Scotch whisky – the tipple of impostor messiahs. So impressed. Those with who can look reality in the eye might appreciate the slightly bitter taste of American rye whiskey.
Going by the levels in the bottle in panel 1 and panel 4, J has consumed about eighteen × 25 ml “shots” or drams, which also represents 18 UK “units” of alcohol.
The UK recommended limit for one week is 28 units, so he has had 4.5 days’ quota.
My tipple of choice is Bell’s, straight up. No water. No ice. It’s the scotch of British Journalists and Scotland Yard. Also the cheapest scotch in my local liquor store. In a pinch or a party I can tolerate a rye and seven, and could probably get used to Irish whisky. Many of the expensive single malts taste like they were aged in an ashtray, and I only enjoy them when about half the bottle is gone in a sitting. But Bell’s is the real deal.
Nice to see that Jesus knows how to enjoy a dram.
Almost all Scotch is good. Even the cheapest Scotch is pretty good. Not the peatiest ones though. I don’t want to drink an ashtray like Laphroaig or Ardmore. And I’m not averse to blends. Dewar’s White and JW Black are very nice. I used to love Aberlour 8 year, but you can only get older ones now, and I don’t like them as much.
Athol Brose is a lovely drink.
One whisky style that doesn’t get nearly the respect it deserves is Canadian whisky. I think they’re too subtle for most people; elegant and understated.
I’m not a fan of Bourbon, but that’s because of the high level
of char in the barrels, by law. I prefer toasted oak to charred oak. The skill of American distillers isn’t inferior to that of Scottish distillers, but the barrel is the main ingredient.
M27Holts, I’m no expert either, but I’d say unlikely. The distillation process evaporates alcohol plus some congeners, and not much water. I believe water has little effect.
I just opened pickthall copy. Opened at page 193, surah 22: Al-Hajj….the word doom, devil, punishment of the flame, burning oh and earthquake of the hour…reads like a script for Eastenders….GET ARHT OF MY PUB….
They say a programmer is someone who doesn’t know the difference between Christmas and Halloween, because
Oct 31 = Dec 25
For any non-technical atheists haunting this area, that means 8*3+1 = 10*2+5. … Or so I’m told. I’m having trouble with those representations because someone put a hex on me.
Laripu & others: Many single malt Scotch producers make a big deal of the water from a particular source used in their process. I’m inclined to agree with Laripu that the water source makes little or no contribution in distillation (although it can be important to beer brewing). What does make a difference is the wood used to make the barrels in which the spirit matures over many years (a legal minimum of three years, but commonly eight years or more). One type of this wood is american oak from second-hand bourbon casks. The contribution of this wood to Scotch manufacture is of much more value than its first use to produce an inferior spirit. Wood from various wine casks, rum casks etc, is also used, as well as very small amounts of first-use british oak. The woods can be re-used more than once, but when finally no longer suitable, make great firewood!
I do not claim to be an expert in this field. I confidently expect someone more knowledgeable than me to correct any errors, for which I apologise now, to save time.
M27Holts, you must have to use more letters than are in the English alphabet for large powers of 71, for example 71?². Do you use Arabic letters for base 71?
I’ll bet that’s natural and intuitive to anyone with 71 tentacles.
Son of Glenner, I generally agree with what you said except for the characterization of American whiskey as an inferior spirit. While it isn’t to my taste, many people like it. And many people prefer it to Scotch.
Taste is partly a function of both the thing being tasted and partly of the biology and habits of the person doing the tasting.
I’m curious: if an American Bourbon barrel was re-used for an American distillate, in an area with weather similar to that of some part of Scotland, the way such barrels are re-used for Scotch, would you still think that spirit inferior? That would contradict our common assertion that the spirit’s interaction with the barrel is the most important thing.
The process of distillation ensures that all distilled spirit (whiskey, whisky, gin, rum, vodka, brandy … ) are over 90% alcohol; or about 210 degrees proof. To be sold as a drink (70 degrees proof), rather than as firelighter or hand sanitiser, it has to be diluted by mixing with 2 parts water to 1 part spirit. So, it does really matter what water is added, and what flavours are imparted. This is before you add your favourite cocktail mixer (or not).
