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Booze News

Nipwrecked: Scots islanders toast 70th anniversary of Whisky Galore storm

IT WAS the perfect storm that wrecked a ship and launched a thousand parties. And 70 years on, the people of Eriskay are marking the sinking of the SS Politician.

The ill-fated blockade runner ran aground with a quarter of a million bottles of whisky in its hold.

And locals helped themselves to 10,000 cases, flooding the Western Isles with the water of life at a time when it was strictly rationed.

The events were turned into the novel Whisky Galore! by Compton Mackenzie and then the classic Ealing comedy of the same name. The story now has almost mythical status.

Gaelic TV channel BBC Alba are showing the movie on Saturday as part of a tribute night to the tale, which lives on in the islanders' toast: "Good health to the one who put her on the rocks."

The story began with Politician's departure from Liverpool under the command of Beaconsfield Worthington.

The Merchant Navy ship was crammed with high-value goods bound for the US and the Caribbean - textiles, bicycles, Jamaican currency, machete knives and a quarter of a million bottles of the finest whisky.

The vessel sailed up the west coast to avoid Nazi U-boats. But it was swept off-course by gales in The Minch and ran aground at Calvay at 7.45am on February 5, 1941.

Wedged in and holed, it was abandoned by the crew, who were rescued by local coastguards. And that's when the fun began.

Merchant Navy salvage crews got most of the goods off the ship in the first two days but then the rescued crewmen let slip to locals that the fifth, and lower hold, was harder to get to due to water and oil leaks. And that was where the whisky was.

The only questions the islanders asked were how fast they could get to the shore and whose rowing boat they would borrow.

Among the first on the scene was former sailor Seumas Campbell. He shimmied up the lifeboat ropes and fashioned a small rope ladder for his friends to follow him up.

He and pal Ronald Macdonald cracked open a case of White Horse - one of seven they salvaged on that first run - and were among the first to taste the bootleg booze.

Ronald once told documentary makers: "We found a huge flask holding two-and-a-half-bottles worth of whisky, and I said to Seumas, 'Try a dram of that.' That was our first taste of Polly whisky.

"We thought we had taken enough to last us till the following New Year but the seven cases had gone by the end of the week."

Seumas said: "We would go out, two maybe three nights a week and we didn't care. We knew if we took 60 cases with us we would be sure that after a couple of days we would be needing more.

"It became known that we were doing this and that others were, too. We became daring. It was dangerous. Eventually, the whisky sank to the lower hold, and the tide would come in and fill the ship.

"Then we made boat hooks so we could catch the boxes but they would get oily and so would you. The ladders were all covered in oil so it was dangerous but no one was ever hurt."

Duncan MacInnes was one of the last men alive to have stood in that hold. As a 16-year-old, he remembers the ship's massive hull towering above him.

He said: "There were those among us at the time who didn't think about it as a crime. Things were scarce during the war.

"There was a lot more than whisky there. There was cigarettes. There were electric irons as well but at that time there was no electricity on Eriskay so they were no interest to us."

For the first few weeks, Seumas, Ronald and the others who regularly looted the ship were like Robin Hoods of booze. They also liberated cottons, tweeds and blunt machete knives which became a favourite toy among the local children.

The local policemen are widely known to have turned a blind eye to what they saw was harmless fun for locals blighted by wartime shortages.

There was also a belief that people were in fact doing nothing wrong - just claiming salvage of shipwrecked goods.

The salvagers insist they never sold a bottle but some of the people who took a free delivery of the booze sold it on - often at s1 a bottle, around s37 in modern terms.

That was part of the darker side of the whisky mania, a million miles from the sepia-tinged memories in the movie.

Exciseman Charles McColl was the main campaigner against the bootleggers.

Eventually, 19 people - mainly the Robin Hoods - were given custodial sentences ranging from a few days to weeks. Evidence in the National Archive shows some locals didn't take too kindly to that.

One report had recommended taking McColl off the case due to "threats and warnings of bodily injury".

It continued: "On the night of June 10, the day after the first sentencing of looters at Lochmaddy, the garage in which Mr McColl's car was housed at Lochboisdale had a hole burst in the roof and burning petrol and paraffin were poured through. One car was destroyed."

Another report on the stricken vessel described the aftermath of the raids.

It said: "It is now an almost incredible scene of wanton destruction - everything movable has been taken and practically everything else splintered, shattered, slashed and hacked."

