Word: vodka
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Will Absolut on the rocks be upstaged by Black Death and tonic? Not if the government can help it. The U.S. aims to block imports of Black Death vodka, a beet-based beverage distilled in Belgium and being test-marketed in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities. Health officials claim that the vodka's marketing theme, which includes coffin-shaped packaging, is designed to encourage young drinkers. The brand's U.S. wholesaler, Cabo Distributing, denies targeting minors. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with exquisite literalness, is blocking the liquor on grounds of misleading advertising, since the brand...
Perhaps the most potent figure in the Nashi coalition is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a noisy demagogue whose ravings have earned him comparisons to Hitler. As chairman of the deceptively named Liberal-Democratic Party, Zhirinovsky campaigned on a platform mixing promises of cheaper vodka with blatant xenophobia to place a surprising third in the Russian presidential election won by Yeltsin last June. He has threatened to poison the newly independent Baltic peoples with nuclear waste and vows to expand Russian territory by force. Though his fanaticism has made him mainly a vulgar curiosity, some observers fear he may be a forerunner...
...Mikhail Gorbachev already planning a comeback? The former Soviet leader certainly gave that impression when he turned up at Moscow's swank Oktyabr Hotel for a farewell party the day after his resignation. Looking tired but relaxed, Gorbachev mingled with former aides and Moscow journalists, signing autographs, exchanging lemon vodka toasts and cracking jokes. "My mother has been telling me for a long time to give it all up and come home," he quipped. But anyone who believes the ex-President is going to slip quietly away to a dacha to write his memoirs or putter about in the garden...
Russians are now waiting for their new government to deliver Yeltsin's version of reform. As a first step, most prices are to be freed from government control this week, although the cost of basics like bread, milk, salt, medicine and vodka will still be regulated. The results may be no more satisfactory than those of perestroika because many state-run monopolies, including wholesale and retail suppliers, retain their paralyzing grip on the distribution system. With hyperinflation a real threat, much of the population feels menaced by poverty as well as hunger this winter...
What they are doing can be fatal. Last August 15-year-old Brian Ball of Trenton, Texas, died after downing 26 shots of vodka in 90 minutes at an all- you-can-drink party. Guests paid $3 to attend, but once they were in the door, liquor cost just 50 cents a shot. At many such booze fests, the kids play drinking games like "Three Man Up," to speed up consumption. In this game players roll dice, and every time someone rolls a multiple of three, the player who has been designated the "Three Man" must take a drink...