BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze

Subject: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 07:34 PM

I've heard it all now. No level of drinking is safe. Everybody in the world should go teetotal. You'll get cancer...

No level of driving a car is safe.
No level of crossing the road is safe.
No level of eating food is safe.
No level of not enough sleep is safe.
No level of coffee is safe.
No level of going outside in the sun is safe.
No level of worrying about work/your missus/your kids/your money is safe.
No level of carbs is safe.
No level of ham/bangers/chorizo/bacon is safe.

I don't know what's safe any more. I wonder whether doing a bit of sex or ogling girls wearing daisy dukes is safe. Please don't tell me that admiring bum cheeks half-hanging out of daisy dukes will give me cancer...

The whole thing is enough to drive you to...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 07:37 PM

And why's there a big gap above my post....Is that safe?

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 08:06 PM

Er, now I see why...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 08:31 PM

Well, Chongo says, "Life ain't safe. That's what makes it interesting, see? And that's why I drink booze. 'Cause life ain't safe, and it's never gonna be."

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 08:39 PM

Mrs Steve and I have discussed this. We've decided that we'll give up as soon as our considerable stockpile has run down. In fact, we're going to have a competition to see how fast we can do it...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Rapparee
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 08:59 PM

Something things are definitely NOT safe, like ogling young ladies when Mrs. Shaw is around, or making Certain Remarks when the young lady is a master in Mixed Martial Arts or teaches stuff like that to the SAS.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 10:18 PM

Jello is not safe

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 10:36 PM

Steve they give no tropries for living to a very old age. It usually goes like this. He survived countless battles with the enemy was wounded three time, awarded for bravery. Then taken out at 95 by a fall off the toilet

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 10:36 PM

Enjoy your scotch it worth it

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Aug 18 - 11:51 PM

Steve started this thread as half-past midnight, his time. Had you had a few, Steve?

The only time I've heard that no level of booze is safe is during pregnancy. Don't drink if you're pregnant, Steve. Otherwise a little bit is okay.

Well, not for an alcoholic. I hope that is not the case. You're a good guy, Steve.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 12:22 AM

No it was on my newfeed today. No level of alcohol is safe

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 03:14 AM

Should I be worried about my next year's profit share, Steve? :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 03:52 AM

I seem to remember that there's a conflict of opinion about this between researchers in the USA and the UK.
My view is that, as with anything else, excess is dodgy but a modicum is fine.
Steve, if you get pregnant then please do stop drinking alcohol as leeneia advises.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:11 AM

I'm a night owl, leeneia, and I posted just after listening to the late news and whilst guiltily quaffing just a small nightcap (Laphroaig). Nary a drop ever passes my lips until the sun is well below the yardarm. I'm just off to buy a pregnancy testing kit and some gin and tonic. My sis reckons that it's what we should drink on non-drinking nights. Nice one, Dan. I nearly spilled me coffee there. Not Irish...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Jos
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:23 AM

Problem is they keep changing the rules about how big a modicum is.

It's bad enough with US pints being a different size from UK pints, and never mind how big 'cups' are.
And the BBC insisting on measuring distances in kilometres when all UK road signs and speeds are measured in miles.
And EVERY time they start telling you how many 'units' you are allowed, they try to explain how to work out how big a unit is (and while you are trying to work out how many units you drink you miss the rest of the programme or news item).

I've decided that however much I drink or eat, that's how big a modicum is, and if I happen to drink more it just means the modicum got bigger. If 'they' can change the rules then so can I.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:31 AM

Good thinking Jos!

There are, I'm sure, saintly people who have abided by all the medical advice and strict rules and have ended up with an early death from heart disease/cancer/diabetes etc anyway.

And those who haven't given a damn, eaten and drunk whatever they fancy, given it the big 'un and lived to be over ninety.

I think an individual's genetics have a lot to do with it, and also the amount of stress in someone's life. I reckon stress is a big killer, and tranquillity in life helps with longevity.

And crumpets dripping with butter are very, very good for one's health...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: G-Force
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:48 AM

Well, I'm 70, so I reckon I'm not going to die young.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:50 AM

Aargh, American cups...

I bought a second-hand Nigella Lawson cookbook online which cost me next to nothing. When it arrived I realised what the catch was - it's the American edition and everything is in cups! (I had a bit of a struggle with "heavy cream" too...) The upshot was that we bought a cheap set of plastic "cup" measures. Such things exist here!

Don't worry, Dave, as long as I live Morrisons Nero d'Avola will never die. There is one minor stipulation, as you know....

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 05:24 AM

In early January, 2006 I was told by a consultant at Lincoln County Hospital that my drinking days were over. Haven't touched a drop since - no problem, easy-peasy.

In fairness, I was never a boozer - five or six pints of bitter a week, a couple of drams of Highland Park or Bunnahabheinn on a Saturday night in front of the telly - so it hasn't been hard. The only time I miss it is when we're cooking lunch on Christmas Day (I always enjoyed a couple of sherries then), after Christmas lunch (miss my port), and if we go to the Greek Islands on holiday (what do you drink in Greece, apart from Diet Coke and iced coffee, if you're On The Wagon and a diabetic to boot?).

