SHORT SNORTER

At a recent party, as I was offering a variety of drinks, one guest said, "I'll take a swig of that." I said, "One hardly ever hears the word SWIG any more."

Another guest asked, "How about a SHORT SNORT?"

I knew the meaning of "short snort" as a small drink, but, naturally, I had to look up "swig" and "short snort" for my own amusement.

I learned something far more fascinating: on Google, below the definition of "short snort", was information about SHORT SNORTERS. (see article HERE)

In WWII, military personnel would collect autographs on $1 bills (called "short snorters"), of guys in their units, and it became a drinking game: if one went to a bar and didn't have his "short snorter" then he would be obligated to buy a round of drinks for all.

One article referenced that the tradition began in the 1920s with Bush Pilots and continued through WWII, Korea, and continued with the astronauts. I have asked several Vietnam era veterans and none had any knowledge of the tradition, except that one of my brothers said he'd seen about Clark Gable's "short snorter" on PBS' History Detectives.

There were many other famous "short snorters"; see the "short snorter" of one the most famous: Harry Hopkins' (FDR's closest advisor, known as the "Architect of the New Deal"); included in the 30 names are: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Dwight Eisenhower, Louis Mountbatten, Anthony Eden, Averill Harriman, Hoyt Vandenberg, Elliott Roosevelt, Anthony Biddle, and George Patton. Interestingly, Hopkins' short snorter was on a British 10-shilling note, but he was in London when the majority of names were written and at Casablanca when the other ones were added.