The New Questions Thread

Is it legal to drink alcohol on public property where you live?

That's between you and your <ahem> soda coozie:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/E34AA...ALY/s-l400.jpg

Now, being publicly intoxicated... there's definitely rules about that.

Bonus question… will bars give you a to-go cup?

Here’s a 2016 vintage classic from the archives of “Adventures in Chicago Public Transit”.

https://i.imgur.com/ecpV6mk.jpg

If you zoom into the can between his legs, you’ll see it’s actually a slipcover, which one has to presume is concealing a beer… perhaps even from the case of Old Style on the floor to his right.

The thing in his left hand? A cellular signal jammer.

Night in jail and counseling.

Is it St. Patricks Day? Yes.
If not? No?

What’s the weather usually like around you for SPD? It’s usually kind of miserable here.

IIRC, drunken idiots do not get cold, especially in Boston where non-drunken idiots wear shorts to shovel the driveway in a blizzard.

I stay home on SPD. ;)

Nope.

Also, it used to be restaurants and whatnot couldn’t give/sell you a cup of ice. It’s considered a “set-up” for mixed drinks. Dunno if that’s still a thing, though.

Here in Indy, it can be just as awful as it is up in Chi. Or, it can be nice and warm. Or in-between. Spring in central Indiana is a crapshoot, weatherwise.

I had to look it up.

City parks don't allow liquor but do allow beer and wine for the most part.

No open containers on streets, highways, or sidewalks.

During the pandemic, businesses started doing cocktails to go when the governor signed an emergency bill allowing that in June of 2020, but they had to be sealed and intended for consumption at home, not in the car.

I guess my Yeti of tequila at the park wasn't legal, nor was my Yeti of Coors Banquet while taking the kids trick or treating.

Are Yetis overpriced?

Yes, but when they're free from a vendor I accept. I did not put the sticker on my truck.

Are they too heavy?

Have you gotten the “pre-chill” them pro-tip?

Have you tried Cooler Shock ice packs?

Has SPD ever happened in spring?

We like to think of March as spring down here. It's what passes for optimism in these parts. ;)

I’ve had that crushed out of me. Out like a lamb my ass.

I'm just talking about the 20oz tumbler.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/...1000_QL80_.jpg

Although now that I think about it, the magnetic lid latch thingy is far and away superior to every other tumbler latch I've touched. I think if I lost this one I would shell out for another.

Oh, good!

I was trying to figure out needing a full-size cooler of beer for Trick or Treating..

There’s a restaurant my wife and I visit from time to time. There you CAN get margaritas to go, but we have never found out whether an unfinished ‘rita can be taken home.

Quick Google gave me the impression SA’s a “no open consumption” municipality, except on the riverwalk.

If they only ban open consumption, presumably that means concealed consumption is OK. So slip-covers give actual legal protection, provided they're convincing? The wording of the ordinance is important.

“Open containers” is included.

No statewide ban on either, though.

It’s one of those “if you don’t act like an a$$ you probably won’t get hassled” things. Not an obvious alcoholic beverage container, not acting impaired, etc., and most of the time you’ll be fine. In most of San Antonio. Some areas are “less tolerant” because of what I’ll call “histories of poor behavior,” but that’s another matter.

1) Order a cup of ice water
2) Dump the water
3) Add margarita
4) Fuck da police

Yup. Or add <your favorite hard or soft drink here> and motor on.

Does anyone use the colloquialism “GPStimate”?

Never heard that one before.

subego, on your Chicago Public Transit post - did they ever find out why he had a cell jammer? Besides being illegal to use, I suspect they're expensive. Assuming light rail is loud already, hushing cell phones shouldn't produce much benefit to his hangover.

He told the court it was so he could ride in peace.

I actually find train noise soothing, and much prefer it to people talking on their phone. My assumption though was he enjoyed watching people’s reactions.

No explanation for how he got his hands on one. IIRC, he was an insurance salesman or something, so doubtful he scammed it from work.


As an aside, the CTA uses very short segments of rail, so our trains have more noise per minute than the average.

I certainly will now. I believe it should mean “GPS says it’ll take 20 minutes to get there”, with some non-zero probability of accuracy. But current devices like to show you a “you are here” icon on a map before they have enough signal to really decide what planet you’re on, so that “start-up estimate” is often humorously inaccurate.

I bet he has some really nuanced views on how much better things used to be in the old days.

