How to play drinking games – Part 9

Here is a real quick introduction to my favorite drinking game of all time. It is called Chandelier. Chandelier is pretty much like quarters except that everyone at the table is involved so you have to pay attention.

What you need for the game is a glass about 3 inches tall for each player and for the middle, preferably a high ball glass, a quarter to bounce, a table and beer. What you do is set one of the glasses in the middle and then every player sets their glass around the middle one, making it look like a chandelier.

Then each person fills their glass about halfway and contributes some to the middle glass so that it is completely full. Then you decide on who is to shoot the quarter first. They bounce it on the table and try to get it in someone’s glass. Then they have to drink their glass and refill it so the next person can shoot. Play continues with that same person until they miss a glass. The next person in the circle goes after someone misses. So if the same person keeps making the quarter in, then they keep getting to shoot. The catch of the game and what it makes it so fun to me is that if the shooter gets the quarter in the middle glass EVERYONE has to chug their glass and the last person to get done has to drink the middle glass. It’s a really fun game and I suggest at your next party you try it!

How to play drinking games – Part 3

Drinking is already pretty awesome, but if you’re trying to liven up your Renaissance Fair after party, or work up the courage to tell your mom’s best friend how you feel, a few rounds of these three classic drinking games is all you need.

1) Quarters

What you need:

2-8 players (you can play with 1 person, but “practice” only counts when you play in the dark)

1-10 quarters (you’re gonna lose half and buy condoms with the other half later…hopefully)

2 shot glasses or 1 pint glass

Hard liquor or beer

The Basics:

Bouncing a quarter into a shot or pint glass filled with whatever you happen to be drinking is really the only rule. If you’re playing head to head, the other person drinks the liquid. If it’s a multiple player game, the bouncer picks the player who drinks it.

Variations:

Speed Quarters – Two shot glasses move around the table, starting on opposing sides of the circle. When anyone bounces the quarter in, they move the shot glass and the quarter to the player to their left. If any player gets two shot glasses in front of them at any time, they lose and have to drink something. We use pee.

Trick Quarters – It’s basically like HORSE. One player calls a specific shot or series of shots and if they make them, the other player tries to match it. If they don’t they drink.

2) King’s Cup

What you need:

1 deck of cards

1 Pint sized glass

4-10 people

Beer

The Basics: Spread the whole deck of cards face down in a circle around the empty cup. Each card has a drinking action attached to it, like 6 is a social where everyone drinks, and 10 lets whoever drew it make a rule. Every card has some kind of action involved, you guys make the rules. Only one card has an absolute rule – the king. Every time the king is drawn, whoever drew it pours however much of what they’re drinking into the cup. When the fourth king gets drawn, that person drinks what’s in the cup. And the game draws to a sad, sad close.

Variations: There really aren’t any…unless someone is playing with merlot. Then you’re in for a totally different game.

3) Beer Pong (Don’t be the guy who calls it “Beirut.” We ALL know it’s called Beirut. Just call it Beer Pong)

What you need:

1 table at least 6 ft. long (ping pong tables are best)

2-100 ping pong balls (you absolutely will lose at least 50)

20 solo cups (plastic party glasses)

6000 beers

Set up 10 cups in the shape of a pyramid – or “beeramid” – on each side of the table and form two teams of two. Then basically start throwing balls at the cups. If it goes in, the other team has to drink it. Bouncing a ball in means they drink two cups, but the defending team can block it. When they’re gone, it’s over.

Variations: Every house has rules dealing with re-racking the cups into different shapes, multiple turns, special shots, and game ending rules. These are too varied to write about here, but know that I’ve been playing for 96 years, and I’m still coming across new rules.

I even played with easter eggs once. Seriously.

These three games are guaranteed to get any party started, but you don’t have to stick with these classics. All a great game really needs is a little imagination, a large set of obscure rules that no one will remember halfway through the game, and savage penalties for anyone who breaks those rules. After that, just tap a keg and invite the local little league team over for a night of good natured, team-spirited vomit.

And don’t forget the taunting. Winning isn’t fun unless the losers want to die.

