Man Dies After Winning Vodka-Drinking Contest

http://www.reuters.com ^ | Wed November 19, 2003 09:36 AM ET | Reuters 2003

[luv2ndamend]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care. "The competition lasted 30, perhaps 40 minutes and the winner downed three half-liter bottles. He was taken home by taxi but died within 20 minutes," said Roman Popov, a prosecutor pursuing the case in the town of Volgodonsk.

"Five contestants ended up in intensive care. Those not in hospital turned up the next day, ostensibly for another drink."

Popov said the director of the shop organizing this month's contest had been charged with manslaughter. He had offered 10 liters of vodka to the competitor drinking the most in the shortest time.

Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually, one of the highest rates in the world. Some experts estimate one in seven Russians is an alcoholic.

© Reuters 2003. All Rights Reserved.

[gridlock]

I find the < /sarc> tag is useful here on FR. There is no sarcasm so broad and so obvious that at least one poster will not be offended.

[Maelstrom]

Sometimes when you win, you lose.

[sirchtruth]

I don't understand why God did not give some people the ability to recognize sarcasm.

I do understand why God didn't give some the ability to understand...

[Maelstrom]

You're really messed up in the head.

A Good God ensures that you suffer the consequences of your own actions.

Anything less would be wrong.

A Good God ensures that men are required to be men instead of cowardly begging God to save them from themselves. Cowards then curse the Almighty Lord when their own cowardice creates consequences they aren't prepared to accept.

If you want to think of yourself as a human, act like you have some free-will and stop begging Our Lord who is in Heaven to coddle your every limp-wristed step!


GAH! ATHEISTS!

[TheRightGuy]

Ok who can run the math and figure the BAC of this guy. Figure he weighed 100kilos and downed 1.5liters of vodka.

SWAG = .48%

[Maelstrom]

It isn't sarcasm.

This is exactly the way many liberals talk.

"A Good God wouldn't allow 'X'".

[sirchtruth]

Just so everyone here knows I was not offended, I do recognize sarcasm, and God gives Free Will...and obviously large quantities of Vodka.

Go figure!

[pabianice]

"Hey; hold mu' vodka and ...*thud*...!"

[Maelstrom]

I apparently debate too many liberals and am offended because the comment is, Honest to God, the exact way atheists go after Christians.

Usually it's complaints about STDs from homosexuals.

[finnman69]

According to the equation I posted, if he weighed 100 kilos, that translates to 58 liters of water weight. he drank 1.5 liters of vodka. 2.6% of this guy was vodka.

[elli1]

I don't understand how a supposedly good God can allow things like this to happen to people. Duh. The devil made him do it.

[Ches]

"Anybody got the lyrics handy to Johny Paychecks "the winner"."

The WINNER (Shel Silverstein)

The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand looked like a drunk old fool,
And I knew that if I hit him right, I could knock him off that stool.
But everybody said, "Watch out -- that's Tiger Man McCool. He's had a whole lot of fights, and he always come out the winner. Yeah, he's a winner."

But I'd had myself about five too many, and I walked up tall and proud,
I faced his back and I faced the fact that he'd never stooped or bowed.
I said, "Tiger Man, you're a pussycat," and a hush fell on the crowd,
I said, "Let's you and me go outside and see who's the winner"

Well, he gripped the bar with one big hairy hand and he braced against the wall,
He slowly looked up from his beer -- my God, that man was tall.
He said, "Boy, I see you're a scrapper, so just before you fall,
I'm gonna tell you just a little what it means to be a winner."

He said, "You see these bright white smilin' teeth, you know they ain't my own.
Mine rolled away like Chiclets down a street in San Antone. But I left that person cursin', nursin' seven broken bones.
And he only broke three of mine, and that make me a winner."
He said, "Behind his grin, I got a steel pin that holds my jaw in place.
A trophy of my most successful motorcycle race.
And every mornin' when I wake and touch this scar across my face,
It reminds me of all I got by bein' a winner.