There was a guy with a jammer in his car, he got caught because they compared daily traffic against when the signals dropped out and narrowed it down to him.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/...alls-fcc-says/

If I was going to look for a cell phone jammer, I'd start on eBay and then go to AliBaba. Probably not that hard to find and probably not that expensive.

I think any portable jammer would have either very limited range, or only impact some bands. For example, 5G operates in two bands: 450MHz to 6GHz, or 24.25 to 52.6 GHz. Jamming Band 1 could also impact other cell bands, but Band 2 would be really hard to jam without much more complex hardware.

And active sound cancelling headphones/earbuds are both legal and fairly inexpensive…

Looks like his jammer had 5 antennas, so presumably 5 bands.

The link in Laminar’s post doesn’t work for me, so I didn’t see the device. Gee that’s a lot of trouble to go to - and get. INTO.

Oh! I meant CTA drunk.

https://i.imgur.com/ecpV6mk.jpg

Anyone read the Xeelee sequence? I think my dad would like it, but it sounds very unpleasant.

Has anyone even heard of this? I discovered it only a few weeks ago.

It kinda sounds like the Douglas Adams postulate that gaining an accurate perspective of the scale of the universe is a mind obliterating experience.

This author apparently knows all the relevant theoretical physics and what naturally emerges to him is existential cosmic horror. The war was fought during the double-digit negative exponent fractions of a second after the Big Bang, and oh boy did we lose.

Anyone like kombucha?

We have an actress who put it down as her drink preference, and I have close to zero experience. Anyone want to pimp a brand? I’d ask her, but then I’ve painted myself into a corner if I can’t find what she asks for.

I’m hooked on GT’s Synergy Gingerade raw kombucha. Been drinking it for years.

Since there are lots of different brands/flavors, asking her preference makes sense, to make sure you get her fave.

That’s what I was worried about. Thanks!

I’ll report back.

Where I live, only liquor stores can sell cold beer. Grocery stores can and do sell beer, a cooler, and ice to the same person at the same time. Oh, and they can and do sell cold cider and wine. Only beer is affected.

Rules concerning selling alcohol at events outside on public property always seem complicated. You have to drink in a beergarden and then leave it to enjoy the actual event.

We used to have pretty strict limita on microbrewery production and until just a few years ago we did not have Sunday alcohol sales.

~ Sounds really familiar...
~ Checks Tuoder’s IP...
~ Yep. Indiana!

Yo, Tuoder! Where in Indy are you?

Here in Texas, you can’t buy anything alcoholic between 1:00 am and 10:00 am on Sunday. You can’t buy packaged liquor at all on Sunday. And stores with a particular license (the most common alcohol license in Texas, used by grocery and convenience stores) can’t sell wine with an alcohol content above 17% on Sundays.

There seems to be a plethora of different types of Texas alcohol sales licenses, and there are different rules for each different type.

There are other types of “blue laws” that are even more challenging to understand. For example, car dealerships MUST close on one weekend day. The law doesn’t say it has to be Sunday, but that’s essentially the effect. Because maybe buying a car on Sunday might lead to dancing? I dunno…

Can’t sell cars on Sunday in Illinois. This was passed in the 80s.

The consensus seems to be dealerships petition General Assemblies for this when they want a day off, but don’t want competitors pulling 7 day weeks.

The “choose a weekend day” in Texas might have been Jews going “wrong day”.

We did some car shopping on sundays. We had to go back on a weekday when the DMV was open to complete, but Sat/Sun browsing seems important for people who work m-f.

I agree that the Sunday choice seems to exclude a bunch of people. And with the pretty large “inherently non-Christian” populations in both Houston and Dallas*, you’d think someone would have said something. I also agree that there is a strong possibility that “choose a day on the weekend” levels the playing field, though that’s almost certainly an accidental side effect.

*Houston used to be essentially “mostly Christian” with a pretty substantial Jewish community. Today, both Houston and Dallas have large enough Subcontinental populations that you can find curry just about everywhere. Sadly, it’s “curry tailored to Texans: “these guys think jalapeños are spicy…let’s show them”. I really do like a lot of Indian cuisine. When it’s done so you can taste it. You seem to need to know where the “real” restaurants are if you want to find the real stuff. Sigh.

You’ve never been able to buy a car on Sunday in Indiana. Ever.

https://i.imgur.com/zQ0Door.jpeg

Clearview Highway (left) or Highway Gothic (right)?