Inventing Things Which Have Already Been Invented

So after the rainout on Monday the real first game of the season began last night with an unfortunate loss to the Colorado Rockies, 2-1. Kyle Lohse had an impressive starting debut giving up only a couple hits and no runs. Kyle McClellan also made his major league debut coming in as a reliever in the sixth inning, retiring all three batters he faced and ending it with a strikeout that earned him a standing ovation from the crowd. He's from Hazelwood and he's only four months older than I am. Hearing those kinds of things casts a weird perspective for me.

As I was watching the game there was a particular Budweiser ad that came up several times, featuring their spokesman guy with tiny eyes and a misshapen head, talking about all the innovations AB has made throughout the history of beer. They were the first to have refrigerated rail cars, he tells us, and the first to put born-on dates on all of their products. Now he's proud to introduce AB's latest innovation: The Freshlock Cap. It keeps the air out, he explains, and the freshness in.
Maybe I don't know enough about the bottling process or hydrodynamics or general engineering or what-have-you, but I thought that's what a bottle cap already does.

-K.