Easy and fun bar tricks

This bar trick is called the “Olive in Brandy Snifter”. Your objective is to put the olive in the snifter without touching the olive. You can not touch the olive with the snifter either. Place the olive on the bar and put the snifter over the olive so that the open end is surrounding the olive. Slowly rotate the snifter around the olive. The olive will roll around the walls of the snifter. Once the olive is in the middle of the snifter flip the snifter upright and place on the bar.

This trick is called “Embarass Your Friends”. Place a napkin on the bar and write I Am We Todd It I Am Sofa King We Todd It. Tell them to keep reading it until they get it. Your objective on this one is to embarass your friends and others.

The bar trick is called “Smoke on Water”. You will need: one glass, a matchbox, six quarters and an ashtray with water. Make sure the ashtray is filled with a quarter inch of water. Stack the quarters in the center of the ashtray so that the last two quarters are above the water. Place four unlit matches on top of the quarters. Light the matches and immediately cover the flames and quarters with the glass. The water will be drawn into the glass.

This last trick is called “The Switch”. You need two identical shot glasses, a playing card, and your choice of alcohol. Fill one shot glass with water and the other with alcohol. You want to get the glass with alcohol into the glass with water, and get the glass with water into the glass that has alcohol without using containers or your mouth. Place the playing card on top of the shot with water. Turn the shot and card upside down carefully. The paper will stay attached to the shot on its own. Now, place the water shot glass and card on the shot of alcohol. Slowly and carefully pull the card out just far enough to make a small opening between the two glasses. Water, being heavier than alcohol will flow into the alcoholglass and displace the alcohol into the water glass. You just made the switch. You should be able to to replace the paper between the two shot glasses and remove the alcohol and put it back on the bar.

A beginners guide to the different types of beer – Part 1

I am a big fan of Real Ale and enjoy trying all the different types on offer. For anyone just starting to try new beers though, it can be quite daunting trying to find your way around the variety of styles on offer. Generally speaking, British beers can be split up into eight categories and the majority of beers that a Real Ale drinker comes across should fit into these headings. (You will find though that the styles can vary regionally; the beers of Scotland are different generally to English and Welsh beers, for example, in that they tend to be darker, sweeter and less heavily hopped.)

MILD ALES. Basically a Mild is a beer that is brewed using less hops than the other styles of beer. They can be a variety of colours and strengths, but generally tend to be darker in colour (due to the roasted barley or dark malts used to produce them) and have fruit, nut, roast or chocolate flavours. Milds also tend to be lower in alcohol; ranging from 3 to 3.5% ABV. There are exceptions (just to add confusion) and there are light coloured Milds (like Timothy Taylor Golden Best) and stronger Milds (like Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby). Mild ales are often quite difficult to find, but are becoming increasingly popular. This popularity should hopefully increase following the award of Champion Beer of Britain for Hobsons Mild at the 2007 Great British Beer Festival.

GOLDEN ALES. This is a relatively new style of beer and represents the influx of pale, hoppy beers that are available on the bars today. Examples of Golden ales include Spire Land of Hop and Glory and Hop Back Summer Lightning. Golden ales vary in strength and can be anything from 3.5 to over 5% ABV. Out of all the Real Ales around today this is the style that is really soaring in popularity and most breweries tend to brew at least one beer that fits into this category. Generally speaking Golden ales are pale coloured, can be served cool and have a biscuit, malt and citrus flavour.

STOUTS AND PORTERS. Porter is a beer type that came into being in the early eighteenth century. They were originally produced to replace the mix of brown ale, “stale” ale and pale ale that were popular way back in time (stale refers to well matured, rather than off beer). They became known as Porters because they were very popular with the market porters in London.

During this period the stronger beers produced by a brewery were called the “stout”. Strong Porters therefore were called Stout Porters; a name that was

Signs that you need a break from gaming

All forms of video gaming can prove particularly addictive, be it an Xbox 360 game or a massively multi-player online role play game (MMORPG). It can be very easy to escape into these fantasy worlds and immerse yourself in the life of your character. It is all too easy to get carried away with the plot of the game and forget the time. Many video games today carry warnings about playing for too long such as the dangers of having a seizure and you often hear reports in the newspapers about someone dying because they failed to eat, drink and sleep due to being engrossed in the game.

