Binge Drinking 700 Years Ago
There are several groups out there that I tend to refer to as the “New Prohibitionists”. They would have you believe that alcohol is a new and evil ‘drug’ that is the bane of modern society. Well, for those that want to know the whole story, there are plenty of articles out there that illustrate the history of different brews and alcohol in general.
I came across one particularly interesting article today that describes some artifacts in London, England. The researchers involved described these items as 12th century drinking vessels and goes on to paint a picture of what things were like back then. It would seem that looking back only 700 years or so, the town of England had more than 1300 Ale Houses – which equates to just about 1 Ale House for every 50 people in the city at that time. Imagine if that ratio was the same today. Hehee…
Apparently, the water was so bad that brewing ale made it much safer to drink as the boiling and the alcohol killed off some of the bugs that lived in the water back then. Everyone drank it –
including children – starting at breakfast time and got through as much as a
gallon of the stuff each day. Since the price was only about a penny per gallon, only the poorest were forced to drink the water.
Ahh… the good old days.
Source
Scott's Mead
I was thinking of the post I made yesterday regarding the
Chicha from the Andes mountain region and it got me thinking of a story I heard regarding one of my all time favorite beverages, Mead.
This tale takes place in ancient Scotland when a group of people referred to as ‘Picts’ inhabited the highlands. They were regarded as fierce and nearly undefeatable warriors despite their average height of around 4 feet tall or so. They were held in high regard due to this fighting prowess and were largely left alone.
One of the rituals the Picts would go through just prior to a battle involved consumption of a special
methaglin, a type of mead that is flavored with herbs. In this case, the herb used to season and flavor the mead was a type of
heather, which was abundant in the area of the hills near the shoreline. After drinking the mead, they would chant and dance and psych themselves up for the battle and then charge in with ‘mad fighting spirit’.
Quite some time later as brewing became less of an art and more of a science, it was discovered that the heather the Picts once used for brewing was prone to a white fungus that grew on the stalks. It is locally referred to as “the fog” for the look that it gives the plants. Upon examination, it was discovered that the fungus contained the root chemical as that found in PCP, more commonly known on the street as “angel dust”. With some further experimenting, they found that the effect of this fungus was increased dramatically through the process of brewing into the mead!
The ferocity of the Picts apparently had nothing to do with the Picts themselves, but rather the drug affect the mead bestowed upon them. One of the affects that PCP has on a person is the ability to not feel or respond to pain and injury. This would explain why they just kept on coming in a battle. Imagine the stunned looks on the faces of would be attackers as they mortally wounded the Picts but they continued to fight to their dying breath. It is no wonder they had the reputation they did as fierce fighters.
Think about this the next time you swill a glass of mead. It is amazing the stories that can come from something as simple as a honey wine.
Hey Little Chicha!
I was searching my usual brewing haunts for some ideas on something different to brew when I came across something I hadn’t heard of before called
chicha. I don’t think this interesting little discovery is really what I was looking for in a brew, but I was certainly entertained by some of the historical stories that seem to surround it.
Chicha is best described as a beer brewed largely from corn and further flavored with any number of fruits and herbs. When I first thought about this description, my first thought was “sounds like something women would brew” – which turns out not to be far off the mark. Before I get a bunch of hate mail trying to defend the feminine position regarding that last statement, I’ll explain that most beer drinking men prefer a ‘straight’ brew and the beers brewed with the berries and other flavors are more favored by women beer drinkers. Anyway, Chicha’s origins appear to be from the ancient Andean native societies and that is where the fun starts.
It seems that in those ancient times, it was the “elite women” that were in charge of brewing this beer-type beverage and took great pride in doing so. It was no easy feat as the water had to be elevated 1,000 feet to the brewery and it is estimated that these little brew houses pumped out “hundreds of gallons per week”. Think about that for a moment and imagine the required logistics for making this brew. Very cool.
It seems that the people that partook in the drinking of the chicha utilized elaborate beakers holding as much as a half-gallon of the stuff at a time. My kind of beer stein! But things are different down in that region when compared to the U.S. and other areas, and it is thought that those differences stem back to these ancient times. You see, back then, the women typically got just as rip-roaring drunk, if not more so, as the men! Hmmm… half naked women brewing beer and getting totally ripped?? Sounds like a party! Perhaps a trip to the Andes is in order… for research purposes, of course.
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Peace, Baby!
Well, she finally did it… my wife has taken the step into the bloggosphere and created her own place in cyberspace. Welcome to the fray and have fun, Hon! Check out her site at:
http://whytelyght.blogspot.com.
