80 years of wetness

80 years ago this week the 21st amendment was ratified which repealed the 18th amendment and the 13 year social experiment in the USA called prohibition ended.  Of course prohibition did not mean people quit drinking, it was just that the drinking was all illegal and the quality of booze was poor if not down right bad, and with limited supply to meet the demand, why there was a lot of money to be made if you didn't mind doing something illegal.  Where TPP grew up very fast boats were used to smuggle booze in from Canada by crossing Lake Ontario. The lesson of prohibition has not been learned.  The war on drugs in the USA has simply made a lot of criminals out of mostly marijuana smokers and some narcotic users.  In fact here is the one single thing where the hyper-patriots who always shout "USA is number one!" are actually correct.  Our country has more people locked up, incarcerated, per capita than any other country on Earth!  It's pathetic on so many levels.  Look how far down the list you find any other comparable countries like Britain or Canada, or Germany.  Yes, here in the USA people are still focused on punishment, the harsher and the longer the better, in spite of virtually all the data that says that doesn't work at all. So rather than treat addicts as being ill, the USA just locks them up as criminals.  Talk about cruel and unusual.  And then somewhere today, TPP read that Sweden is just closing its prisons because it has so few people to lock up.  TPP needs a cocktail, something made with Swedish vodka perhaps. 

Alcohol and empty calories

TPP's employer is so concerned about us that healthy missives are circulated among us quite regularly warning about unprotected sex, risky life styles, and the perils of climbing Mt. Everest in just a bath robe and slippers.  Generally TPP treats these missives rather like the sincere, well-meaning, and utterly simple-minded Mormon missionaries that come to your door, and politely send them on their way.  But the latest one shows a total lack of understanding about life that borders on disrespect.  According to the latest health missive, alcoholic beverages are nutritionally empty providing nothing but calories.  A moment, please, TPP must take a sip of bourbon to fortify himself before continuing.  OK health and wellness people, you're only doing your job, but here's a news flash for you.  Alcoholic beverages are not consumed for nutritional reasons, rather they provide not just a taste treat but an important attitude adjustment, a lowering of blood pressure and reducing of stress that is certainly important to healthy living!  The people who take such jobs are always so sincere in their concern, and so dedicated to living the healthiest of lives that seem to wring all enjoyment out of food, drink, and at times it seems, life itself.  Why follow their advice just to live a few hundred extra days in misery?  And if that weren't enough, this missive included a pumpkin pie recipe made from tofu.  Who in ever loving hell expects pumpkin pie to be healthy?  Don't they know that most flavor molecules are lipid soluble?  You don't eat a piece of pie because it's health food, you eat it because it's rich, and decadent, and insanely delicious.  Nothing made of tofu has ever been put in the category of delicious.  Ah, a bit more bourbon.  Yes, bourbon (and here you may substitute your favorite tipple) provides something quite beyond nutrition, something psychologically important, a medicine for good mental,and shall TPP have to say it, health.  So in a final response, let TPP respond, "Providing nothing but empty calories my foot!"  If they want us to pay more attention to their advice, it had better reflect reality more than tofu pumpkin pie.

Just don't drink the water

“In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria.”  David Auerbach, 2002.

Dear fellow imbibers, having once been chided for traveling with a small supply of bourbon, the Phactor explained it was strictly for medicinal purposes.  And it’s so good to know that my favorite excuse has more than an element of truth to it.  Once, a whole bus load of fellow travelers get a nasty wog from the local water that the Phactors avoided because one of us had stowed a couple of bottles of beer for quenching our thirst even be they not cold.  Now all those cases of cholera and diarrhea that were not caught will be attributed to a strict reliance on ethanolic beverages when abroad.  So here it all is, via the Scientific American blogs, so you know it’s safe to drink it all in.

Longevity & Booze

Good news, everyone!  Every now and again a scientific study reports something that really cheers the Phactor up, and a 20 year study of longevity and drinking habits found that moderate drinkers had a greater longevity than both heavy drinkers and abstainers.  How about that?  That glass of shiraz with your dinner not only tastes good, but you may live longer as a result.  More likely people of a moderate habit disposition live longer period, but why not just enjoy the fact that this study has handed you an excellent argument for a daily glass of wine.  Is there a wine grower's think tank out there that funds this type of research?  Inquiring minds want to know.  The young fellow in the office next door to me has claimed that a daily nip, or two, have increased the longevity of his research career which is in its 6th decade now.  His colleagues did have to get him to dial back the killer margaritas used to celebrate each publication a bit.  He was fine, but they were killing everyone else!

Not Fair!

This is so unfair! A son of Scotland gets very depressed when he finds out these other people (link, link) have figured out how to turn his daily after work recreation into research! Maybe the Phactor just has to admit that some people are more clever, more creative. Has it ever been mentioned that the fruit of the nutmeg, of little use to most people, is made into a singularly deleterious alcoholic beverage in Grenada? Maybe they'll need my expertise some day.