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So I rarely drink anymore than a beer or glass of wine with dinner, occasionally I can be talked into a second one, but when I do drink I like to do a little cheers and toast. The only issue with this is knowing who or what to drink to. I love the tradition of the toast and raising a glass to someone or something. It is a simple little gesture to focus thoughts for a few seconds on that person or thing. Simplistic traditions like that always fascinate me. With this tradition, you drink and toast something. When at a special event or dinner, then the toast is easy, you raise your glass to the happy event or what have you (i.e. friends getting married.)
So on normal occasions I still like to practice this with dinner and my glass of Caduceus wine (which I am a top tier member of their wine club) or my bottle of Anchor Steam. What to drink to though always can hit a snag if not prepared. My mind is always thinking of various things, friend, family, Socratic philosophies, StarCraft, Giants baseball, what have you, so narrowing those things down at a moments notice is sometimes difficult for me.
To simplify this process, I have a couple of toasts that I always bust out when nothing else is recalled quickly enough. One is a toast to "absent friend." I like this toast because I for one love my absent friends deeply and I appreciate focusing my thoughts on them. Add that to the fact that this toast is used in other contexts that I love such as a couple of short stories and the movie "Rocky Horror Picture Show" as they are about to eat Eddie. Classic.
My other favorite toast is to Joseph B. Strauss. Why to Joe Strauss? Well, there are a couple of reasons. One is that I am normally drinking an Anchor Steam, the hometown brew of my favorite city, San Francisco, as I wrote about in this blog, and Joe designed the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. The other reason being that one of the greatest singer/songwriters, David Dondero, has a song where he sings a weird story about a murder in SF which has the brilliant lines:
Then I staggered to some tenderloin bar
Friends of ours had asked where you are
But I don't have a clue
You know I don't know what I'd do
Here's a dollar, go on jam it in your jar
And now lets drink to Joe
Joseph B. Strauss
Everybody in the house here's to old Joe Strauss
+ Show Spoiler +The only youtube version of the song that I could find online. It is actually called "Double Murder Ballad Suicide," not Golden Gate Bridge.This is awesome though:
I love that, so not only is it a tribute to Joe and the bridge, but to one of my favorite artists as well.
So what I am asking is what are things that you like to drink to on occasion? I am not talking about special occasions, but on normal days. What is the toast that you are known for or appreciate when others make?
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I don't always drink, but when I do I'm all alone and Deja Vu from Nas is playing...
So:
Here's a toast to my foes, streets and women
Deja vu
It's like a whole new beginning
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I always drink to world peace
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On September 22 2012 14:42 rogzardo wrote:
titties
EDIT: big ones
LoL...yeah, but this won't fly too well when my parents are over for dinner. 
On September 22 2012 15:03 BlackJack wrote:
I always drink to world peace
A good and noble classic. World peace is this ideal that so much of the world has seemed to forgotten about in their haze of cynicism. I dig it.
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A few common ones I say among friends...
Here's to you and here's to me,
the best of friends we'll ever be,
and if we ever disagree,
well, fuck you, and here's to me.
there a big ships and small ships,
but the best ships of all?
friendships
And part of my state toast...
here's to the land where maidens are fair,
where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
the near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
the blessed land, the best land, the ol' north state!
here's to pussy and gunpowder;
live by one, die by the other,
love the smell of both.
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United States45517 Posts
I toasted to Christopher Hitchens the day after he died.
Johnny Walker Black Label, of course.
Other than that, nothing too memorable... toasts to VIPs in the room, like the bride and groom at weddings, or the person we're celebrating when we go out to dinner, etc. I haven't had to give any long toasts/ speeches for these occasions though.
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On September 22 2012 15:18 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
I toasted to Christopher Hitchens the day after he died.
Johnny Walker Black Label, of course.
Other than that, nothing too memorable... toasts to VIPs in the room, like the bride and groom at weddings, or the person we're celebrating when we go out to dinner, etc. I haven't had to give any long toasts/ speeches for these occasions though.
So I also toasted to Chris that night, but I did not have any Black Label or Whiskey in the house, I drank a glass of 10-year Tawny Port for him. So good, but not good to gulp, way to strong. Cheers to Chris!
On September 22 2012 15:11 calgar wrote:
A few common ones I say among friends...
Here's to you and here's to me,
the best of friends we'll ever be,
and if we ever disagree,
well, fuck you, and here's to me.
there a big ships and small ships,
but the best ships of all?
friendships
And part of my state toast...
here's to the land where maidens are fair,
where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
the near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
the blessed land, the best land, the ol' north state!
here's to pussy and gunpowder;
live by one, die by the other,
love the smell of both.
LoL. These are drinking-man's toasts. Haha.
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United Kingdom14464 Posts
On September 22 2012 15:11 calgar wrote:
A few common ones I say among friends...
Here's to you and here's to me,
the best of friends we'll ever be,
and if we ever disagree,
well, fuck you, and here's to me.
there a big ships and small ships,
but the best ships of all?
friendships
And part of my state toast...
here's to the land where maidens are fair,
where friends are true and cold hearts rare,
the near land, the dear land, whatever fate,
the blessed land, the best land, the ol' north state!
here's to pussy and gunpowder;
live by one, die by the other,
love the smell of both.
I just thought I'd say that these are godlike, and should be standard toasts everywhere.
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Na zdrowie! To your health! I find it sort of amusing but that's my custom, even around English-only speakers.
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On September 22 2012 19:42 Obvious.660 wrote:Na zdrowie! To your health! I find it sort of amusing but that's my custom, even around English-only speakers.
It is always good to have your own customs and house rules and whatnot. Good deal. Thanks for sharing. 
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On September 22 2012 15:03 BlackJack wrote:
I always drink to world peace
Clearly it's not working.
I drink to good health. And in compliance with that, I try not to drink too often.
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EPT
