What do you do while high on scotch?

Why are you so obsessed with being "high" on malt? Maybe you should try and get a bit more of a life instead of quizzing the world and his dog about their "highs".

How many people really care that you opened a fekkin tub of peanuts for petes sake!

Anybody who'd drink good scotch or any good booze for that matter just to get high, needs to get out of their immature, college mentality. Good whiskies are to be savoured and enjoyed. Drinking just to get high and drunk, that crap stoppped for me when I left college and stopped drinking the swill we all drink in college.

Why should you try to dictate your values? Anybody who is drinking whiskey and denies they are getting high is most likely an alcoholic who is lying not only to their families but mostly to themselves. I bet you get Playboy strictly for the articles too.

Everybody can see that your emotional outburst really casts you into the light of obsession. It is very obvious to us that you have been drinking too much, your dopamine levels are depleted and you are not jovial; you are angry and feeling guilty. And you have the gaul shorthand phrase whiskey into "malt?" What is that? Some secret catch phrase? Are you too cool to talk. I bet you probably suffer open handed pimp slaps from most men you ecounter in social situations. Now you are hidding in a newsgroup.

Guig and MToomey!

Chill out! I believe you´re off target here. Jimmy Smith doesn´t seem to be talking about getting drunk, does he?

I´ve been lurking for a while, and most of the time you all write all these absolutely great, but rather dry tasting notes and discussions about rare editions and such. Don´t get me wrong, I really find this very interesting! I am not such a feinsmecker myself though, so I feel I can´t contribute much.

So I for one found it rather refreshing with some sharing of experiences and emotions around the whole thing we all apparently do, namely having our pleasurable, often memorable small moments relaxing with our favourite scotch. Without so much focus on subtleties in taste as on the whole experience. Jimmy Smith has, as far as I can see, brought this theme up in a number of ways now ( am I reading you correct Jimmy?). What´s wrong about this??

And, come on, even just one little drink of alcohol does have a certain effect on your nerves, your state of mind. Isn´t this fact at least one of many reasons that we find comfort in having a drink? To admit this is not "immature college mentality" in my eyes. To deny it maybe is.

Lighten up! Try a smile! Maybe you need a drink? : )

Gunnar

"MToomey" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m18.aol.com...

interesting!

Yes Gunnar you are reading me correctly.

And you know so much about your subject that you even spell whisky incorrectly.

Malt as in single malt, as in single malt whisky. As in Balvenie, Dallas Dhu, Benromach, and many others.

Drive real fast!

Most here are well aware of your outburst over football. Why carry your ill attitude here? I'm having fun talking about and enjoying scotch. You are just doing your damned best to rain on somebody's parade. I know you are an unhappy person. You should seek medical attention. I mean that in the spirit of sincerity. You need help before you hurt yourself of someone else.

your ill attitude here? I'm having fun talking about and enjoying scotch. You are just doing your damned best to rain on somebody's parade. I know you are an unhappy person. You should seek medical attention. I mean that in the spirit of sincerity. You need help before you hurt yourself of someone else.

wait a second

what's wrong with football?

Gunnar,

I'm not sure what a "feinsmecker" is, so if it's insulting I'm not insulted.?...

Personally, I read for the tasting notes and discussions about rare editions. Tasting notes can inform my future purchases, and the only way I may taste some rare whiskys that are well beyond my price range, or unavailable locally, is vicariously through others' descriptions.

But there's no reason it all has to be dry and serious. You're right - sharing our experiences, emotions, memories, stories, humor etc. adds a lot to the discussion. There's room for all of it.

Still, I'm uncomfortable with the talk of the "Scotch high". I think, as you indicated, that Jimmy means the mood, emotions,... the whole experience connected to drinking whisky. He describes having a drink, or three, not drinking till he's insensible. But the language first suggests to a lot of people - me included - the "drug effects" of alcohol. And the pharmacology of alcohol is the same whether you're boozing with a cheap vodka or with the Ardeg Provenance. So why would anyone pay the price of the latter? They wouldn't - if all they wanted was an ethanol "high".

There is a modern tendency to turn every passion into a pathology, every habit into an addiction, and everyone of us into a victim of something. Perhaps it's just uniquely American? But I insist that some people do some things just because they like them - and Freud need not apply.

Jimmy,

Take my advice - or leave it - as you see fit.

But I think you would get less friction if you just changed your expression from "the Scotch high" to the scotch experience, or flavor, or mood, or "relaxing with a drink", or "intoxicated on my favorite scotch", or dramming, or "in my cups", or any of hundreds of other expressions that just might communicate better exactly what you mean at the time. On USENET, without tone of voice, facial expressions, body language, etc. it's just too easy to be misunderstood. So don't misunderstand me now. I'm not trying to be rude, just making a suggestion.

Bart

From German or Yiddish or perhaps both, meaning, more or less, someone who can expertly differentiate among tastes.

When it comes to malts, I'm afraid you qualify, Bart. Your posts are among the more maltishly erudite that appear here.

Oddly, when I googled for feinsmecker, I found most of the hits were in one or more Scandinavian languages and only a few in German. But then, languages tend to bleed into each other.

cheers.

bill

Oh, it´s a german term we have absorbed in our language here in Norway. I thought it might be used internationally, I may have been wrong. Directly translated it would mean "fine-taster". "Gourmet" would be about the same, at least when it comes to food and wine. What term would you use in english when it comes to whisky?

It was definately NOT meant to be insulting! I would like to develop my tasting and become one myself! And I do hope I haven´t contributed to ruining this exeptionally great news group. I enjoy very much reading these tasting notes, and though I can´t contribute with any myself, I find them very helpful in my own search for new great whiskys.

And I am, to be honest, not absolutely sure of exactly what Jimmy means with "the high". Language again, maybe: English is not my home ground, as you probably see..

Thanks for the post, Bart!

Gunnar

What are you babbling about? What outburst? What football? Proper football, or american football?

Again, you don't half talk utter pish son. You know nothing, and knw even less about me.

in one or more Scandinavian languages and only a few in German.

That's because it's actually: feinschmecker

Maybe because the correct spelling is "Feinschmecker". Anders

"Douglas W. Hoyt" skrev i melding news: snipped-for-privacy@corp.supernews.com...

Another misspelling I´ve committed, then. I´ll consult my old school dictionaries next time :?

Gunnar

Thanks. I learned something. And I have a new word in my vocabulary. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't really think you were being insulting, but I thought you might be joking around a little.

I don't know of a word like "gourmet" that's used for whisky. But "gourmet" would work. Or "connoisseur" I guess. I usually just think of myself as an "enthusiast". But now I can also be a "feinsmecker", or feinschmecker as Douglas points out.

Your English looks flawless to me. I'm impressed, almost amazed, at the many posters from France, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Germany, Poland, Japan, etc... who write so well in English, which must be a second language for most of them, and is usually said to be a difficult language to learn. Only a few Americans learn a second language (and the Brits will tell you Americans have enough trouble learning English!) I'm no exception - I grew up on the Mexican border and absorbed a little bit of Spanish, but I never learned to converse in it.

I look forward to hearing more of your opinions about whisky. I really did like the way you described tasting the Cask Strength Laphroaig.

Bart

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Moderation preserves the quality in every passion.

------- Gunnar Thormodsæter in alt.drinks.scotch-whisky

dictionaries next time :?

Misspelling is not a problem in alt.drinks.scotch-whisky. Just don't try it in rec.nitpick.spelling.flamewar.