Wally Droop, owner of the Chestnut, tells that the WCE Blog, that any patron who brings in a potato will a get a free bottle of Snow Beer. "Bring two, you get two free snow beers. Bring Three, you get three! said Droop.
Asked where he got the idea for potato night, Droop said that a good friend of his bought him a burlap sack for his birthday and told him to fill it with potatoes. "I really like potatoes!" said Droop. "If you have ever read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, as I have! And I have read it five times, you will never forget what he says about potatoes!" Taking out his well-worn copy of the Wealth of Nations, Droop read the following passage:
In some parts of Lancashire, it is pretended, I have been told, that bread of oatmeal is a heartier food for labouring people than wheaten bread, and I have frequently heard the same doctrine held in Scotland. I am, however, somewhat doubtful of the truth of it. The common people in Scotland, who are fed with oatmeal, are in general neither so strong nor so handsome as the same rank of people in England, who are fed with wheaten bread. They neither work so well, nor look so well; and as there is not the same difference between the people of fashion in the two countries, experience would seem to shew, that the food of the common people in Scotland is not so suitable to the human constitution as that of their neighbours of the same rank in England. But it seems to be otherwise with potatoes. The chairmen, porters, and coal-heavers in London, and those unfortunate women who live by prostitution, the strongest men and the most beautiful women perhaps in the British dominions, are said to be, the greater part of them, from the lowest rank of people in Ireland, who are generally fed with this root. No food can afford a more decisive proof of its nourishing quality, or of its being peculiarly suitable to the health of the human constitution...
"So the man who brought me the burlap sack gave me the best present I could ever ask for!" said Droop.
Hello there everyone. I am a British Expat engineer, just arrived here, from Bath.
ReplyDeleteVery keen to know if there is a Gilbert & Sullivan Society, here in the Wuxi China Expatdom?
Or, how about an amateur theatre company? I've received rave-reviews for my Little Dorrit.
Thanks, chaps.
Percy,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the WCE!
There are three Gilbert & Sullivan Societies or rather factions in the WCE.
You should be very careful which G&S faction you join. Each faction takes it G&S seriously, and if you rinterpretation of G&S is not to their liking, they may say you are a traitrous member of another G&S faction and liquidate you.
This is not to say that WCE G&S factions only have in-fighting. Of the 2,000 deaths resulting from G&S Activity in the WCE in 2011, 70 percent of them were a result of intra-factional fighting.
Just last week, an exchange of artillery fire between the G&S purists and the G&S modernists resulted in 30 fatalities.
And it just so happens, that Gambay's is putting on a performance of Little Dorrit next week. If you aren't late, you could get the starring role.
Welcome to WCE!!!!