The darker side of the looting soon divided the community.

Those who hadn't benefited from the bounty were reporting on those and eventually the cops move in.

In a scene immortalised in iconic scene, the local people their hidden booze in all man hideaways.

After the court cases, the lo deemed that The Politician w for the locals. The wreck of the dynamited and it sank below the water line.

Looters estimated that islanders took around 10,000 of the 24,000 ca The rest was either smashed i or scattered across the Minch.

Dozens of bottles have been without legal recourse this tim years. A bottle recently sold at auction for s4000. The Politician's wreck is still a favourite spot for divers.

They are keen to find some liquid gold, and many bottles have been passed down through the generations locally.

Six years after the ship's destruction, Mackenzie published his novel. The movie, starring Gordon Jackson and Basil Radford, came in 1949.

The story has grown into a modern Scottish legend, and today it is still important to the local area.

There is a Politician bar on Eriskay named after the ship, featuring fittings from the wreck and other monuments to the period, which is one of the most popular tourist attractions on the island.

Local MP Angus MacNeil knows the story's importance to the island.

He said: "Even 70 years on, it is still talked about and celebrated. As an event, it has been seismic for these islands."

Whisky Galore is on BBC Alba on Saturday at 10pm.
Click to expand...

I've quoted the whole article as parts of it read as if the writer's popped over there with a rowing boat:

n a scene immortalised in iconic scene, the local people their hidden booze in all man hideaways.

After the court cases, the lo deemed that The Politician w for the locals. The wreck of the dynamited and it sank below the water line.

Looters estimated that islanders took around 10,000 of the 24,000 ca The rest was either smashed i or scattered across the Minch.

Dozens of bottles have been without legal recourse this tim years. A bottle recently sold at auction for s4000. The Politician's wreck is still a favourite spot for divers.

:lol:
 
I've been up the Minches a few times, I can tell you! ;)
 
Travellers wet their whistle while waiting on a train that might not come
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 11643.html
KITTY HOLLAND

Sat, Apr 23, 2011

FREE TRAVEL passes for the over-65s were on show in the bar at Connolly railway station in Dublin yesterday, where alcohol was being served to anyone with a valid inter-city ticket.

Despite the Good Friday prohibition on the sale of alcohol, bars in railway stations are exempted as they have railway refreshment room licences, according to Barry Kenny, spokesman for Iarnród Éireann.

“I think back in 1902 it was regarded as inhuman to expect someone to undergo a railway journey without recourse to alcohol,” he noted.

Robert Connor, from Ringsend, Dublin, had a ticket for the Belfast train. Supping a Guinness, he said he was a retired sea-man.

“I got my ticket with this,” he said showing his free travel pass. “I missed one of the trains already. I’ll decide if I’ll go later. You know I’d say 99 per cent of the people in this bar won’t be travelling anywhere.”

John Geoghegan, from Spencer Dock, Dublin, said he came to the bar every Good Friday. “I’m going to Newry,” he said. “I go every year, to have a pint and then come home.”

Dora O’Brien, Killarney Street, Dublin, also using her free travel pass, had a ticket to Drogheda. Asked would she go, she hesitated before saying: “I’ll go, but it might not be today.”

On her second pint of Heineken, she said Good Friday was “gone too quiet. The people used to put white cloths out over the altar for all the Passion. There’s nothing like that any more.”

Bar manager Declan Carmon said: “A Dart or Luas ticket is not enough [to be served]. I think the cheapest ticket you can get is €15 to Drogheda.”

Jacqueline Crenin, a young woman from Sligo, was reading and drinking West Coast Cooler.

“It’s desperate all these people in here drinking just to drink on Good Friday. I suppose, though, it’s a bank holiday weekend and people are off work.”

Also off to Sligo were Fergus Hughes and his brother Robert, Eoin Kelly and Alan Horan. Each had a pint of Guinness and a vodka and coke. They said the ban on alcohol was “useless”.

“It’s one religion’s take on a day,” said Kelly. “Why should it rule how a society lives? Catholicism is becoming less and less important.

“If people don’t want to drink on Good Friday, they don’t have to. If pubs don’t want to open, they don’t have to, but it should be a free choice.”

Drew Cluely from Pennsylvania, who was waiting for a train to Belfast and drinking Guinness, had only heard of the Good Friday drinking ban on Thursday.

“I was pleasantly surprised to see the bar open, as I have an hour to wait. I suppose I could drink coffee, but I drink coffee in the morning.”
Click to expand...
 
