Another good reason to consider that beer..
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might be better than the tap water. This is a link to a site that shows the most recent years tests for contaminents in drinking water.
I shown my water company results, type in your zip code to find your local (USA) water company results. My,rust belt,area doesn't do too bad
but has two chemical groups above what is considered healthy and of course bottled water has its issues as well. I Don't have any "beer" contamination results, not that I could easily make the substitution and still function 
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Making beer was probably originally a way of purifying water [with enjoyable side effects] - it's said that about four pints of 'small beer' was drunk by agricultural workers every day in England, before the industrial revolution: it was about half the strength of current beers but still gave a welcomed boost, and they could be sure that it was 'sterile'...
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@tig said:
Making beer was probably originally a way of purifying water [with enjoyable side effects] - it's said that about four pints of 'small beer' was drunk by agricultural workers every day in England, before the industrial revolution: it was about half the strength of current beers but still gave a welcomed boost, and they could be sure that it was 'sterile'...
Latterly the drinking of tea significantly improved the health of the UK population as the water has to be boiling to brew the tea, and tea has anti-septic properties.
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@petercharles said:
@tig said:
Making beer was probably originally a way of purifying water [with enjoyable side effects] - it's said that about four pints of 'small beer' was drunk by agricultural workers every day in England, before the industrial revolution: it was about half the strength of current beers but still gave a welcomed boost, and they could be sure that it was 'sterile'...
Latterly the drinking of tea significantly improved the health of the UK population as the water has to be boiling to brew the tea, and tea has anti-septic properties.
Of course tea [and coffee] arrived around the start of the industrial revolution and were both very expensive = for rich folks only - tea-caddies had locks !
So the poor laborers had to drink beer and the like until tea got cheaper... Of course the government wern't slow is seeing ways to increase revenue by taxing all of these...
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@tig said:
...Of course the government wern't slow is seeing ways to increase revenue by taxing all of these...
And of course, lost a gooddozen of colonies due to this "Taxation" (without representation)
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@gaieus said:
And of course, lost a gooddozen of colonies due to this "Taxation" (without representation)
Damned American insurgents, we should have fought harder to destroy the insurgency
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What "we"? Most of those red-coats were German recruits!
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So, one man's 'insurgent' is another man's 'freedom-fighter'
History is written by the victors, so many of us have rose-colored-spectacles when we look back to see how 'we-the-goodies' got to be where we are, whilst the 'wicked-enemy' didn't...
If only Britain had been a little more sensible then the American colonies might be more like Canada [is that a good thing?] and they'd also spell properly !On a lighter note: I like to drink lots of water... but I do like it diluted with beer...
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@tig said:
.......If only Britain had been a little more sensible then the American colonies might be more like Canada [is that a good thing?] and they'd also spell properly! )
And drive on the left (wrong) side of the road?
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Seriously OT. The left is actually the ‘correct’ side of the road. It originally made perfect sense if you needed to defend yourself with a sword against an oncoming attacker (unless you’re a left-hander, like Jim, of course.) If driving a coach, you were also less likely to get the whip tangled in overhanging branches if your whip hand was in the middle of the road, rather than just feet away from the shrubbery at the side.
This was actually formulated in a Papal edict around 1300 that advised all pilgrims to stick to the left.The reason that so many countries now drive on the right is thanks to the French and their revolution. Napoleon decided to be perverse…and as he conquered so many European nations, the habit spread. You Yanks have Lafayette to thank for driving on the wrong side…it was his recommendation.
Phew! I need a beer after that explanation. That reminds me; those poor labourers that had to drink 4+ pints of beer a day were the same ones that used to complain they couldn’t get any decent food to eat. They had to survive on the ‘poor’ man’s diet of salmon and oysters.
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