[Basilissa]

Originally Posted by Didymus Much

Uh, that's good ol' gin.

Is it still gin if someone uses, uh, home-made rather than store-bought vodka? Asking for a bunch of distant relatives.

Originally Posted by MitzaLizalor

Is this how Slavic peasants met one another in the 40s? Would that be during the barrel-ageing or after sampling the finished product?

"Sampling the product" is the key phrase here - although Slavic definition of "sampling" varies from the academic one, as there may not be any alcohol left after an evening of Slavic-style sampling. It is also quite common for at least one participant of Slavic-style sampling to finish the evening with an ax embedded in his head.

I believe the only difference between 1940's and now is the music - in the 1940's the main instrument was violin, while now the prevailing "instrument" seems to be an electronically generated sound of a threshing device.

Listener beware - play at your own responsibility. Turning sound OFF highly recommended (especially for the 2021 video; my brain is now permanently damaged after browsing for a representative example on Youtube):

1940
(This video explains axes embedded in heads, when sampling alcohol is combined with dancing)

2021
(Does that even count as music...? I guess this is the only kind of "music" that can be retained in heads of people who were absorbing alcohol daily through gestation and childhood)

For those who aren't brain dead after listening to the second clip (I warned you, didn't I), below is a typical Slavic peasant (probably male, but it's hard to tell without undressing - this is the daily attire for both sexes), both in 1940 and today. The scientific name for this subspecies is Homo bimbrownikus - bimber being the local name for moonshine:

[Didymus Much]

Originally Posted by Basilissa

Is it still gin if someone uses, uh, home-made rather than store-bought vodka? Asking for a bunch of distant relatives...

Legally, in most of the world, "gin" is just juniper-flavored ethanol of a minimum % ABV. No restriction on where the alcohol comes from, so it could be corn, grains, potatoes (as in your "relatives" case), even soybeans these days, as long as the predominant flavour is juniper.

And your vaunted "London Dry", so loved by the snobaisseurs, is the exact same thing but with less sugar so yeah it's dry. Whoop.

[MitzaLizalor]

The chart was a bit confusing so here's a simplified version.



Those dancers in the first clip were modestly dressed and I noticed they didn't invoke Allah, Vishnu, The Báb, Joseph Smith or Zen as far as I could tell. There seemed to be an opportunity to meet others, admittedly in a culturally-specific environment, and I was reminded of a very specific blessing from God in Judges 21:23.

Would this qualify as Met in Bar or Restaurant? Let me know and I can update my shadow ledger here.

As for the second clip, would such dissipated ninnies even know what "met" was? I'd presume they could identify a bar. Probably just suck down cocktails curious upon whom they may accidentally fall. But I may be attributing too much curiosity in that case. Thank you for the warning.

[Basilissa]

Originally Posted by MitzaLizalor

Would this qualify as Met in Bar or Restaurant? Let me know and I can update my shadow ledger here.

I do not think that bars or restaurants were a big thing in this area in the early 1940's. Would "met in a concentration camp" qualify?

Either way, bars in even the most remote of the rural areas became a thing in the second half of the 1940's. Keeping the population permanently drunk was part of the communist state politics, as 1) a drunk population is less likely to stage a successful uprising and 2) given state monopoly over alcohol production, convincing the population to buy alcohol (rather than produce their own) provides the state with always needed revenue.

As for the second clip, would such dissipated ninnies even know what "met" was?

I believe members of this generation tend to know others in the Biblical sense before knowing their names.

[MitzaLizalor]

Sounds like they didn't need the online facility, Ezekiel 23 all over again.

[WWJDnow]

Dear Lord, why are we talking about bars? Men meet women the old fashioned way--wait for their 15th birthday, then ask their fathers for the girls' hands in marriage.

[handmaiden]

Originally Posted by WWJDnow

Dear Lord, why are we talking about bars? Men meet women the old fashioned way--wait for their 15th birthday, then ask their fathers for the girls' hands in marriage.

That's how it worked for my grandfather. Though, I think that my grandma was 16 at the time of the marriage. Honestly, I didn't stop to consider what progressive hippy liberals my great-grandparents were until just this moment.