The Bluebook, Van Halen, And Brown M&Ms . . . .

There's a connection here, I swear it.  Rumor has it that Van Halen's 1982 tour rider contained a requirement that the venue provide the band with a bowl of M&Ms . . . less the brown ones.  But, this wasn't an act of caprice or ego.  The band tucked their M&M requirements into the portion of the contract that contained the technical specifications for stage set-up, including some relatively important aspects of their pyrotechnics show.  If the band found brown M&Ms in the dressing room, they knew that the venue staff had not read the contract carefully enough to catch the M&M decree, and likely not carefully enough to catch the safety-related technical specifications of the band's stage set-up either.  The M&Ms were a proxy.