Icelandic "booty", "Black Death"

[James A. Landau]

>From Joe Sixpack (pseud of Don Russell) "Iceland, the land of beautiful babes
& putrid brew" Philadelphia Daily News, Friday, March 8, 2002, page 73:

"a bunch of drunken Norwegians on the prowl for, I believe the way they put
it is, "da booty."

"...Berserkja Brennivin.   This is a local specialty, which is to say it is
most appropriately distilled in a bathtub.  It's named after the Berserkers,
the screaming Aryan [sic] maniacs who bit their shields before raging into
battle.  Its name means "burning wine", whichis an understatement.  Clear and
caustic, it's a schnapps made from potatoes and spiced with, _egad_, cumin
and coriander.  Whatever teh proof, it's toxic.  The government never banned
the stuff, since the island had been drinking it since Erik the Red.
Instead, it was packaged in an ugly black bottle with a generic, black label.
 The medicinal packaging, the authorities hoped, would turn off the citizens.
 Instead, Brennivin sold better than ever, thanks largely to its new
nickname: Black Death.  Black Death---you've gotta like that.  In America,
brewers spend millions boasting about their sparkling water from cool,
cmountain streams, and wineries choose select grapes grown in organic
vineyards.  In Iceland, the national drink is a plague."