Eric Scheske

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Night Train: An American Legend

Night Train: An American Legend

The tent city crisis continues. It was even the subject of a recent Econtalk episode, in which the guest explained that the tent cities result from fentanyl-laced meth, which makes users paranoid, so they want to be in an enclosed space (a tent), but when they’re not under the

Is "Dry January" Just a Neo-Prohibitionist Trick?

Is "Dry January" Just a Neo-Prohibitionist Trick?

News and commentary to fuel your weekend

Waiting for the Biggest Bar Night of the Year

Waiting for the Biggest Bar Night of the Year

💡BYCU from 2021 “The waiting is the hardest part.” Tom Petty #blackwednesdaysmatter It sits there. Five days away, the biggest bar night of the year, two years removed from the last one. Black Wednesday. I will have the traditional BYCU Special Edition next Wednesday. Today, I wait. I’m itching

BYCU: Variety is the Spice of Life . . . and Good Health

BYCU: Variety is the Spice of Life . . . and Good Health

Brews You Can Use

I Spent Wednesday Evening with a Bottle of Gin and a Pile of Old Magazines, Wasting Time on a Stupid Task

I Spent Wednesday Evening with a Bottle of Gin and a Pile of Old Magazines, Wasting Time on a Stupid Task

It was a delightful waste of time.

These May Be The World's Most Unusual Booze Brands

Arkhi Vodka Once upon a time in ancient Mongolia, the nomadic horse tribes began fermenting mares' milk to make a drink called airag, a product similar to the drink we know as kefir. At some point, they started taking this fermented mares' milk and distilling it to make

Dorothy Parker was a Brilliant Slut and Four Other Sundries to Entertain Your Friends at the Bar Tonight

Dorothy Parker was a Brilliant Slut and Four Other Sundries to Entertain Your Friends at the Bar Tonight

The godfather of modern libertarianism, Albert Nock, was in his prime during Prohibition. Needless to say, he railed against it, noting once that it’s absurd to regulate something that, in nature, flows as freely as water. He’s right, of course. And the fact that it flows as freely

English Drunks, Both Fictional and Not

English Drunks, Both Fictional and Not

I linked to The Guardian’s obituary of Wilfrid Sheed (1940-2011) yesterday. Sheed’s first book was A Middle Class Education (1960), which was apparently semi-autobiographical, much like Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. The Guardian notes that there’s a lot of drinking in Middle Class: Owing more to Kingsley

How Alcohol Fuels Civilization

How Alcohol Fuels Civilization

Gonna pick me up a six-pack of art this evening Marshall McLuhan made himself a household name, writing about media. Media are tools, things that extend ourselves: a hammer extends our fist, flashlights extend our eyes, etc. I'm not sure he ever considered whether alcohol might be a