Inspired by Cadel Evans’ near-win in this year’s Tour de France, Shippies is thinking about getting one of these pedal-powered mobile bars and entering next year’s race. Any takers? And what a way to train…
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A Texan walks into a pub in Ireland and shouts to the crowd of drinkers: “I hear you Irish are a bunch of hard drinkers. I’ll give $500 to anybody in here who can drink ten pints of Guinness back-to-back.” The room goes quiet and no one takes up the offer.
One man leaves. Thirty minutes later he comes back and taps the Texan on the shoulder. “Is your bet still good?” asks the Irishman.
The Texan says yes and asks the bartender to line up ten pints of Guinness. The Irishman sculls all ten with only the odd pause for breath.
The other pub patrons cheer as the Texan sits in amazement.
He gives the Irishman the $500 and says, “If ya don’t mind me askin’, where did you go for that 30 minutes you were gone?”.
The Irishman replies “I had to go to the pub down the street to see if I could do it first”.
Book review
Here’s Cheers: a pictorial history of hotels, taverns and inns in Hobart.
by C J Dennison
272pp large format paperback. Illustrated, colour and black & white
Published by Hobart City Council
ISBN 978-0-9750909-6-1
Hobart was once one of the toughest towns on earth. In the high days of whaling and sealing, you took your life in your hands if you strayed into many a city or waterfront pub.
British colonists were noted for their formidable capacity for grog, both sly and legitimate, and at one time the town boasted one pub for every 16 houses — there was a drinking establishment on just about every corner.
Part of this can be explained by a large transitory population of sailors, whalers and adventurers in a port that, despite its remotest, was one of the world’s busiest for many decades. Scores of hard-headed and necessarily hard-fisted publicans were always ready to help a sailor part himself from months — and sometimes years — of wages hard-earned before the mast.
But the real reason for the proliferation of pubs was social. Housing was primitive and often overcrowded; home offered little in the way of amusement or space to relax and so the pub functioned as the people’s loungeroom, providing warmth, cheer, free entertainment and a respite from cramped living quarters, noisy children and nagging spouses.
A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. When predators attack the herd, they go for the slowest and weakest animals at the back.
This is natural selection at work and it is good for the herd as a whole because its general speed and health is improved by the regular killing of its slowest and weakest members.
In the same way, the human brain is only as fast as its slowest cells. Too much alcohol kills brain cells, but naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest cells first.
Regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain faster and more efficient.
Which is why you always feel a lot smarter after a few beers.
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer. — Dave Barry
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, ‘It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish.’ — Jack Handy
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. — Benjamin Franklin
It was as natural as eating and, to me, as necessary. I would not have thought of eating a meal without drinking a beer.
— Ernest Hemingway
Part 1 of an occasional series about the historic importance of beer
It was the accepted practice 4000 years ago in ancient Babylonia (modern Iraq) that for a month after the wedding, the bride’s father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink.
Mead is a honey-based beer, and because the Babylonian calendar followed the moon, this period was called the honey month, which eventually became our word honeymoon.
All prospective fathers-in-law please take note — Shippies is standing by to keep your new son-in-law supplied.
When Shippies’ first opened in 1846, Battery Point was a very different place.
It was a bustling centre for the busy shipbuilding industry; the waterfront was lined with shipyards and jetties for fishing boats and the atmosphere was decidedly working class.
The nobs built their mansions well away from the waterfront in places like New Town and rarely ventured into tough areas like Battery Point.
Shippies’ was one of many pubs catering to thirsty workers and fishermen and there are many still living who can remember the days when it had an earth floor with sawdust renewed weekly.
Much extended since this photograph from some time early in the 20th century showing workers removing shingles ready for a modern tin roof, Shippies’ still has that welcoming common touch, whether you’re a nob or just an ordinary Joe.
The Shipwright’s Arms has many fascinating features, including a series of unique hand-painted stained glass windows.
These are, as you’d expect, all on nautical themes — with one notable exception: Australia’s only memorial window to a living person.
The subject is Max, a long-time regular patron at Shippies’ and (temporarily, he says) retired Lord Mayor of Battery Point.
Despite the memorial, Max says he keeps on living just to be awkward.
And that he’s happy to have one with any mug. Provided it’s your shout, of course.
Every New Year’s day locals and crews from the Sydney-Hobart and Melbourne-Hobart races meet for a quiet little drink at Shippies’ to tell tall tales of adventure at sea, catch up with old friends and rinse away the effects of New Year’s Eve celebrations.
There’s a barbeque and spit roast — and entertainment by Hobart’s legendary good-time band, the mighty Kravats. They’ve been rocking this usually sedate town for more than half a century and this year they’re joined by another legend, veteran bluesman Jimmy Roussos.
Join us the early afternoon on January 1 and round off your New Year celebrations with a Quiet Little Drink.
