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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| 'Course, arse-burgers are techie types, possibly correlated with Rhesus Negative |
Interestingly, one of my half dozen grandsons is looking particularly suspect and he just happens to have a Cornish father. - - Must check out his blood group.
Update: He is “O Negative” his mother is “O Positive”.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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Caught a snippet from Bernard Cornwell talking about one of his historical novels in which he was insisting that soldiers needed alcohol to keep on fighting and killing especially in hand-to-hand battles which does seem to apply, loosely, to certain national traits; for example the 'wild' Scots and 'barbaric' Irish as the English are wont to say.
Beer wouldn't be particularly appropriate for 'Dutch courage' since it was such a commonplace drink but whisky, rationed, could serve very well to bolster morale. Maybe spirits had a dual purpose, to harden resolve and sharpen the mind, even to clean wounds, unlike wine which has a mellowing effect. There is a recognised correlation between hard drinking and hard fighting with which military commanders and clan chiefs would be very familiar.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| Beer wouldn't be particularly appropriate for 'Dutch courage' |
The Dutch tend to be regarded as lager drinkers, but they do have a traditional spirit - - jenever (a type of gin).
But certain brands of beers have always been regarded locally as being responsible for violent behavior, whilst others were thought less inclined to induce aggression. - - I remember my dad telling me “Be careful drinking Chester’s, it's fighting beer”. And if there were two things my dad knew about, they were beer and fighting.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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I wonder if gin really does originate in Holland. In the French Alps the locals have a brew called génépi, made from a local berry steeped in sugar and alcohol, which tastes distinctly medicinal and is truly disgusting like all good medicines. According to my source, a Frenchwoman from the area (Montgenevre), it has a 'calming' effect.
The plant, says wiki, is a species of artemisia (named after the goddess Artemis), also used in absinthe and other liquors, and has antiseptic properties and is a traditional cure for stomach pains; it's known as wormwood in English.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| I remember my dad telling me “Be careful drinking Chester’s, it's fighting beer”. And if there were two things my dad knew about, they were beer and fighting. |
Yeah, but he's not your real father. People like that never notice. Hey, I'm just the messenger.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| is a traditional cure for stomach pains; it's known as wormwood in English. |
Has anyone floated the idea that all alcohol started life as medicine? We have already kicked the idea around that beer might just be potable water.
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Chad
In: Ramsbottom
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| People like that never notice. |
I think we need to update our database of “Northern Working Class Stereotypes”.
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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| Has anyone floated the idea that all alcohol started life as medicine? We have already kicked the idea around that beer might just be potable water. |
Yeah, pretty much, in a hot-water infusion and an Arabic name for a banned-in-Arabia substance kind of way.
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DPCrisp
In: Bedfordshire
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| But certain brands of beers have always been regarded locally as being responsible for violent behavior |
Stella Artois is called Wifebeater, though it's not especially strong, Belgium isn't known for its violent drinkers and the ads could only be less laddish if done by Sheilas' Wheels. I guess the violent association sticks better in the mind than the real reason for the nickname, which is a reference to A Streetcar Named Desire.
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Hatty
Site Admin
In: Berkshire
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I have been told that some Belgian beer has a considerably higher percentage than English brews and is therefore unsuited to drinkers used to downing several pints in a sitting. Which may explain why it's considered one of the best beers. It's interesting that the Brits don't appear to have produced a national home-grown spirit, not even a strong brand of beer, apart from cider. (The Spanish for beer is cerveza, said to derive from Latin cerevisia named after Ceres, which sounds more like cherries to me).
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