In your column on the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, you say that the molasses was to be converted into “grain alcohol”. This is a pretty neat trick, as ordinarily, grain alcohol is made from (duh) grain. How do they do it? At the cellular level or what?
The column also fails to answer the unasked, but begged, question, “Then where the heck does the phrase, ‘Slow as molasses in January’ come from, anyways?”
Where did you read this column about the great molasses flood of 1919?
I don’t know where chunkybrewster read it, but I read it in the December 31st issue of the Reader that I picked up at a Border’s here in the Chicago area. (Technically the Reader is published on Fridays, but you usually see the new copies available sometime on Thursday.)
Molasses is pretty slow-running in summer, and when the weather is cold, it takes a long time to pour out enough for a batch of cookies.
By the way, there are folks around here who will go all forensic-debate-wonk on you if you use “beg the question” in any but the old traditional way. I get dizzy when I try to explain it, but maybe a logician will come along and straighten us out.
Cecil’s column can be found on-line at this link:
Was Boston once literally flooded with molasses? (31-Dec-2004)
Making grain alcohol from Molasses: In the making of grain alcohol, isn’t the grain used mainly to extract the sugar, to which yeast is then added? What the United States Industrial Alcohol Company was planning to make sounds more like rum than grain alcohol, but maybe the US Food and Drug Administration (or I guess it would be the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (and Explosives)?) at that time wasn’t as picky as they are now. They were probably more concerned with the meat industry.
I’m with AskNott on this one - the stuff is slow, and slower when it is cold. Here in Scotland, my grandmother used to say “as slow as Co-operative treacle” - very same idea. I should think most places have some kind of similar phrase.
A molassess flood sounds scary though. Off to read it now. 
Now a flood of rum, on the other hand…
I figured Cecil was just using “grain alcohol” to mean “ethyl alcohol.”
And, of course, molasses in January usually is extremely slow, which is probably why the person asking the question wondered if it could really travel as fast as it did. Cecil says that it apparently wouldn’t matter – such a large amount of molasses would still flow at a speedy rate regardless of whether it was thick from cold weather or nice and runny from hot weather.
There have been several threads on the flood over the years; How Does Molasses Kill People?, Origin of “slow as molasses”?, and Eve’s seminal “Instant Disaster” Books.
Also, Snopes has a good article on the same.
Ah, so it was a Tsweet Tsunami? Pre-1920’s, though.
Yep. “grain alcohol” is sometimes informally used to mean ethanol (ethyl alcohol), whatever the actual source - yeasts can convert starches or sugars from a variety of sources, including molasses, fruits, potatoes and honey as well as grains. Basically, most anything which has starch or sugar in it, and a reasonable ph so that you don’t kill the yeast, will ferment and produce ethanol. The term “grain alcohol” distinguishes it from “wood alcohol” - methanol (methyl alcohol), which was historically produced by decomposing wood by heating it without exposing it to the air (other processes are generally used for current commercial production).
Is it possible the Red Sox killed all those poor people in Asia? People hate the Yankees but they do not kill people when they win the World Series.
IIRC, according to Balderdash, a man named Anthony Distacio (sp?) body surfed the wave of molasses to save his life. Can anyone confirm this?
Thank you—I was hoping someone would link to my heart-rending song “It Was a Sticky Day for Boston When Molasses Came to Town.”
So, somewhere in Boston Commons, there was a family of moles living underground… they smelled something odd, and the momma and poppa mole stuck their heads out of their hole, sniffing to determine what it is. They completely filled the entry, so the baby mole was behind and underneath them. Momma mole said, “What’s that smell?” Poppa mole said, “I dunno.” Baby mole said, “I don’t smell nothin’ but mole-asses.”
Oh, Great Og in Heave!
I had dearly hoped no one would dredge up that old joke. And I like puns.
Grain alcohol is the popular name for ethyl alcohol or ethanol, to distingiush it from methanol or isopropyl alcohol(sterno or rubbing alcohol). Similarly, we call the oil we fry our french fries in cooking or salad oil as opposed to crude oil/petroleum.