Now my broken back was the dyin' act of handsome Harry Clay
That sticky Cincinnatti night I stole his wife away.
But that woman, she gets uglier and meaner every day.
But I got her, boy, and that's what makes me a winner.

You gotta speak loud when you challenge me, son, 'cause it's hard for me to hear
With this twisted neck and these migraine pains and this big old cauliflower ear.
'N' if it weren't for this glass eye of mine, I'd shed a happy tear
To think of all you'll get by bein' a winner.

I got ar-th-ur-tic elbows, boy, I got dislocated knees,
From pickin' fights with thunderstorms and chargin' into trees.
And my nose been broke so often I might lose it if I sneeze.
And, son, you say you still wanna be a winner?
Now you remind me alot of my younger days with your knuckles a-clenchin'white
But boy, I'm gonna sit right here and sip this beer all night
And if there's somthin' that you gotta gain or prove by winnin' some silly fight
Well, OK, I quit, I lose you're the winner.

Oh, I stumbled from that bar room not so tall and so proud
And behind me I still hear the hoots and laughter of the crowd
But my eyes still see and my nose still works & my teeth are still in my mouth
and you know, I guess that makes me a winner.

[eastforker]

I also found this
WINNER

The hulk of a man with a beer in his hand looked like a drunk old fool,
And I knew that if I hit him right, I could knock him off that stool.
But everybody said, "Watch out -- that's Tiger Man McCool.
He's had a whole lot of fights, and he always come out the winner.
Yeah, he's a winner."

But I'd had myself about five too many, and I walked up tall and proud,
I faced his back and I faced the fact that he'd never stooped or bowed.
I said, "Tiger Man, you're a pussycat," and a hush fell on the crowd,
I said, "Let's you and me go outside and see who's the winner"

Well, he gripped the bar with one big hairy hand and he braced against the wall,
He slowly looked up from his beer -- my God, that man was tall.
He said, "Boy, I see you're a scrapper, so just before you fall,
I'm gonna tell you just a little what a means to be a winner."

He said, "You see these bright white smilin' teeth, you know they ain't my own.
Mine rolled away like Chiclets down a street in San Antone.
But I left that person cursin', nursin' seven broken bones.
And he only broke three of mine, and that make me a winner."

He said, "Behind his grin, I got a steel pin that holds my jaw in place.
A trophy of my most successful motorcycle race.
And every mornin' when I wake and touch this scar across my face,
It reminds me of all I got by bein' a winner.

Now my broken back was the dyin' act of handsome Harry Clay
That sticky Cincinnatti night I stole his wife away.
But that woman, she gets uglier and meaner every day.
But I got her, boy, and that's what makes me a winner.

You gotta speak loud when you challenge me, son, 'cause it's hard for me to hear
With this twisted neck and these migraine pains and this cauliflower ear.
'N' if it weren't for this glass eye of mine, I'd shed a happy tear
To think of all you'll get by bein' a winner.

I got arthuritic elbows, boy, I got dislocated knees,
From pickin' fights with thunderstorms and chargin' into trees.
And my nose been broke so often I might lose it if I sneeze.
And, son, you say you still wanna be a winner?

My spine is short three vertebrae and my hip is screwed together.
My ankles warn me every time there'll be a change in weather.
Guess I kicked too many asses, and when the kicks all get together,
They sure can slow you down when you're a winner.

My knuckles are so swollen I can hardly make a fist.
Who would have thought old Charlie had a blade taped to his wrist?
And my blind eye's where he cut me, and my good eye's where he missed.
Yeah, you lose a couple of things when you're a winner.

My head is just a bunch of clumps and lumps and bumps and scars
From chargin' broken bottles and buttin' crowded bars.
And this hernia -- well, it only proves a man can't lift a car.
But you're expected to do it all when you're a winner.

Got a steel plate inside my skull, underneath this store-bought hair.
My pelvis is aluminum from takin' ladies' dares.
And if you had a magnet, son, you could lift me off my chair.
I'm a man of steel, but I'm rustin' -- what a winner.

