OT- Andre the Giant and alcohol..
Linked from EDSBS..
http://theselvedgeyard.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/andre-the-giant-proving…
On one tour, Andre’s Japanese sponsors rewarded him with a case of expensive plum wine. Andre settled down in the back of the bus and started drinking. Four hours later, the bus arrived at the next venue, and Andre was polishing off the last bottle of wine. Sixteen bottles of wine in four hours is a considerable feat, but it gets better. Andre proceeded straight to the ring and wrestled three matches, including a twenty-man battle royal. The 16 bottles of plum wine had no discernible effect on Andre’s in-ring ability. By the end of the evening, Andre had sweated off the wine and found himself growing cranky. He dispatched Hogan for a few cases of beer... When the bartender hollered last call, Andre, slightly annoyed, announced that he didn’t care to leave. Rather than risk an altercation with his hulking customer, the bartender told Andre he could stay only if he was drinking, imagining, surely, that he would soon be rid of the big fella. Andre thanked the man, and proceeded to order 40 vodka tonics. He sat there drinking them, one after another, finishing the last at just after five in the morning.... ...The shooting schedule required Andre to be in England for about a month. When his part wrapped, Andre checked out of his suite at the Hyatt in London and flew back to his ranch in North Carolina. His bar bill for the month-long stay? Just a shade over $40,000.I once watched a friend drink a pint of Jager in less than a minute. I thought that was impressive. Now I realize it was nothing..
February 9th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^
Andre was undoubtedly the greatest drinker ever. I go back and re-read those stories every few years just to refresh my memory. They are unbelievably awesome.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^
The livers of Keith Moon, Bon Scott, Jerry Garcia, and John Bonham approve of this story.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:28 PM ^
Phil Lesh was the most prolific drinker in the Dead; it's why he now does an organ donor speech at the end of every show. I watched Lesh drink a full case of Heinekin at Watkins Glen in 1973; my friends and I were entertained by counting his beers as the day went on. He never missed a note, either. At the time, we thought it was a lot of beer.
Garcia was a world champion comsumer of "The Persian," though. He didn't miss a lot of notes, either, until '95 anyway.
If I were the couch of this team, at every game they'd won. I'd take them to the Beer of the month club.The Great American Beer Club is one of America's longest-running monthly beer clubs. Since 1994 it's been our pleasure to share the finest, freshest brews in the land with tens of thousands of people just like you—folks who can appreciate the best that America's small breweries have to offer.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:38 AM ^
That's Brute Squad numbers there.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:40 AM ^
Andre the Giant has a posse.
But I bet he could drink more than all of them combined.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
His role in the Princess Bride made him an immortal.
"Why do you wear that mask? Were you burned by acid or something?"
"I only dog paddle."
"Why do you wear that mask? Were you burned by acid or something?"
"I only dog paddle."
February 9th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^
wiki page:
"He has been unofficially crowned "The Greatest Drunk on Earth" for once consuming 119 12-ounce beers in 6 hours.[10] On an episode of WWE's Legends of Wrestling, Mike Graham claimed that André once drank 197 16-ounce beers in one sitting, which was confirmed by Dusty Rhodes. In her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah alleges that André drank 327 beers and passed out in a hotel bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, and because the staff could not move him, they had to leave him there until he regained consciousness."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_the_Giant
now those are some numbers...
February 9th, 2010 at 10:49 AM ^
119 in 6hrs.. One beer every 3 minutes for 6 hours... My god! (like, literally, I worship the man!)
February 9th, 2010 at 10:55 AM ^
The wiki page also mentions that he flipped a car with four men in it after they heckled him in a bar. The police never did anything because they did not believe anyone could flip a car with four men in it.
By the way i love your pic, i wish my beagle would allow me to put Michigan hats on him.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
he lets me do that kind of stuff, my wife not so much... i'm trying to get all 3 of my dogs to wear michigan sanata hats but the other 2 want to eat them...
February 9th, 2010 at 12:45 PM ^
I now regret not putting a giant Michigan sticker on my beagle's cone for my avitar picture.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:56 PM ^
mind what was wrong with your beagle that it needed the cone???