Paul Seed: Fair point, if the dilution is carried out at the distillery and not at a different location. (I wish people would stick to the now generally used %abv (alcohol by volume) rather the oldfashioned term, degrees of proof!)
Laripu: I understand that USA law requires bourbon barrels to be new, virgin, oak, so re-use for bourbon is forbidden. Fortunately, Scots law makes no rules on barrels for whisky distilling other than the three-year minimum maturation period. Re-use of barrels is also sensible and environmentally sound. I’m sure Mr Beam and Mr Daniels would prefer to re-use their barrels if it was allowed.
It has just dawned on me that Paul Seed may be american, so can be forgiven for using obsolete terminology. The USA is about the only developed country that has not adopted the metric system, so they may not use %abv (or abv%) either. Of course, the UK still uses miles for distances, but metric for most other measures. (Sigh!)
Laripu: Don’t take my litttle swipes at bourbon whiskey too seriously, it can taste OK with your tongue in your cheek.
Which means that the values are held as strings obviously. I used to make up my own symbols up as a kid….I used to love Cricket averages as well…well weird I am….
We use “ABV” with beer, “proof” typically with distilled spirits.
I don’t often hear “degrees proof”, though, and as used in the US, there couldn’t be any such thing as “210 proof” – you can’t distill to 105% alcohol (or even 99%, without adding benzene or something.) So I think that for all your pride in abandoning traditional measures, someone’s still hanging on to the old ways over there.
two’s complement equals itself plus something
that is 2 to the N
and when 2 to the N minus one is
all ‘1’ bits, or 2N minus one, then
you could go on but you’ve lost me
You can’t objectively have more than 100% when applied to proportion of a fixed system object. Obviously you can exceed 100% if you open the system or are expressing an increase or decrease in mathematics…
Son of Glenner, since 100% = 1, I guess that in base 71 it would still be 1. And 71 would be 10, base 71.
I use binary and hexadecimal a fair amount and very rarely octal. Binary is useful for packing lots of on/off information into a small package, with bitwise manipulation to figure out what it means. Hex is useful for very large numbers like pointers. See: https://m.xkcd.com/138/ . Very old drawing: the monitor is a CRT not a flat panel.
Base 71 seems useful only to bother people you don’t like.
I use binary and hexadecimal a fair amount and very rarely octal.
Of course we all use binary a fair amount, if we get anywhere near a computer of some sort, but used in the same way or context as decimal or hexadecimal, for textual numeric representation? Hexadecimal gives you a reasonable overview of the bit structure.
I use base 71 to store my stats data. Simple cryptology of my personal stats data in case the shape changing fifth columnist lizard rulers of the world want to nick my data. The number 71 is invisible to them, and don’t want us to know it…
Troubleshooter: Glenlivet is a very good single malt but it is a matter of opinion if it is the best. Many single malts are “Glen” something, but that prefix means nothing in itself. Some of them are not even made in a glen (valley).
Laphroig, Talisker, Bowmore, Scapa, Highland Park, are all excellent single malts, not to everyone’s taste, but have nothing to do with glens – they are island malts.
Has Mr Daniels ever thought of calling his product “Glenlynchburg”? It might help his sales. Mind you he still sells a lot without the glen label!
My sweet cousin seduced me to Glenmorangie a long time ago when she had been working as a tourist guide in Scotland. The start of a slippery slope. Now I’m not so picky, but I quite like the more local Mackmyra copycat. For hard stuff, that is.
Not a great smoke fan and tar is for archives. But as we say, “smaken är som baken, delad” or “cross my arse said the vicar, sat on a scythe”. So, not one for all but more for me.
The translation I get for that is “taste is like the butt, divided”, which seems a little more to the point, though it seems unnecessarily prejudicial towards those who might end up in the middle on this question.
Or maybe it’s about something else. I left off the definite article – full translation was “the taste is like the butt, divided”, and I just chalked that up to the usual differences in the way languages use articles. But it could be about the taste of some Swedish delicacy, for example surströmming.
