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Back in 1996, The Onion put out one of my favorite articles: Coca-Cola Introduces New 30-Liter Size. The article discussed the benefits and pitfalls of Coca-Cola selling beverages in gigantic bottles:
The new plastic bottle is nearly four feet tall, and weighs 274 pounds when filled with Coke. In development tests, it took an average of three men to lift the new bottle. The product will fit in an average refrigerator, but only when all other products and shelving have been removed. Most inconvenient of all, the new Coke will go flat if not drunk within 17 minutes, even if it is promptly recapped. The Coca-Cola Corporation does not see these factors as drawbacks.
Later on in the article, a "person on the street" is quoted. I don't even need to go read the article to find the quote, because I've thought of it many times over the years whenenver gleeful marketing executives have taken a theoretically good idea and drove it over a cliff, then did a few barrel rolls and drowned it in a river.
"I like Coke a lot, so it would follow that I like a lot of Coke," said Linda Jillerman of Cincinatti.
I find myself thinking of the 30-liter Coke bottle as Hockey East has rolled out yet another edition of Frozen Fenway, slated for January 2014 unless (God willing) a meteor takes us all out before then.
Boston hockey fans responded very positively to the historic, one of a kind special event that was BC-BU outdoors at Fenway in 2009. So, Hockey East decided, it follows that they'd REALLY like it if we did that over and over again, with considerably less special matchups.
According to sources, including Jack Parker and The Kid (not necessarily in order of reliability), Boston University will face Maine and BC will face Notre Dame in the latest edition of the event.
So, here we go again. Presumably this will be a lost BC home game, just like the last two Frozen Fenway events, and once again it will be one of the better home games in the season package, and one of the only home games that really fires up the crowd at Conte. Instead, it'll be played in the freezing cold in front of a 2/3-full crowd, most of whom can't even see the game. Fantastic.
The only slight solace is that due to Notre Dame's travel situation, BC will probably be "hosting" them twice next season, rather than playing home-and-home the way they will with all other Hockey East teams, so we'll still have one home game against ND at Conte Forum ... unless they change that arrangement, at which point I put my foot through the laptop screen yet again.
Update: It's official.