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It has begun
Adopting this as my new job title
While the pandemic made me take a hiatus from writing, it sure didn't stop people from reading! Driven (unsurprisingly) by an article about where drive-thru drinks are legal, and by a recent increase in curiosity over why chicken wings are legally considered sandwiches in Colorado, people seem to be finding the site useful. And what more can a booze nerd ask for, really? #drinkhistory #legallydrunk
Summertime smash of gin, cucumber, basil and lime. Homemade #clearice cut to fit the Cologne Cathedral glasses @jonlang got me years ago. Wife @hedge_and_hearth sweetened hers up with her #homemade #foraged elderflower syrup!
Negronis, new puppy (who won't sit still for a picture), and post-thunderstorm summer evenings on the porch.
Heck of a nice evening out here.

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All Articles

  • Why the Drinking Age is 21 in Every State
  • The Drunkest Time in American History
  • Mail-Order Alcohol: why you can’t get that niche bourbon (and why you might be able to soon)
  • Emergency Booze: 4 Times Alcohol Laws Changed in Response to Crisis
  • How the Civil Service Helped End Prohibition
  • The First American Liquor Laws
  • Prohibition’s Racist Underbelly
  • The Maine Law
  • Dry Republicans, Wet Democrats? Alcohol and Party Politics in American History
  • A Brief History of Indian Alcohol Policy
  • The Whiskey Trust
  • Members Only: The History (and Legal Niche) of the Private Club
  • The Three Mile Limit: Booze on Boats
  • The Whiskey Ring
  • Liquoring Up the Electorate
  • Beginner’s Guide to the Whiskey Rebellion
  • Happy Hour Laws: States’ Quest To Keep People Happy, But Not That Happy
  • Lewis Rosenstiel, Capitalist Champion of America’s ‘Native Spirit’
  • When Rockefeller and DuPont Took On Prohibition
  • The Taft Decision: What is Whiskey, Anyway?
  • A (Very Brief) History of Straight Whiskey
  • The Brown Jug Bills
  • Dram Shop Laws
  • A Brief History of “Bottled In Bond”
  • Chicken Wings are Sandwiches in Colorado
  • Your Liquor is Lying to You, and That’s Okay
  • The 15-Gallon Law: Pack My Box With Five Dozen Liquor Jugs
  • The “Habitual Drunkard:” Virginia’s Downright Prehistoric Anti-Homeless Law.
  • Kentucky’s 80 Different Liquor Licenses
  • Drive-Thru Daiquiris
  • War Between the Wine States
  • Boozy Trade Wars
  • The Government Can’t Decide If Whiskey Is Gluten Free
  • A Tall Whiskey COLA: Navigating a Web of US Labeling Laws
  • Why Aren’t There Nutrition Labels On Alcohol?
  • Do Higher Taxes Reduce Drinking’s Problems?
  • Home Distilling: Yep, Still Illegal
  • Appalachian Appellations: The Quest to Protect Bourbon from Foreign Imitators
  • Behind the Zion Curtain: Utah’s Unorthodox Approach To Keeping Liquor Away From Innocent Eyes
  • Three Cheers, Three Tiers: Why Alcohol Production, Distribution, and Sales are Legally Separate
  • Prohibition’s Legacy
  • You have a baby… In a bar! How Laws About Kids In Bars Have Adapted (or not) to Changing Times
  • 3.2%: Why Some State Laws Distinguish Between “Light” and “Heavy” Beer
  • Intro to Control States: Where the Government Runs the Liquor Business
  • Blue Laws: Football Season Edition
  • Beer Street and Gin Lane: Why Liquor is Treated Differently from Beer and Wine
  • Now Open Sundays: A Brief History of American Blue Laws
  • Intro: The Adventures of John Barleycorn and his Uncle Sam

Tag: in the spirit of the law

May 28, 2020May 28, 2020

Why the Drinking Age is 21 in Every State

It’s a MADD, MADD world.

Tagged alcohol, American history, booze, drunk driving, dwi, history, in the spirit of the law, law, liquor law, madd, minimum drinking age, MLDA, south dakota v dole. Leave a comment
May 6, 2020May 7, 2020

The Drunkest Time in American History

That time we all had a lot of feels and went on a ten-year bender

Tagged alcohol, American history, booze, history, in the spirit of the law, law, liquor law, spirits, temperance, whiskey. Leave a comment
April 16, 2020April 16, 2020

Mail-Order Alcohol: why you can’t get that niche bourbon (and why you might be able to soon)

From the Wine of the Month Club to the COVID boom

Tagged alcohol, American history, beer, booze, craft beer, craft spirits, distillery, history, in the spirit of the law, law, liquor, liquor law, mail-order alcohol, shipping alcohol, spirits, wine. Leave a comment
March 19, 2020June 22, 2021

How the Civil Service Helped End Prohibition

Prohibition agents should have been Civil Service employees, but they weren’t, because activists wanted to install true believers in those jobs and politicians wanted to hand them out to supporters. You couldn’t have it both ways.

Tagged alcohol, American history, booze, civil service, government, history, in the spirit of the law, law, liquor law, Prohibition, temperance. Leave a comment
December 12, 2019February 1, 2020

Members Only: The History (and Legal Niche) of the Private Club

Exclusivity, community, and a little legal flexibility.

Tagged alcohol, alibi club, American history, american legion, booze, clubs, cosmos club, history, in the spirit of the law, kiwanis, law, lions club, liquor law, members only, metropolitan club, private clubs, rotary, university club, vfw. Leave a comment
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