Friday, April 17, 2009

33... 33... 33... (thirty-three)


Now, like all good people in this world, I love beer. One of my favorite pales from the college days (ah, the good ol' times. I wonder where I would be now if I started playing online poker in college instead of after getting a regular more than full-time job, marrying, having kids and responsibilities... but I digress) was Rolling Rock. On the bottles, they have imprinted the number 33. It saddens me to say that I actually did not know what the 33 meant, so of course it is off to wikipedia, which has answers for everything.

The number 33 is printed prominently on all bottles of Rolling Rock. A widely-held belief is that it marks the repeal of prohibition in 1933. However, according to James L. Tito, former CEO of Latrobe Brewing, the "33" signifies the 33 words in the beer's slogan: "Rolling Rock - From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe, we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

A founding executive is said to have written "33" at the end of the slogan to indicate the number of words it comprised as a guide for the bottle printers. However, they thought it was part of the text and incorporated it into the label graphics. Hence, the first batch of bottles carried the number "33" and they remained that way since they were continually collected and reused (also, during the Great Depression, there was no reason to throw away perfectly good merchandise and start over). This tradition has been sustained by the company as the wording on the labels has changed over the years, and the verbiage is carefully structured to retain a length of 33 words. There are several other lesser-known theories or urban legends about the "mysterious" number 33, but none have been verified.


So I guess that clears it up. :)

Anyways, the reason for the link is that I was just noticing that my bankroll has gotten to be above $33. Whoo-hoo!

6 comments:

  1. Yes indeed God bless Wikipedia.. I'm new at the whole blogging thing, just started actually and have had numerous people tell me to read other people's blogs to get some ideas. Anyway thanks for the chuckle.. My co- workers just asked me what was so funny.

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  2. Welcome to blogger world.

    (I'm a friend of OhCaptain.)

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  3. Mmmmm....beeeeeer.

    Way to run it up!

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  4. two of my favorite things. beer and poker. welcome to blogging...

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  5. BOOM. Welcome to the blogger world! I am in the college world right now...Rolling Rock is not the drink of choice, despite it being great. My dad would call our drink of choice "Tiger Piss". =)

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  6. Thanks for the welcome everybody!

    (and OES, in college Rolling Rock was the "Good Stuff", I drank mostly Miller High Life in returnable bottles, since the liquor store was immediately across the street :D We used the cases as furniture for years and had one massive return when we moved out! )

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