I got a perforated ulcer, I got strictures and incisions.
My prostate's barely holdin' up from those all-night collisions.
And I'll have to fight two of you because of my double vision.
You're lookin' sick, son -- that ain't right for a winner.

Winnin' that last stock-car rce cost me my favorite toes.
Winnin' that factory foreman's job, it browned and broke my nose.
And these hemorrhoids come from winnin' all them goddamn rodeos.
Sometimes it's a pain in the butt to be a winner.

In the war, I got the Purple Heart, that's why my nerves are gone.
And I ruined my liver in drinkin' contests, which I always won.
And I should be retired now, rockin' on my lawn,
But you losers keep comin' on -- makin' me a winner.

When I walk, you can hear my pelvis rattle, creak and crack
From my great Olympic Hump-Off with that nymphomaniac,
After which I spent the next six weeks in traction on my back,
While whe walked off smilin' -- leavin' me the winner.

Now, as I kick in your family jewels, you'll notice my left leg drags,
And this jacket's kinda padded up where my right shoulder sags,
And there's a special part of me I keep in this paper bag,
And I'll show it to you -- if you want to see all of the winner.

So I never play the violin and I seldom dance or ski.
They say there never was a hero brave and strong as me.
But when you're this year's hero, son, you're next year's used-to-be.
And that's the facts of life -- when you're a winner.

Now, you remind me a lot of my younger days with your knuckles clenchin' white.
But, boy, I'm gonna sit right here and sip this beer all night.
And if there's somethin' you gotta prove by winnin' some silly fight,
Well, OK, I quit, I lose, son, you're the winner."

So I stumbled from that barroom not so tall and not so proud,
And behind me I could hear the hoots of laughter from the crowd.
But my eyes still see and my nose still works and my teeth are still in my mouth.
And y'know...I guess that makes me...a winner.



From Playboy, December, 1979.


Shel Silverstein lyrics.




Website by Banned-Width© Est. 1995

[sirchtruth]

...the exact way atheists go after Christians.

I know exactly what you mean! I really do think it's interesting how sarcasm can be such a lethal word weapon...

[finnman69]

If I did the math right, based on 1.5 liters = 50.721 oz

a 100 kilo man has a BAC of .03246 consuming 1 oz alcohol

If he consumed 50.721 oz of 100 proof vodka that works out to 50.721 x .50 alcohol/volume= 25.3605oz of pure alcohol consumed.

Since 1 oz. of alcohol would produce a BAC of .0559 and 25.3605 oz. of alcohol has been consumed, the actual alcohol level would be .03246 x 25.3605 = .823 BAC for one 1.5 liters of 100 proof vodka.

THATS .823 BAC folks, and that is one drunk motherfu*ker.

[Ches]

We still play Bobby Bare's version of it on his LP, The Winner and other losers.

[Middle Man]

"Russians drink the equivalent of 15 liters of pure alcohol per head annually."

I have an acquaintance who will polish off a litre bottle of vodka in a weekend. I refrain from using matches or having a woodfire when he comes over, in case he explodes on contact!

[Calvin Locke]

...if they cremate him...

Saw a thing on spontaneous human combustion.

They immersed a pig/part of in ethyl alcohol for a very long time. Tried to ignite the part on the show.

Didn't burn very well. Probably better than that crematorium in Georgia, though. (case was in the news - change of venue.)

[RedBloodedAmerican]

I had a student employee who came over from Russia a few years ago. I helped him get a drivers license, and he repaid me with russian vodka he brought from his homeland. Not being a drinker, I poured it out since I didn't know what else to do with it. My stainless sink never looked cleaner! The stuff didn't smell the same as what you find over here, not much scent at all.

[finnman69]

A friend of mine is a beautiful tall thin brunette from Germany. She can easily polish off half a liter in one sitting. Of course then she gets in huge fights with her husband and throws things.