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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Funnily enough, yes. On a more serious note, neat is allied to notions of cleanliness (cf. French net where, unusually, the t is pronounced). 'Neat' applied to drink may well come from French in view of the close ties between France and Scotland.
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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You mean (something like) SADS is a particularly Celtic thing? Most interesting. Do tell.
| All this reference to 'water of life' makes me wonder if the brew in question wasn't medicinal originally (but they always say it's good for you). |
Spiritual health and physical health were not distinguished, neither, wunnit?
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| You mean (something like) SADS is a particularly Celtic thing? |
Chad, are you sad? Is it not simply that the winter gloom lasts longer in northern latitudes? Swedes, Finns, Russians are more prone to depression than Mediterranean peoples and therefore depend on strong spirits to raise their spirits? (Glasgow is on the same latitude as Moscow)
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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Too bloody right I am! - - I am a Mancunian after all -- so it's not a seasonal thing -- we suffer from all year round solar deprivation.
I was at Old Trafford t'other night. - - We have the most successful team in the world, the multi award winning 'Player of the Year', we had just won the match to move into pole position in the Premier League (if we win our game in hand)...and the moaning was deafening.
And don't bother giving me any of that old crap about most United fans coming from darn sarf. - They'd be far too cheerful to fit in up here.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| Spiritual health and physical health were not distinguished, neither, wunnit? |
'Spirits' sounds like it's related to spiritual health but perhaps only after religious organisations, monasteries in particular, got in on the act. Distilling apparently was germane to both cosmetics and medicine which, being expensive commodities, were presumably for the benefit of predominantly wealthy and important types before cheap liquor became available.
| - I am a Mancunian after all -- so it's not a seasonal thing -- we suffer from all year round solar deprivation. |
That's telling....Siberians report feeling despair in winter and also have a hard-drinking culture, in fact pride themselves on hardness generally. It's not exclusive to 'Celts' by any means.
The English have a tendency to drink spirits as recklessly as if downing a pint or quaffing mead; it may be part of the military culture ("Dutch courage" appears to have originated in the mid- or late 16th century at the time when Elizabeth I rather reluctantly lent support to the Dutch in their struggle to emancipate themselves from Spanish rule, gin being the national drink which fortified English soldiers).
A'right luv gimme a dubble vodka n cork (coke for you southerners), hold the cork. [This last was added by my son who is an avid Man U supporter...he's been picking up some bad habits lately.]
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| This last was added by my son who is an avid Man U supporter... |
Then I'm sure he'll tell you not to call us Man U!
And you can tell him I originally hail from Nuke Neath (Newton Heath). - - That should impress him.
That Manc accent needs some work too. - Gimme should be givuz; and cork?? - - Sounds like he's spent too much time in Bolton (or watching dodgy northern soaps).
I'm bilingual myself - - fluent in Manc and Rammy. Make that trilingual. I can almost speak English on a good day.
| ...he's been picking up some bad habits lately.] |
I hope you're refering to the vodka, not United!
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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| I hope you're refering to the vodka, not United! |
Indeed, though I don't particularly endorse his displaced loyalty. It seems that what people drink, or the way they drink it (special glasses and other ritualistic flourishes) is geographically determined, their taste buds are influenced by upbringing like the regional dialect they affect or even the team they support.
| I'm bilingual myself - - fluent in Manc and Rammy -- make that trilingual. I can almost speak English on a good day. |
You manage very well for a non-native.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| It seems that what people drink, .............. is geographically determined, their taste buds are influenced by upbringing....... |
I have a rather extreme example of this. - - When I was younger, I was quite partial to the odd pint of ale. The local brew was something of an acquired taste -- to those brought up on it, it was nectar -- the uninitiated found it somewhat unpalatable.
I once took a Jamaican pal of mine (we shared a taste for beer -- and non-liquid intoxicants) to the pub which had been my very first watering hole. He managed to down the first four or five pints, with some difficulty -- gagging frequently. - - Then he had a Road to Damascus moment and announced: 'Gee whiz old chap, one could easily acquire a taste for this rather spiffing beverage' -- or words to that effect.
Incidentally, my pal hated rum and I can no longer stomach real ale.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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According to a couple of booze experts on TV the other night, whisky is made from beer which was news to me. Beer has arguably the widest distribution of all alcoholic drinks yet whisky is firmly associated with Scotland and Ireland so the peat bogs in those parts must be crucial in whisky manufacture.
Peat bogs don't suddenly stop at the border, Yorkshire has its fair share too and presumably the requisite soft water. Maybe there's more to the reevers and all the border skirmishes...Anglo-Scottish hostility seems to have lasted for an inordinately long time.
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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...the peat bogs in those parts must be crucial in whisky
manufacture. |
I heard the colour was all about the peat or granite, but Oz and James were drinking whiskey that was clear before being put in the petrol tank or stored up in barrels.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The usual story is that whisky got that way from being stored specifically in sherry barrels -- and Britain is the only country in the world that has a surfeit of sherry barrels. Certainly this makes some sense because other countries seem rather to make a fetish of their spirits not having a strong flavour. I understand American bourbon has a simlar creation myth.
This kind of serendipity is always of interest to Applied Epistemologists -- the best one along these lines I ever came across was that Stradivarius violins are only like that because they used wood which (as it happened) had been floating for six months in Venice harbour.
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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An aside re. Oz and James: when they drank the four-times-distilled-and-not-matured stuff, James was alright while Oz just about croaked "I'm surprised you can speak". My son and I have surprised people by not flinching at strong spirits, too. We are all arse-burgers, one of the common characteristics of which is a monotonous tone of voice {Quite often, we hear intonation in our own voices that doesn't come across to the listener.}, so I suspect there is something (genetic) about the actual construction of our vocal tracts.
'Course, arse-burgers are techie types, possibly correlated with Rhesus Negative, so if spirits correlate with Celts, I won't be surprised.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| ...they drank the four-times-distilled-and-not-matured stuff... |
Didn't see the program, but if I remember correctly, it's about seventy percent alcohol at this stage and I don't think they dilute it until it's bottled.
The strongest spirit I remember encountering was in Portugal and is called something like 'Mad-ron-ya'? - - It's over ninety percent alcohol (about the going rate for illegal 'still stuff) but has no rough edges and goes down a treat.
I can only conclude Oz is a bit of a softy - - the only way it would make me flinch would be to pour it over an open wound (and even then not if I had already poured some down my throat first).
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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One of these days we must make a list of genius genes. Or arseburger genes as Dan calls them. I would have thought there were too many Celts for this one to run and run except that temperance is a Scotto-Welsh thing so there may be something in it. American bourbon is a Scotch-Irish thing (the Appalachians).
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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| genius genes. Or arseburger genes as Dan calls them. |
I wasn't suggesting people with Asperger's Syndrome are all geniuses, but if you wanna supply the cap, I'll wear it.
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