* Originally in coffee_klatsch
* Crossposted in nino.046.local
Hello, All!

I was kinda in a nostalgic mood recently when I posted my beer preferences to
*enet.sysop* echo.

We used to have Fidonet SysOp-drinking at public places gatherings pretty often
back in 90th in Russia (aka R50). More precisely, there were actually two types
of them, like SysOp-drinking (aka SysOp'ka) and point-drinking (aka point'ovka)
which is the node (boss) and its points outing. If I were to compare the
Fidonet potluck in Z1 to SysOp'ka in R50, they are similar in term of reasoning
and way more different in implementation. Usually, those were IT young
professionals in their 20th and early 30th. Lacking of a private backyard as
majority of Russians were (and still are) living in apartments, let no choice
but going out for drinks. And yes, bucking stereotype of Russians drinking
vodka (bears,  vodka, balalaika), the most popular drink for SysOp gathering
was/is beer. It was considered either expensive or mauveton to drink out in a
bar, so we were drinking in public from a can or "cocktail" from a plastic cup.

I got into BBS's and later on joined as a Fidonet point and node when I still 
technically was a kid, so no legal drinking, though there was no age
restriction for alcohol back in 90th in Russia. I didn't like the beer taste
and I substituted it with other flavored alcohol like Gin&Tonic, Pina Colada,
and cheap screwdriver cocktail in a can. The first time I really liked the beer
taste was during my business trip to Lubeck, Germany in mid 2000s where I tried
unfiltered wheat beer in a bar. I tried some Russian beer brands later but none
of them tasted great to me.

Best Regards, Nil
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5