"Ya see, the game of golf is from the Scots, as is fine whiskey and their love for it. Those ol' guys played golf in fields and celebrated every completed hole with a sip of whiskey from their flasks. Since Scottish drinking flasks hold 18 sips, when they ran out of whiskey, they quit... and it turned out to be 18 holes for 18 sips."
"Hmmmm," I said, "that's interesting" and forgot about it for a week or so.
Back here at home, sitting at my laptop, drinking coffee I recalled Mark's whiskey trivia and figured it might be fun to investigate the theory; give it good "scientific looking into", so I went to "Googling".
First, I had to find out how much a "sip" is. After poring over several documents, taking notes and such, I learned a 'sip' is roughly half an ounce, a 'swallow' is a full ounce, and a 'gulp' is 2 whole ounces. Some claimed there were 2.5 sips to a "shot"-- a "shot" being an ounce, so I figured the next logical step was "experimentation". (Said he, with a warm smile.)
This is 2 ounces of whiskey, and after several more tries at practicing my 'sipping', I came out with 4, 5, or 6 sips. ...anyways, after several more tries at sipping my way through this experiment, I got an average of around 5, so I decided the last pour was indeed a gulp. So now, then...where did that leave me? And where was I?
A few days later, my mind went back to thoughts of my whiskey experiment, so I started investigating drinking flask capacities, and it seems that a man's drinking flask is 8 ounces and a ladies is 6 oz. Don't get mad at me, gals, I didn't make up these facts, I'm just reporting them.
So, I kinda forgot about my project for a while, until I found myself standing in a liquor store in West Virginia. My future son-in-law, David and I were checking out, when I noticed all the small bottles behind the counter, so asked the gal for a half pint of the whiskey. I figured what with New Years a couple days away, it would be a good time to continue my flask research.
I had asked her for a half a pint, and this is what I got.
Back at David's house, while I sipped on it, he helped me count, and we came up with 14 sips.......twice. What The Heck?!! I thought it's 'posed to be 18!!
Soooo...I filled it up again and as we sat outside bbqing and such, we counted again and dang it 14 again!
Count and sip, count and sip... both times it came to 14. As the day turned into night, we sat visiting and sipping I filled it up again... but for shome reashon, I losht count....
A week or so later, when we got back home here to South Louisiana, the darned whiskey experiment and failure stilled kinda bugged me. Then!!! Then, somehow, I noticed that, like many things these days, the half pint of whiskey had been down-sized! Much like the 14 oz. "pound" of bacon, (a pound=lb. is supposed to be 16 oz.) the half pint of whiskey I had purchased was only 6 oz! and not the usual 8 oz. sooo... the plot thickened!
A few days later, Peggy and I were at Walmart and as we were checking out, I spied a shiny flask sitting by itself, out of place, where someone had "chucked" it, in amongst the potato chips and candy bars...impulse items. It was 8 ounce flask! Well-l-l-l, I snatched it right up and brought it home, where I filled it up with the whiskey my Dad dad used to drink and there it sits ready for the experiment to begin afresh with honest measures this time.
And now, here it is, a nice quiet Friday, and no better time to break out the flask while watching tv. I sipped myself all the way to the bottom of the flask with 17 sips.
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(Peggy here: I cannot figure out how to edit this next part, so will just let it lay as Cappy wrote it. Shaking my head. He may or may not have come to some 'scientific' conclusion... I'll find out tomorrow morning after he has had time to 'digest his findings' :-D He wrote this before he tumbled into bed, satisfied with the results, I think, of his whiskey experiment: )
He wrote:
"Now fore wall say so I realize several factors come into play like the size of the sippy hole etc. To be honest if in the company of several sippers give or take a couple sips can be adjusted as ya near the bottom I just sipped and counted as I watched tv and am pretty sure of my count. I refilled the flask looking forwards to seeing cousin Mark at Mardi
Gras and discussing my finds. I will call him and maybe we can compare sips from or flask like those old Scottish Golfers."
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Peggy again here--In the words of "Mrs. Needlebutt", as Cappy sometimes calls me, as I stand here with my arms folded and tapping one foot, I say, "I think we can all take a lesson from this!!"
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...So, here it is the next morning and I am not sure how Peg edited and such, but here is what I came up with, as far as my research:
I counted 17 sips, which kinda agrees with the "18 sip theory" but it's only one data point, so I feel I need more data to come up with a definite average. And also, my sipping technique could use some refining. Alls I can say is grab up ya flasks, count ya sips and let me know your findings, so we can settle this matter (and have fun doing it).