I love Isley single malts and always give very expensive bottles as revenge presents. You see the product tastes wonderful but….
Has a massive sting in the tail. Every person ever born has an “Isley limit”, drink even one more drop than your limit and lose two days to the hangover from hell. My Isley limit is “don’t even open the bottle”.
Jesus & Mo (the characters) are absurd, blinkered, and oddly very sweet. J&M (the cartoon) is brilliant: sharp, delicious, irresistible. Salman Rushdie
Jesus and Mo cartoons are wonderfully funny and true. Richard Dawkins
Jesus and Mo make the world a better place, bless their little hearts. Ophelia Benson
In a world defined by outrage and offence and liberal spinelessness, Jesus and Mo is a treasure, whose value we should never fail to recognize. Read them. Laugh. And think. Kenan Malik
The brilliant, celebrated, freaking hilarious atheist comic strip ... Greta Christina
...rays of sanity in a befuddled world. Keri Hulme
The liveliest depictions of Muhammad currently available... Malise Ruthven
J & Mo is the funniest and most consistently thought-provoking cartoon strip on the Net. In a saner world, it would run in a major newspaper. Nelson Jones, Heresy Corner
Consistently amusing, frequently thought-provoking and often heart-warming. New Humanist
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Wittily captures much of the absurdity of religious apologetics. Mano Singham
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Often hilarious, frequently wry, these cartoons do what all the best cartoons do: they tell the truth through humour. Terry Sanderson, NSS President
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November 21, 2008
Well, it’s a good thing his blood is wine, otherwise he’d be dead of alcohol poisoning by page 5.
Glad to see that J is drinking the good stuff, scotch whisky, and not the inferior imitation, american whiskey.
Every good tale has to have bad guys!
Next – Mo does the same thing with the Bible.
Scotch whisky – the tipple of impostor messiahs. So impressed. Those with who can look reality in the eye might appreciate the slightly bitter taste of American rye whiskey.
I’ll stay with a drop of the Irish………
I do like a smooth Jamesons black label chaser with a good pint of ale….the days of 10 pints with chasers is long gone however…
Going by the levels in the bottle in panel 1 and panel 4, J has consumed about eighteen × 25 ml “shots” or drams, which also represents 18 UK “units” of alcohol.
The UK recommended limit for one week is 28 units, so he has had 4.5 days’ quota.
Just thought you might like to know!
My tipple of choice is Bell’s, straight up. No water. No ice. It’s the scotch of British Journalists and Scotland Yard. Also the cheapest scotch in my local liquor store. In a pinch or a party I can tolerate a rye and seven, and could probably get used to Irish whisky. Many of the expensive single malts taste like they were aged in an ashtray, and I only enjoy them when about half the bottle is gone in a sitting. But Bell’s is the real deal.
Nice to see that Jesus knows how to enjoy a dram.
Henry Ford: Foul Papist! 😉
Almost all Scotch is good. Even the cheapest Scotch is pretty good. Not the peatiest ones though. I don’t want to drink an ashtray like Laphroaig or Ardmore. And I’m not averse to blends. Dewar’s White and JW Black are very nice. I used to love Aberlour 8 year, but you can only get older ones now, and I don’t like them as much.
Athol Brose is a lovely drink.
One whisky style that doesn’t get nearly the respect it deserves is Canadian whisky. I think they’re too subtle for most people; elegant and understated.
I’m not a fan of Bourbon, but that’s because of the high level
of char in the barrels, by law. I prefer toasted oak to charred oak. The skill of American distillers isn’t inferior to that of Scottish distillers, but the barrel is the main ingredient.
I’m no expert on whisky, but isn’t the water or the trace elements it contains the main control on the final taste?
M27Holts, I’m no expert either, but I’d say unlikely. The distillation process evaporates alcohol plus some congeners, and not much water. I believe water has little effect.
Nice to see such civilised discussion over a spiritual matter.
For my part, I tend to side with Laripu, less tar is mo’better. I like our Swedish imitation, Mackmyra.
My mother used to say (and truly believe) that there are two kinds of people in the world: Catholics and non-Catholics.
I say the most important bifurcation is…connoisseurs who drink Glenfiddich and peasants who don’t.
