*June 1, 1495
The Scottish govt. records Friar John Cor as the creator of the first known batch of scotch whisky. An entry in the royal Exchequer Rolls - a record of taxation and government spending - from that year reads: “Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae.”
One boll = 64 pecks; one peck = 2 dry gallons of material, usually a foodstuff. That's a lot of gallons. But why? Simply put, it's good to be the king.
That massive malt order was issued by Scotland’s King James IV, who sat on the Scottish throne from 1488 to 1513 and is generally considered to be have been rather good at being king. King James was also generally known to be quite fond of hard liquor, thus the order for nearly 800 gallons of booze he dispatched to this mysterious John Cor fellow.
“Aqua vitae” is Latin for 'booze,' or more precisely, “water of life.” The equivalent in Scottish Gaelic is rendered uisge-beatha (oos-key beetha); anglicised as simply "whiskey (or whisky)." No one knows what happened to 'beatha.'
Precious little is known about Friar John Cor other than he was a Tironensian monk based at Lindores Abbey in Fife, Scotland (now, a ruin). He was a servant at the court of James IV, and most likely an an apothecary (ie: a pharmacist).
On to today's equation
A little house keeping note: Thank you readers for all the traffic!, but due to my business booming, and more family obligations to care for my 96 y.o. Dad, a proud WWII vet, I will be posting less n less at this blog, possibly weekly or bi-weekly. We shall see.
Will there be vigils, riots, or celebrities donating $$ on behalf of this murdered man & his greiving family because 'black lives matter?'— Jack Dorsey Is My Clock Holster (@Username19587) May 31, 2020
No. Because only politically expedient black lives matter. All hypocrites. Fen's Law.https://t.co/TbVQf88Y6l https://t.co/skEnQ38Emb
The Ferguson Effect, PT. 94
From the erudite Jack Cashill: I'm Not Watching the Minnesota Movie
"More than 15,000 Americans were murdered in 2019, but no movies for national release were made about blacks killing blacks, the most common scenario. Nor were any made about blacks killing whites, Hispanics, or Asians. In fact, these movies are generally suppressed.I agree with Cashill; Unless or until this same massive outrage is directed at black-on-black murder in inner cities where the streets run red with blood on a near-daily basis, I simply consider tragedies like the murder of Mr. Floyd to be local news and best left to Internal Affairs. Yet, when I express this on social media I get demonized as everything but a child of God. And they tell me 'don't be a h8ter.' Hypocrites all.
No, only one genre of movie is allowed. In recent years, we have seen the Trayvon movie; the Ferguson movie; the Baltimore movie; and, for comic relief, the Jussie Smollett movie among others. The most lethal of the movies was the one filmed in Ferguson. The most dishonest one was the Trayvon movie, filmed on location in Florida."