Luke's Web Pages...

What's New?

15 Apr 08: More sidewalk stamps from Denver. A new root beer, Tiger Root Beer from Wynkoop Brewery. Cleaned up some pages...

3 Mar 08: Added a number of sidewalk stamps I found in Denver -- 23 stamps I found along a two-block stretch of Broadway. Updated the Los Angeles, San Francisco, Stockton and Woodland sidewalk stamps pages -- there are 14, 15, one and two stamps, respectively, on those pages. Revamped the eclipse viewer pages to include photographs of people watching the 1932 eclipse and also added some photos to the main eclipse viewer home page.

7 Jul 07: Updated the Eclipse Viewer pages with some new viewers (from old eclipses) from 1922 (Australia) and 1932 (Michigan).

21 Apr 07: Been a while, here are some new pages... Cleaning out old root beer reviews, with Cable Car and Soho. With guest root beer reviewer Daniel Gorham, we sampled Journey John Barleycorn, Buckin' and the emininently missable HyVee Diet Root Beer. Also added some sidewalk stamps from Los Angeles, Stockton and Bakersfield.

11 Feb 07: Three new root beers from a recent sojourn in San Diego: the terrific Old Town Root Beer, and also Pizza Port Root Beer and D-n-A Root Beer. Also added some sidewalk stamps from San Diego -- these things seem to be everywhere I go.

13 Jan 07: Added the first of my sidewalk stamp pages, including pages with stamps from Oakland, San Francisco and Santa Barbara. More to come in the future.

12 Jan 07: Tufted Duck in San Francisco in winter 2005 finally makes an appearance...

22 Nov 06: Added several new Madagascar birds, including endemics such as the elusive Madagascar Flufftail, Madagascar Sandgrouse, Chabert's Vanga, and Van Dam's Vanga (building a nest!). More Madagascar images to come soon...

18 Nov 06: Added Zesto Root Beer to the site, though dont go running out to look for this odd brew. Also cleaned up and put up some old reviews, like Best Yet Root Beer, Albertson's Root Beer, 365 Root Beer and the divine Bear Tooth Brewery Root Beer, a new entry into the top 10 at number two.

22 July 06: The results of Luke's Birthday Root Beer Tasting for 2006 are in. Also added a review of Point Premium Root Beer.

7 May 06: The moment you've all been waiting for: Luke's list of the 10 Best Root Beers in America for 2005 was issued today. Check it out, and also the press release.

4 May 06: More root beers: cleaning up on Albuquerque, Il Vicino Root Beer. From the Hastings Spring Break Root Beer Challenge, Red Ribbon Root Beer and Kutztown Birch Beer.

26 Apr 06: New root beers, from old reviews... Weber's Drive-In, great root beer from Pennsauken, New Jersey, Maid-rite, an even better root beer from central Illinois, and Mark Twain Dinette Root Beer, from Hannibal, Missouri. Pays to travel this great land... Also, Napa Valley Soda Co. Root Beer.

18 Mar 06: Added some new root beers from a trip to Portland, Oregon: Crater Lake Root Beer, Laurelwood Brewing Company (aka Ian's Favorite Root Beer), and Alameda Brewing Company. Also added Sno-Cap Root Beer, from the Titletown Brewing Co. in Wisconsin, thoughtfully provided by root beer correspondent Ian Golder (no relation to Ian's Favorite Root Beer), and Iron Springs Root Beer from the pub of the same name in Fairfax, California. Drink up!

16 Jan 06: Added an adult Slaty-backed Gull from Venice State Beach at Half Moon Bay.

7 Jan 06: To ring in the New Year, I've revamped the whole Eclipse Viewer section, with a number of new viewers -- including one from 1831 (!) as well as new ones from 1925, 1927 and 1963 -- and a new format for the pages. Also added a couple of interesting gulls from Half Moon Bay, including a probable Slaty-backed, and something with some Glaucous Gull in it.

29 Sep 05:  A new member to the Kings County 200 Club!  Welcome him here...

9 Sep 05:  Added some more root beers, in descending order:  Old Faithful, Dempsey's, S, Market Basket, and the execrable Market Basket Sarsaparilla.

Labor day weekend, 2005:  More root beers, in descending order of ranking:  Great Bear Brewing Company, Steaz, Our Family and Tubz.

