
The long history of drinking games - pepys
https://www.historytoday.com/history-matters/rules-drinking
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stordoff
> Yet it cannot be just a question of wine being harder to stomach in greater
> quantities than beer

I'd also say that pennying[1], a drinking game established at
Cambridge/Oxford/Durham/St. Andrews (and others) and played almost exclusively
with wine (or occasionally port), points in this direction.

[1]
[https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/654919](https://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/654919)
\- a particularly devious example is the engineer's penny, which is a penny
that has been bent so that it will fit down the neck of a wine bottle,
"obliging" (obviously not enforced on anyone) you to finish the bottle

~~~
grenoire
> Professor Stephen Hawking is not to be pennied. This is not actually a rule,
> but is now widely accepted after two Robinson College students attending a
> Caius College formal hall were fined in excess of £50 and given a lifelong
> ban from the college for pennying his dessert.

Hah!

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throwaway_pdp09
Everyone agrees alcohol is a drug like any other but then treats it far more
tolerantly. Suppose we had cocaine snorting games or heroin smoking games. I
like my drugs and believe they should be legalised but our socially
sanctioned, even socially expected, abuse of alcohol is rather ominous.

~~~
lamby
> Suppose we had cocaine snorting games or heroin smoking games

Yes. Imagine.

~~~
loldongs242
i've played "ketamine chicken" with a partner and a long mirror before, heh

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thamer
> But in countries where wine is more popular than beer, such as Italy,
> France, Spain and Greece, bingeing and drinking games are rarer and
> generally frowned on.

Being from one of these countries I can safely say this is wrong on both
counts. As a student I saw how popular drinking games were, and participated
in many.

This is only a small part of the article, but it's always a bad feeling when
one of the opening lines presents incorrect statements as facts. What else in
this article is also completely wrong?

Are readers supposed to actively attempt to trigger the Gell-Mann amnesia
effect to be able to enjoy an article?

~~~
OscarDC
Speaking for France, I agree with that original sentence. I played some
drinking games while I was a student but it was very rare. Less than what I
did on a single week when I visited a student friend in England. I asked my
girlfriend (also french) and same thing for her - but replace England with
Germany.

~~~
zwirbl
In Austria at least the alcoholic beverage used does not matter that much,
especially in eastern Austria drinking games are also played with wine and
must, not to mention that lots of drinking games everywhere are based on the
consumption of spirits

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082349872349872
Playing the drinking long-game: with some help from the Templars, scattered
Jaredites, and the Bavarian Illuminati, manage to get your drinking buddies'
ode to wine, women, and song regularly played for olympic[1] podiums.

"And long may the sons of Anacreon intwine / The Myrtle of Venus with
Bacchus's Vine."

[1] the games wouldn't be revived until 1896, so that part probably took more
conspiracy work than getting the tune used for a national anthem in the first
place.

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seneca
Bit of interesting history, one of the earliest examples we have of Greek
writing is an inscription on an 8th century BCE wine cup found in
Pithekoussai, referred to as Nestor's Cup.

Some scholars think the inscription on it is the result of a drinking game
where writers alternated writing verses.

For the curious, the inscription says: Nestor’s cup, good to drink from.
Whoever drinks from this cup, him straightaway the desire of beautiful-crowned
Aphrodite will seize.

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yupyup54133
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin it doesn't count as drinking if you drink less than a
six-pack and drunk driving is still a misdemeanor.

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nirmel
Here's a bit I wrote about drinking games.

I enjoy drinking but I hate drinking games. I mean, talk about a way to
disguise your drinking problem as laughing matter, as a veritable vocation of
which to be proud. If you enjoy drinking games, that’s fine in the same way
that it’s fine to have a drinking problem.

As I observe it, flip cup competitors are not so much vying for victory as
they are crying for help. You have to hear the irony as they encourage their
fellow addicts to, and I quote, “chug, chug, chug, yeahhhh!” All I hear is,
“help, help, help uuussssss!”

So let’s reach out to this community with the love and support they need. In
fact, let's advertise a support line for this troubled community with posters
that read:

Do You Enjoy Beer Pong,

Quarters, And the Like?

Call Anonymously: 1-800-PONG-NOMO.

~~~
kace91
That's a weird mindset. You enjoy drinking but consider having social fun
while doing so a symptom of addiction?

What's the appropiate situation then to drink without considering it harmful?
Gazing through a window with a nostalgic look?

~~~
throwaway_pdp09
> You enjoy drinking but consider having social fun while doing so...

He's talking about drinking games. He's said nothing about being against
social fun per se, just a comment on drinking games.

~~~
kace91
>disguise your drinking problem as laughing matter

That's why I caught the implication of social fun while drinking != bad.

If it isn't the case, then I don't see what's specific about drinking games
that makes them necessarily a drinking problem.

