The Brainmuffin beer review recently expanded with soju. Now they expand a bit more and review a soda. Not just any soda, but one from Germany made by Paulaner. Enter Spezi into the archive of reviews. Joining Channel Dad Bryon Lape is his daughter Kelloggs. He had the drink Spezi as a youth growing up in Germany, but Kelloggs has never had it. Will she like it as much a Schnurmann?
Paulaner is a brewery of good German beers. Do they also make a good Spezi? Will Radlers be next on the list of drinks to try?
Channel Dad Bryon Lape purchased the Paulaner Spezi from Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield, Ohio. The selection of goods from all over the world is something both Brainmuffin and Kelloggs have enjoyed for years. Being able to try things from all over the world without having a passport is an incredible privilege they both pursue.
The original version of this content appeared on the Aztec server in the Hodge’s Library, Systems Department, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in the early 1990s. It was written to explain the name of Schnurmann to those on Lamda MOO. I had tired of giving the whole story and made a we page explaining it. Even the former high school classmate, Kevin Pelch, mentioned in the article found his name on the Internet and contacted me. This was long before the search engines were covered in irrelevant results. Yeah, back in the glory days.
Growing up, several people gave me various nicknames. Most of them were not kind, so they were not used passed that person. In 1983, we moved to Patch Barracks, Vaihingen, Germany. This meant attending the similarly named Patch American High School (yeah, the military can be so original). In 10th grade World History class, Kevin Pelch gave me the nickname Ropeman due to my pantomiming the video game he played nearly constantly in the bowling alley. The name stuck and some people called my Ropeman the rest of the year.
The school year 1984-85 dawned with me in 11th grade and Kevin no longer there. Few called me Ropeman, nearly solely my friend Bruce Platter. It looked as though the nickname would fade forever. Then German III my senior year happened.
Senior year arrived like any other. As I had for German I, Herr Dobner war meinen Lehrer. Then came the chapter with Spitznamen and we all choose one. Having actually liked the nickname Ropeman, I chose to translate it into German as Schnurmann, though that is technically “String man”. It stuck so well that I would turn homework in with the name instead of Bryon Lape. After graduating and moving back to the States though, the name was shelved for many years.
In the early 1990s, I was working at the Hodges Library when Ross Singer and Bob Patrick came across Lambda MOO. I applied for a character and named in Schnurmann with aliases such as Ropeman, Rope, and Schnur. As it was German, most mispronounced it and many asked me what it meant, so I eventually created a web page for it on the server with our personal pages.
I was Schnurmann again until one day Ann Langley called me Brainmuffin. This was her combination of how Southerns say Brian, the more common spelling of my first name Bryon, and Frank Zappa’s favorite word: muffin. This nickname stuck so instantly that I changed my MOO character’s name and co-workers would actually call me by it.
That was 20 years ago and I still use the nickname Brainmuffin. I use it on Twitter, MySpace, various forums, and Flickr. Over the years, a few impersonators have appeared, but there is only one Brainmuffin. I do thank Kevin and Ann for giving me good and lasting nicknames. I do hope I live up to them.
OLDENBURG, GERMANY – MARCH 31: Rabbi Alina Treiger uses yad, a special pointer for use with torah scroll texts, as she reads from a torah scroll in the small synagogue on March 31, 2011 in Oldenburg, Germany. Treiger is Germany’s first female rabbi to be ordained in Germany since World War II. Originally from Ukraine, she completed her rabbinical studies at the Abraham Geiger Kolleg in Potsdam and was ordained in Berlin in 2010. She has since taken up her duties to serve the Jewish communities in Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, which are comprised mostly of Russian-speaking Jews from the former Soviet Union that came to Germany after 1989. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)It’s coming!
What’s coming?
It. The Chronicles!
The Chronicles?
Yes, the Chronicles. Not just any Chronicles. It is the Brainmuffin Chronicles!
What’s a Brainmuffin?
What??? What’s a Brainmuffin? A Brainmuffin is stupendous! A Brainmuffin is fantastic! A Brainmuffin is….well a Brainmuffin!
Yep, that’s right. A Direction has finally been discovered. The blog now known as “The Road to the Future” finally gets there. The future has arrived and it is The Brainmuffin Chronicles. This blog, and its companion on YouTube, are going to shape and format the future. It is here. It is now. Get on board and be left crying in your Cheeros. You have one name to remember: Brainmuffin.