July 4th weekend, 2005:  More root beers, a traditional American treat, fitting on this weekend:  Journey Desert Sage Root Beer and Jack Black's Dead Red Root Beer.  Cleaned up Pearson Bros. Root Beer and Pirate's Keg Root Beer pages too, for good measure.

15 Jun 2005:  Added an Ancient Murrelet image to the Alaska Birds pages.

13 Mar 05:  Added a number of new root beer reviews, including the great Fitz's on draft, the interesting Ithaca, and the less good Faygo, Faygo Diet, AC, and America's Choice Diet.

5 Dec 04:  Boylan's Diet Birch Beer reviewed, though don't bother.

     4 Dec 04:  Added the huge arrow in Albuquerque, as well as its candy cane (and a little homage to the man behind the candy cane) to the Huge Objects pages.  

     Reviewed Wild Oats Root Beer, nothing you need to look for (ranked 110 out of 137).  In my continuing development of Luke's Root Beer Pages, I have added a section to the archives: photos of root beer bottle caps.  This is for the real collectors out there.  So far I have only put up caps from A through C, including A&W, American Dry, Barq's, Blatz, Boylan, Brownie, Buckeye, Cameron, Canada Dry, Crass (two varieties), Crush and Hippo Size.

27 Nov 04:  Reviewed Best Choice Root Beer, Hank's Diet Root Beer and Gray's Diet Root Beer.  None were memorable.

26 Nov 04:  Added a whole section of 10 electoral college maps, showing the spin on the election from a cartographic perspective.  The final few maps are the most political.  The Happy Half Wit -- not to be confused with the President -- at Lake Ozark now has his own page.

20 Nov 04:  A new root beer review, for Mr. D'z Route 66 Root Beer, is posted.  Some items from our recent Missouri trip are popping up:  fun animals from Lake Ozark including an ape, a buffalo, a hippo, a polar bear, and "Spark."  Huge objects like the giant scissors in Osage Beach.  Also, the Lake Ozark Indian -- a Muffler Man variant -- and a page on How Big Are These Things?

6 Nov 04:  I have an election hangover.  Incredibly bad news, another four years.  I've been practiced web-page therapy today to get into a better space about it.

    I've added the Shoe House from northern California to the mimetic architecture pages, and the Chief from Laytonville to the Huge Beings pages.  

    I have added a few new root beers, including Boylan's Birch Beer, Boylan's Creamy Red Birch Beer, Boylan Diet Root Beer, Western Family Root Beer, and Safeway Diet Root Beer.

24 Oct 04:  Since the baseball world is focused on St. Louis, I thought I'd review a St. Louis institution, Fitz's Root Beer (review #128 on the site!).  Quite nice.  Added a lobster to the Huge Beings pages.  A few marginal photos of a Wood Sandpiper and Arctic Loon added, and a better one of Red-necked Stint, along with a new page for Alaska birds.  Also, put up a Sage Thrasher photo from Fresno County.

20 Oct 04:  A Mystery Bird!  Added a Least Auklet to the birding pages.  Several more root beers added or spruced up, including Anthony's Pizza Parlor #2 Birch Beer, Baron's Boot Hill Sassparilla, and Big K Diet Root Beer.

8 Oct 04:  Three more root beers from our recent excursion to Maine with Gerry and Neale, none of them worth writing home about: Polar, Polar Diet and Silver Spring.  We also re-tasted Cap'n Eli, which again scored well.

21 Sep 04:  T-Man (perhaps known as Mr. T to locals?) added to the Huge Beings section.  And the World's Largest Button -- with a similarly huge needle -- is now in the Huge Objects area.  Also added some unusual species found in Kings County, California, to the new Birds of Kings County section, including Pacific Golden-Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Ruff and Franklin's Gull.  

6 Sep 04:  M Root Beer, a supermarket brand from Indiana, added (118 root beers reviewed so far...).

5 Sep 04:  More root beers:  Lost Coast Brewery Root Beer from an April trip, and a diet one, Waist Watchers, to try to clean out the root beer closet.

3 Sep 04:  Finally added the review of the awesome 21st Street Drive-In Root Beer, which we sampled last December.  This is an amazing root beer, one of the finest.  Also put up a review of Bennett's Big Bear Root Beer, a tasty brew in its own right.  More huge beings are crawling out of the New Mexico trip, including El Toro.  I have also started a Muffler Men page, but only to link to the few variants that I have put up so far.  More to come!

