Life's not all beer and skittles....

[Popeye the Sailor]

We've all heard the phrase. It's slang that not everything is going as well as it could.


This got me to thinking.


If life's not all beer and skittles when things are going poorly.....well then conversely.....if things are going just perfect....then everything would be all beer and skittles, right?


Forget those other classic combinations like bacon and eggs, steak and cheese, green eggs and ham, rum and waffles (that one just me?). Clearly, beer and skittles are the epitome of complimentary dishes.


Well, let's try it out.



First, get yer beer of choice, and some skittles.





Drink beer and eat (should be easy, right?).



Do I need to continue? Let's be clear here. I am an idiot. If I haven't made it abundantly clear that I don't know what the make the beast with two backs I'm doing, this should be a prime example.


Don't ever combine these two products. Normally, my stomach is some sort of food trap, a purgatory, if you will, where food goes to suffer and die. This particular combination eked untold years of revenge upon my being. Ever been punched in the stomach? It was like that, except perpetual. My innards were being tied in nots in an attempt to strangle me from the inside. The two items were clearly having some sort of altercation, and my stomach, the ever present bouncer, was trying to throw the unruly parties out.


Adding more beer and skittles, did not help.



Pictures were in theory, supposed to continue, but I feel there are already enough of me doubled over debating throwing up in existence. In short, I barely finished the beer, and collapsed in a heap groaning with stomach pains.



Somewhere around this point, Paula, with her exceptional timing, explained to me that the "skittles" in "beer and skittles" in no way refers to the candy. It's apparently a game known as "ninepines", some sort of precursor to bowling http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/230200.html. I'm apparently entertainment to her sadistic self.


The night ended with me passing out, life a rainbow blur of nastiness. Wee.

[Mother]

I imagine beer and skittles has the same effect as poprocks and coke

instant foam

[somegirl]

I imagine beer and skittles has the same effect as poprocks and coke

instant foam

Yes, in his stomach, hence the aftereffects.

Do I need to continue? Let's be clear here. I am an idiot. If I haven't made it abundantly clear that I don't know what the make the beast with two backs I'm doing, this should be a prime example.

no comment

[Jarvicious]

Why would you go and make the beast with two backs up a good beer like that?  Actually the only (good) use I've found for Skittles is to chuck them up in the air and watch the bats freak out when I was a kid at camp.  In hind sight we could have used....I don't know.....a pebble or something, but as it turns out, bats will chase anything at all.

[Popeye the Sailor]

Why would you go and make the beast with two backs up a good beer like that? 

Do I need to continue? Let's be clear here. I am an idiot. If I haven't made it abundantly clear that I don't know what the make the beast with two backs I'm doing, this should be a prime example.

[Scottish]

LMAO!!! From the first sentence I knew this couldn't end well. Thanks for taking one for the team Someguy.  Sorry about your self induced misfortune.

[teddy037.2]

 

and she seemed to be such a nice girl, too... must be how she lured you in

[Xiphias]

That sounds like horrible ending....you need to cleanse your insides with 4 lemon jelly filled donuts and two liters of Sprite.

[jclin]

Sure the saying isn't new, but the idea of actually doing it in practice is just genius.

This was so funny...   

That sounds like horrible ending....you need to cleanse your insides with 4 lemon jelly filled donuts and two liters of Sprite.

Then WRITE about it! HAR!

[FatguyRacer]

Next time skip the candy and get your beer at the bowling alley and play a few frames a 'skittles'

I think you find it more agreeable.

Meaning

'Beer and skittles' is shorthand for a life of indulgence spent in the pub.

Origin

Skittles, also known as Ninepins, which was the pre-cursor to ten-pin bowling, has been a popular English pub game since the 17th century. The pins are set up in a square pattern and players attempt to knock them down with a ball. It is still played but not so much as previously.

The phrase was referred to in Footman's History of the Parish Church of Chipping Lambourn (1894), which reprints a piece from 1634:

"William Gyde... for playing at skittolles on Sunday."

Citations of beer and skittles and variants appear in literature from the 19th century. For example, Dickens' Pickwick Papers,1837:

"It's a reg'lar holiday to them - all porter and skittles."

Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1857:

"Life isn't all beer and skittles."

[slowpoke13]

I think it was the choice of beer.

Umm.. try it again with an ale or a lager and maybe some of those new fancy skittles flavors....You can't really test the theory until you've gone through the whole rainbow, right?

[Popeye the Sailor]

Next time skip the candy and get your beer at the bowling alley and play a few frames a 'skittles'

I think you find it more agreeable.

Meaning

'Beer and skittles' is shorthand for a life of indulgence spent in the pub.

Origin

Skittles, also known as Ninepins, which was the pre-cursor to ten-pin bowling, has been a popular English pub game since the 17th century. The pins are set up in a square pattern and players attempt to knock them down with a ball. It is still played but not so much as previously.

The phrase was referred to in Footman's History of the Parish Church of Chipping Lambourn (1894), which reprints a piece from 1634:

"William Gyde... for playing at skittolles on Sunday."

Citations of beer and skittles and variants appear in literature from the 19th century. For example, Dickens' Pickwick Papers,1837:

"It's a reg'lar holiday to them - all porter and skittles."

Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1857:

"Life isn't all beer and skittles."

You do know that is a verbatim copy and paste of the info in the very link I posted in the original post?

[c_rex]

though I feel somewhat more educated than when I clicked on this thread I can't say that I would have learned this info any other way.  For that I send you some 

[x136]

I've never heard the saying "beer and skittles", but considering how nasty Skittles are, I would even think of sullying a beer with such a thing. You sir, are... I want to say brave, but that's not right. Oh wait, you said it well yourself.  Thanks for, uh, taking one for the team?

On the other hand, that Chocolate Stout is something I'd like to try some day. It's intriguing in that it sounds like something that has an equal chance of being delicious or awful.

[Popeye the Sailor]

On the other hand, that Chocolate Stout is something I'd like to try some day. It's intriguing in that it sounds like something that has an equal chance of being delicious or awful.

The chocolate stout can only be described as one of the finest beers ever brewed. Seriously.