Posted by Rodger Whitlock on November 18, 1997 at 13:51:26:
In Reply to: Re: What is Blue Ruin? posted by Terry Doyle on November 18, 1997 at 11:35:56:
: : : : Many a time in many a book, Vance's characters sit down to some serious drinking and call for a jug of "Blue Ruin."
: According to Bibliomania/Reference/PhraseAndFable web page:
: "Blue Ruin Gin: Called *blue* for its color and *ruin* for its effects." and so simply gin by itself.
: Turns out to also be:
: 1. a rock band from NY,
: 2. part of a Tom Wait lyric (9th and Hennepin) "'til you're full of rag water and bitters and blue ruin" (yum!),
: 3. in an Edgar Allen Poe story, "King Pest" where a shipmate has stowed a bottle of blue ruin,
: 4. the name of an obscure literary magazine (really, I am NOT making this up),
: 5. the title of a book on the 1919 World Series,
: 6. a brewery in Austin, TX,
: 7. title of an old Regency Romance novel, and
: 8. refernced in an 1832 story.
: However, best of all is (I believe) part of a biblical reference: "thunder, lightening, and blue ruin". Any biblical, Vance scholars want to trace that one? A diminishly small group, I admit.
: Terry
After I posted, I hit my head: I forgot a web search. Thanks, Terry.
Now to go off and find a bottle of blue gin.