Collection of Insane and Fun Facts
Considered the greatest poet in Chinese literature, Li Bai dedicated to alcohol a good chunk of his poems and drunkeness due to his rampant alcoholism. Legend has that he drowned after drunkenly trying to embrace the moon’s reflection upon the river during a ferry-ride.
Some of his classic poems on getting hammered are on the wiki-page:
Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe owned roughly one percent of all the money in Denmark, wore a nose made of gold after losing his own in a duel and had a pet moose that he sent out to attend parties in his place until it one night got so drunk that it fell down a flight of stairs and broke its neck.
In 1896, New York passed a law that alcohol could only be served on Sunday if it was with a meal. New York taverns then started “selling” inedible sandwiches (served with a drink). The waiter would collect the sandwich at the end of the meal, and serve it the next customer.
The prohibition never really ended in some parts of the US. The sale of alcohol is still illegal in dozens of dry counties and cities. Jack Daniels is produced in a dry county and is not available for sale in restaurants and stores there.
In 2017, 70 students drank so much alcohol at a house party in maryland that the air inside the house registered positive an a breathalyser.
The Chief Baker on the Titanic “fortified” himself using alcohol and survived the freezing for two hours until he was rescued from the sinking ocean liner.
When drinking alcohol and getting the spins, there will be the feeling of acceleration in a particular direction. As the alcohol wears off, there will be the feeling of acceleration in the opposite direction as alcohol leaves the vestibular system.
The British developed a fondness for gin in their Indian Colony, where those posted there added a dollop of gin to the quinine they took as a preventative for malaria to make it more palatable. It apparently carried over when they returned home, and became the well-known Gin & Tonic.
From the 1960s to the 1970s, Russian cosmonauts were issued alcohol rations to drink in space. While it is still officially banned, it is widely believed that cosmonauts still smuggle some into space.
During WWII US Navy seamen would drain the fuel from torpedos (180-proof grain alcohol) then filter it though bread to make a cocktail called torpedo juice.