Tag Archives: alcohol

Game – Claremont, California

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, CA
Performance Date: April 19, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: German

Drinking game: Silent Football

This drinking game is typically played with rum.  Participants sit in circle and choose a Mr. Commissioner who acts like the leader in the game.  First, everyone participating gives themselves ridiculous names.  The game progresses in rounds and at the beginning of every round, all players take a shot.  Mr. Commissioner gets the first move, and then sends his move to someone else in the circle.  Play continues by knee slaps around the circle.  The number of knee slaps determines where play lands and who makes the next move.  For example, on your turn if you slap your knees three times, then clap, play passes three people to your left around the circle.  Players cannot respond to anything going on outside of the circle.  No one in the game is allowed to speak without permission from Mr. Commissioner.  The hardest part of the games is not talking.  If anyone talks out of turn Mr. Commissioner can make them do whatever he/she wants them to do.  This can vary from taking a shot to running around outside half-clothed.  Mr. Commissioner decides when new rounds start.

This game is played when alcohol is available and several people are present, typically played by people of high school or college age.  The informant says the game is just for fun and that the involvement of alcohol makes the simplest things, like counting and clapping/slapping coordination difficult, which proves to be quite comical.

I think this game plays off the fact that people’s inhibitions go down when they are drunk.  What makes this game fun is the fact that it gets so confusing and becomes hard to talk.  In addition, someone is more likely to carry out some crazy punishment when drunk because their inhibitions are down.  This displays the novelty of alcohol for young Americans and how it is used as a tool for fun.  It also shows how alcohol is perceived as an essential element of socializing and bonding within a group of young people, while the dangers of abuse are not really acknowledged.

Tradition – Italy

Nationality: Italian
Age: 38
Occupation: Professor
Residence: Venice, CA
Performance Date: April 07, 2008
Primary Language: Italian
Language: French, English, Latin, German

La Fraschetta

La Fraschetta is a winery where the peasants store their wine. It is located near huge vineyards which are famous for their white wine. The farmers keep the high quality wine in the winery, and sell the lower quality wine to the tourists.  This wine cellar is opened at night to the public and wooden seats and tables are set up. Families bring their own food and drink the wine that has been stored there. These gatherings are very popular during the spring and summer because it is good weather for being outside. They are a place for socialization.  Those who work in the vineyards get to meet others who work in the same industry.

Like many other traditions, this Italian tradition has been picked up by tourists. In the beginning, the winery was only opened to those who worked in the vineyards. It was an attraction for those in the social lower class who did not have much money to spend on fancy gatherings. Recently, according to Francesca, this has become a tourist attraction. One thing has not changed; tourists are still given the bad wine.

I found it interesting that music was not present at this social event. It seems that the majority of social traditions have some kind of music involved. It was also interesting that Francesca, who attended on of these gatherings when she lived in Frascati, said that the event was bizarre. From the way she described the gathering I do not see what is so bizarre about it. I will most likely not find out until I attend one of these gatherings myself.

Joke

Nationality: German, English
Age: 61
Occupation: Teacher
Residence: St. Charles, MO
Performance Date: April 30, 2008
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Joke-Skeleton

“A skeleton walks into a bar, walks right up to the bartender and asks, ‘hey, can I get a beer and a mop?’”

Bill said he learned this joke within the last couple of years at a dinner party. He does not remember exactly who told him or where it came from. However, he did say that it is one of those jokes that are told through the grapevine. He also mentioned that individuals are always telling “bar jokes” and this is just one of the many that he has heard. Bill said that skeletons are consistently used in all sorts of jokes, ranging from bars to them crossing the road. Therefore, there are probably many variations to this specific joke as well as many others that relate to skeletons.

Bill said that this joke is primarily told in a dinner setting with friends and family. He said it is a good ice breaker to help start a conversation by making people laugh. It is funny whenever the people do not understand it at first but then laugh a few seconds after everyone else does. It is these individuals that do not understand why the skeleton asks for a mop. But, then they realize he asks for it so that he can mop up all the beer that spills from his skeleton. Bill likes this joke because it is simple and clean. He said it can be used at work as well as various other social gatherings. He did recommend not telling it to children simply because they do not drink alcohol like adults do.