2 Sep 04:  Some huge beings crawled onto the site...  Big Daddy, a Muffler Man variant from Las Cruces, New Mexico, and an Indian from Long Island.

31 Aug 04:  Loaves of bread!  Today we celebrate grains by adding a large loaf of bread, and a huge loaf of bread.  Eat up!

25 Aug 04:  Added several new root beers from the New York-Connecticut trip in July:  Adirondack (ick), Mystic Seaport Birch Beer, Mystic Seaport Sarsaparilla and Stewart's Drive-In.

18 Aug 04:  Several new root beers up from our recent trip to El Paso and southeast New Mexico:  Jaxon's and High Desert Brewery.  Also added some root beers from a recent New York and New Jersey trip, including Manhattan Special True Root Sarsaparilla and Olde Brooklyn, as well as some older root beer reviews that I had not yet put up, like Nor-Cal root beer.

11 July 04:  Two new root beer reviews up:  Lion Brewery and Scooter's.

4 July 04:  For the 228th birthday of the Republic, I reviewed my 100th root beer, the very pleasant brew from Anthony's Pizza Palace #2 in Trenton, New Jersey.  Check it out.  Also, reviewed Lowe's Root Beer, another supermarket variety clogging my root beer cupboard.

3 July 04:  Doing my patriotic bit, adding new root beers to the site.  Some from recent trips, they keep stacking up, I have too many to review!  We have now reviewed 98 different root beers, I figure it will be fitting to have my 100th review go up on July 4, as root beer is an American invention.  Those added today are the interesting Wild Bill's Birch Beer from the Firehouse Brewing Co. in Rapid City, SD; and a couple of diet ones from New Jersey, Pathmark Diet and Pennsylvania Dutch Diet Birch.  

12 June 04:  After a long hiatus, some new root beers, none that I would recommend:  Jones Sugar-Free, and Sprecher Lo-Cal.  I also reorganized the Js, so that Jones, Jeff's, Joe Wold's, Journey Shenandoah Sassafrass and Jumpin Johnny's Root Beers all have a new look.

11 April 04:  Finally put up my own updated version of the Checklist of the Birds of Kings County, by Luke Cole and Rob Hansen.

7 April 04:  Walgreen's horrendous root beer added to the Root Beer Pages.  Ick.

5 April 04:  The Kings County 200 Club page goes up, in all its glory.  An exclusive, 4-member club at this point...

4 April 04:  The Indiana trip pays off with new root beer reviews from three drive-in root beer stands, B&K Root Beer in Alexandria, Mason's Root Beer in Washington, and Mug 'N Bun in Indianapolis.  Also added were Mr. Fizz Root Beer and Way 2 Cool Root Beer.  Added a new root beer trivia question: what famous grunge singer-songwriter killed himself after drinking Barq's Root Beer?  See the Root Beer Trivia pages.  Another gem from Indiana -- a huge fork.

30 March 04:  A weekend trip to Indiana yielded lots of fun new attractions, which will make their way here soon.  The first is the World's Largest Ball of Paint, created over 27 years by Mike Carmichael, who is the Man Behind the Ball.  (The "person behind the object" series is my tribute to those visionaries around the world who give expression to their whims and imagination.)  I also added a review of Gene's Root Beer, one of four home-made root beers I had in Indiana, all of which are great.  The others will be up soon.

25 March 04:  Review of the fabulous Sycamore Drive-In root beer added -- a new brew in the Top 10.  Way tasty!

24 March 04:  Rolling out a new part of the Mimetic Architecture pages, Mobile Mimetics: check out Top Dog.  The Big Apple, Tomato and Cell Phones added to the huge objects pages.

22 March 04:  Finally put up the huge baseball glove and Coke bottle from SBC Park, just weeks before Opening Day...

20 March 04:  Several new huge objects added, including a giant package of Cheese Balls and an electric guitar.  More root beer reviews added:  Capt'n Eli's, Santa Cruz Organic, and Mt. Angel.  Luke's "10 Best Root Beers" gets some press, check out the Fresno Bee (off this site).

