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"You
can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you
have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very
least you need a beer."
-Frank
Zappa
"Without
question, the greatest invention in the
history
of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the
wheel was
also a fine invention, but the wheel does
not go
nearly as well with pizza." - Dave Barry
Toucan
"If he
can say as you can
Guinness
is good for you,
How grand
to be a Toucan,
Just
think what Toucan do."
So
yesterday my friend calls and asks me "What is the origin of the Guinness
toucan?".
Well here
it is folks:
In 1928
the advertising agency John Gilroy worked for won the Guinness advertising
account.
The
Toucan first appeared as a Guinness character in 1935. The truth be told
however he really started out as a pelican. The ad went something like this:
"A
wonderful bird is the pelican,
Its bill
can hold more than its belly can.
It can
hold in its beak
Enough
for a week
I simply
don't know how the hell he can."
The
writer Dorothy L Sayers who worked for the same advertising agency as John
Gilroy was asked to come up with something less offensive. Hence the Toucan
saying. So goes the origin of the Toucan. In 1982, Guinness changed advertising
agencies and the Toucan was officially retired. He lives on however on many a
pub wall. (and some living room walls too!)
Would you
like to know more about John Gilroy? Check out the GuinnessĀ® Collectors Club
"the
attempt to make the consumption of beer criminal is as silly and as futile as
if you passed a law to send a man to jail for eating cucumber salad" - Stephen
Leacock (Canadian humorist, 1869-1944)
Carolyn
from Bella Online shares her thoughts about tavern limericks. The following
three are from her article.
There was
a sweet girl from Gadzooks
Who spent
all her time coaching crooks-
As
thieves they had fun
And she
needed no gun
'Cause
she'd just knock 'em dead with her looks.
There was
a weight trainer named Joe
Had a
voice that was sexy and low -
He
attracted a lass
With his
muscular ass
And a bag
overflowing with dough.
There was
a park ranger named Dale
Who liked
making moonshine and ale-
He first
filled a mug
But drank
the whole jug
Then
passed out and drowned in his pail.
My
favorite limerick is "A Barmaid From Sale"
On the
chest of a barmaid in Sale
Were
tattooed the prices of ale.
And on
her behind,
For the
sake of the blind,
Was the
same information in Braille.
The
limerick also known as nonsense verse is a popular form of short, humorous
verse that is often nonsensical and frequently ribald. It consists of five
lines, rhyming aabba, the first, second, and fifth lines must have three
accented beats in them. The third and fourth lines must have two accented
beats.
The
origin of the limerick is unknown, but it has been suggested that the name
derives from the chorus of an 18th-century Irish soldiers' song, "Will You Come
Up to Limerick?"
Here is
another theory as to origin of the Limerick.