When I asked him what it meant to him, Bill responded by saying that he just liked it when he first heard it. It did not have any importance to him; it just provided him with a good laugh. He said that it represents his personality well because he likes to tell these types of simple jokes to his friends whenever they come over for dinner. Other than that, it just made him think about how great jokes can be.

I agree with Bill that it is a simple joke to tell at the workplace or other gatherings. It applies to many individuals because people usually go to bars to order drinks. Therefore, it usually does not offend people but rather makes them laugh. Obviously, the joke does not make sense because a skeleton does not walk into a bar and order a drink. But, it pokes fun at the very idea of a skeleton drinking a beer and spilling it all over the place. Personally, I like this joke just because it is quick, easy to say, and it is a great ice breaker in conversations.

Folk Medicine

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Dallas, TX
Performance Date: March 27, 2008
Primary Language: English

To Cure a Hangover:

  • Pour a can of Coke in a glass
  • Put one tablespoon of salt in the Coke and stir
  • Chug the drink as fast as possible as the salt causes the Coke to bubble quickly

“I learned this remedy back home from a friend of mine.  He had told me that his older brother taught him about this hangover cure, so I tried it one day and it actually worked.  I think it has something to do with the carbon dioxide in the Coke reacting with the salt that causes it to fizz so much.  When you do chug the drink, it tastes kind of bad and it is actually difficult to drink the entire glass that quickly.  When you do chug the drink it is almost like getting a brain freeze from ice cream, but after that feeling fades away so does the hangover.  I don’t use this remedy all the time, in fact I’ve probably only used it three or four times, but I’m telling you, it does work.”

Many remedies for hangovers are a part of folk medicine; in fact, almost all are because there is not a scientific solution to cure a hangover.  I’ve heard another similar remedy of chugging a bottle of water before going to bed and waking up, after a night of drinking, however that does not immediately cure a hangover and can be linked to the scientific fact that alcohol causes dehydration.  I believe most hangover remedies are spread from older college students to younger siblings and peers, as it did in this case.

Drinking Game – Seattle, Washington

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, WA
Performance Date: April 29, 2008
Primary Language: English

Drinking game

King’s Cup/ King’s– Seattle

You spread out and mix up a deck of cards, face-down, on a table surrounding a big cup or bowl. Everyone playing the game (usually a group of five or more) needs a few drinks, like a beer. Going around the circle, a person will pick up a card and, depending on what card it is, complete an action. Each card is assigned a rule:

Ace –  Social: everyone drinks

2 – Fuck You: the player picks another person to drink

3 – Fuck Me: the player must drink

4 – Hit the Floor: everyone must touch the floor with his or her hand

5 – Guys: all guys must drink

6 – Chicks: al girls must drink

7 – Heaven: everyone must point upward

8 – Mate: the player picks another person to drink with him or her

9 – Rhyme: the player must say a word and everyone in the circle must rhyme with it

10 – Waterfall: when the player takes a drink, everyone else must start drinking and can only

stop when the person to their left stops drinking

Jack – Make a Rule: the player gets to make up a new rule

Queen – Question: everyone around the circle must ask any question

King- King’s cup: whoever draws this must pour some of their drink into the cup or bowl. Whoever chooses the last king must drink the King’s cup. Then the game ends.

Abby said that every time she played, the rules were different, and that the goal of the game is to get people drunk. She said it’s fun because you have to remember all the rules and try not to mess up (because then you have to drink). Also, she mentioned, if people have all different kinds of drinks, the King’s Cup can get pretty disgusting.

From my observations, this game is popular among underage drinkers, probably because it is quick and fun.  This may be because it is quick and fun. Also, the rules vary from person to person and region to region. The rules Abby told me, for example, were different from the rules I heard of living in California.

Perhaps why this game is so fun is because everyone is constantly messing up. The more complicated the rules, and the more everybody drinks, the more mess-ups. It just gets funnier and funnier because everyone becomes more forgetful and slow. In the end, this game is highly successful at achieving its intended purpose.