Blue Ball Tragedy
Did you all see the post I had for the fantastic
Blue Ball Machine? (If not, you can follow the links or you can see the previous post called “Something Fun” from November 5th.) Well, the story doesn’t end with that wonderful little creation. Unfortunately,
tragedy has struck at the Blue Ball Machine. Follow
this link for more information.
Warp 3 on my mark... Engage!
There is an interesting theory that “he who is first to control gravity will control the earth”. If you think about this statement, I suppose it is a possibility, depending on who’s hands such awesome power would reside. Why? Consider what would become plausible when you control gravity: impenetrable force fields, perpetual motion machines, unlimited energy, and more. Imagine the fictional figure of
Magneto from the
X-Men comic and
movie series, but instead of manipulating metal, he could manipulate anything that was affected by gravity, or simply put, anything at all. “But that’s just fiction!” you say… or is it?
According to several
news reports today, U.S. Patent number 6,960,975 was granted to someone named
Boris Volfson of Huntington, IN on November 1st, 2005. The patent is for a “
space vehicle propelled by a superconducting shield that alters the curvature of space-time outside the craft in a way that counteracts gravity”. The article goes on to quote someone else named Robert Park that says “
the action shows patent examiners are being duped by false science”.
Well, Mr. Park might be onto something there. I did a search for “Boris Volfson” and did indeed come up with some information on the guy. He actually has two other patents that were awarded to him just this year, one for “
Simulated stained glass modular electroluminescent” modules and the other is for a “
Rotary trimmer with multiple blades”. Hm… it might just be me but there seems to be a big jump from this stuff to an anti-grav spaceship.
Is this all just a joke? Perhaps. You see, it is supposedly against the rules of the U.S. Patent Office to award a patent for any device that defies the laws of physics. If this is true, the journal
Nature, the original reporter of this patent, has a weird sense of humor. If this turns out to not be a joke, keep an eye out for spaceships in the Huntington, IN area.
Easy come, easy go?
Are we in the Twilight Zone or what? One of the service advisors at the dealership in which I work just got reamed out by a customer for fixing his car. No kidding… but there is a bit of a story behind it.
This particular customer is well known for frequenting the casinos up on the Indian reservation in the mountains. He used to own his own business doing something tedious (I forget all of the details) and worked hard to earn his first Mercedes-Benz. He was feeling good that week and went to the casino for the first time. It was in the driveway of the casino where the valet brushed against the hood ornament and managed to get it crooked. This pissed off the owner pretty good but since he was with a group of people, he decided to speak to the manager privately at a better time.
So on he goes to the casino and apparently hit the jackpot or something – instant millionaire. On a whim of stupidity and incredible luck, he ‘lets it ride’ on a bet at one of tables and winds up tripling his money before the casino politely ‘retired’ him for the evening. He had his 15 minutes of fame and has been living off the money he won ever since. He somehow attributed his luck that night at the casino to the incident with the hood ornament on his brand new car. It has been about 18 months or so since that first night at the casino and he has been a frequent casino visitor ever since.
The service indicator in his car finally showed that his car was due for service. He brings it in and has the work done. When they pull the car around for him afterward, he just about turned white. As a courtesy, the tech that worked on his car saw that his hood ornament was bent and fixed it – under warranty, no charge. He didn’t say a whole lot at that time, muttering something about not asking anyone to fix the hood ornament, but thanked the tech just the same and left the dealership.
That all happened last week. He came in yesterday morning, furious, and just laid into the service advisor that helped him with his car last week. He was adamant about having the old hood ornament put back on the car and was raving about never coming back here again. The tech explained that the hood ornament wasn’t actually replaced, it was the same piece of equipment, but it had a manufacturing defect in the base that caused it to catch and sit crooked in its seat. He simple filed off the defect and it stood like it was supposed to. The customer was incensed. We couldn’t figure out what the deal was. He yelled for another several minutes and tore out of here.
.We found out this morning that he apparently has lost nearly half of his net worth at the casino and his loses are still spiraling downward. He is blaming the tech and service advisor for his change in luck since it all started the day we fixed his hood ornament. All I could think about is that episode of the Twilight Zone where the guy tossed the coin in the beggar’s box and it landed on it’s edge, resulting in a day of good fortune. Sort of makes you wonder if it was the actual coin/hood ornament that brought the luck or the mindset resulting in the action? Whatever. We’ll see what happens.
Many Faces of Duncan
Kids are fun. This year after carving pumpkins for Halloween, our ever so camera shy little one decided to do some minor posing with his new creations. Following is the result:
What can I say? The kid loves the camera and he loves to have fun. One of these days I'll post some of his shots as he is becoming quite adept with a camera himself. His choice of subject matter is interesting but he has definitely worked out the kinks of framing a picture and working the camera.
Something Fun
Something on the lighter side. Try following just one of these little blue balls after a few adult beverages. Cheers!