Daft headline, but interesting story:

Did an extraordinary 7,000-mile sea journey by a yeast sample give birth to the lager lout?
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 8:23 AM on 23rd August 2011

The origins of lager lie in the wilds of South America, scientists believe.
They say the mystery ingredient which allows the cold beer to brew is a rare yeast brought to Europe by accident 500 years ago. It allows the drink to ferment at cold temperatures and last longer.

Scientists have long known that the yeast in lager is not found in nature. It is a hybrid of European yeast with another type that has never been found in Europe.
The European yeast has been used since ancient times to brew ales, which ferment at room temperature.
Scientists say the ‘missing link’ unique to lager is a sugary type of yeast carried by flies which feed on beech trees in Patagonia, a region of Argentina.

The researchers think it could have made the 7,000-mile journey via ships transporting timber or even in the stomach of a fly.
It was discovered by monks in Bavaria when they were trying to make cold beer, possibly in a barrel made in Patagonia.
Portuguese researcher Jose Paulo Sampaio said: ‘It seems they made a paler, lighter drink which could last longer, and this would develop into lager.’

Dubbed Saccharomyces eubayanus, the yeast was traced to Patagonian beech forests at the tip of South America.
It lives on sugar within beech galls, causing spontaneous fermentation that generates alcohol.
Analysis showed it was unlike any other known species of wild yeast, but 99.5 per cent similar to the unidentified half of the lager hybrid.

People have been hunting for this thing for decades,' said Professor Chris Hittinger, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. 'And now we've found it. It is clearly the missing species.'
Genetic mutations accelerated by the brewing process refined the lager yeast's ability to produce cold beer.
'Our discovery suggests that hybridisation instantaneously formed an imperfect 'proto-lager' yeast that was more cold-tolerant than ale yeast and ideal for the cool Bavarian lagering process,' said Prof Hittinger.
'After adding some new variation for brewers to exploit, its sugar metabolism probably became more like ale yeast and better at producing beer.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z1VreBZcjS
 
First I've heard of this:

Cornwall produces first whiskey in 300 years
Whisky Bible calls the Hicks & Healey Cornish single malt 'among the best debut bottlings of last decade'
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 September 2011 21.56 BST

Cornwall has joined the ranks of whiskey-making regions with the first batch of the spirit made in the area for 300 years. At £150 for a half-litre bottle, the limited-edition Hicks & Healey Cornish single malt seven-year-old whiskey is perhaps beyond the reach of the average high-street drinker but has been rated by expert Jim Murray, author of the bestselling Whisky Bible, as "among the best debut bottlings of the last decade". The 61.3% alcohol brew that has gone on sale is produced jointly by the St Austell Brewery and Healey's Cyder Farm, better known for Cornish Rattler cider.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... -300-years

At £150 for a half-litre bottle... :shock:
 
It's in a perfume bottle. Weird.
 
English sparkling wine comes of age with French boost
Dramatic growth reported in demand for UK champagne-style wines on eve of release of first English fizz by French maker
Robert Booth
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 December 2011 21.20 GMT

The first English sparkling wine made by a French champagne maker is about to go on sale, providing the clearest sign yet that British fizz is coming of age.
Meonhill, made from grapes grown from French rootstocks planted in Hampshire, will be available early in 2012.

Until now French wine makers have not invested in cultivation of the grape in Kent, Sussex and Hampshire – places closely resembling the climate and chalky geology of northern France.

The planned release of the first 5,000 bottles by Didier Pierson-Whitaker, owner of a grand cru vineyard in Champagne, comes as established English vintners of champagne-style sparkling wines report a dramatic growth in sales and demand.

Waitrose says sales of 18 English sparkling wines have risen by almost a third compared with last Christmas, and Ridgeview, a wine maker in the South Downs, reports trebled sales in the last two years.

Marcus Waring's recently opened London restaurant, Sir Gilbert Scott, is now selling more glasses of English sparking wine than Moët et Chandon, the Champagne region's biggest global brand.

"Demand is outstripping production and we can't keep up," said Mardi Roberts, sales manager at Ridgeview, in Sussex, which last month won best sparkling wine in the 2011 International Wine and Spirit Competition. "Exports have been a real growth area and now represent 20% of our sales to places like the US, Finland, Japan and Hong Kong."

