I’ve always wondered about the stereotypical wine-o, drinking Thundrebird out of a bottle in a brown bag. Why wine? If an alcoholic is drinking to get drunk, wouldn’t ethanol in a different form be more effective (grain, vodka)? Is it purely a question of cost? Does cheap wine give the most bang for the buck?
Cost would most likely be the main reason. Low cost, relatively high alcohol. Thunderbird is around 18%.
Here’s an interesting article about cheap wines.
And of course, don’t pass up Bumwine.
Thunderbird? Get yourself some Mad Dog 20/20, my friend.
It’s not an OS unto itself, it’s just an environment capable of executing Windows binaries without running Windows.
Huh???
Oh. That kind of wino. Ummm…Wild Irish Rose is formaldehyde, babes. Any distilled spirits that could get you drunker faster than this shit would ulcerate your stomach and throat lining and make you throw up too often.
Recovering wino here. I simply like wine better than any other liquor, and since I was “only” drinking wine, I didn’t consider myself an alcoholic (I think a lot of beer drinking alcoholics use the same denial system).
I had the same thought. [hangs head] I’m a big ol’ geek.
How about these factors:
Requires no mixers, convenience.
15-18% alc. is a good match for the human body to establish and maintain the desired level of drunkenness for extended periods of time. (from my personal "doubly blinded” studies), efficiency.
Can be purchased from any convenience store vs. liquor store, availability.
All of this points to bang for the buck.
I was hoping “Wine-Os” might be some interesting new breakfast cereal (Now with more hair of the dog)! Oh, well.
Well, I thought it was a new brand of breakfast cereal.
Oooh, bad pun simulpost.
Thanks for all the ideas.
For anyone who has not heard of “pruno”, the prisoner’s answer to wine:
http://www.blacktable.com/gillin030901.htm
In Paul Brickhill’s Book The Great Escape they describe making “Raisin Hooch”, which sounds suspiciously like your Pruno. They did say that it tasted awful, but they didn’t convey the awfulness the Pruno article does.
They also mentioned a Polish chemist who could add stuff to the alcoholic stuff they made that turned it into a good imitation of other alcoholic beverages – if you couldn’t accurately remember what those tasted like.
“The fastidious” distilled some of the hooch they made. In the film, they’re shown making relatively clean moonshine from fermented potatoes and a still. Awful enough, but I suspect reality was much closer to Pruno.
Remembering the classic George Carlin bit: Double-you, eye, enn, oh. WINO radio. Wonderful WINO! 
Steve from thesneeze.com details his adventures making prison wine: The Sneeze - Half zine. Half blog. Half not good with fractions.
The whole Steve, Don’t Eat It! section is pretty funny.