I consider Mountain Crest to be equal in taste to the bland beers like Budweiser but at half the cost.  When I go to one bar I frequent I drink Grain Belt tap.  It has more "hops" than most beers.  Two beer "tricks" are a drop of vanilla extract or a drop of lemon flavoring.  Artificial vanilla seems to work as well and it's cheap.

I suspect that Minhas brewery won't be asking for a government bailout.  From the bio:  "Ravinder has a simple philosophy when it comes to running his companies, he likes to be hands on in many aspects and works on a zero debt mandate. He has no loans, partners, lines of credits or financing, he has been able to grow and sustain his business by re-investing profits and keeping low overheads."

Anyway, back to the epidemic stuff.  I noticed I am down to five rolls of toilet paper.  This weekend I will stock up.  I will also monitor retail supplies as a indicator of public reaction.