Originally posted 20 May 2012

After I posted the entry on the Canadian military rum jug, I realized I had another picture that showed one very much like it. This picture of two Scottish soldiers in a bombed-out landscape probably dates from 1916, and is entitled “Sorry, it is empty.”

There is a look of longing and sadness on the poor fellow on the left, watching his comrade drain the last dregs from the rum jug. Soldiers in the armies of the modern world have it much better in every other way – air-conditioned tents in desert heat, modern water-shedding clothing in damp climate, more nutritious and better-preserved food – but they are denied the official rations of liquor that comforted their grandfathers in the fields of Flanders and France. (Photo from the archive of the National Libarary of Scotland, public domain.)

On another topic, “Rum: A Global History” is starting to get reviews. One of the first is from the Swedish drinks blog A Mountain of Crushed Ice, which reprinted the recipe for Martha Washington’s Rum Punch. I have been enjoying this blog for some time and am honored to be featured there. If you have seen other reviews of the book that I might have missed, please let me know.