2010 World Cup Champions - Spain

No doubt after yesterday’s World Cup win against The Netherlands, the people of Spain spent the past approximately 36 hours celebrating. OK, I’m not going to lie. I was secretly hoping they’d win too. Nothing against The Netherlands because they had a ferociously good run. But there’s something delicious about a first time win, aside from the large amounts of paella and Rioja that I imagine were being tossed into happy mouths all night and all morning in Spain. What is better for a country’s pride and unity? For one, making sure those bee-buzzing vuvuzelas never manage to make it out of South Africa and become an invasive species in tourist shops across the universe. Besides that? Nothing.

Today the Spain national team was welcomed home with open arms, swirling national flags, and a very excited Rafael Nadal in their locker room (although the latter took place in South Africa immediately following their win). Now that’s my idea of a present.

What’s even better about Spain winning is that it was predicted by a psychic octopus days beforehand. Actually, every win in the World Cup tournament was correctly chosen by said octopus, who has become a household name in every bar, pub, aquarium and fish tank from here to the Cape of Good Hope. I knew these eight-legged mollusks were extremely smart, but now apparently they are also clairvoyant. Frankly, I’d like to give him a crystal ball and ask him about my Aunt Charlene’s love life and THEN we can talk about his levels of psychic ability.

Getting back to Spain and everyone who is probably exhausted there right now. I’d be in the same boat. But it has to feel good.  My only potential equivalent feeling of overall goodness and satisfaction would be like that awesome kind of day at Disney World when you were young where mom and dad bought you caramel apples and cotton candy for lunch to see you hopped up on sugar, where you could hug plump, friendly, mute Mickey Mouse characters for hours and could force dad on the tea cups and twirl it until you (or he) almost puked. Now that is a happy day. And for all of you Spain fans out there, show your pride with a Spain t-shirt, Spain-inspired tote bags, and take a siesta. You deserve it after the past four weeks of excitement. And Viva Espana for the next four years!

Green deliciousness.

Cash will always be king. And soon the king will be getting a new face-lift. Yes, fans of a Botoxed Ben Franklin are in for a real treat as the new U.S. $100 bill gears up for circulation this winter. The exact date of the C-note’s release is February 10, 2011, but the government is already printing them up right and left at the money factory. The spruced-up $100 bill will soon be joining its recently redesigned siblings – the $5, $10, $20 and $50 notes.

While there is much debate about the “beauty” of the new $100 bill, most everyone agrees that security-wise it’s a real beauty. With a 3-D security ribbon, a “bell” image that shifts color from copper-to-green as it’s tilted, a portrait watermark and other counterfeiting preventions, it’s going to make it a lot tougher to pass on fakes (and a lot safer for people who take cash).

Unfortunately we don’t yet take cash at CafePress, but you can use your plastic or PayPal to score money-themed designs. So let everyone know how much you love money. C’mon. Admit it. You’re all about the Benjamins.

Right on target. Well, maybe a little to the left.

If you’re looking for belly laughs (perhaps even, dare I say, beer belly laughs?) then get ready for International Beer Day. Woo-hoo! Finally a holiday everyone can get behind. Well, most people anyway.

Although International Beer Day isn’t until August 5, I figure I’d give you an early “heads” up. This way you’ll have plenty of time to score beer tees and beer steins and beer aprons (hey, why spill a dark brown stout on your clean white beer tee?).

We have tons of beer gear that pays homage to the almighty hops & barley, including ones that will have folks laughing so hard they’ll wet their pants (which, come to think of it, shouldn’t be too hard after a few pints).

With summer upon us, you have plenty of excuses to get in shape for International Beer Day too. Bottoms up.

As most of us prepare to celebrate a 3-day weekend for July 4th, residents in and around the Gulf of Mexico are bracing themselves for a bad situation (the out-of-control BP oil spill, which is still leaking with no end in sight) gone worse.

Hurricane Alex has touched down a couple hundred miles away from the spill site, and the rough seas and winds have delayed efforts to… well, “clean up” and “stop the out-of-control leaking” are too optimistic of terminology here.  BP is currently figuring out a way to turn the Gulf Spill into a collectible oil well site, where they can produce 20-25,000 barrels of oil a day from the catastrophe.

It’s easy to feel a huge sense of frustration and horror watching this slow-motion disaster continue.  There are so many questions surrounding this incident:  Why was BP was permitted (and why did they think it was a good idea) to drill so deep that they wouldn’t have a viable plan to actually shut off their well should something go wrong?  Is anyone actually going to figure out a way to cap this well (which could leak for around 4 years)?  Will the ecology of the Gulf Coast ever recover?  With this still going on, why would a federal judge overturn Obama’s deep water drilling moratorium (and did it have anything to do with him owning drilling stock?)

And of course: isn’t there anything else that can be done to help?

Well, one grammar-schooler has an idea.

Destiny’s Dream is a new fundraising project undertaken by a scrappy 10-year-old girl who decided to spend her summer trying to raise $100,000 for the Gulf Restoration Network.  (We at CafePress have also pulled together an oil spill fundraising t-shirt portal to raise money for this organization.)

The designs in her shop are a hard-hitting look at the damage still being caused by one of the world’s largest oil companies.  Perhaps Destiny has a future ahead of her as a journalist…

Here’s hoping that Destiny reaches her fundraising goal and, of course, that someone figures out how in the heck to plug that blasted hole in the Earth.

Life’s a beach, eh? Over at Ocean Beach in San Diego there’s a little dust-up brewing over bumper stickers. It seems a local beachfront head shop is concerned about aggressive panhandling and is selling bumper stickers reading “Welcome to Ocean Beach/Please don’t feed our bums.” (full disclosure, CafePress didn’t print them – although you can find a similar sticker on our site). These stickers have caught the attention of the OB Rag, a local blog run by a gentleman who claims this sends the wrong message about a community that’s “a place of laid-back tolerance.”

We don’t have the answer to this dilemma. But one thing’s for sure, bumper stickers have always been a powerful way to express opinions. With 228 billion cars on the road (check my math), there’s no shortage of free space for ranting, raving, rooting or reminding. Some prefer political bumper stickers to change minds, while others use military bumper stickers to speak their peace (or war). But every bumper sticker gets noticed, and many get a honk (or a hand gesture). So … what important issues or interests are you sticking to?

Honk if you love bumper stickers!