Get Ready for Repeal Day

Katherine Mangu-Ward | December 4, 2007

Have you made your plans for America's only truly legitimately booze-oriented holiday? Not St. Patty's, not Fourth of July, not New Years, and NOT Christmas with the in-laws. Repeal Day! Tomorrow, celebrate the anniversary of the end of Prohibition. Today, take a sober (in both senses) moment to contemplate a world without legal hooch.

And, of course, enjoy the many comparisons reason has made over the years between THAT Prohibition and the ongoing drug prohibition in the U.S.

Comments

Lush|12.4.07 @ 1:16PM|#

Drinking is highly overated.

|12.4.07 @ 1:26PM|#

Prohibition was ethically wrong and a little drink won't hurt you, but boozing is not a sacrament and I don't see why a magazine that calls itself 'Reason' would celebrate a drug which, more than any other, is notorious for impairing the ability to reason.

|12.4.07 @ 1:27PM|#

KMW, thanks, I'm always looking for a lame excuse good reason. Bottoms up!

|12.4.07 @ 1:28PM|#

but boozing is not a sacrament

You apparently were never an alter boy.

Ska|12.4.07 @ 1:29PM|#

Does that mean we drink now?

H&R Drinking Game Violation AL|12.4.07 @ 1:29PM|#

"I don't see why a magazine that calls itself 'Reason' would [....] "

DRINK!!!!!!

Episiarch|12.4.07 @ 1:39PM|#

I know it is a feeble, far-away dream, but imagine the party on WOD-Repeal Day.

|12.4.07 @ 1:41PM|#

Oh if only I had known in advance, I could have distilled up a celebration batch of moonshine!

Keith|12.4.07 @ 1:42PM|#

I know it is a feeble, far-away dream, but imagine the party on WOD-Repeal Day.

Sales of Doritos and Dominos pizza will skyrocket.

|12.4.07 @ 1:45PM|#

And, of course, enjoy the many comparisons reason has made over the years between THAT Prohibition and the ongoing drug prohibition in the U.S.

Not a comparison because one is alcohol and the other is drugs. It is like comparing apples and spaceships. Alcohol has a long history of safe use in western society, drugs cannot be used safely, any use is abuse.

I know it is a feeble, far-away dream, but imagine the party on WOD-Repeal Day.

Ain't never gonna happen, people need to be protected from dangerous drugs. Without banning them the temptation is too great for man people.

I don't see why a magazine that calls itself 'Reason' would celebrate a any drug which... There fixed it.

The Wine Commonsewer|12.4.07 @ 1:47PM|#

Dude, I've had moonshine, I'll stick to wine. :-)

|12.4.07 @ 1:51PM|#

Damn! I forgot about repeal day and I have already gone through my weekly beer allotment. Hrrm, I may have to donate to a political campaign instead.

Remember Prohibition?|12.4.07 @ 1:52PM|#

Okay, they won't let me do this without writing a comment. Thought I would be quick and just put the URL in with the catchy little Name: Remember Prohibition. But no, I have to do it right so here it is.

Click on Remember Prohibition.

Thanks.

TWC

The Wine Commonsewer|12.4.07 @ 1:53PM|#

Thanks Ms K (for reminding me about Repeal Day). I've already forgotten about twice in the last week. Must be that stuff that NORML is hawking.

VM|12.4.07 @ 2:03PM|#

Santa's Secret for Celebration!!!

1 oz Giffard Ginger of the Indies liqueur
1 oz Navan Vanilla Cognac
2 oz pear puree
Dash of nutmeg

Combine the first three ingredients into a martini shaker with cracked ice, and shake well. Strain into a well-chilled martini glass, garnish with a dash of nutmeg...
(h/t: www.wickinn.com)

|12.4.07 @ 2:21PM|#

In honor of tomorrow's festivities, I suggest we commission the URKOBOLD'ers to codify the H&R drinking rules.

Go on, be the modern-day Hammurabi...

VM|12.4.07 @ 2:28PM|#

Taktix - IIRC our friends at Grylliade have done that already!!

|12.4.07 @ 2:32PM|#

It would be nice if prohibition had stayed repealed, but it seems to have crept back. No beer in the public park, no open container in the car, zero tolerance for driving with any blood alcohol level, no sharing wine with your underage offspring at meals. Yes, we can drink in our homes, but that was pretty much where we got to under prohibition.

Chuck|12.4.07 @ 2:33PM|#

Santa's Secret for Celebration!!!

1 oz Giffard Ginger of the Indies liqueur
1 oz Navan Vanilla Cognac
2 oz pear puree
Dash of nutmeg

2 oz Don Julio anejo. Drink quickly; pour another.

VM|12.4.07 @ 2:39PM|#

Santa's Secret for Celebration!!!

1 oz Giffard Ginger of the Indies liqueur
1 oz Navan Vanilla Cognac
2 oz pear puree
Dash of nutmeg

2 oz Don Julio anejo. Drink quickly; pour another.

