Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1949. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, a swordfish is swimming behind a fishing boat, diving in and out of the water, which naturally makes rings in the ocean. First one, then a second, and finally a third, mirroring the Ballantine logo.
Archives for May 2017
Beer In Ads #2292: Three Rings, Fish Blowing Bubbles
Beer In Ads #2291: Three Rings, Another Christmas Wreath
Monday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1949. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, another man at Christmastime hangs a wreath on his door, but it doesn’t seem like it’s quite right. So he adds a second one, but he’s still dissatisfied. But the third wreath, forming the Ballantine logo, is, again, just right.
Beer In Ads #2290: Three Rings, Christmas Wreaths
Sunday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1939. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, a man at Christmastime hangs a wreath on his door, but it doesn’t seem like it’s quite right. So he adds a second one, but he’s still dissatisfied. But the third wreath, forming the Ballantine logo, is just right.
Beer In Ads #2289: Three Rings, Swimming Whale
Beer In Ads #2288: Three Rings, Seals
Friday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1939. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, a talented seal is balancing rings on its nose, first one, then another and finally the three rings of the Ballantine logo. His wings even grew a thumb so he could order a beer “the Handy way.”
New Old Beer Words: Nazz’d
Here’s still another new word that should be added to the beer lexicon. Well, it’s not exactly a new word, but has been around 1876, and most likely earlier. It showed up as the word of the day yesterday on my “Forgotten English” page-a-day calendar.
The word is nazz’d and is described as “confused through beer or liquor; slightly drunk. Nazzy, stupified through drink.” It was apparently listed in “C. Clough Robinson’s Dialect of Mid-Yorkshire, 1876.”
Trying to find out more, I found “Nazzle,” defined as “to be in a dreamy, stupid, abstracted state,” also apparently originating in Yorkshire, and listed in “Joseph Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary, 1896-1905.” They certainly sound like related words, though I can’t be absolutely certain.
And I also found this definition:
Nazz’d, or Nazzy, adj. slightly drunk. Stupified. “Gying nazzling alang,” sauntering in a state of abstraction.
That one’s from “A Glossary of Words Used in Swaledale, Yorkshire,” by Captain John Harland, published in 1873.
So my interpretation of the word is that it’s meant to describe a very specific type of intoxication. Maybe buzzed is close to it, although I’ve come to hate that word due to the prohibitionist’s appropriation of it, but an intoxication that’s not complete, falling down, incoherent drunk, but closer to that sweet spot where you’re in a dreamlike state. That’s a good place to be.
Beer In Ads #2287: Three Rings, Another Strongman
Beer In Ads #2286: Three Rings, Erupting Volcano
Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1940. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, this one shows a tropical island volcano erupting and spewing a ring of ash into the sky. First one, them a second and finally there are three forming the Ballantine logo hovering high above the volcano.
Beer In Ads #2285: Three Rings, Killing Turkeys
Tuesday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1948. In this ad, part of a series progressing from one, to two, to three rings, this one shows a man holding a hatchet chasing a turkey around in circles, presumably trying to kill him for Thanksgiving dinner. After running rings around the farmer at least three times, he’s kicked up three rings on the ground forming the Ballantine logo.