The Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by wodin

Ahhhh, Ouzo... Bottled psychosis, generally available in Mediterranean ports of call. The stuff used to be (before about 1970 or so) laced with some form of opiate, and would put the hardest drinkers down hard. It was declared "off limits" to American sailors, but that didn't stop us from partaking.

The stuff the lady I mentioned earlier brought wasn't Ouzo - it was distilled in Finland.

An old friend spent a summer in college working for a crazy Greek outfit that had a contract to paint a bridge over the Delaware between Philadelphia and New Jersey. It was a long term contract - they'd start at one end, and by the time they got to the other, the start side needed attention again.

The workers would go to a Greek bar on South Street in Philly and drink Ouzo. At one point, a painter had apparently had a little too much Ouzo the previous night. He managed to knock his bucket of paint off his scaffold.

As it happened, there was a tugboat pushing a barge upriver, and a deckhand laying back on the barge sunning himself. The barge passed under the bridge at just the right moment and he got a full body paint job.

Another old friend has a part time job as a representative of a French spirits importer. (The owners are old friends.) They import Armagnac, Cognac, and a French single malt whisky. They apparently now also import a brand of Absinthe, banned here because of adverse reactions like psychosis. The stuff the French outfit imports apparently doesn't contain the active ingredient that can produce such reactions.
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Dennis

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

You've hit on the one thing that I like about McDonald's fries. Thin and cooked perfectly. If they just did not put too too much salt on their fries.

You can order them without salt. It's best way to get them fresh most of the time.

Reminds me two days ago I got Chips and Cheese from Taco Bell. Some worker had salted the chips! They come unsalted because the cheese is salty enough. For European poster. We call these normally Nachos but Taco Bell calls them Chips N' Cheese because you dip the chips into the cheese instead of pouring it on. It's a $1 item so I get it a lot.

Sent from my XT1528

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Oh now you get to learn all the WABC rules. Or I am assuming that Wisconsin has an Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

An old friend is a former trade book editor and current full time writer. She moved to Seattle, and has a part time gig as a presenter for a wine outfit. (She is deeply into and highly knowledgeable about wine, and had been a sales person in an NY shop, so this was a case of turning pro in something she was involved with as an amateur.)

She's licensed too, and described the process as requiring passing a test, which was mostly about recognizing when a patron had too much and cutting them off, and understanding how screwed she would be if drunken patron did something like climb into a car and get into a serious accident after she'd served him one too many...
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Dennis

I was mainly amazed at how easy it was to get the license. In Wisconsin there is no specific agency or board. The Department of Revenue regulates everything related the manufacture, wholesale, and sale in stores and places that serve alcohol on site. Damn Revenuers.

I did learn a lot about some of the regulations and liabilities of the pub and being a bartender. I'm not looking forward to the first time I will not only have to refuse service to an underage person, but also have to confiscate their fake ID.

Fortunately in Wisconsin there is no law that exposes a bartender to criminal penalties or civil liabilities for anything a patron might do after leaving the place impaired.

I was already familiar with one regulation. I learned this from talking to an owner of another local bar. Turns out that in this same area another bar lost its liquor license for not properly disposing of empty liquor bottles. Actually they were refilling bottles of expensive brands with cheaper brands; eg. filling a Grey Goose bottle with Smirnoff.

[CRussel]

In BC, it's called a "Serving it Right" card, and it's not particularly difficult to get one. A couple of hours of study, and you take it online. However, the part that concerns me is that there is no expiration date on my card. Apparently, I can continue to be a legal server forever.

[Cinisajoy]

It is interesting now one has to take a test to be a bartender.
Years back, the only requirement in Texas to own a bar was make sure someone knew the regulations.

Oh and the owner could not be drunk in his own bar.

Yes, I threw my boss out more than once.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

It is interesting now one has to take a test to be a bartender.
Years back, the only requirement in Texas to own a bar was make sure someone knew the regulations.

Oh and the owner could not be drunk in his own bar.

Yes, I threw my boss out more than once.

<grin>

What sort of regulations and tests exist is very much a local matter.

One likely selector will be whether liquor is a state monopoly. For instance, I grew up in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania is a place where liquor is a state monopoly. You can only buy hard liquor in State Stores, and the selection will be those approved by the state. Liquor is also more expensive, with a variety of state excise taxes and surcharges in top of sales taxes. There is a very healthy smuggling trade in consequence between PA and DE and NJ, where taxes are far lower. There's a major liquor outlet right across one the the bridges connecting PA to NJ. Smart smugglers cross the bridge, load up at the NJ outlet, then continue on further east, and take the long way back via a different route between the states. The PA State Troopers keep an eye on the liquor outlet in NJ, and wait happily for anyone who tries to load up and come straight back the way they came.

PA also still has vestiges of Puritan heritage, with Blue laws that specify what you may not do on Sunday. When I was a small child, I recall alcohol as being a not on Sunday thing, and it wasn't till I was a late teenager that it became legal to sell stuff like beer in supermarkets.

I haven't looked up what PA requires to get a bartender's license, but I suspect their regulations are fussier than many other places.

Up to the 1920's, PA was a major producer of rye whiskey, distilling 6 million barrels a year at it's peak. Prohibition put an end to that, but it's beginning to return, and there are an assortment of artisan distillers who set up to produce rye. They are located in rural areas where farmers grow rye, so what they distill is locally sourced. I've sampled a couple, and it you like rye whiskey, it's very nice indeed.

