# pressing the "key"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pressing-the-key/5642>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 28, 1999, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pressing-the-key/5642 "1999-03-28T15:29:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pressing-the-key/5642/21 "1999-12-29T17:22:00Z")

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In Virginia, you can’t drink publicly without a permit. Organized festivals have roped-off areas where their permit allows drinkers to drink. But as a private citizen having a picnic in the park, you can’t pull out a brewsky and drink it.

Restaurants that serve alcohol and have outdoor seating must have that area marked off with a rope/chain/half-height wall. Once, I was once drinking a beer on a patio area. I wanted to talk to a friend on the other side of it, and the easiest way over there was to walk on the public sidewalk and go around the chained area. As I was talking to her, the waitress came out and told me I had to be within the chained area to drink. I stepped over the chain, but put my feet exactly back where they were, so the chain was against the back of my calves. “That’s better,” she said after I’d moved.

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Everybody got to elevate from the norm - Rush

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**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 1999, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pressing-the-key/5642/22 "1999-12-29T17:56:00Z")

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In Utah where i used to live, the same held true for people selling liquor in stores, in fact if you ordered a drink in a restaraunt and the server was underaged, they had to have another server bring it to you.

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I didn’t _get_ anything… I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage!

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