Comments on: 5 Drinking Stories That Put Yours To Shame

By: Eggshaped

Eggshaped — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:14:00 +0000

The idea that Paul Revere was drunk dates back only to 1968 when the Boston Globe claimed that Isaac Hall gave Revere “A little something to warm his bones.” There was no evidence given, and it is well known that Revere was tee-total like many of his day.

Futhermore, elephants don’t get drunk by eating fermented fruit. To get enough alcohol, they would have to eat many times their body weight.

By: kat

kat — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:30:00 +0000

i attended Beer Middle school in the early 90s and our mascot was the Barons so we were the Beer Barons

By: glen

glen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:24:00 +0000

The following true tale is from the history of the oldest commissioned warship in the world. It comes by way of the National Park Service, as printed in *Oceanographic Ships, Fore and Aft,* a periodical by the oceanographer of the U. S. Navy.

On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder, and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass British shipping.

On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 2,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England, where her crew captured and scuttled 12 British merchant vessels and took their rum aboard. By this time, Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid there. Here, her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 13,000 gallons to her stores, and headed for home port.

On 20 February 1780, Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, and no whiskey. She did, however, still have her full crew of 475 officers and men and 18,600 gallons of water.

The math is quite enlightening – Length of cruise: 181 days. Booze consumption: 1.26 gallons / man / day (does NOT include the unknown quantity of rum captured from the 12 British merchant ships in November).

Naval historians say that the reenlistment rate from this cruise was 92%!

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:09:00 +0000

Yes, I’ve definitely read this exact article before. Rehashing old bits on a slow day perhaps?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Jack Black could totally play Paul Revere in a movie.

By: mark

mark — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:15:00 +0000

All the blog posts that were published in the magazine already are “by” The Mag, right? I’m like 3 issues behind.

By: Jason English

Jason English — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:43:00 +0000

It has indeed, last December. I can’t remember if we ran it to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, or just because.

By: Kristin

Kristin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:42:00 +0000

With regard to #5, I believe if elephants didn’t like to drink, we would never have seen one fly.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Has this blog been posted before? I remember reading these same stories somewhere.