Forbes published its new list of 500 richest persons on Earth and suddenly there is a person I know. He had migrated to another country and thirty years ago he came to Israel to attend a family event. It was a very nice gesture from his part and I remember he brought me a nice present. I have only a blurred memory of him because I passed though those happy years in a state of low-level drunkenness.
That event is associated in my mind with a book with the improbable title of "How to miss everything in a world tour" or something to that effect, where the author decribes how - touring Egypt he missed the pyramids (he spent the time in a local bar), then how he missed the seven world wonders and arrived home with pleasant memories having seen none of the famous monuments. That was more or less my state of mind in those times, I was invited to luxurious parties and all I remember is the horrible sweetness of the wine served, the taste of the vodka Keglevich (a vomitable syropy concoction then popular in Israel) I used to smell of and so on.
I found a twin spirit learning blogger in World Drinking Tour . Lets quote him:
Aruba is not exactly what you'd call a beer destination. Like other Caribbean destinations, it's the land of fruity drinks and bland lagers. But that's ok. The local beer, Balashi, tastes pretty good when you're sitting on the beach. If you're going to have a couple of beers, I always recommend drinking local, so be sure to have a couple of Balashis. On the other hand, if you're going to have 11 or 12, then I'd recommend the Heineken (usually not my first choice ... but Heineken does encourage you to enjoy Heineken responsibly, which I think means that you can keep drinking it until you accidentally spill one)...This man, although only a beer aficionado, has travelled all over the world courageously exploring the drinking jungle, bringing us his first-hand report of cool, darkened bars we shall never know. I compare him to fearless explorers like Speke and Livingstone who discovered the sources of the Nile.
What else did I learn?
I learned about heretofore little known and mythical religions of the Indian subcontinent. Then again, perhaps the religion was not native to India, and had only been outsourced there ... that doesn't make it any less significant to the people who lost their religion because of this outsourcing, but I digress.
What was I talking about again?
The Drinking String. An inspiring religious tradition.
A group of young Indian men approached the hot tub, and one had a long string draped over his shoulder. Naturally we inquired about the string, and it was explained that it was of religious significance.
The young man's religion did not allow him to buy alcoholic drinks. However, when he wore the drinking string, we was able to accept drinks purchased by others.
Last, but not least, if you're in Aruba, you might as well ride the Kukoo Kunuku party bus (pic) one night. Where else will they take you to a bar where they still play "Where the f#*$ is Alice"?
12 comments:
Don't keep us in suspense - tell us who your billionaire relative is? Is it too late to invite him to your daughter's wedding? Maybe he will send a nice gift.
There is no question that when traveling, the memories that resonate most are often those of the people, the locals, and not of some ancient pile of stones. But you don't have to travel to distant lands to have a conversation with a drunk - you can find them anywhere, so it's important to visit the sights too, if only between drinking sessions. And if you take the time to study a bit and understand what you are looking at, then a pile of stones is not just a pile of stones but a glimpse into the world of the people who piled them, so that pile of stones is a sort of human conversation as well.
PS I think the "drinking string" thing is BS - something they told the gullible white guy in the hope he would buy them a drink. There is no such custom. But being bamboozled by the locals is also a time honored part of travel.
K
My last manager used to love to finish off the night's work by drinking. Somehow he knew the name and location of every bar within a twenty mile radius that opened at 7am.
It was always fun to get off work and start drinking around the crack of dawn.
As far as I know only the Brahmins have the custom of putting on a string. This is of religious significance to them. Somehow I don't think pushing drinks is a duty in Hinduism, nonetheless I respect the young man for making a living through his gimmick. In my limited experience the best beers come from Germany, the other beers taste antiseptic in comparison. This is particularly true of Singapore's Tiger beer, drinking which reminds one of a hyper clean hospital room.
Yes, I assume what happened is the white guy asked the Brahmin a stupid question and got a facetious answer that he took seriously. The sacred thread is sort of the Brahmin tzitzit (the fringed garment that religious Jews wear) and is put on boys at a ceremony that is sort of a Brahmin bar mitzvah, roughly speaking.