Here are some of the signs that show that you need to take a break when playing a video game:

You miss a meal and realize three or four hours later that you are hungry. You can get seriously ill if you don’t eat or drink properly and also ensure that you get sufficient sleep.

Your wife complains that she is turning into a computer widow and that you love the game more than her. Relationships are a very important part of life. Make sure that you devote equal time to your partner or get her involved too. Playing games together can be fun.

You start to miss essential appointments or college. Games are designed to be played in your spare time. You are playing too much when you let them take over your life.

All your dreams revolve around the game, such as you are killing gnolls in your sleep or carrying out quests.

Your hands start to hurt from using the keyboard or controller too much. You are at risk of developing repetitive strain injury.

You would rather play the computer than go out for a drink with the guys. Remember you may be having social interaction with other players (if you play online games) but it’s not the same as real life interaction. Gaming can become very lonely.

Why you should just say no to drugs and alcohol

When I was a teenager I never felt that I fit in. I was always trying to impress someone. I was tall, not fat but defiantly not thin. I had blond curly, I should say mostly frizzy hair and until I was in seventh grade I wore glasses. I don’t know if I tried to hard or what but I never felt like anyone noticed me.

I decided when I was in ninth grade going from Junior High to High School that I was going to change that. I tried out for the Pompom Team and made it, it was easy my mother had made me take ballet lessons since I was like 5 years old I think.

I thought that being a pompom girl would make me popular. Well it did but not the way I wanted to be. I remember one day I was sitting behind a guy on the bus that I had a crush on and I overheard him say to his friend, that I was cute but too chunky. Oh my god I was crushed.

I believe that was the straw that broke the camels back and I revolted against all that didn’t accept me. And I began to experience the party scene. I began to drink and smoke and mix diet pills with drinking. I found that when I was drinking I just like all the other kids that were drinking and I finally fit in.

I went from a straight A 4.0 grade average in 10th grade to barely graduating in two years. By the time a did graduate with a C average (not even sure how I did that) I was a full blown alcoholic and drug addict.

The three years after I graduated from High School I experimented with marijuana, crank, cocaine, mushrooms, acid, a mixture of uppers and downers, I drank hard liquor straight from the bottle and lived in the streets more than anyone should have too. I supported my drug and alcohol addiction with selling drugs.

I overdosed on alcohol multiple times, overdosed on acid, and had a really bad trip. I really thought at the time I would never come back to reality and that trip lasted for more that 24 hours. I swore I would never do acid again but less than a week later hit it again just to prove that one bad trip doesn’t ruin it. However after that bad trip every time I hit the acid it wasn’t a good trip, I only proved that one bad trip should be your last.

If I could go back in time I would never have gotten into drugs and alcohol. I destroyed my future. I changed my destiny dramatically.

I am clean and sober today, married with two children. But the affects of drugs and alcohol on my body and mind are catching up to me. I am 42 years old today and have the back of an 80 year old. I have chronic back pain mostly from damaged disc. Now you might say drugs don’t damage disc, but what you do when your on drugs can definitely play a huge part on how much damage can be done.

I have terrible nightmares that my teeth are all missing from all the crank and cocaine I snorted, I wake up crying realizing it was only a dream. The reality is my gums are shot and have receded so much that sometime my teeth feel loose, I am afraid they will fall out.

To top it all off since I blew off school and college to party I never really grasped a career and so now at 42 with a 6 year old and a 9 year old I am renting a 40 year old duplex, drive a 1982 Toyota or sometimes my husbands 1983 GMC and have no saving, no life insurance and wish to hell everyday I would of just said NO!

