Of Stiffys and Fecking Irish Whiskey

Looking at my blog I have noticed that I seem to be concentrating a lot on dogs and bollocks. I would like to apologise for this concentration on the tawdry and would like to say that I am delighted to now move onto something far more high-brow: Stiffys and Fecking Irish Whiskey.

Most people would be familiar with the phrase "Only in America", well I think the fact that Stiffys have been banned but Fecking Irish Whiskey remains readily available could only happen in Ireland.

The self-regulatory body for booze makers and marketers in the Irish Republic - MEAS (the Mature Enjoyment of Alcohol in Society Limited) - has adjudicated that Stiffy's, a vodka drink manufactured in Scotland, breaches its code of practice due to "sexual connotations" - GASP! Yet MEAS (which would appear to be maturely enjoying vast amounts of alcohol) found that Fecking Irish Whiskey, while branded in poor taste, did not contravene its non-regulatory regulations.

It is a uniquely Irish proposition, by the way, that if you swap the 'u' for an 'e' no one will realise you are swearing and you can 'feck' all over the place - radio, tv, church, you name it.

So one survives and the other disappears which is a bit of a pity because I always thought that the two went hand-in-hand. Although too much of one often precludes the other, so I am told.

Anyway the full text of the media release on Stiffys and FIW is available at the MEAS website just to prove I am not making this up. The good news is that Stiffys could be making a come back as apparently the manufacturer is meeting wih the MEAS Advisory Service to bring its product into line.

Now that I don't want to see...