Otherwise, tea or posh coffee do me fine and dandy.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Jos
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 05:43 AM

I am sure I have mentioned on earlier threads how common it is for centenarians, when asked the secret of their long life, to include a daily glass of sherry or whisky or brandy or some such. A few years ago a 113-year-old woman insisted that she had a glass of sherry every day. I have been starting my evening meals with a small glass of dry sherry most days since then. Possibly the lady in question drank sweet sherry (which includes 'medium' sherry as far as I'm concerned), but I'd rather enjoy my sherry so I don't want it to resemble medicine.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: MikeL2
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 06:37 AM

Hi

I ignore all of these projects that come up with ridiculous advice.

In my time I have been a heavy drinker.....but never quite alcoholic.
Luckily I have always been able to handle booze.

As I've grown older I have drunk less...not because anyone told me to or because of stupid advice from so-called "experts".

At the moment I am trying to lose weight and so I have cut back on alcohol as a part of the exercise (no pun).

I was not obese but have lost 2 Stones. I have "treated" myself to a glass of red wine most evenings.

We go out to local restaurants occasionally when I have a pint of beer and a brandy or red wine with the coffee. I do cut back on the food and eat more healthily even in the restaurants.

I am 83 but I don't propose stopping the booze regardless of what these daft surveys say.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 06:42 AM

Working out units is dead easy. 1 litre of 100% alcohol is 100 units. Litre of whisky at 40% is therefore 40 units. Litre of wine at 12% is 12 units. Litre of beer at 4% is 4 units. The only issue then is working out what 70 or 75 cl is and you need to know that 1 UK pint is 568ml and 1 US pint is 473ml. Easier to just say a bottle of wine is 3/4 of a litre. Bottle of whisky is just under. UK pint is just over 1/2 a litre while a US pint is just under.

Seemples :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 12:13 PM

Indeed, Senoufou:

amongst classical musicians on the East Coast,
I recall a story a few decades back. I will keep him anonymous.
His career was focussed largely around the Greater New York City area,
where there are more jobs in terms of classical singing.

He was abstemious, fitness-minded, locker at the gym, and so on.
And he had a fatal heart attack AT THE GYM. He was mid-60's in age.
And he was the last person on earth
that anyone expected it to happen to.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 01:11 PM

That's very sad keberoxu. My own father is another example. He played tennis and badminton for his teams after retirement, and swam lots of lengths of the pool twice a week. Never smoked. Drank only a small glass of wine occasionally with his dinner. Wasn't an ounce overweight, ate extremely healthily.
But sadly his neighbours and the Police discovered his body in his bed after they noticed he'd left gardening equipment out on the lawn for a few days.
It was terribly sad, and the post-mortem revealed a cardiac infarction.
He was 76, which isn't all that old nowadays.
When I rang all his friends, they just couldn't believe it. They all said how fit he'd looked.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 01:39 PM

When my grandpa turned 94 . Big birthday party, cake, hats. Say something granpa.’who the fuck lives this long ‘m

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 01:47 PM

After he had several of his wild turkey bourbon. Were you going grandpa going to try and piss wish me luck ‘

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: gillymor
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 01:56 PM

This is very disturbing, I'll have to do some serious drinking about it, oops!, I mean thinking about it.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Nick
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 04:15 PM

Everything that you enjoy in life, by definition, causes cancer in mice. Not sure who said it

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: olddude
Date: 25 Aug 18 - 08:25 PM

Damn should not have given that beer to the mouse now you tell me

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Raedwulf
Date: 26 Aug 18 - 01:10 PM

If you've read the same BBC article as I did, Steve, you'll know another Dr said "There is no safe level of driving, but the government does not recommend that people avoid driving.

"Come to think of it, there is no safe level of living, but nobody would recommend abstention." ;-)

It should also be pointed out that the author of this report reportedly claimed the study was the most important study ever conducted on the subject. Well, duh, you wrote it, you would say that, wouldn't you!!

Here are a couple of links that may provide food for thought. I am not suggesting that alcohol isn't / doesn't, that high levels of consumption don't.... I don't know what the biases of the Spectator are, nor of the journalists who wrote the pieces. But read these & tell me that the new consumption guidelines are wholly scientific & not an attempt at social engineering. If only half of what the second piece alleges is true, Dame Sally Davies should not only be fired; frankly, she should be prosecuted for fraud!

How public health hid the truth about drinking

No wonder Britain’s alcohol guidelines are so extreme...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Aug 18 - 01:38 PM

That is all extremely interesting Raedwulf. I know very little about epidemiology, but one wonders if other healthy/unhealthy lifestyles have been factored in/controlled for.
How can they accurately assess life-expectancy without taking into account:

-lifestyles during the childhood and youth of a subject
-diet, in all its complexity, over the entire life
-genetic factors
-environment (pollution for example)
-stressors (life-affecting events, such as redundancy, divorce, bereavement etc)

Surely those and other influences would have some effect on heart health and longevity? So how do they separate those items from the effects of alcohol alone?

