Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to make my birthday a good time. Many thanks to L. for shouldering the planning, the cost, and almost all the cleaning! I have an unbelievable bunch of friends.
For the record, My Chemical Romance kicked some major ass on Friday! I got to hear their entire new album live, as an encore. The rumored opener was a horrible band though, and a very sorry dissapointment.
In no particular order, things I heard talked about at the party:
- The legality of “loosies”, drive through liquor stores, bar cars, subway bar cars, and suicide.
- National vs. Private health care systems, international pharmaceutical trade, and why the US and Canada will never adopt “An EU-like model”
- Drugs (all sub headers), blue laws, the FDA
- The killing of snakes as an act of passage into manhood.
- Germany and its many beers.
- Polygamy, as a result of two men bonding over several hours talking about Germany and its many beers.
- The legality of same-sex marriage on a boat in international waters.
- Layers, jobs, thieves, politicians, current and upcoming military entanglements
- The potential of the brain acting as a repository for a quantum-computer soul.
- Libations and Music (most sub headers)
- The difference between being in your 30’s and not in your 30’s
- Bets, roommates, significant others, and vacations (all over the place).
- Technology (bot NOT singularity).
This, of course, was in addition to all the other banter about all the other stuff people usually talk about at parties.
As to the subject line –
I had 1 liter of twisted tea to start the afternoon/evening. By the time I went down for the count (when
As one might imagine, I was preeeety far gone at the end there.
Despite that, I remembered (and cheered the fact) that on my eleventh liter, I consumed more liquid than the displacement of nearly any passenger car on the road in the US today.
In the 1960’s, GMC made a gas-burning V12 engine that they called the “Twin-Six”. This particular engine was the largest engines geared for a non-commercial market in the history of US automobiles. Despite its enormous size (and less than impressive output for all the hype and size) it was notable in the fact that it had a displacement of 11.5 liters.
That is not the reason I know about this engine to begin with, but it was a fact that stuck with me. Up until the late 90’s the only people crazy enough (or rich enough) to be using V12’s in passenger cars was Jaguar, whose target demographic is hardly considered “everyday use”. Most of the luxury sports car manufacturers still have V12’s in production and use, but their displacement is way below 10 liters, as efficiency has continued to refine engines.
For the record, I am not suicidal, so I was not including buses, eighteen wheeler rigs and military equipment in the statements made about what was on the road and my drinking capacity. Though they oftentimes get clumped in with “cars”, some of them have BIG displacements. For those interested in the evolution of the V12 there is a great book about it and a neat site devoted to Jaguar’s history using/improving it. For those who don’t know what engine displacement is, check this link.
My point is, I had a great birthday, but I mislead anyone who was around to hear me ramble about drink capacity and engine displacement by about half a liter. My apologies.
