OT Can people not do mental arithmetic or use a calculator any more?

[Dave Plowman (News]

Went to a 'works' reunion recently. Held in a pub in a fairly well healed part of town. 4.80 for a bottle of zero alcohol beer.

[ARW]

Sure I can go in cheaper pubs - but locally one man is taking over all our pubs and opening up small micro pubs. He charges more than the others.

I often call in The Leopard in Doncaster - it's only £3.60 for a pint of Ossett Blonde

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

It's the can't be ar**d mentality, most smart phones have capability to toal the price as you shop.

[Joe]

Which tends to be the same price as real beer. Tesco at the moment, for another few days, has Shipyard Low Tide for £1 for 500ml. It's a

0.5%, and really quite good if you like pale and very bitter. I have grim memories of Kaliber... a quick Google shows that it is still on sale, though not promoted.

I've just(in the last hour) had a pint of excellent real ale in a London pub for £2.15. I was an early adopter of Wetherspoon pubs, and I've seen no reason to change. Most other pubs have inferior beers, charge twice as much for them, and often have music. In fifty years, I have drunk in exactly two pubs that played music I could tolerate.

[Richard]

The other parts still feeling unfairly poorly?

[Dave Plowman (News]

There are several zero alcohol beers that taste OK - if you want zero alcohol. Unlike Kaliber which was a punishment for not wanting alcohol.

[williamwright]

When I were a lad in the 1950s only rich people could afford coal.

Bill

[Max Demian]

I don't know why people bother with pubs. Lidl sell 2 litres of their own brand bitter (Hatherwood) for £2.99.

[charles]

but miners got it free. didn't they?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Anyone who could break into a British Rail station could get it free too.

[Andrew]

And on many occasions they bought a ton of coal but only 19 bags were delivered if no-one was counting.

There was a joke about a parrot on this subject I think.

[Andrew]

Arguments, punchups, Kebab on the way home, Cat'n'mouse with the boys in blue ?

[Joe]

That's presumably canned. But even bottled versions of draught beers do not taste the same as the unpasteurised versions.

[Max Demian]

I remember my parents counting the bumps as it was delivered. (The men had waistcoats with leather backs.)

[jon]

Coke was our favourite, after getting the wood glowing.

[Max Demian]

4x500ml cans.

What I don't understand is John Smith and Boddingtons "bitter" in cans which is described as "smooth". How can a bitter be smooth? Quite unsuitable for shandy. And they have silly plastic things inside that increase the head so it overflows when I add the lemonade.

[NY]

Is Coke more or less flammable than Pepsi? ;-)

[jon]

I dislike Pepsi...tastes soapy to my pallette.

[ARW]

Meeting people that you know to catch up on things, having a laugh with the lads.

Basically socialising and being normal - preferably without the gf and wives in the pub.

[John Walliker]

The other special feature was that for some calculations it would give the wrong answer. I got caught out by dividing a number by the difference between two similar numbers. It was less accurate than a slide rule. I think the error was around 10%.

John