Normally I am a pretty libertarian guy, but there is one place where I wish for at least a minimalist government regulation, and that is for the size of a beer glass.
Today I was surprised to find that my restaurant waitress billed me too much for my two draft beers. When she returned with a corrected bill, she explained that she had inadvertently charged me for “large pints” rather than “regular pints”. It's a whole different issue that the menu only listed one size of “pint” but I suppose I may have been fooled if there were multiple sizes of beer listed. It is simple to remember the price of your beer when there are no confusing size choices. “Will that be a Small, Medium, or Large pint?”
What I object to in general though is the fact that there is no convenient way to know whether you are getting a pint of beer at all. How can you even blame the waitress for not knowing that a "pint" is even a measure of volume? I can't recall ever seeing a measure recorded on a beer glass in North America. This seems a bit strange, since every beer glass I have ever drank from in Europe has been equipped with a convenient line with a measure (usually .5 L).
One of the few places where government regulation is appropriate is in weights and measures. Trade of all sorts needs to have these regulations in place to discourage fraud, maintain the public trust and ensure trust in international trade. I can't understand why this particular measure is not regulated in any way.
WiseGuy
What we need in Canada is a guy like James Cagney played in the 1936, "Great Guy".
"This time, Cagney trades in his irrepressible bad guy for good guy Johnny Cave,an inspector at the NY Dept. of Weights and Measures who stumbles upon a plot to siphon money out of the public by tipping the scales and giving people less product than they pay for. Cave must now spoil the plan despite efforts by officials to "inspire" him to back off. Can this good guy stick to his guns and become great?"
A pint of beer by any other measure is no longer a pint of beer!
Posted by: Dan Mancuso | July 07, 2014 at 11:21 AM
When I was a lot younger and all hotels had a men's (beverage) room and a separate ladies and escorts room, all beer glasses came with a "tide" line. If the beer came to your table below the tide line you could send it back to have the level raised.
By the way, it cost fifteen cents a glass back then as well.
Posted by: Copinacus | July 07, 2014 at 12:34 PM
I'm betraying my age, but in the dark ages of LCBO rules, beer parlours or beverage rooms, supplied draft in regulation glasses, with a line at the top which was to be the foam line.
These were not pints, though they may have been called that, they were probably 12 oz. The price was something like 20c.
They were the same in every hotel in the province. I'm sure some are still around in flea markets.
Many of the fancy brewery glasses may be short of a genuine pint (20 oz).
Posted by: Martin | July 07, 2014 at 06:50 PM
Ontario used to have lines on the beer glasses and shot glasses. martin,,,, the sizes were 8 oz, 10 oz, and 12 oz and a line was on the glass. in 1964 a 10 oz was 10 cents.
Posted by: oldwhiteguy | July 08, 2014 at 10:57 AM