‘He knows just how I like my martini…full of alcohol.’
Homer Simpson, 2004
At the trial of George Beven in 1928, the jury not only acquitted the suspected bootlegger, they drank all the evidence. When this came to light, they were berated by the magistrate, upon which one of them collapsed and was sent home by the county jail physician.
People say that martinis were mixed with large proportions of vermouth during prohibition to disguise the poor-quality liquor available. Applesauce! Why on earth would anybody who could only afford lousy bathtub gin spend all that mazuma on expensive, low-alcohol vermouth?