I keep on reading references to a champagne bottle some Doper keeps with Vorfreude* to be drunk at a special event. This event seems to often involve a certain person, but champagne is also drunk at anniversaries, weddings, and all kinds of celebrations. So I wondered on which day humanity celebrated the most and drank the most champagne in the opinion of the Dope, or, if this day has not happened yet, when it will happen. Could it be the end of WWII? There were fewer people alive then, and champagne was more exclusive and the worldwide distribution probably less efficient compared to today. The fall of the Berlin Wall? Even if we count cheap Rotkäppchen Sekt as champagne it was a rather local event. Y2K celebrations? The death of trump, or Putin, or some other widely loathed person? The day we establish contact with an extraterrestrial civilization?
And was that / will that be the happiest day in history? Is champagne the right proxy for that?
I personally think it will be the day trump croaks, because the demographics of the people celebrating and their affluence, and because champagne production and distribution are at their peak and still improving. But I am not going to tag this thread with his name. And it will not be the happiest day in humanity’s history, but there will be a great sigh of relief if all goes well and without violence, which will in turn depend on how his demise comes along (natural cause vs murder, basically).
Does anybody have a better idea? Or a funnier one? Any thoughts?
*Vorfreude is anticipation, but exclusively positive (vor = previous, in advance; Freude = joy), without the elements of fear or anxiety that can be present in anticipation. Thus my use of the German term.
Apparently, the record year of champagne production was 2007, and buyers of champagne normally drink it relatively quickly after purchase rather than letting it age (unlike wine). So I would guess it would have to be a date within a couple of years from 2007. Possibly it would simply be New Year’s Day, or Chinese New Year, 2008 or 2009 or 2010.
From the invention of Champagne (more generally sparkling wine) to now, there have been many record-setting days, each larger than the last. By definition. And right now there is one day in history that was the largest ever. Even if no one quite knows or agrees which date that was. Although IMO @Schnitte just above has a darn good suggestion.
Just based on headcount growth, economic growth, and more global distribution in recent years and decades, I’ll say one of the recent New Years was probably that occasion. Perhaps the one just before COVID hit the scene so the 2019 → 2020 transition. If we haven’t yet re-passed that last pre-COVID NYE celebration, I bet we will again within a couple more years. Most other economics measures have surpassed their pre-COVID maxima already.
As to the future …
And as long as humanity keeps growing in headcount and in world GDP and champagne retains its celebratory cachet, it’s a good bet that record-setting champagne days will keep happening now and again.
A question I know nothing about is how much the Indians and Chinese have culturally bought into the champagne-celebration mystique. Europeans and Americans & the UK-like parts of the former British Empire add up to about ~1.1B people. China and India are ~1.5 and ~1.4B respectively. IOW, taken collectively the traditional champagne-drinking cultures are just ~25% of that whole. As goes India and China, so will go the whole.
Assuming champagne has made some decent penetration into the richer parts of Indian and Chinese culture, I’ll suggest that the next record setting event needs to be something of worldwide significance. Whether that’s New Years or some other similar date. (Do the Chinese celebrate Dec 31 → Jan 1? I know they’ve got their traditional calendar and Chinese New year in IIRC Feb, but have they joined in with also celebrating according to the other calendar most everyone else uses?).
Within any single country I could see records set when something special happens within that country. Their team wins the World Cup, their despot dies or is assassinated, some war comes to an end, etc. But something like that is unlikely to unite the rest of the populous world in celebrating with enough vigor to surpass last New Years.
The last US president to die in office was Kennedy (w/ a little assistance from L H Oswald); there’s a good chance he’ll be out of office before he passes.
Maybe for you but remember he was elected twice & there are a lot of people who like him & I doubt most people in other countries will care. A random NYE is going to have more celebrants worldwide than much less than half of the US population because even a lot of people who don’t like him won’t celebrate his death.
Plus, pretty much everyone in the world has some way to know who and where he is. This may not have been the case in the 1920s through 1940s.
While I’ve had champagne, I seldom consume alcohol, and while I didn’t pop any corks when I got formal admission to my first choice of pharmacy school, I’ve said quite a few times that the person who got in when I told my 2nd choice that I wouldn’t be going there probably did. (Since this is Match Day for soon-to-be physicians, this is extra relevant.)