Also, I notice that 'temperance organisations' were involved in conducting the study, which is rather like asking the Vatican to study the effects of atheism on populations!

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Raedwulf
Date: 27 Aug 18 - 02:48 PM

The bit that worries me, Sen, is the "mathematical model" part. We'll ignore all the real world studies in favour of a mathematical model for whom the only suppliers are two of the existing committee, both part of a known temperance organisation. Does this not stink to high heaven?

In theory, "all the other factors" should have been averaged in / out & generally accounted for in collating many studies. But they've thrown away all the studies & gone with data provided by... This is the sort of science that had Galileo being forced to recant under pain of pain - we don't believe in it so it can't be right; we believe in this so it must be right!

Science or social engineering?

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Aug 18 - 03:13 PM

Certainly not science Raedwulf, that's for sure!

I still stick to my philosophy that everything in moderation is the best way to live.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Aug 18 - 05:53 PM

the next thing we will be told that sex is bad for us, it should only be for procreation, reminds me of the roman catholic church.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Aug 18 - 06:39 PM

Sex gets rid of your wrinkles. Once you get past sixty, that's its main function unless you're in love. Which I am.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 07:21 AM

Its always good to know Steve has someone who loves him as much as he does.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 08:29 AM

"EVERYTHING" in moderation,Senoufou?
That seems a bit excessive.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 08:51 AM

Ah gillymor, but I also moderate my moderation, so all is well. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 09:19 AM

Okay, as long as you're not going overboard with that moderation business. :>)

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: frogprince
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 12:02 PM

"Sex gets rid of your wrinkles" so that you can read all of the combination to the safe from the tattoo...

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Amos
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 12:27 PM

Rather be ashes than dust, as the poet said.

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out
    in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom
    of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

Jack London

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 12:58 PM

Birches- Bill Morrissey

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 02:33 PM

I'm more of a slow and steady type myself. I like to potter along without any fireworks or mad moments. Stability and routine mean a lot to me. I don't find them boring but on the contrary reassuring.
So it would be oak logs on my fire, not birch!

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: gillymor
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 02:43 PM

Actually, I'm probably a wet stump wood kind of guy.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 03:19 PM

Lady Celia Congreve wrote a lovely little poem about the qualities of different types of firewood. ('The Firewood Poem')

We had a big log fire in our last house, and found that oak took ages to light and was better put on top of other woods already glowing.

Pine and other evergreens have a lot of resin in, which coats the inside of the chimney then ignites and causes a chimney fire.

Fruit woods (apple, cherry etc) spit and crackle, but smell nice.

With the onslaught of Dutch elm disease, we had lots of felled elms in our area, and the logs were plentiful. It burned quite well.

But as Lady Celia said, ash is the best of all. Ignites readily, burns steadily and not too fast.

All our neighbours have wood-burning stoves and no radiators. Tractors are zooming up and down the village at the moment pulling trailers loaded up with sawn logs. We have an oil tank and an oil boiler, as we prefer radiators in every room!

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Raedwulf
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 03:28 PM

Ah, well, if we're meandering in true Mudcat style then, on the subject of firewood I offer this. Since wood produces methanol AKA methyl alcohol (yes, meths!), I claim to be still, somewhat tenuously, ON topic! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 03:56 PM

Well done Raedwulf! That's the very poem I was referring to. I can't do those blue clicky things, so thank you for that.

I'm sorry for meandering, I know I'm one of the worst offenders.

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Raedwulf
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 04:46 PM

Never apologise for... Oooo! Butterfly! Hang on, it's 10PM & dark. Right. Must be a merf then. *Ahem* What was I saying? Oh, yes, meandering. Meandering is one of the beauties of Mudcat. I have resisted the temptation to tear into someone who was rather rude to a veteran member in another thread. Despite a long memberships here, apparently that individual thinks they're allowed to control their thread & demand that no-one turn it into "a playground". Rubbish. Mudcat has always meandered. Occasionally it goes too far and crosses the line from meander to "hijack". But the 'cat would be rather poorer without some meander!

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 04:55 PM

I'm glad you think like that Raedwulf. In my daily life, I sit on my garden bench and natter to many, many folk passing by. The conversations always 'meander' and it's so interesting what one learns as these develop.
It's also a great pleasure to me on Mudcat to read all the different opinions and ideas, reminiscences and ideas. It's a very rich and varied forum isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Shouldn't booze, can booze, will booze
From: Jos
Date: 28 Aug 18 - 05:24 PM

I totally agree, Raedwulf. It is so annoying when someone is 'told off' for posting something not strictly within the confines of the original thread subject. The joy and fun of both mudcat threads and everyday conversations is in the added richness from stray thoughts, barely relevant information and just letting ideas wander at will.