Alcohol and the elderly

Alcohol and the elderly? Is that a problem? The plain fact about alcoholics is that heavy drinkers rarely live to become elderly. Unhealthy lifestyles, diseases, breakdown of bodily organs and accidents usually end their lives long before old age sets in. After a lifetime of intelligent and moderate use of alcohol, it isn’t likely an elderly person will descend into alcoholism.

However, as I’ve discovered in my own situation, when the aches and pains of old age begin to become bothersome, especially at bed time, turning to alcohol for relief is not necessarily the wrong option. Since getting gloriously and stupidly drunk on too many occasions while in the service between the ages of 18 and 20, I’ve rarely felt the need for alcohol in the 60 years since. For most of that time, and for just a few times a year, a few sips of wine at dinners or other appropriate occasions were enough for me.

However, since I entered my 70s, when severe arthritic or any other kind of pain, mental or physical, causes sleeplessness, I find that a small shot of brandy is much more effective than any prescription or over-the-counter medications. The liquor brings on a drowsiness that reduces the pain and encourages sleep.

Because I’m somewhat of a health freak with diet and exercise, and have retired into the hot, dry desert of Arizona, I seldom suffer from respiratory ailments. However, just two months ago, after extensive air travel and spending time in crowded areas, I came down with severe bronchitis. The illness did require doctor visits and a whole array of prescription medications. However, to make it through nearly a month of sleepless, coughing night, I often turned to brandy to get the most relief.

Sometimes I joke that even if the brandy doesn’t cure me … who cares? … the happy, drunken glow is worth taking it. The joke is an exaggeration, of course, because one or two half jiggers of brandy doesn’t really make me drunk, but it does relieve the bothersome symptoms. My advocacy for brandy may shock and dismay scientists and advertisers who have gone through all the trouble and expense of creating all kinds of miracle cures for every ailment designed to help the elderly find pain relief. Of course, their magic elixirs are also designed to relieve the elderly of our savings.

However, just because I find it effective for me, I’m not advocating brandy as a cure-all for every ailment faced by people of advanced and advancing age. No one, especially an elderly person, should ever drink liquor for any reason and then get behind the wheel of a car. Further, before creating your own magic cure for your ailments, or decide to throw away all your prescription drugs and embrace the happy boozy lifestyle, it is always essential that you check with your doctor first.

Alcohol Good Or Bad

Alcohol: Good or Bad?
Alcohol is made from the sugar of grains, fruits, and others foods by fermentation.
Moderate (up to two servings for women and up to three servings for men) daily alcohol consumption protects against heart disease and stroke by increases the production of good cholesterol (HDL). Red wine, as an added benefit, decreases the production of bad cholesterol (LDL).
One serving contains 10 grams of alcohol. The sizes are:
- 5 oz or 1 glass of 12% wine (white & red)
- 12 oz or 1 glass of 5% beer
- 1.5 oz of spirituous or a shot of 40% alcohol (whisky, vodka, rum, & gin)
Alcohol can however damage your health if you drink up to five servings per day. Regular heavy consumption is harmful and may cause:
- alcoholism
- high blood pressure
- stroke
- breast, bladder, throat and stomach cancer
- disorders of central nervous system
- cirrhosis of the liver
- vitamin and mineral deficiency diseases
- asocial relations
- death
Each gram of alcohol provides 7 calories. When drank in moderation, alcohol is used as an energy source; however, if your total calories intake for the day is too high, you will stock alcohol as fat. Pregnant women should avoid alcohol.
ACTION STEP 21
Write down the days you’ve drank alcohol last week. For each day, note how many servings you’ve had (the size of a serving is described above) and check if the daily total is above 2 (for women) or 3 (for men). If so, your drinking is harmful to your health and fat loss.
ACTION STEP 21 REVISITED
If you drink too much, next time you’re about to pop up that 4th beer, think: “What’s more important to me, this beer or losing fat?”. Trade your regular beer for a light beer or plain water. Another trick is to order glasses instead of pints.

De Oliveira E, Silva ER, Foster D, McGee HM, Seidman CE, Smith JD, Breslow JL, Brinton EA. Alcohol consumption raises HDL cholesterol levels by increasing the transport rate of apolipoproteins A-I and A-II. Circulation (2000) 102:2347-2352.

