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Booze News

I have this very chap in my collection of treasured knickknacks. Weirdly, this is probably one of the things in my possession that I have owned for the longest time. I saw it in a bric-a-brac shop, ‘Marjorie‘s Antiques’ as a toddler in the 1970s around the corner from where I used live. I was a nascent bottle, pot, clay pipe and miscellaneous antiquities collector even then, and I recall I got a right strop on until my mum let me have the 60p to buy it. The cheery gentleman still resides in my cabinet of curiosities.

Anyway a few years back I spotted a bottled beer in Tesco, with this very same grimacing, monocled face on the label! I thought I would write the brewery a delighted email pointing out the resemblance. But I got a very odd and terse reply, which suggested that somebody was worried some infringements or copyright issue might have been at play. Either that or they thought I was just a nutter. Very odd.
 
As you point out he’s one of a set of novelty ashtrays produced in post-war occupied Japan (although not exclusively so). Indeed you can tell where they were made depending on the marking on the base. Mine is stamped “Foreign” indicating it is one of the Japanese products.
There is a set, originally based on a barbershop quartet, each sporting a different song;

“For he’s a jolly good fellow”
“Sweet Adeline”
“Down by the old mill stream”
“By the light of the silvery moon”

but they added to them with strange variations like googly eyes ( if you find one they’re invariably creepily misted over nowadays) or holes in the head for matches. See photo.

They are often mistakenly attributed to earlier ashtrays by the German potteries Schafer & Vater. These tend to be generally more detailed and more comical, but they lack the wonderful oddness of these tall headed fellows.
 
The barbershop, and variants...
I did originally add to my original find with full the barbershop quartet, but I could feel that hoarder tingle starting, which told me to get rid of the 3 additions. They fetched a pretty penny on eBay.
 

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Et voilà! The original version I remember had only one of the barbershop quartet on the label (for he’s a jolly good fellow, with the monocle).
 

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And some more...

These examples had clear Japanese stick on labels, which mine does not.
 

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Just to add, finally, if anyone is perverse enough to want to collect these things, they can be found quite readily on eBay. The name for this sort of collectible is “big mouth smoker ashtray”. (The idea is you put a cigarette in the mouth and smoke comes out of the ears).
 
The fast food chain Arby's has partnered with a distillery to produce a limited -time / limited-run batch of:
French fry flavored vodka! o_O

Arby’s Teams With Minneapolis Distillery Tattersall For Fry-Flavored Vodka

Everyone knows Arby’s has the meats. Thanks to Minneapolis-based Tattersall Distilling, they’ve got the vodka now, too.

You read that right: the roast beef-based fast food chain is teaming up with Tattersall for crinkle and curly fry flavored vodkas.

The vodka will go on sale online Nov. 18. Arby’s said quantities are “extremely limited.” ...
Click to expand...
FULL STORY: https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/11/09/arbys-tattersall-fry-flavored-vodka/
 
Mythopoeika said:
I think you have! Was everybody in the pub wearing flares?
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I wish it was a time slip but I was in a Weatherspoons and they have dropped the price of the House Ale Ruddles from £1.79 to 99p but with my Camera Vouchers of 50p discount at Spoons it dropped the price to 49p and I real can't fault Ruddles as its a nice Session Ale.
 
Sabresonic said:
I wish it was a time slip but I was in a Weatherspoons and they have dropped the price of the House Ale Ruddles from £1.79 to 99p but with my Camera Vouchers of 50p discount at Spoons it dropped the price to 49p and I real can't fault Ruddles as its a nice Session Ale.
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Pray tell us more of these Camera Vouchers. In particular, we require a source for these items. :wink2:

(In my family, xmas and birthday gifts for relations aged about 18-30 take the form of Beer Tokens, i.e. folding money. :chuckle: )
 
EnolaGaia said:
The latest (May 2019) Global Drug Survey notes UK respondents reported getting drunk more times in the past year than residents of any other country.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/health/global-drug-survey-2019-scli-intl-gbr/index.html
https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/wp-content/themes/globaldrugsurvey/results/GDS2019-Exec-Summary.pdf
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Yo, Brits ... Apparently you passed out on your laurels ... As of December 2021 the UK's drinking population has slipped to fifth place ...
Australians get drunk more often than any other nation's citizens, survey says

When it comes to having too much to drink, no country does it more often than Australia, according to this year's Global Drug Survey.

The survey, which has been done since 2012, gathered data from 32,000 drinkers in 22 countries. ...

Researchers define being drunk as having consumed so much alcohol that one's balance or speech are affected, they're unable to focus clearly and their behaviors are altered.

The ... average drinker is intoxicated 14.6 times per year ...

Respondents in Australia reported being drunk an average of 26.7 times a year, more than any other country. Finland and Denmark tied for second, with an average of 23.8 times, and the United States was fourth with an average of 23.1 times. Britain was fifth.

The nation that gets drunk the least, according to the survey, is Mexico (8.9 times a year), followed by New Zealand (10.3) and Romania and Germany (10.6 each).

When it comes to frequency of consuming alcohol, France topped the list with a mean of 132 occasions per year -- followed by New Zealand, the Netherlands and Hungary. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/12/03/uk-drunk-study-alcohol/8881638552299/

The Global Drug Survey (2021): https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Report2021_global.pdf
 
EnolaGaia said:
Yo, Brits ... Apparently you passed out on your laurels ... As of December 2021 the UK's drinking population has slipped to fifth place ...

SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/12/03/uk-drunk-study-alcohol/8881638552299/

The Global Drug Survey (2021): https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Report2021_global.pdf
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“Based on a survey of 1,000 Brits’ responses to their GP’s question, “How many units of alcohol do you drink in a typical week?” ”

:rofl:

maximus otter
 
Ancient pitcher sharing.

Eight silver and gold tubes held in a Russian museum have long been thought to have been either ceremonial staffs or canopy supports. In reality, the long tubes are the oldest surviving drinking straws, researchers say.

People used these high-end straws to drink beer from a communal vessel more than 5,000 years ago, conclude archaeologist Viktor Trifonov of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and colleagues. Excavations in 1897 in what’s now Armenia uncovered the metal tubes, jewelry and other goods in a burial mound containing three individuals from the Maikop culture, which dates to between about 5,700 and 4,900 years ago (SN: 6/7/30).

Each slender tube extends for just over one meter. Four of the finds include a gold or silver bull figurine, punctured by a hole so that it could be slid up and down the tube. Meanings attributed to straws with or without figurines are unknown, Trifonov’s group says.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/oldest-drinking-straw-gold-silver-russia
 
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