Category:
Inebriation and Intoxicants

Drunken Hog Pile

Intoxicated animals is a favorite WU theme, going back, I think, to entries in Chuck Shepherd's NOTW.


Posted By: Paul - Sat Mar 16, 2024 - Comments (0)
Category: Animals, Inebriation and Intoxicants, 1960s, Alcohol

Promoting English Wine

Aug 1985: Four British ex-servicemen, all missing both their legs, embarked on a tour of France to promote English wines. Their motto: "You don't have to be legless to enjoy English wine."

Some explanation may be needed for Americans. 'Legless' is British slang for 'very drunk.'

London Daily Telegraph - Aug 10, 1985

Posted By: Alex - Mon Feb 05, 2024 - Comments (3)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, 1980s, United Kingdom, Legs

Craved for Liquor from Compass

Gloucestershire Echo - June 21, 1949



Birmingham Post - Sep 10, 1951

Posted By: Alex - Fri Feb 02, 2024 - Comments (1)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants

In the event of nuclear war, drink beer

Sounds like a sensible plan to me.

As for whether bottles would protect the beer inside from radiation, I imagine that would be the least of one's concerns after a nuclear war.

Tacoma News Tribune - July 7, 1958

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 08, 2024 - Comments (2)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

Ceramic Pig Whiskey Bottle

Valued at $1600 in 1990. (Source: 1001 Antiques Worth a Fortune (which not a lot of people know about, by Tony Curtis). Must be worth even more today.

I don't have any valuable family heirlooms. Wish I had something classy like this to leave to heirs when I die.



Update: Thanks to Patrick for giving a heads up about the identity of this pig flask, and that a similar one was discussed on Antiques Roadshow.

These pig flasks were made by Anna Pottery (located in Anna, Illinois) during the late 19th century. They weren't considered valuable when they were made, but due to their rarity and quirkiness they're now collector's items.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 06, 2024 - Comments (4)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Kitsch and Collectibles

The Jonathan Nichols Temperance and Tobacco Pledge

In 1883, Wakefield resident Jonathan Nichols established a $1000 fund from which $10 would be paid to any Wakefield boy (girls excluded, I assume) who took and successfully completed the "Jonathan Nichols Temperance and Tobacco Pledge."

The pledge was to not "drink intoxicating liquors and not to chew or smoke tobacco" before they turned 21. They had to take the pledge before their 16th birthday.

Unfortunately, Nichols didn't bother to have the prize adjusted for inflation. So while $10 in 1883 may have been a decent prize, today it seems like a joke.

Six hundred boys took the pledge before 1918. From 1918 to 1959 only 10 did. There was some publicity about the pledge in 1959, which inspired 29 Boy Scouts to take the pledge in 1964 (but only a couple of them subsequently got the cash payout). Since then it doesn't seem that anyone has bothered with the pledge.

According to this inflation calculator, $10 in 1883 was equivalent to about $300 today.

The article below is from the Wilmington Town Crier - July 7, 1993.





Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 15, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Awards, Prizes, Competitions and Contests, Inebriation and Intoxicants

Ocean-Aged Wine

Ocean Fathoms promised its customers truly superior wine (for the price of $500/bottle) based on its unique method of aging the wine: in the ocean. It dropped the wine bottles to the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel and brought them up a year later. From its website:

The Santa Barbara Channel offers not only the perfect environment for the aging process of wine, but is sits in a rich sea-life transition zone, where cold arctic waters meet warmer waters from the equator providing more than 100 species of flora and fauna unique to this location. The combination of flora and fauna attracts an abundance of sea-creatures and sea-life which ultimately adorn our bottles.

It is also the interaction between the submerged wine cages and the set of special characteristics of the Channel Islands’ environment that gives Ocean Fathoms a superior product. We sourced the absolute best location on planet earth to age our superior wine.

One problem. It never got permits to do any of this. The Bureau of Alcoholic Beverage Control seized and destroyed 2,000 bottles of the wine.

I wonder if the ocean-aging actually made any difference. My guess is that it's just the latest wine-industry gimmick.

More info: Food & Wine

Posted By: Alex - Tue Aug 22, 2023 - Comments (5)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Overpriced Merchandise

Powdered Beer

A German brewery, Klosterbrauerei Neuzelle, has developed a powdered beer. Its rationale is that this will save on shipping costs, since eliminating the water from beer also eliminates most of its weight.

Two Daily Mail reporters tried it and claim it's actually not bad. A little flat, but drinkable.

The brewery has a history of coming out with unconventional beers, such as an anti-aging beer and a beer for bathing in.

More info: drinksbusiness

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 11, 2023 - Comments (6)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants

Fishky

Reputed to be the worst whisky ever made for sale. It started out as a Bruichladdich single malt, but was then matured for three months in a cask that had previously contained salted herring. Why? Because according to legend (possibly urban legend) early Scottish distillers occasionally used herring casks to mature their whisky. So a German whisky maker decided to see what it would taste like. From a review:

I took a mouthful big enough to swirl around the palate as I would with any other whisky that I review and regretted my decision immediately. When those sour and salty notes hit my tongue, my eyes watered and I immediately wanted to spit it back out. However, I suffer for my art and carried on. You could say I overreacted, but I retched after that initial mouthful and broke out in a sweat.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Feb 22, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants

Cologne Drunkards

In the late nineteenth century, a brief moral panic emerged about the alleged existence of "cologne drunkards" — society women who inebriated themselves by means of sugar cubes soaked in cologne.

Seems like an expensive way to consume alcohol, but I guess it's plausible that some women really did this.

Good Health magazine - Apr 1885



Philadelphia Times - Feb 7, 1893

Posted By: Alex - Mon Jan 23, 2023 - Comments (1)
Category: Inebriation and Intoxicants, Nineteenth Century, Perfume and Cologne and Other Scents

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Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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