Cultivation in the UK of the three grape varieties used to make traditional champagne-style sparkling wine – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – has more than quadrupled since 2005, according to data held by the Food Standards Agency.

The grape varieties now grow across 550 hectares (1,235 acres), more than half of the space that is devoted to vineyards. Farmers are catching on and four parcels of arable land at Barham Court, in Kent, that until now were planted with cereal crops, are being sold for use as a sparkling wine vineyard.

Meanwhile, Waitrose this autumn pressed the first grapes from its own newly planted vineyard in Hampshire to make an own-brand sparkling wine that will be ready for drinking in 2013 or 2014.

"When I first put English sparkling wine on my wine lists five years ago, people were scared," said Mark Cesareo, head sommelier at the Sir Gilbert Scott, which stocks three English sparklers. "The people who were most averse were the English themselves while tourists and even French people wanted to try it.

"Now I stock three English wines by the glass, Gusbourne, Ridgeview and Nyetimber. If I sell 10 cases of Moët week, I will do six of Gusbourne, five of Ridgeview and three of Nyetimber."

Some wine makers, however, admit to difficulties operating in the UK's nascent wine industry.
"Truthfully, it has been tough," said Imogen Pierson-Whitaker, who is behind the Meonhill wine. "We don't have the massive support system you have in France. We planted in 2005 and the vines have been fabulous some years and there have been poor years. There is a bit of an issue with the wind, but that can help prevent mould. It will obviously evolve, but the beginnings are tough, especially when you are using a new vineyard." Roberts said: "There is possibly a bit of a gold rush going on. There are a lot of people planting at the moment, but people underestimate the cost of producing the wine. We have put in a lot of effort in to get the standard up and we are conscious of the need to keep it there."

Coates and Seely, which makes sparkling wines in the north Hampshire downs, emblazons "Britagne" on the gold foil of its bottle necks and has suggested that other sparkling wine producers do the same to protect standards.

Christian Seely, former managing director of Axa Millésimes, which owns Château Pichon-Longueville and Château Suduiraut, both celebrated Bordeaux houses, wanted the name to stand for a specific "methode brittanique" of vinification. Ridgeview has trade-marked the word "merret" to describe its English sparkling wine. In 1662 Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society in London which outlined the process of making traditional sparkling wines. This was, Ridgeview says, 30 years before the technique was documented in Champagne. ;)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... -champagne
 
David Cameron plans minimum price for alcohol in England
Drinkers will pay a minimum price for alcohol under plans instigated by David Cameron to tackle a growing health crisis, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
By Robert Winnett, and Rowena Mason
9:50PM GMT 27 Dec 2011

The Prime Minister has ordered officials to develop a scheme in England to stop the sale of alcohol at below 40p to 50p a unit in shops and supermarkets.
Ministers could copy Scottish proposals, which would ban the sale of alcohol below 45p a unit, or bring in a more sophisticated system of taxes based on the number of alcohol units contained in the drink.

Both options would cost drinkers an estimated extra £700 million a year, with any extra tax revenue potentially going to the NHS. The Daily Telegraph understands that the Prime Minister personally ordered the radical “big bang” approach, which will be included in the Government’s forthcoming alcohol strategy. It was due for release next month, but has now been delayed until February.

A recent official study found that setting a minimum price of 30p per unit would prevent 300 deaths a year, 40p about 1,000 deaths, and 50p more than 2,000 premature deaths.
The Downing Street diktat has led to intense Whitehall discussions and disagreements over how the minimum price, which has widespread support among the medical profession, can be introduced. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is said to favour taxing drink on the basis of alcoholic units. The Business Department has warned that forcing firms to charge a minimum price could be illegal under European law.

Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, favours a voluntary approach, but he has been overruled by Mr Cameron, although the compulsory scheme might fall foul of government lawyers.
The minimum price would be accompanied by an “aggressive” public health campaign and a more draconian approach to curtailing the sale of alcohol in shops, pubs and clubs.

A Whitehall source said: “The Prime Minister has decided that when it comes to alcohol, something pretty radical now has to be done and he is keen on the minimum price. It is complicated how this can be delivered, particularly under European law, but it is clear that the voluntary approach has not worked.”

At present, the system of alcohol taxation is relatively crude. Beer and lager is taxed at about 18p a unit, compared with 19p a unit for wine and about 25p a unit for standard spirits. VAT at 20 per cent is also charged on alcoholic drinks.

