(1) A very strong drink of indeterminate recipe invented by fans, worse even than the Xeno imbibed by “Sarge” Saturn of Captain Future, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories lettercolumn fame. The present version is a punch, often served with dry ice. According to Fancyclopedia 2, it has come to be used for all manner of indefinable alcohol concoctions and other things usually too hideous to mention which go the rounds of fan clubs and conventions.
It started with Liverpool Fandom, first as the supposed sponsor of their taped faanfiction play "The March of Slime," then by hanging a "Drink Blog" sign at First Kettering. With the cooperation of the bartender; anyone who asked –-including a few mundanes -– was told they were "out" and didn't expect the next shipment until the next day, but later the barman made up a mixture of cider and rum to sell. The first fan concoction to bear the name was eggflip, brandy, bits of Tia Maria, Beecham's powder, aspirin, Benedictine, Alka-Seltzer, black currant juice, a touch of mustard and "other things." It’s distinguished from the Nuclear Fizz in that fans with strong constitutions have been known to stagger away more or less under their own power after drinking a Nuclear Fizz (but these reports are scanty and may well be the stuff of which myth and legend are made). Blog is Xeno‘s fannish equivalent, and like Monty Python’s Australian “fighting” wine, it is generally believed that blog is best left in the bottle so it can be used for hitting people over the head with. As difficult as blog is to formulate or survive after drinking, it’s also the only known cure for Twonk’s Disease.
(2) The internet term "blog," as near as we can determine, is unrelated to the fannish drink, which is understandable, since it is short for "weB LOG." There are wags who may try to tell you that the second-definition blogs accomplish by tedium what the first-definition blogs do by its resemblance to TNT, but these gadflies are just being tedious themselves by focusing on the bad ones. There are, in fact, blogs which are downright brilliant and worth reading every day.
Contributors: Dr. Gafia
| from Fancyclopedia 2 ca. 1959 |
| (Liverpool Fandom) This versatile substance was discovered to fandom — at least, the word was — by LiSFS, who had it stand sponsor to their tapera, "The March of Slime". At First Kettering, the Liverpudlians, with the bartender's cooperation, hung up a "Drink Blog" sign, without a Blog to be drunk ("preceded by an advertising campaign with 10,000 quote-cards"). The nonexistent drink caught on; people (mundane ones) walking in from the street inquired and at first were fobbed off ("all gone, and the next shipment not expected in until tomorrow") tho later the barmen made up a mixture of cider and rum to sell. Blasphemy! Meanwhile, back at the convention, Peter Hamilton had made up the fannish Blog; a dreadful stuff (as our sketch shows), [not shown] pale grey with Black Specks in suspension. It was brewed up of eggflip and brandy, with bits of Tia Maria, Beecham's Powder, aspirin, benedictine, Alka-Seltzer, black currant juice, a touch of mustard, and other things your Larousse hardly dares imagine. Finally the word came to be used for all the indefinable concoctions of alcohol and other things that circulate at conventions. It could be used equally for Joy Clarke's rhubarb wine, Jack Harness' homogenized apple pulp, or somebody's port-and-Pepsicola; there are no specific ingredients. |