February 9th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^
Look close at the pic. She had a tumor in her left eye so we had to have it taken out ($3k+). She had to wear the cone while the eye was stitched shut. Now it looks like she's winking at us all the time. The tumor was just in the eyeball so she's fine now.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:34 PM ^
i'm glad that she is doing ok... luckly we haven't had to drop any large cash on our 3... the most was a $300 night when we had to take our chocolate lab/beagle mix into the animal emergency hospital... we thought that she had a broken tail, but it was really a spider bite that caused the tail to look like it was broken... she wouldn't let the vet touch her tail so they dopped her up on morphine... it was great, she couldn't do much when we got her home so i was able to cut her nails without much struggle...
February 9th, 2010 at 11:06 AM ^
This is obviously bullshit. 119 12 oz cans is over 11 gallons. An office water cooler is 5 gallons. You cannot fit 2 water coolers worth of liquid into a human stomach, even a 7'5" human stomach. And that's completely ignoring the lethal amount of alcohol that much beer contains.
I saw a Mythbusters-type show on TV a few years ago that proved it is more or less impossible for a human to chug a gallon of milk without puking (I think the time limit was a half hour). The liquid would fill your stomach and trigger a gag reflex.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:19 AM ^
I could be wrong but I always thought the milk thing was because of the lactose in the milk and how the body couldn't process that much lactose at one time. It had nothing to do with the amount of liquid. If I am wrong please tell me.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:28 AM ^
According to the show (which included input from doctors), it's the amount of liquid. There is a valve at the bottom of your stomach that only allows liquid to trickle out slowly. If you drink enough of ANY liquid, your stomach will fill up and it will trigger a gag reflex. Even if Andre's stomach was enormously large (like 2 gallons) and he had no gag reflex whatsoever (more or less impossible), at some point his body would be so filled with liquid it would fill his esophagus and would literally be coming out his mouth and nose. This would happen WAY before he got to 11 gallons.
And of course, that amount of alcohol would have killed him 3 times over.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:34 AM ^
It makes no mention of how much he had to piss during this time frame. I know once I 'break the seal' beer runs right threw me. Additionally, i'm positive Andre's body had become incredibly efficient at processing alcohol, so I can buy that his blood system was able to sustain the alcohol content.
I'm willing to believe the story mostly because it was verified by a number of eye witnesses. This isn't one man's account. This is a number of accounts over a long period of time. Who knows the wonders that someone of that size can achieve.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:13 PM ^
But Mythbuster's Science is not good. They like to slant things to their hypothesis, or set up straw men experiments.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:42 PM ^
I know for a fact that a gallon of skim can be kept down with some practice. 2% ---- no way. But skim, yes.
Mythbusters =/= science
Doctors aren't always great with science, either. You can always find one who is willing to say whatever for the right price.
February 10th, 2010 at 9:10 AM ^
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_poisoning
"Water can be considered a poison when super-concentrated just like any other substance."
February 9th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
Do you know why WS Gilbert was frequently drunk on his trans Atlantic crossings?
February 9th, 2010 at 12:18 PM ^
The most unbelievable thing about this story is NOT that ATG drank 300+ beers in one sitting. No, the most unbelievable thing, at least in my mind, is that Mike Graham and/or the Fabulous Moolah possessed the ability to count up to 100.
February 9th, 2010 at 5:48 PM ^
All they have to do is look at the bar tab to figure out how much they drank.
I guess the bartender might have charged Andre for 119 while he only drank, what, 80 or something? That's not really a more parsimonious hypothesis
February 9th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^
Andre the Giant was the man from the early days of the WWF. His matches against Big John Studd were epic!
February 9th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
He has been unofficially crowned "The Greatest Drunk on Earth" for once consuming 119 12-ounce beers in 6 hours.[10] On an episode of WWE's Legends of Wrestling, Mike Graham claimed that André once drank 197 16-ounce beers in one sitting, which was confirmed by Dusty Rhodes. In her autobiography, The Fabulous Moolah alleges that André drank 327 beers and passed out in a hotel bar in Reading, Pennsylvania, and because the staff could not move him, they had to leave him there until he regained consciousness.[11]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_the_giant
February 9th, 2010 at 10:45 AM ^
in Brett Hart's autobiography "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling"
As I recall from the book, all this drinking also used to make Andre smell bad.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:01 AM ^
He has a daughter that lives in Oregon or Washington. I was wondering how a woman could...... oh nevermind.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:13 PM ^
Some women like that sort of thing...
