What a strange remark...I can’t actually work out what you mean.

@Marionville True, traditional, 80/90% Poitin was perfect for creating men able to withstand anything and refuse defeat.
The modern, legal since 1997 stuff, doesn't have the same "character building" potency.

@Petter I think these rugby guys are more likely to drink Guinness or Smithwicks!

@Marionville Point proven!

@Marionville
[en.m.wikipedia.org]

@FrayedBear She's Irish - she knows Poitin.(pocheen to the english)

@FrayedBear I know about the history of poitin...it could be very dangerous stuff to drink. The problem is the fusel oil, it is poisonous. Didn’t realise they made official or “legal” poitin, that’s news to me!

@Marionville It's been legal, as I mentioned, since '97, but only in the Republic. ...... and it's been drastically weakened.

@Petter Have you tried metho or with milk White Lady?
@Marionville
Here's a peformance by John Dengate (d.2014?) of the Lanes of Woolloomooloo which concludes with reference to white lady - where I learnt the term. Enjoy

@FrayedBear Would that we could ever learn...doesn’t seem likely! Never knew about White Lady...dire!

@FrayedBear Meths and milk. Best served well chilled, to match the temperature of the morgue where you sleep it off, indefinitely.

@FrayedBear @Marionville Did I ever tell you my first job was as a government chemist? One memorable episode was monitoring the levels of meths in over 200 people who were suffering the after effects of a huge party, where the home made moonshine had been further enhanced by "diluting" it 50/50 with meths. Each day we received a blood sample from those still alive, to measure progress, and also the liver and brains of the latest batch of deaths.
Eventually, around half died, and of the survivors, most had hearing, sight and mental awareness problems.
Methyl alcohol is lethal!!

@Petter Horrific...! Btw, my hubby was a chemist too!!

@Marionville The bio-chemistry work was really interesting, but I decided that I didn't wish to be stuck in a lab all my life, and became a lift technician instead.
26 years later I left that career to start my third career, as an editor/publisher.

@Petter My husband Peter started out his career working in the Petrochemical Industry, he was working in a lab at Shell/BP Oil refineries at Grangemouth when I met him. He came to the same conclusions as you and left to become a rep. in the Pharmaceutical Industry...a job he was eminently suited to! Eventually that gave way to being a professional Philatelist...even more suited to that, as it was more like his hobby had become his day job!!

@Marionville A man after my own heart, (as people used to say of Dr Christian Barnard!)

@Petter First heart transplant ...performed in Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, 1967. Don’t remember the name of the patient...is he still alive, doubt it,

@Marionville He only lived for about 6 weeks, but the op was a trail blazer! Likewise, I can't remember the patient's name.

@Marionville Been looking it up. The patient was Louis Washkansky, and he died of pneumonia 18 days later.

@Marionville, @Petter I remember the news on the radio. Now it & many other far more complex operations occur.

Has it really improved the human lot? And is it necessary?

@FrayedBear I think the survival rate has increased dramatically from then....and if the organs are just going to be buried or burned anyway with the deceased...then yes, if they can give someone who is dying prematurely (especially in the case of children) a chance to live longer.

@FrayedBear I reckon @Marionville answered for me.

Yes..life has become much too complicated, when you need to work out a complicated equation to decide who to support in a Rugby match!

England may not have a chance to gain extra points against Italy, if the matches are cancelled. The Corona virus is becoming quite serious.

@Petter It would be a pity if the game was cancelled but health comes first.

@Moravian It's worse than that. I have tickets. Will I get a full refund??