The most radical scheme would involve a sharp rise in alcohol taxation. However, this is likely to prove politically unpalatable and would penalise responsible drinkers who are already struggling with high taxes elsewhere.

A more sophisticated scheme would target cheap drink sold in supermarkets and shops, while not hitting those sold in pubs or more expensive alcoholic drinks. A well-placed source said: “The minimum price is really designed to push up the cheapest alcohol prices, which cause the most damage, rather than an across-the-board rise. The Prime Minister is very concerned about protecting traditional pubs.”

Mr Cameron is thought to have opted for a “big bang” approach to the alcohol problem after noting the success of the ban on smoking in public places.

Scotland is currently proposing a minimum alcohol price of about 45p a unit and several councils in England, including Greater Manchester and Merseyside, are considering bylaws to set minimum alcohol prices.

Scottish estimates suggest that a minimum price per unit of 45p would result in the steepest price increases for cider, gin and vodka, while wine, beer and whisky would see more modest rises.
A bottle of own-brand gin with around 37.5 per cent alcohol content would go up from £6.95 to £11.85. A two-litre bottle of own-brand cider would more than triple in price from £1.20 to £3.75.

The cost of a £12 bottle of whisky would rise to £12.60, while a bottle of cheap wine would go up from around £3.75 to £4.20. A four-pack of beer with more than five per cent alcohol content would cost a minimum of about £3.95.

etc...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... gland.html
 
More taxation, it's not about our health...
 
For Coalition, read Conservatives ... with those runts the Liberals who's vote we needed to get into power.
 
I thought my shares in Bargain Booze were a safe bet with the Beerage in charge!

Must be harder drugs behind today's shower. More effectively hidden. :?
 
Nude Scientist

The problemo with this, if it works out. is that some folks will drink even more thinking the pill will sort them out, but since it only works on the brain, they'll have their livers shrivel up to the size of a walnut even faster...


Chinese tree extract stops rats getting drunk 18:02 09 January 2012 by Andy Coghlan

For hardened drinkers, it sounds too good to be true: a natural substance that keeps them sober no matter how much they drink, neutralises hangovers and eventually breaks the cycle of alcohol addiction.

Alcoholism is a huge problem globally, killing 2.5 million people a year according to the World Health Organization. There has been serious research recently looking for drugs that stop people drinking, or at least encourage them to drink less.

Extracts of a Chinese variety of the oriental raisin tree (Hovenia dulcis) could be the answer. The extracts have been used for 500 years to treat hangovers in China. Now dihydromyricetin (DHM), a component of the extract, has proved its worth as an intoxication blocker in a series of experiments on boozing rats. It works by preventing alcohol from having its usual intoxicating effects on the brain, however much is in blood.

Soon, a preparation containing DHM will be tested for the first time in people. "I would give it to problem drinkers who can't resist going to the pub and drinking," says pharmacologist Jing Liang of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the research team.

"DHM will reduce the degree of drunkenness for the amount of alcohol drunk and will definitely reduce the hangover symptoms," says Liang. "In time, it will reduce their desire for alcohol."

Too drunk to stand
Liang first tested whether DHM blocks the clumsiness and loss of coordination caused by drinking too much. To do this, she measured how long it took for treated rats to right themselves after being laid on their backs in a V-shaped cradle.

After she injected rats' abdomens with a dose of alcohol proportionate to the amount a human would get from downing 15 to 20 beers in 2 hours by a human, they took about 70 minutes, on average, to right themselves. However, when an injection of the same amount of booze included a milligram of DHM per kilogram of rat body weight, the animals recovered their composure within just 5 minutes.

DHM also stopped rats in a maze from behaving in ways resembling anxiety and hangovers. Rats given heavy doses of alcohol cowered away in corners of the maze, whereas those given the extract with their alcohol behaved normally and were as inquisitive as rats given no alcohol at all, exploring the more open corridors of the maze.

Finally, DHM appeared to discourage rats from boozing when they had a free choice between drinking a sweetened solution of alcohol or sweetened water. Over a period of three months, rats will normally get addicted to increasing volumes of the hard stuff. Rats given DHM, though, drank no more than about a quarter of the amount that the "boozers" eventually built up to. Moreover, boozy rats that had worked up to the higher levels suddenly dropped down to a moderate intake when given DHM after seven weeks.

.....

says David Nutt of Imperial College London, former head of the British government's advisory committee on drugs. "Let's hope it's safe to use in humans."