February 9th, 2010 at 11:07 AM ^
Imagine if Andre had played football. He was clearly a good wrestled, so I'd imagine he'd have good lineman techinque. The man could have been a beast at nose tackle or maybe OT.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:20 AM ^
...So that explains Andre's "speech impediment."
February 9th, 2010 at 11:33 AM ^
Every year at my party house we have an annual 5th off event where 1 guy and 2 girls are too chug a 5th first one done is the winner. This year one fella poured about a quarter of the 5th between the 2 girls and proceeded to finish 3/4 of a 5th in 19 seconds. A feat that I dont think could be matched, but by only Andre.
February 9th, 2010 at 11:37 AM ^
My favorite drinking story from college was a game of Edward 40hands and a german study-abroad student. After taping the 2 40's to his hands we told him the rules of the game - finish both before you can un-tape your hands to piss. He looked at us, chugged both in seconds, and politely requested we stop playing 'kid games' with him..
February 9th, 2010 at 11:40 AM ^
back in the 80's. I still remember they showed a picture of a 12 oz beer can in his hand in the article. His palm (from his pinky to his pointer finger) was bigger then the can!! It looked like a normal person's hand holding one of those little 3 oz energy drink shot cans you see lately.... A 12oz beer to him was probably like a sip, to you and me.....
February 9th, 2010 at 11:45 AM ^
This is not real wrastling
February 9th, 2010 at 12:10 PM ^
Andre's life was truly amazing. I remember a couple of weeks ago that NPR's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me had a couple of questions about Andre, and all the answers seemed both highly illogical yet incredibly possible.
February 9th, 2010 at 12:52 PM ^
Wade Boggs is not impressed.
http://tastybooze.com/2007/04/the-origin-of-boggs/
February 9th, 2010 at 1:02 PM ^
Wade did the exact same thing AND put down an entire bucket of KFC. Since Boggs is just a regular sized human, I think Andre is a pussy by comparison (only risking typing this anonymously on the internet since I don't think a ghost can flip over my car).
February 9th, 2010 at 1:25 PM ^
The estimates of 50 to 70 seem really freaking high.
Based on their numbers, it seems more like high 20's or low 30's on a 9 hour trip.
While I've never done that, or seen anyone do that (and still be able to stand up / speak / etc.), that equates to about 3-4 beers per hour. This seems reasonable for a normal drinking period, but over 9 hours? Man was still a beast.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:35 PM ^
while on a bachelor party at a gentlemen's club in Dearborn back around the Summer of 94'.
And by met I mean I was at one urinal and he stumbles up to the adjacent one.
I say "Hey Wade, nice game today."
He looks at me and mumbles some incoherent type of thank you and then stumbles back to his couch (this place had no private rooms at the time) with at least five dancers waiting for him.
Useless brush with celebrity, good times...
February 9th, 2010 at 1:41 PM ^
...I have to ask...which club?
February 9th, 2010 at 1:46 PM ^
initials for it's name.
They had several tiered couches back near the DJ booth.
You paid the bouncer like $20-30 bucks and you had, at that time, one of the premier seats in the house.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:48 PM ^
If Wade was there...
February 9th, 2010 at 1:50 PM ^
and he was owning the place.
I can only imagine his bar/stripper tab for the evening.
February 9th, 2010 at 1:55 PM ^
I meant that if he was going to choose a club in Dearborn, I don't see him picking any of the others over that. It was the most upscale.
February 9th, 2010 at 2:04 PM ^
club in the area for that time.
I had some buddies that worked at the Ritz in Dearborn and a good deal of the pro sports teams stayed there as it was new and close to downtown.
They were constantly shuttling athletes from the hotel to that particular establishment.
I've got a good Jose Canseco story from the Ritz that's not suitable for public.
Ahh, the late 80's early 90's, things were a whole lot different back then...
February 9th, 2010 at 1:12 PM ^
...And the bar was in the black for the rest of the year...
February 9th, 2010 at 1:32 PM ^
Andre the Giant may have been the only one to have beaten Bill Braski in the game of Drink.