8 March 04:  Luke names the 10 Best Root Beers of 2003.

7 March 04:  Columbia Soda Works Sarsaparilla review added to the Root Beer pages.

6 March 04:  Updated Snow Bunting page with Peter Pyle's ideas on age and sex.

29 February 04:  A Snow Bunting at Clifton Court Forebay, with five photographs.

20 February 04:  New mimetic architecture from South Africa!  The Shoe debuts, straight from Mpumalanga Province.  Also included are interiors of The Shoe, and the Man behind the Shoe.  Several South African pedestrian signs are also up, including falling rocks and some miscellaneous signs.

16 February 04:  Added several more root beer reviews, including Millstream, and cleaned up all the M root beer reviews, with new pages for Mason's, Milligan's Island, Monterey and Myers Avenue Red.

7 February 04:  Cleaned up a bunch of old root beer reviews that had yet to be added, including X Root Beer Riot, Tommyknocker, and the supermarket brands Sunny Select, Harris Teeter, and Main Street.  There are now reviews for 76 root beers on the site.

17 January 04:  More Madagascar Chameleons added, including Furcifer verrucosus (2 images) and another Calumma nasuta.

11 January 04:  Luke's Madagascar Birds pages debuts, with 20 different birds, with 15 Madagascar endemics and 3 regional endemics.  All are digiscoped, so are not as crisp as I would like.  I will be adding scans of other species in the coming months.  NOTE: the other Madagascar links, with the exception of Pedestrian Signs, are not live -- there is no content there, so dont waste your time checking yet.

4 January 04:  Added a couple of root beers from our August 03 trip to New Mexico, Socorro Springs, Kellys Brewery and Turtle Mountain Brewing Company.  Also updated the Thomas Kemper root beer page.  Added a Stevedore (a Muffler Man variant) from Everett, Washington to the Huge Beings pages.

21 December 03:  Added Pedestrian Signs of Madagascar with half a dozen subpages and many fun images.  None of the other links in the Madagascar section have anything in them, so dont waste your time clicked around yet.

20 December 03:  Added some sites to the Amazing Web Pages page.

13 December 03:  Added the first image from Madagascar, to the Huge Objects page -- its a 6-foot Comet Moth that adorns a building in downtown Antananarivo.  Many more Madagascar images to follow in the coming month or so, I'm slowly building that whole section of the site.

9 December 03:  After a long hiatus and several trips, some new pages!  An early November trip to Seattle for oral argument in the 9th Circuit yielded only a reviewer's tour of the area's local root beer establishments, including the spectacular XXX Root Beer, the very good Scuttlebutt, the decent Riley's Pizza, and the execrable Flying Pig.

18 September 03:  Luke and Nancy's New England trip yields some nice mimetic architecture: Salvador's Ice Cream milk can is the first one to show up here.

31 August 03:  Green Valley Meats pig added from recent New Mexico trip -- much more to come from this trip...

30 August 03:  After a long hiatus, new stuff!  Several root beer reviews, including the outstanding, home-made Route 66 Malt Shop root beer, Big K, Blue Corn Cafe.  I also added a page on different types of root beer, and why some are better than others.  A page devoted to the Hudsonian Godwit in Alviso, California, which I saw this morning.  

9 August 03:  The Cove BBQ pig and Moose Meadow moose become the first two pages in the nascent Signs of Our Times area.  This area will be growing in the coming months.

6 August 03:  The Shoe, Deschwanden's Shoe Repair in Bakersfield, added to the Mimetic Architecture page.  The Giant Artichoke added to Huge Objects.

3 August 03:  Shy Albatross added to Luke's Birding Pages.  Luke's Mimetic Architecture page finally attended to, with Long Island's Big Duck and the Turlock Tractor featured.

2 August 03:  Dinney and Rex, the Cabazon dinosaurs made famous by PeeWee's Big Adventure, added to the Roadside Attraction's Dinosaurs page, as well as a nice example of a mini-golf dinosaur from Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  Huge Beings page updated.  

31 July 03:  Calliope Hummingbird, Rufous Hummingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird and Common Black-Hawk (juvie!) added from recent trip to the Western Field Ornithologists' annual conference, in New Mexico.

21 July 03:  Luke's Birthday Root Beer Tasting page is now up, featuring the results of a 21-root beer tasting.

17 July 03:  Added a bagel and donut to Huge Objects pages.

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