Happy Brew Years Eve!

75th Anniversary Of The Repeal of Prohibition!

NY Daily News Dec 6, 1933

I can't eat, I can't talk
Been drinkin' mean jake, Lord, now can't
walk
Ain't got nothin' now to lose
Cause I'm a jake walkin' papa with the
jake walk blues.
The Jake Walk Blues 
The Allen Brothers, recorded May 5, 1930,Memphis, Tennessee

Tomorrow marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, the grueling ban on alcohol that lasted from 1920 to 1933, and one of the more tragic aspects of Prohibition was the "Jake Walk"- a peculiar, stiff-legged gait that afflicted people who had been drinking Jamaica Ginger, an alcohol-based patent medicine that turned out to have been contaminated with a neurotoxin as a result of the efforts made by the shady characters who were marketing it to come up with a formula that would get by the Dry authorities.  Another aspect of Prohibition was the unintended consequences of more than 30,000 speakeasies in New York City alone, all of which contributed to rising crime rates and made bootleggers rich (try $60 million a year for mobster Al Capone).

Looks like you'd need liquor to touch those lips

Whether you're sipping at the bar or at home, Repeal Day custom asks drinkers to heed a few gracious traditions. Be sure to make the first drink a nonalcoholic one, as to remember those years suffered by our reluctantly sober forebears.

And when you're enjoying that second drink of wine, beer, or Scotch, remember all those other freedom's that you may have enjoyed; being able to smoke in a bar; riding a bike without a helmet; eating good-tasting foods cooked with fats; taking a pen-knife and cologne with you on a plane; waiting in front of an airport exit to pick someone up; bringing a backpack, or bottled water to a baseball game or concert....I'm sure that each one of the restrictions that are now imposed upon us were well intentioned by the lawmakers for our welfare, but each restriction on our free will to decide how we will live our lives, is just another brick in the wall that imprisons us....to paraphrase another well know statement by Sen. Everett Dirkson; a few restrictions here, a few restrictions there....and pretty soon it adds up to real freedom being taken away......

T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y

On this day in …

* 77, Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom

* 1259, Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels

* 1619, 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to the Creator (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas)

* 1783, at Fraunces Tavern in New York City, US General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell

* 1791, the first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published

* 1864, during the American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea --- At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta, Georgia. Union forces did suffer more than three times the Confederate casualties, however

* 1875, notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then Spain

* 1918, President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office

* 1943, during World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States

* 1945, by a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN was established on October 24 of that year)

* 1952, the Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow

* 1971, the UN Security Council calls an emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan

* 1984, practitioners of that "religion of peace" hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers

* 1991, journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut by practitioners of that "religion of peace". He was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

ALSO: Captain Mark Pyle pilots Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-221ADV, to Miami International Airport ending 64 years of Pan Am operations

* 2005, tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage