The Russian Drinking Contest

It's a story I've forced Tuomas Pystenen (Oakie of Deepbase, Finland) to tell again and again.

So his Finnish collegues on a project many moons ago were invited to a party with their Russian project counter-parts. Tuomas was the only one not too much drunk when the Finns arrived in Russia by train, so he was picked by their Russian hosts for the drinking contest.

The idea was brilliant: A Finnish guy and a Russian guy having to each empty six glasses of either water or vodka in front of an audience. If the audience saw any flicker or other nervousness in their faces they had lost. One of the glasses would be vodka, the five others water.

So Tuomas emptied the first glass with 100 grams of liquid in it. It was vodka, but his face didn't move, of course. He's from Finland. So he was happy: The vodka glass had been identified - the rest would be easy.

Time for the second 100 grams glass - it was warm to the touch so Tuomas was certain it was water. It wasn't. It was vodka, and warm vodka goes very fast to the brain. Just so you know.

In fact there was vodka in all the glasses. It was rather hard according to Tuomas and the others who participated. I seem to remember that Tuomas won the prize. Highly deserved.