:)

|12.4.07 @ 2:44PM|#

It would be nice if prohibition had stayed repealed, but it seems to have crept back.

BS

No beer in the public park,

Public drunkenness is OK?

no open container in the car,

Drinking and driving is unsafe.

zero tolerance for driving with any blood alcohol level,

Any amount of alcohol on your breath is dangerous to drive. You should wait 24 hours before driving after any amount of drinking.

no sharing wine with your underage offspring at meals.

Children should not be given a dangerous drug like alcohol. When they are 21 year adults they should have the maturity to handle alcohol responsibly.

Yes, we can drink in our homes, but that was pretty much where we got to under prohibition.

No, under prohibition possession was illegal.

|12.4.07 @ 2:47PM|#

IIRC our friends at Grylliade have done that already!!

Oh great, another way to not get work done!

|12.4.07 @ 2:50PM|#

Santa's Secret for Celebration!!!

Swedish Glogg

Put a box of dried fruit, a box of raisons, a bag of skinned almonds, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardomon seeds in 1 Quart water.

Soak a few hours, then add half cup or so sugar and boil down to a concentrated mixture.

Add half gallon of port wine, heat mixture.

Add quart of rye whiskey, remove fruit and spices and bottle, heat a little more.

Serve warm with the cooked raisons and almonds in the bottom of the glass.

Enjoy!

|12.4.07 @ 3:14PM|#

...and I have already gone through my weekly beer allotment.

It's only Tuesday. Tsk. Tsk.

NoStar|12.4.07 @ 3:23PM|#

Dec. 5 seems to be the perfect day to invite yourself to TWC's humble abode.

Bring a bottle of the 1998 Harlan Estate Proprietary Red Wine and I'll bet he'll even let you in the front door.

http://www.winecommune.com/lot.cfm/wine/95-points---1998-Harlan-Estate-Proprietary-Red-Win/lotID/2110503.html

Kool424|12.4.07 @ 3:25PM|#

"Alcohol has a long history of safe use in western society, drugs cannot be used safely, any use is abuse."

Juanita is kidding right? Do I need to quote Bill Hicks?

|12.4.07 @ 3:28PM|#

Hey Juanita,
Marijuana's not a drug either. It's an herb.

------
I know, I know. Don't feed the trolls, not even if they look kinda like a girl and might even appear to be cute in very dim light.

|12.4.07 @ 3:43PM|#

Thank you, NoStar, I always forget.
It always seems so safe. Here you go... have a little bite, then BAM! Trolls everywhere, angering up the blood.

T|12.4.07 @ 5:28PM|#

Allright!. I'm gonna try to foist off Cynar cocktails on anybody who walks in the door tomorrow. My drunken soul won't let me pour the shit down the sink, but good lord that stuff is foul.

|12.4.07 @ 5:36PM|#

Hell it doesn't mean a thing to me. I've moved to the Bahamas!

AAhh sweet civilization.

|12.4.07 @ 7:18PM|#

"Alcohol has a long history of safe use in western society, drugs cannot be used safely, any use is abuse."

I have a rather long personal history of using drugs....kinda safely. Does that count?

|12.4.07 @ 8:10PM|#

No, under prohibition possession was illegal.

Incorrect. Possession was legal but manufacture, sales and importation were not. Ergo, if the magic whiskey fairy showed up at your doorstep with a fifth of Canada's finest you (and your children) were free to imbibe to your heart's delight.

|12.4.07 @ 11:18PM|#

Juanita seems to have slipped out of character. I've always wondered who she really is.

T|12.4.07 @ 11:20PM|#

the magic whiskey fairy showed up at your doorstep with a fifth of Canada's finest

Damn. All the fairies I know show up and drink my booze. They rarely bring any.

David Gillies|12.5.07 @ 9:42AM|#

No beer in the public park,

Public drunkenness is OK?

•Who said anything about public drunkenness? Some of us are capable of drinking, even in public, without reducing ourselves to shambling messes.

no open container in the car,

Drinking and driving is unsafe.

•Open container laws mean it's also illegal to drink and be driven. If I'm a passenger, what harm does chugging a beer do?

zero tolerance for driving with any blood alcohol level,

Any amount of alcohol on your breath is dangerous to drive. You should wait 24 hours before driving after any amount of drinking.

•Crap. 24 hours? Don't be ridiculous. The level at which one becomes impaired is not zero.

no sharing wine with your underage offspring at meals.

Children should not be given a dangerous drug like alcohol. When they are 21 year adults they should have the maturity to handle alcohol responsibly.

•A 20 year-old is a child? Allowing your teenage children to drink alcohol in a controlled and supervised setting is irresponsible?

What a lot of blue-nosed, whining Puritanism. Alcohol is one of the towering accomplishments of human culture. There's even those who suggest that the cultivation of grain to make beer is what caused us to to settle and build cities. We get the word civilization from the Latin for city.