On Fri, 9 Mar 2001, Harriet Monkhouse wrote:
I was just about to ask Iain - what was the Scotsman on who invented the Blue Poison-dart Frog?
Buckfast and jellies -- what else?
Iain
PS
BUCKFAST: Buckfast tonic wine, a sweet, fortified wine made in Buckfast Abbey (somewhere in the southwest of England), 80% of whose output goes to the west of Scotland. Beloved of the poor and under-aged, its popularity led a deputation from Glasgow City Council to go to the Abbey and ask them to stop producing this corrupting drink. The monks replied that if the Glasgow neds weren't on Buckie, they'd just use something else: the rationale of the heroin dealer. It is arguable that the popularity of Buckie is due not only to its alcoholic strength and its large amounts of sugar and caffeine, but also the fact that the bottle is an ideal shape for a weapon.
JELLIES: A slang term for Temazepam, a prescription tranquilizer. In order to prevent abuse of this drug, the manufacturers put it into a thick jelly pill, encased in a hard shell. This did not stop the dedicated users of Glasgow, who have sacrificed whole limbs in pursuit of that beanie buzz.