For me, that symbolic champagne will probably have to wait until the end of the Trump/Vance administration, whenever and however that happens, unless something worse replaces it.
But if Trump were to die tomorrow, I wouldn’t celebrate, because the terrible anti-democratic, war-mongering, just plain evil policies he has set in motion aren’t going to turn on a dime. He has put people and systems into power that care only about self-enrichment and oppressing the masses. They will continue.
I’m not saying this very eloquently, but you all know what I mean.
(Also, on a lighter note, I don’t like champagne, so I won’t drink it no matter what.)
First, I think the next biggest day will be Trump’s passing, but both in celebration and in mourning.
Second, and I’m incredibly sad to say it, will likely be at the dissolution or collapse of the USA. Too many people fatally offended, and we really burned our mulligan from George W and went straight to Trump after Obama tried to mend some fences, even if not as successfully. And when we tried Biden after Trump, we picked Trump again. So seeing us too involved in an internal struggle to meddle elsewhere… yeah, most of the world (former allies and our so many enemies) will celebrate with gunfire, sparkling wine, and anything else imaginable.
quote=“Wesley_Clark, post:11, topic:1028622”]
Far, far, far more than 1% of the human race will be happy when he dies.
[/quote]
A. You are vastly over stating the percentage of the world population that cares about the US
B. See above. The discord that he has sown; the erosion of a free press, the distrust of science, the blatant weaponization of government, & the general incivility (Loser!) will, unfortunately, far, far out last him.
In a separate note, the pervasiveness of Trump, Trump, Trump, wah, wah, wah *all* over this board is disgusting & making me not want to be here anymore. I don't like the guy but I don't make him the singular focus of my life. I won't participate in this thread anymore & I hope you, & everyone else drop the hijack to answer an interesting IMHO topic. Please keep Trump-related shit in P&E where it belongs.
I would suggest that these all existed for a very long time and will continue to exist. All Trump did was to make it blatant, to become the vulgar, avaricious spokesman of oligarchy that it always deserved to have. I agree that his demise won’t dislodge much anti-democratic power, but it will disrupt this particular rush toward a total power grab. There will be others, but this one is particularly dangerous and iconic.
So tying back to the OP, I do think Trump’s demise is a contender for most champagne drunk at that point in history. Personally, I don’t drink anymore, so I’ve bought some very loud fireworks for it.
All I know is that my wife and I were at my Dad’s place on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day then. Dad had been gifted a bottle of Dom Perignon a few years prior, and he broke it out that New Year’s. The three of us started shortly before midnight, and finished the bottle after midnight.
I’m sure that there were many like us, who popped champagne to celebrate the occasion on that date.
If there is no Carter Catastrophe, and the human race spreads out into the wider galaxy, there could be quintillions of humans at some point in the far future. If there is still champagne in that far time then vast oceans of champagne might be consumed in a single 24-hour period at some random point in the future.
Assuming, of course, that far-future humans still drink alcohol, and they would drink something that can still be legitimately called ‘champagne’. I’d expect the rules of appellation d’origine contrôlée might need to be loosened somewhat in a galaxy-wide milieu.
Oooh, such a good question. My initial though was the end of the European bit of World War II, when all those long-hidden bottles of the good stuff were dug out from the barn. More thinking suggests a lot of those were already drunk as areas were progressively liberated (if I was in Normandy I’d not be waiting around thirsty for Paris to be entered).
I can attest to personally, myself drinking champagne at midnight on 31 Dec 1999, even though I complained that it wasn’t the real end of the millenium (I can be objectionable when pissed). I was pre-loading in case Y2K collapsed society. Now there are four times as many people alive as in 1945. Many more of them have adopted western drinking, if only for significant events, so I would think the magic day is likely to be very recent.
New Years are split between western and lunar calendars, so I don’t think either will rise to the top. Perhaps FIFA World Cup final? Olympic opening ceremony?
Trump affects vastly more than just the US. I’m an ocean and then some away from it, and I will celebrate Trump’s death, like untold millions of others.