*sigh*

[lederhosen]

Story:

A Geelong nightclub has allegedly been serving an ethanol-based moonshine, and passing it off as Smirnoff Vodka.

Liquor Licensing Director Sue Maclellan said the club, Room 99, was shut by police on Friday...

Ms Maclellan said ethanol, if swallowed, could harm the nervous system.

“Symptoms can range from excitation, headaches and drowsiness through to sever acute intoxication, tremors, convulsions or loss of consciousness," she said.

Better not tell them what the active ingredient in Smirnoff is, then...

(I'm assuming the culprit here is the journalist, or we're in real trouble.)

Comments

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

...Or the subeditor who also missed the non-existent "m". I hope.

[saluqi.livejournal.com]

Funny, I've always assumed that if you buy spirit at a pub or club there is a good chance it's been substituted to some extent. Maybe I'm unreasonably cynical.

In any case, I think the usual offence is that you're not getting the brand you paid for, rather than not getting the alcohol...

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Ahahahaha oh god.

[tenner.livejournal.com]

I cross-posted this link to sloppyscience.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

They also spelled 'severe' incorrectly.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

How did I miss that?

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

:P

[manna]

Maybe the confusion come from them using something like denatured ethanol? I don't know what the Australian formulation for that is, but it sounds a far more likely choice for people knocking up homebrew than pure ethanol.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Here they denature it with methanol, which would certainly be consistent with the rest of the description. Usually that's called 'methylated spirits', but maybe they called it 'denatured ethanol' or something and confused the journo.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

*snorffle*