(Terminology also a fertile source of confusion. In Canada, for historical reasons, rye is synonymous with whiskey, and it's possible to buy bottles of something labeled Rye that has never come with kilometers of the grain. We did a rye tasting at an event I'm involved with, and the guy running it had to define just what was being tasted in consequence. )
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Dennis

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

It is interesting now one has to take a test to be a bartender.
Years back, the only requirement in Texas to own a bar was make sure someone knew the regulations.

Oh and the owner could not be drunk in his own bar.

Yes, I threw my boss out more than once.

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

<grin>

What sort of regulations and tests exist is very much a local matter.

One likely selector will be whether liquor is a state monopoly. For instance, I grew up in Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania is a place where liquor is a state monopoly. You can only buy hard liquor in State Stores, and the selection will be those approved by the state. Liquor is also more expensive, with a variety of state excise taxes and surcharges in top of sales taxes. There is a very healthy smuggling trade in consequence between PA and DE and NJ, where taxes are far lower.

<big snip for reducing the length of my post>
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Dennis

Ah yes, the still after all these year strange patchwork of laws regulation alcohol sales in the United Sates. All of this dating back to the wording of the amendment repealing national prohibition:

AMENDMENT XXI

Section 1.
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

To this day has left a strange patch work of laws that can vary not only by state, but by county or even city within a state.

When my family first moved to Dallas, about 1967, there were no regular bars legal. One could belong to a private club where one could store a bottle of liquor and while at the club be served drinks from that. Or so I recall my parents saying. I was curious about that and found this article that prove Dallas remains strange to this day:

http://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2010/09/7793/

I recall that when I lived in Maryland for a period in the early 1970s there was some issue with laws there, or maybe it was taxes, that made it worthwhile to cross into a neighboring state to purchase beer or wine. Can't really remember what that was about.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

Ah yes, the still after all these year strange patchwork of laws regulation alcohol sales in the United Sates. All of this dating back to the wording of the amendment repealing national prohibition:



To this day has left a strange patch work of laws that can vary not only by state, but by county or even city within a state.

When my family first moved to Dallas, about 1967, there were no regular bars legal. One could belong to a private club where one could store a bottle of liquor and while at the club be served drinks from that. Or so I recall my parents saying. I was curious about that and found this article that prove Dallas remains strange to this day:

http://oakcliff.advocatemag.com/2010/09/7793/

I recall that when I lived in Maryland for a period in the early 1970s there was some issue with laws there, or maybe it was taxes, that made it worthwhile to cross into a neighboring state to purchase beer or wine. Can't really remember what that was about.

I just looked up wet/dry counties in Texas. I am more confused than ever.

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I just looked up wet/dry counties in Texas. I am more confused than ever.

I am a 9th generation New Orleanian. Bars that close confuse me.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

I am a 9th generation New Orleanian. Bars that close confuse me.

The late Bob Asprin, a popular SF/fantasy writer, lived in NOLA, and was there during Hurricane Katrina and blogging about it. Apparently, the bar across the street from him managed to get supplies and stay open throughout.

An old friend in Britain is annoyed. British pubs close at 11pm, I believe. This was apparently intended to try to reduce alcohol consumption. But in practice, people consume the same total amount they would consume if the bars were open later, but do it in a much shorter time frame, with predictable results. She's not pleased.

In NYC, bars close at 4am, though there were private "after hours" clubs the last I knew open later.
______
Dennis

[Gardenman]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Salt and watermelon. Salt is the deal. Always.
Watermelon = good.
Watermelon + salt = better.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

An old friend in Britain is annoyed. British pubs close at 11pm, I believe. This was apparently intended to try to reduce alcohol consumption. But in practice, people consume the same total amount they would consume of the bars were open later, but do it in a much shorter time frame, with predictable results. She's not pleased.
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Dennis

Not really true any more. I think 11pm is still the standard closing time and many pubs still honour it. However, it is much easier for pubs to get extensions to that, and many do, to various times. For instance, in the town I live in, every pub in the town centre remains open a lot later than 11pm, particularly at the weekend.

If your friend's pub still closes at 11, I would guess that's because they don't have the volume of trade to keep it open longer.

You're spot on about the effect truncated opening hours had though. Also, add in the fact that a strict 11pm closing time for all pubs meant that all the intoxicated people were hitting the streets at the same time and you can imagine the potential for trouble that caused. The current system does tend to stagger the drunk rush hour!

[Cinisajoy]

Texas has strange laws. You can get a midnight or 2 o'clock license. You can get a full liquor license or just a beer/wine cooler license. In the second case, a patron can bring in their own liquor but not beer.
Note the midnight license the closing time is midnight except for Saturdays when it is 1 am.

[Rumpelteazer]

Today there was a woman in the store who completely lost her cool when I couldn't remember what lightbulb I sold her five or six years ago for the light fixture in her powderroom/toilet/cloakroom. It was a long day today.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Today there was a woman in the store who completely lost her cool when I couldn't remember what lightbulb I sold her five or six years ago for the light fixture in her powderroom/toilet/cloakroom. It was a long day today.

Oh and here I thought you remembered everything you sold in the last 10 minutes.