Drinking is illegal on Sydney trains. According to my dad, the commuters used to cut the top and bottom off a Coke can, and then cut the resulting tube in vertically in half. A bit of gaffer tape on the inside for a hinge, and presto! you’ve got yourself a beer can sleeve.
LOL. Yes I really am from Yorkshire. Although I’ve only been drinking legally for 4 months as I’m 18. (Of course I’ve been going to my local pub every week since I was 16.)
Moving this rant to the BBQ Pit.
I believe that it’s also actually illegal to drink in public in York city centre. You wouldn’t happen to actually live in York, would you Gemma?
pan
Nope. Although I do love it there.
In NYC you can’t even brown bag it anymore.
It’s the same here in Quebec: alcohol in bottles must be bagged before you leave the store, except 6- or 12-packs or 2-4s, which are in boxes. Many years ago, when I was new to Montreal and new to the whole “being able to buy beer and wine at the corner store” thing (I was from Ontario), I bought a couple of bottles of beer at a dep (corner store) and was just going to walk out with them. You know, use less plastic, save trees… the kind of thing that goes through the mind of an idealistic young university student who just wanted to get pissed. (Because, of course, that’s far more noble than wasting a plastic bag. :rolleyes: ) Anyway, the guy at the counter was like, [Apu]“No, no, no! You must put it in bag before you leave!”[/Apu]
I see people drinking beer or whatever out of paper or plastic bags. Sometimes they don’t even bother with that. Every time I pass through Cabot Square, on my way home from the Atwater metro, it’s the sights and sounds and stench of misery: drunks screaming at each other, cackling, passed out. Very sad. But there but for the grace of God go I. ::sigh::
- s.e. (305 days sober)
Blue laws - the government tried outlawing liquor and it didn’t work, but in the South if we can’t stop you from drinking - we can, by god, legislate days/hours you can purchase liquor, bags to carry it in etc.
Also, one reason for the brown paper bag when drinking beer is for the insulating qualities. Additionally, most drunks do not want to offend the sensibilities of the non-drunk, hence the bag.
Champion, lass! I thought thee were a soft Southern p**f for a minute.
Seriously though, there’s something that I find very paradoxical about the US. You quite rightly take pride in your liberties, and your constitution based on Enlightenment ideals, and then use these to impose restirictions on yourselves. What the hell is the reasoning behind this?
How exactly does anyone suffer from seeing a couple of guys having some beers in the park? Someone’s going to say “Won’t you think of the children?”, but I am, and every single child in Europe is exposed to people drinking alcohol every single day of their lives and they don’t grow uo to be a bunch of depraved, raving alcoholics and wife-beaters any more than anywhere else (except in Newcastle and Sunderland, admittedly).
Quite simple. When it comes to sex and drugs, we’re a bunch of FUCKING RAVING LOONIES. Some years ago, I saw an article in the local paper about some drunken college students who got in trouble, because they thought it was funny to shoot their BB gun. At their next door neighbor’s windows. The Ronald McDonald house. The dean was quoted saying something like, “The students involved will definitely be disciplined. Here at the University of Buttfuck we will not tolerate underage drinking.” My jaw dropped so far, ants could have crawled in my mouth. Underage drinking? Underage drinking? These creatures were terrorizing children with cancer, and he’s worried about underage drinking?
You want to talk really strange, I checked the General Laws of Massachusetts and couldn’t find anything prohibiting public drinking, and we appear to have laws against fornication, selling condoms at the drugstore, and “contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ,” for crying out loud.
Blue laws have more to do with “keeping the Sabbath holy”.
I remember seeing guys at the bus stop with the 40 ouncer when I was a teenager. I always assumed they were going home from work since they were waiting for the bus but I never understood why they couldn’t wait until they got home.
Maybe they needed to drink a 40 just to tolerate their wives when they walked in the door?
Originally, that’s what blue laws were, but in colloquial parlance the term now refers to any laws restricting alcohol stuff (bars, liquor sales, etc.) or sex (strip joints, bathhouses, excort services, etc.). Note that your (useful, & interesting) link discussed the origin of the term rather than its modern usage.
Wow, that makes three countries where I’ve broken the local alcohol laws. Possibly four if the drinking age in Germany is higher than 17. Cool.
The last place I lived, I strolled out at 7:30 am on a Friday morning to dump the garbage before going to work and saw my downstairs neighbor sitting on her porch steps with a coffee cup in her hands. Nestled in the cup was a not-quite-as-invisible-as-she-probably-wanted-it-to-be can of budweiser.
I figgured that she was on probation/parole or something.
Not in California it’s not. $104.25 – most expensive can of MGD I ever drank most of.
Not according to the dictionary. Ergo, the modern usage is either incorrect or it hasn’t been around long enough to be added.
THAT’S why we call them ‘packies’ in NE; there’re package stores, the goods must be packaged. (Paper bags are not specified.)
These rules are no longer as strictly enforced; no one tries to bag a 12 pack or a case (I guess the box is the package), and most will let you carry out a six pack. But some clerks have tried to bag a bottle of wine I just wanted to carry out in my bag.
Oh, and people drinking in public (including on their own front stoops) are being polite with the little brown bags; they may be breaking the law, but they aren’t trying to rub anyone’s nose in it.
I do it at home. If my wife cain’t see it, I cain’t be ‘kyewsda drankin’ it! YEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW!
i visited pittsburg once, and as i remember (back in 94?) you could only buy beer by the case, as in 24 pack. this was rather annoying if you are staying in a hotel with no fridge and would rather just have a six pack, something you could keep cold. plus i wasn’t staying long enough to drink that much.
and i think they had to load it into your car for you. no carry.
can anyone confirm?