Other alcohol experts fear that the availability of a "sobriety pill" could encourage more, not less drinking. Markus Heilig, clinical director of the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Bethesda, Maryland, says that Roche abandoned development of a similar compound called Ro15-4513. "There was a lot of philosophical worry that an 'alcohol antidote' would entice people to consume alcohol and then count on being able to terminate the intoxicating effects on demand," says Heilig.

Ro15-4513 caused serious side effects, including anxiety and convulsions. Liang says there is no sign that DHM carries similar side effects.

Journal reference: The Journal of Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.4639-11.2012
Click to expand...
 
Can't see how this would work. I mean, why drink if you won't get drunk? That's the whole point of alcoholism, surely.
 
Thash rite!
partytime.gif
 
But if it's a hangover cure, that's no bad thing!
 
Wasn't there a sobriety pill in the Stainless Steel Rat stories, that was described as being like having cold water pumped out of every orifice simultaneously?
 
It looks as though it may sober you up quicker, but you'd still be illegal for driving if you had more than the specified amount of alcohol in your blood...even if you weren't showing signs of it.
 
Couldn't this have gone in the main Booze News thread?

Perhaps some passing Mod will notice, and tidy things up...
 
Funny thing happened to me once which was similar to this. I went to a party a few years ago and ended up staying at a herbalist's house, I did get pretty mangled and woke up in the sort of agony that's characteristic of my hangovers. Seeing the state I was in she insisted that I take a pill which she called nux vomica, which she'd made up herself. I did this to be polite thinking nothing would happen, but after a short while my hangover disappeared. Two things I've had lots of hangovers they don't disappear, secondly I can rule out any sort of placebo effect or suggestion because as I say it never entered my head that it would work, and to be honest although she was a very nice person I thought she was a bit flaky.

As I say I was amazed and immediately went into town to get some told my friends what a miracle they were and gave them all some of the ones I'd bought; which led to a lot of this;

some folks will drink even more thinking the pill will sort them out
Click to expand...

Only to find out they were bloody useless.
 
If you don't get drunk, what to stop you continuing drinking untill you get alcohol poisoning?
 
rynner2 said:
Couldn't this have gone in the main Booze News thread?

Perhaps some passing Mod will notice, and tidy things up...
Click to expand...

Sorry Rynn, I forgot it was there....it's the drink y'know...
 
Xanatic_ said:
If you don't get drunk, what to stop you continuing drinking untill you get alcohol poisoning?
Click to expand...

Er... what would be the point of drinking alchohol if you don't get drunk?
 
Jerry_B said:
Xanatic_ said:
If you don't get drunk, what to stop you continuing drinking untill you get alcohol poisoning?
Click to expand...

Er... what would be the point of drinking alchohol if you don't get drunk?
Click to expand...

It would mean wine tasters wouldn't have to spit anymore.
 
oldrover said:
... she insisted that I take a pill which she called nux vomica, which she'd made up herself. I did this to be polite thinking nothing would happen ...
Click to expand...
She gave you Nux vomica :?: :?: :!: :!:

It has to have been the homeopathic remedy because there is another name for Nux Vom
.
.
.
.
.
Strychnine
 
This is really booze history from say WWI on, but it's hardly 'forgotten' if you're my age:

Timeshift - Series 11 - 11. The Rules of Drinking

Documentary which digs into the archive to discover the unwritten rules that have governed the way we drink in Britain, from 1940s pubs and clubs to drinking at home or at work.

In the pubs and working men's clubs of the forties and fifties there were strict customs governing who stood where. To be invited to sup at the bar was a rite of passage for many young men, and it took years for women to be accepted into these bastions of masculinity. As the country prospered and foreign travel became widely available, so new drinking habits were introduced as we discovered wine and, even more exotically, cocktails.

People began to drink at home as well as at work, where journalists typified a tradition of the liquid lunch. Advertising played its part as lager was first sold as a woman's drink and then the drink of choice for young men with a bit of disposable income. The rules changed and changed again, but they were always there - unwritten and unspoken, yet underwriting our complicated relationship with drinking.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... ramme-info

It helps to have a drink as you watch!
 
For info:

Tesco are selling Baltica beer, which claims to have been brewed in Russia. It's 5.5% ABV, and comes in 500 ml bottles.

It's a bit too smooth for my taste (needs more hops), but there is one novelty: it has a ring-pull bottle top!

(I tried opening one with a bottle opener the other night before I realised... :oops: )
 
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