[Steely Tom]

They should have just gotten some Kickapoo Joy Juice instead.

I know what that is, having played in the pit band in high-school production of Lil' Abner.

This is in the Wikipedia entry for KJJ:

The Wall Street Journal had a regular feature on mixed drinks, and once published in it a recipe for 'Kickapoo Joy Juice'. The backstory is that it was originally illicit hooch ginned up by soldiers during World War II, often starting from alcohol intended for fuel for torpedoes and the like.

[Calvin Locke]

During the last days of the Soviet Empire, rocket fuel was stolen from the rockets for the same purpose.

Thinking back to Chem 1 in college, the prof said you could make vodka (ethyl alcohol) out of crude oil, but the major problem would probably be marketing.

Reminds me of a Tony Bourdain show in the Ukraine (iirc), where a local host tried to get him to invest in vodka made from chicken poo.

Carbon is carbon, I guess, just a matter of creating the molecule you want with the correct number of carbon atoms.

[headstamp 2]

I remember my dad talking about guys that drank “Torpedo Juice” when he was in the Navy during WWII.

He also said you couldn’t leave any after shave laying around because it would disappear.