My psychiatrist identifies two groups: those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t.
Nice touch having the whiskey bottle more than half empty and the shot glass on the carpet.
I just opened pickthall copy. Opened at page 193, surah 22: Al-Hajj….the word doom, devil, punishment of the flame, burning oh and earthquake of the hour…reads like a script for Eastenders….GET ARHT OF MY PUB….
No, actually there are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
(I’m assuming there’s gotta be someone here who hasn’t heard that one…)
Aye. Two’s compliment…
Ha, I just remembered the other one I know. There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can do arithmetic, and those who can’t.
(There’s actually a fair amount of wisdom in that one. It often feels like there is an unbridgeable chasm between the numerate and the innumerate).
Ah, speaking of representations of numbers:
They say a programmer is someone who doesn’t know the difference between Christmas and Halloween, because
Oct 31 = Dec 25
For any non-technical atheists haunting this area, that means 8*3+1 = 10*2+5. … Or so I’m told. I’m having trouble with those representations because someone put a hex on me.
Well with everything having to be non-binary… computers must be a figment of my imagination…
Laripu…I like using base 71…that really confuses the fookers…
Laripu & others: Many single malt Scotch producers make a big deal of the water from a particular source used in their process. I’m inclined to agree with Laripu that the water source makes little or no contribution in distillation (although it can be important to beer brewing). What does make a difference is the wood used to make the barrels in which the spirit matures over many years (a legal minimum of three years, but commonly eight years or more). One type of this wood is american oak from second-hand bourbon casks. The contribution of this wood to Scotch manufacture is of much more value than its first use to produce an inferior spirit. Wood from various wine casks, rum casks etc, is also used, as well as very small amounts of first-use british oak. The woods can be re-used more than once, but when finally no longer suitable, make great firewood!
I do not claim to be an expert in this field. I confidently expect someone more knowledgeable than me to correct any errors, for which I apologise now, to save time.
M27Holts, you must have to use more letters than are in the English alphabet for large powers of 71, for example 71?². Do you use Arabic letters for base 71?
I’ll bet that’s natural and intuitive to anyone with 71 tentacles.
Son of Glenner, I generally agree with what you said except for the characterization of American whiskey as an inferior spirit. While it isn’t to my taste, many people like it. And many people prefer it to Scotch.
Taste is partly a function of both the thing being tasted and partly of the biology and habits of the person doing the tasting.
I’m curious: if an American Bourbon barrel was re-used for an American distillate, in an area with weather similar to that of some part of Scotland, the way such barrels are re-used for Scotch, would you still think that spirit inferior? That would contradict our common assertion that the spirit’s interaction with the barrel is the most important thing.
The process of distillation ensures that all distilled spirit (whiskey, whisky, gin, rum, vodka, brandy … ) are over 90% alcohol; or about 210 degrees proof. To be sold as a drink (70 degrees proof), rather than as firelighter or hand sanitiser, it has to be diluted by mixing with 2 parts water to 1 part spirit. So, it does really matter what water is added, and what flavours are imparted. This is before you add your favourite cocktail mixer (or not).
Paul Seed: Fair point, if the dilution is carried out at the distillery and not at a different location. (I wish people would stick to the now generally used %abv (alcohol by volume) rather the oldfashioned term, degrees of proof!)
Laripu: I understand that USA law requires bourbon barrels to be new, virgin, oak, so re-use for bourbon is forbidden. Fortunately, Scots law makes no rules on barrels for whisky distilling other than the three-year minimum maturation period. Re-use of barrels is also sensible and environmentally sound. I’m sure Mr Beam and Mr Daniels would prefer to re-use their barrels if it was allowed.
It has just dawned on me that Paul Seed may be american, so can be forgiven for using obsolete terminology. The USA is about the only developed country that has not adopted the metric system, so they may not use %abv (or abv%) either. Of course, the UK still uses miles for distances, but metric for most other measures. (Sigh!)
Laripu: Don’t take my litttle swipes at bourbon whiskey too seriously, it can taste OK with your tongue in your cheek.
