Quaker City Mercantile

OK, so, I Googled myself today. Hey, I have reasons...by now, I have more than a decade of articles from various journalism jobs floating around on the Web, and I'm always curious to see what pops up when I put my own name into a search engine. (Also, it's just kind of fun to do.) Happily for me, the Web site you're reading now was the top result today. That's the reason I created it, actually--I wanted to make sure that folks who looked for me online at least got an updated version of this particular Lee Pender (and there are others, you know).

Anyway, through something of a circuitous route, I stumbled upon this very Web site linked somewhere else. As you might imagine, I was shocked. There are probably fewer than 10 people who know that this site even exists, and that's fine with me. I really just write here for fun. So, when I saw LeePender.com pop up on something called quakercitymercantile.com accompanied by a note about hyping Narragansett beer, my first thought was, "What? How could somebody else have LeePender.com? I thought there could be only one...and the other Lee Pender likes Narragansett, too? That's incredible..."

Well, actually, it's not. It turns out that Quaker City Mercantile is some sort of branding-advertising-publishing-farming (seriously) concern that apparently--along with, happily, some actual New Englanders--owns the Narragansett brand and is trying to revive the once-famous beer's identity. Well, Quaker City Mercantile, you got me! Even before I saw my own Web site linked on some unfamiliar domain, I was planning on grabbing a 12-pack of 'Gansett (cans, of course) at my local packie on my way home. And I did. And I had one right before I started this post. And I enjoyed it.

What strikes me most about all this is that Quaker City Mercantile must use the most powerful blog-search engine of all time. How on earth the agency picked up on my little blog is way beyond me. (And did somebody actually read the entry, some random person I don't know? Or was it all just automated?) What I'm wondering now is given that I've mentioned both 'Gansett and Quaker City Mercantile in this post, will the company's site pick my blog up again? And will it keep picking it up if I manage to drop references to Narragansett, Quaker City Mercantile or any of the company's other clients into posts here? Heaven help us if Quaker City Mercantile ever starts working with TCU football, West Ham United or BC hockey. I'll crash the agency's servers.

So, if I've made (new) friends in Philadelphia, hello there...and keep up the good work with the 'Gansett branding. We'll get that new brewery built in New England one can at a time.