Basic cocktails all bartenders should know

If you want to become a bartender then there are many cocktails that you are going to have to learn about and master them. Of course you should attend bar-tending school to help you learn the ropes, but it doesn’t hurt to learn about the most popular cocktails from experimenting them yourself before hand.

There are so many different cocktails that it is hard to keep track. Literally hundreds and new ones being sought after all the time. So when you are a bartender there is alot to learn and you have to keep up to date with all the new drinks people may ask for.

Here is a list of some of the most popular cocktails that every potential bartender is going to have to learn about and perfect in their way.

Martini (many different versions)

Dry Martini

Extra Dry martini

Dirty Martini

Vodka martini

Perfect Martini

After 8 Martini

Manhattan (different versions)

Perfect Manhattan

Dry Manhattan

Rum & Coke

Jack & Coke

Scoth & Soda

Seven & Seven

Screwdriver

White Russian

Black Russian

Cosmopolitan

Appletini

Mojito

Madori Sour

Mud Slide

Sex on the Beach

Margarita’s

Daiquiri’s

Melon Ball

Zombie

Bloody Mary

Fuzzy Navel

Tequila Sunrise

Royal Flush

Hurricane

Scooby Snack

Pineapple Malibu

Pearl Harbor

Blue Hawaiian

Long Island Iced Tea

Lemon Drop

Rusty Nail

Pina Colada

Screaming Orgasm

Irish Cocktail

Godfather

Whiskey Sour

Sidecar

B52

Mai Tai

Seabreeze

Cranberry Chiller

Blue Heaven

Bullfrog

Snowball

Slippery Nipple

Blue Lagoon

Avalanche

Bermuda Triangle

Rum Relaxer

Sangria

Jello Shots

Toasted Almond

Yellow Bird

Rob Roy

Gimlet

Negroni

Armetto

Cape Code

Tom Collins

Bull Shot

Between the Sheets

Gin Fizz

Mimosa

Rum Runner

There are many many more, but I fear I am running out of room! So if you are serious about becoming a bartender then take the time to learn about the drinks starting of course with the most popular and the classics. Good Luck!

Thoughts on food and beverages – Part 54

Spaghetti Bolognese had done many things for me over the years. It has been the main string to my culinary bow. I could always say I knew how to cook because I was able to make Spaghetti Bolognese. It has kept me alive and allowed me to vary my diet away from my usual staple foods of Chinese take-away, pizza and cereal.

I’ve tried boiling eggs but they’ve cracked. I can boil potatoes but at some stage, either before or after, you have to peel them and prepare other ingredients before you can say you’ve cooked a meal.

Good Ol’ Spag Bol

Spaghetti Bolognese is easy to do. I learned how to make it when I was at university. Admittedly I wasn’t at university for very long but then again it doesn’t take long to learn how to make Spag Bol.

The advantages of it as a food source for students are pretty simple: it’s pretty simple. It’s easy to cook. It’s cheap. It’s tasty. It makes a change from eating take-aways every night, even when you can afford them.

I can remember learning to cook Spag Bol one evening shortly after starting college. I was living in a house with six other students. It was the beginning of the college year so we all started off with good resolutions. A cooking and cleaning roster had been drawn up and on this particular night I and another guy were rostered to cook.

I had grown up with a doting mother so I had never had to fend for myself before. Therefore the magic in the kitchen was all down to the other guy, whose mother obviously didn’t love him as much, and I was the assistant as he browned the mince, boiled the spaghetti and added the sauce. It was like rocket science to me. Incidentally this was the same evening when I found out what the thing you use to turn stuff on the frying pan is called: a spatula.

After gathering these two pieces of knowledge I felt that university had nothing more to teach me and I dropped out shortly afterwards.

Since then I have learned to cook a couple of extra dishes (not many). I have ordered many, many Chinese take-aways (lots). I have eaten lots and lots of pizzas (yes, indeed). In a way though, spag bol remains my favourite dish to cook (yes, indeed).

Next Page »