The beers of Belgium are even better than those of Germany, I'd say. The US now has many "microbreweries" that make excellent local beers, head and shoulders above the mass market brands. The beers of Asia are mostly very generic and characterless , even worse than American mass market beer. In China they at least have the virtue of being cheap - not much more than bottled water, so might as well drink beer. One brand I had proclaimed on the label "NO FORMALDEHYDE" which was apparently a selling point and I suppose called into question whether other brands did contain this ingredient.
K
I used to have an Irish boss who between 2 and 4 PM used to declare that the sun has gone down and it was time to finish the working day and we should continue in some pub or club. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of the neighborhood pubs and clubs, he had developed intimate familiarity with the personnel and had an amazing network of drinking friends. In Israel's puritanic environment he would have be sacked for alcoholic, but in Argentina he was very much appreciated.
I used to think my old boss' drinking was caused by working nights, but when he got a job with the Post Office all of his fellow carriers told me that they would go over to his house in order to drink after work.
This same boss was horrible at pool, darts and every other game played in bars - when sober. Once Dustin had a beer or six he played even better, sometimes really, really well. I watched him con a lot of ree beers out of people that dared to challenge him to bar games.
I could swear that man got half of his daily calories from beer.
There's an old saying that God invented whiskey to prevent the Irish from ruling the world.
I don't know whether it was just that Israel is different from Argentina - they say the past is a different country. Drinking during working hours (and smoking) have become much less socially acceptable almost everywhere in the last 30 years. I think globalization and Asian competition has put everyone on their toes (except the Greeks). Calling it a day at 2PM won't do when your competitors are working until 2 AM.
In Greece, though, I just saw in an article, people who work at "hazardous" occupations are allowed to retire at 50. Naturally, over time, the list of hazardous occupations has expanded - hairdresser (they work with dangerous chemicals such as hair dye), radio announcer (there are bacteria on the microphones), wind instrument player (acid reflux from blowing), etc. There are 580 "hazardous" occupations. If pension obligations were reflected in debt, the Greek debt would be 875% of GDP. Fixing this directly is politically impossible - the Greek people are like spoiled children who have temper tantrums if you try to take away even one of their toys. The only way to fix this, I am now convinced, is to pay these pensions not in Deutsche marks (now called Euros) but in Greek funny money, just like you would give a child play money instead of real.
K
The formaldehyde in Chinese beer was not just a fermentation byproduct - it was intentionally added by the mfgrs to prevent sediment from forming in the bottle. This was publicized in the Chinese press, the mfgrs insisted that the levels were safe but they had to add the disclaimers to the bottles to calm consumer concerns.
Chinese business ethics are interesting - they are not like Russians who will literally have their rivals killed, but a "little" cheating is expected. Every once in a while, the "little" cheating becomes too big and they poison some of their customers by accident.
K
Ronduck,
I have read that alcohol is metabolized differently from other foods, and does not cause fatness. Alcoholics are skinny.
Chinese business ethic were famous for cheating (and killing) their customers. But they are improving.
The reason really serious alcoholics are skinny is that drinking causes them to lose all interest in food.
For a normal (non-alcoholic) person, drinking can contribute to weight gain, especially beer which is high in other carbohydrates in addition to alcohol - beer is liquid bread (thus the "beer belly"). Still, moderate alcohol consumption has been shown to be actually good for health - people who don't drink at all die sooner than moderate drinkers.
The problem is that some people can't handle moderation of any kind - if a little (booze, food, drugs, etc.) is good then more is better and a lot more is even better and so on until their vice literally kills them. I think our brains are pre-programmed to deal with scarcity better than abundance because throughout most of history man lived mostly in conditions of scarcity. People with higher intelligence (Jews) can write their own programs to control themselves (if # of drinks exceeds x then stop drinking) but those who operate on the lizard level go into an endless loop (if glass is empty, refill) which only ends when they are dead.
K
The alcohol in beer does not cause obesity, the other carbohidrates do. A self-programming Jew like me will therefore drink only vodka, which basically is alcohol plus water.
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