Wednesday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1957, and was designed to look more like content than an ad. Instead, it’s “A Guinness Guide to Game on the Menu,” with roast pheasant in the photo. I’m pretty sure the pheasant is being served with potato chips as a side dish. Now that’s my kind of meal.
The prohibitionist propaganda machine that is Alcohol Justice is out in full swing today. They just sent out a tweet to the faithful, telling them. “Raising alcohol taxes reduces harm…it’s a fact.” We obviously have a different definition of what constitutes a “fact.” I tend to think of a fact as something not open to debate, not a position that everyone doesn’t agree with, or for which there is no counter-argument.
But the tweet also included the graphic below, which is a bottle showing all of the bullshit “harms” that AJ insists are caused by alcohol. I won’t get into each of them, or how almost all of them are potential things that can happen to a person who drinks immoderately, or can happen to any person for as many other reasons as there are people. They aren’t caused by the drink any more than a hamburger causes a heart attack. They may be a contributing factor for some people, but their continuing insistence that they are directly caused by any amount of alcohol goes a long way toward proving how out of touch with reality they are and just how fanatical and intrenched they’ve become in more recent years. Most people you and I know have been enjoying alcohol our entire lives without contracting any of these diseases or devolving to a life of crime. In fact, the moderate consumption of alcohol might actually make one healthier, a “fact” that Alcohol Justice now refuses to acknowledge, even as the FDA’s latest dietary recommendations make clear.
But look at the biggest one on the bottle, just below “liver disease.” Disinhibition? WTF? Since when is loosening up and not being such a tight-ass a disease that not only rivals brain damage, but given its prominent position on the bottle and the size of the type, appears to be one of the worst problems they associate with drinking. How many mental issues and how much stress is relieved by the occasional drink after work or with dinner, bringing about a “loss or reduction of an inhibition,” which is the Merriam-Webster definition of disinhibition. How is letting one’s hair down, so to speak, something to be feared and avoided? Given the company it’s keeping on their bottle of harms, it certainly seems clear that they regard it as a disease. I continue to marvel at the new and inventive ways that prohibitionists can try to pass judgement and make those of us actually “living” our lives feel guilty for enjoying ourselves.
Tuesday’s ad is for Drewrys Beer of South Bend, Indiana. Drewrys was actually a Canadian brand, but for most of its history was brewed in Indiana. The ad is most likely from the 1950s, though this may have been just the illustration for the ad, before any text or ad copy was added.
Today’s infographic is another one from Lug Wrench, this one all about SRM Color Range By Style, showing the BJCP styles with the range of color, by SRM, for each.
Monday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, again from 1953, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Mary Austin. The ad shows Miss Rheingold with her face glowing in the sunset, dressed in a western outfit with guitar in hand, ready to serenade the cowboy behind her, at at least play a duet with him.
Today’s infographic is all about the Science Behind Sobriety Tests, and especially the three most common field tests that police officers administer on the side of the road when they suspect that someone might be driving with blood alcohol over the legal limit. It was created by Total DUI, a legal website specializing in helping people facing DUI/DWI charges.
MateVeza announced today that they’ll be opening a new restaurant and brewery in Oakland next June, assuming approvals from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the City of Oakland come in a timely fashion. This will be the second Cerveceria MateVeza location, after their 18th Street location in San Francisco. The Oakland location “will feature Argentinian cuisine” and will also house a small brewery. It will be located at 1701 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland, which is approximately one block from the Fox Theatre, and about a block and a half from Broadway. You can see it’s position on the map below.
And here you can see the location on the far left, with the Fox Theatre on the right, down the street about a block. Some nuts and bolts released by the brewery: the new location will be “approximately 2,300 square feet,” and they’ll be “brewing on a 1 BBL (31-gallon system), ” with “15 beers on tap with the majority brewed in house. MateVeza bottles and growlers of the beers brewed in house will be available for purchase to go.” They will also “feature El Porteño empanadas and other local” food. Apparently, the building is currently occupied by Fred Brown, who owns and runs Rocsil’s Shoes at 1701 Telegraph Avenue. When he retires, MateVeza will take over the lease. “MateVeza founder and brewer Jim Woods plans to brew ‘Fred Brown Ale’ as the inaugural batch of beer at their new location.”
Today’s infographic is a map of the world showing alcohol consumption by country, based on information from the UN’s World Health Organization from 2008. The map is broken down by “litres per capita” and despite on the shouting by U.S. prohibitionists, America is somewhere in the middle. The map comes from an article on Geo Currents that takes a closer look at the global consumption of alcohol.
Click here to see the map full size.
An AP story, Farmer says beer for birds improves flavor, claims that at least one farmer believes that’s the case. According to the AP article, Joe Morette of New Hampshire started giving his turkeys beer in 1993, when on a hot July day, “[a] turkey knocked one over and started drinking and they’ve been sipping the suds ever since.” He continues. “Morette, who prefers serving the turkeys lager, insists the beer makes birds fatter, more flavorful and juicier.” Peta is reportedly against this and stated “turkeys shouldn’t be fed beer and ‘farmers across the country use questionable practices to keep costs down or to alter the taste of animals’ flesh because their priority is profit, not the animals’ welfare.'” As far as I ‘m concerned that’s reason enough it’s a good idea.
Happily, cooler heads prevailed. “[A] poultry expert with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension said it is unlikely that the birds are suffering. ‘I don’t know exactly how much beer each turkey is consuming, but it would have to be a lot in order for it to kind of have the same effect as too much beer on people,’ said Carl Majewski, a field specialist in food and agriculture.”
It could even be good for them.
Kathi Brock, national director of Humane Heartland, which oversees the treatment of farm animals, said that standards from the American Humane Association don’t prohibit serving beer to animals. “I consulted with an avian veterinarian who said that while giving beer to turkeys is not a standard protocol, hops could be beneficial for the intestinal tract,” Brock said.