Laripu. Aye. 0-9, a-z, A-Z gives you 62 then assorted #$%^&@+×£ gives you 71….simples
Which means that the values are held as strings obviously. I used to make up my own symbols up as a kid….I used to love Cricket averages as well…well weird I am….
We use “ABV” with beer, “proof” typically with distilled spirits.
I don’t often hear “degrees proof”, though, and as used in the US, there couldn’t be any such thing as “210 proof” – you can’t distill to 105% alcohol (or even 99%, without adding benzene or something.) So I think that for all your pride in abandoning traditional measures, someone’s still hanging on to the old ways over there.
two’s complement equals itself plus something
that is 2 to the N
and when 2 to the N minus one is
all ‘1’ bits, or 2N minus one, then
you could go on but you’ve lost me
when I first drank Irish whisky
it went down like water
it was only until later
that fortress would falter
You can’t objectively have more than 100% when applied to proportion of a fixed system object. Obviously you can exceed 100% if you open the system or are expressing an increase or decrease in mathematics…
M27Holts: What is 100%, expressed in base 71?
Son of Glenner, since 100% = 1, I guess that in base 71 it would still be 1. And 71 would be 10, base 71.
I use binary and hexadecimal a fair amount and very rarely octal. Binary is useful for packing lots of on/off information into a small package, with bitwise manipulation to figure out what it means. Hex is useful for very large numbers like pointers. See: https://m.xkcd.com/138/ . Very old drawing: the monitor is a CRT not a flat panel.
Base 71 seems useful only to bother people you don’t like.
I use binary and hexadecimal a fair amount and very rarely octal.
Of course we all use binary a fair amount, if we get anywhere near a computer of some sort, but used in the same way or context as decimal or hexadecimal, for textual numeric representation? Hexadecimal gives you a reasonable overview of the bit structure.
I use base 71 to store my stats data. Simple cryptology of my personal stats data in case the shape changing fifth columnist lizard rulers of the world want to nick my data. The number 71 is invisible to them, and don’t want us to know it…
I also use bit flags for space reasons also….
M27Holts: “… shape changing fifth columnist lizard rulers …”
You forgot to include “jewish” and “UFOs” in that list!
What? Forty comments and no mention of Glenlivet? Got a bunch of Nye Kulturni here! [grin!]
Troubleshooter: Glenlivet is a very good single malt but it is a matter of opinion if it is the best. Many single malts are “Glen” something, but that prefix means nothing in itself. Some of them are not even made in a glen (valley).
Laphroig, Talisker, Bowmore, Scapa, Highland Park, are all excellent single malts, not to everyone’s taste, but have nothing to do with glens – they are island malts.
Has Mr Daniels ever thought of calling his product “Glenlynchburg”? It might help his sales. Mind you he still sells a lot without the glen label!
My sweet cousin seduced me to Glenmorangie a long time ago when she had been working as a tourist guide in Scotland. The start of a slippery slope. Now I’m not so picky, but I quite like the more local Mackmyra copycat. For hard stuff, that is.
Not a great smoke fan and tar is for archives. But as we say, “smaken är som baken, delad” or “cross my arse said the vicar, sat on a scythe”. So, not one for all but more for me.
The translation I get for that is “taste is like the butt, divided”, which seems a little more to the point, though it seems unnecessarily prejudicial towards those who might end up in the middle on this question.
Nothing wrong with the middle ground if fastidious hole cleansing is practiced. 🙂
Or maybe it’s about something else. I left off the definite article – full translation was “the taste is like the butt, divided”, and I just chalked that up to the usual differences in the way languages use articles. But it could be about the taste of some Swedish delicacy, for example surströmming.
Donn, I bow to your superior experience. (Not too far forward though. There are limits.)
Anyway, as for various tastes, I think McD’s is more or less international?
https://twitter.com/WholeMarsBlog/status/1387138354764935173
Whoops.
I love Isley single malts and always give very expensive bottles as revenge presents. You see the product tastes wonderful but….
Has a massive sting in the tail. Every person ever born has an “Isley limit”, drink even one more drop than your limit and lose two days to the hangover from hell. My Isley limit is “don’t even open the bottle”.