Prohibition

16 Stories

NY Moves to Strike Down Post-Prohibition Booze Bans

Alcohol sales are still banned in 7 communities

(Newser) - New York towns and villages that have post-Prohibition bans on alcohol sales would be forced to lift such restrictions under a bill moving through the state legislature. The bill, which is up for a state Senate vote after advancing out of a committee last week, would strike down a 1934...

NASCAR Track Might Actually Have a Moonshine Cave Beneath It

Large open area found underneath North Wilkesboro Speedway in NC

(Newser) - "We'd often hear stories of how an old moonshine still was operated here on the property under the grandstands," says a VP at Speedway Motorsports about North Carolina's North Wilkesboro Speedway. CBS Sports calls it an "urban legend," but it turns out those stories...

Prohibition-Era Message Found in Statue's Base

Stonecutter apologizes for not leaving bottle of brandy

(Newser) - Workers removing the base of a statue in front of the provincial legislature building in Winnipeg, Manitoba, found a bottle placed there 101 years earlier—with a note inside apologizing for the fact that it didn't contain brandy. The note, dated July 30, 1921, said, "On account of...

Iceland Toasts 30 Years Since End of an Odd Ban

March 1 is National Beer Day

(Newser) - Thirty years ago, a sobering dry spell in Iceland's history came to an end. On Friday, the country celebrates the anniversary of the lifting of a decades-long ban on beer with—what else?—a nationwide Beer Day. The drink was outlawed in Iceland for 74 years, while all other...

Bartender Comes Clean About 'Historic' Louisville Cocktail

Oops! Adam Seger says the 'pre-Prohibition' drink isn't one

(Newser) - When Adam Seger was brought on as head of restaurant operations at the storied Seelbach Hotel (now the Seelbach Hilton) in downtown Louisville, Ky., he announced that he'd stumbled upon the recipe of a pre-Prohibition drink that used to be the hotel's signature drink and that he tried...

New York Town Serves First Beer Since Prohibition

Residents were probably tired of all the Neverdrink jokes

(Newser) - Thursday was a banner day for the small New York town of Neverdrink. Er, Neversink. That's because—as Jezebel reports—the first alcohol in 80 years was just served there. Prohibition has been the law of the land in Neversink since 1935. That changed in November when two propositions...

Report: Black Man Secretly Helped Great Crime Writers

Gumshoe Samuel Marlowe apparently wrote to Chandler, Hammett

(Newser) - Two great American crime novelists may have relied on a man unknown to history—a black detective in Los Angeles—to help them get their facts straight, the LA Times reports. Samuel Marlowe, said to be the city's first black gumshoe, worked for celebrities, studios, and speakeasies in the...

End Insider Trading? Might as Well Ban Booze

Countless convictions won't stop the practice: Henry G. Manne

(Newser) - Insider trading is to modern times what bootlegging was to the Prohibition era: Authorities will never be able to stop it, writes Henry G. Manne in the Wall Street Journal . Sure, prosecutors can catch plenty of perpetrators. But "the payoffs are too big and too accessible and the number...

Prohibition May Finally End in One Connecticut Town

Sleepy Bridgewater will put it to a vote on Tuesday

(Newser) - Connecticut's last dry town is on the verge of a historic decision: whether to allow two local developers to open restaurants that serve alcohol, the AP reports. As it stands, the upscale bedroom community of Bridgewater is on the sleepy side, with 1,700 people, an average age above...

200 US Counties Still Prohibit Booze

They're mainly in the South, but attitudes seem to be changing: BBC

(Newser) - Prohibition came off the books in 1933, and the liquor flowed again. But a swath of the US, concentrated mainly in the South, remains booze-free to this day by law. More than 200 dry counties exist in the country, along with plenty more that are partially dry. Now the bleak...

Beck: It Was 'Cowardly' to Skip Slaves in Constitution Reading

Beck wanted GOP to read the document 'scars' and all

(Newser) - Glenn Beck was not satisfied with Congress' constitutional read-along yesterday, because House leaders left out a couple of parts: namely, the three-fifths compromise, and the 18th Amendment, which declared prohibition. “They didn’t want to offend anybody ... which shows their cowardice for not reading it,” Beck fumed of...

How to Save the Porn Industry



 How to Save the Porn Industry 
OPINION
Mar 2, 2010 9:30 PM CST

How to Save the Porn Industry

Going 3-D, diversifying, working in the Wii among ideas

(Newser) - This week’s 50th anniversary of the Playboy Bunny finds the porn industry in a bad way: It’s more popular than ever, yet fewer are actually paying to see skin. The Wrap has some suggestions:
  • Go 3-D: “I think that if they can get the 3-D mixed with
...

Gossip Girl Puts Another Nail in Speakeasy's Coffin

A good cocktail is timeless; this trend is not

(Newser) - Not even a month after one mag wished for the speakeasy trend to die, Gossip Girl (yes, a show about high school and college kids, but that’s another topic) is pounding another nail in the cocktail conceit, Derek Brown writes. With one of the show’s characters opening a...

World's Oldest Bartender Calling It Quits

(Newser) - The longest serving bartender in the world—that Guinness-certified honor came 10 years ago—and slinger of one of the first beers after Prohibition ended is hanging up his cocktail shaker, the AP reports. Ninety-five-year-old Angelo Cammarata, owner of the beloved Cammarata’s Café in Pittsburgh, is selling after more...

Speakeasies Make Secret Comeback

But they're not very similar to true Prohibition-era bars

(Newser) - Across the US, trendy bars are cropping up—but good luck finding them. These homages to the 1920s speakeasy are obscured by wooden slats, hidden behind other stores, accessible only by password. “People have an affection for this period of American history, and they want the mystery,” one...

Prohibition Shadows War on Drugs
 Prohibition Shadows
 War on Drugs 
OPINION
Dec 5, 2008 2:13 PM CST

Prohibition Shadows War on Drugs

Time to end the drug war

(Newser) - Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, a convenient time to think back on another failed effort to prevent Americans from indulging in mood-altering substances. "A failed drug prohibition can cause greater harm than the drug it was intended to banish," Ethan Nadelmann of the...

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