Prohibition

Incitatus

I just came across two posts about prohibition, one on  Mad Jack's Shack  and another on Yard Sale of the Mind . They approach the subject from two different angles, but both are instructive, especially in light of the current political climate.

Bonus words from  Yard Sale of the Mind :

Scofflaw Was Created for a Contest

In 1924, a wealthy Massachusetts Prohibitionist named Delcevare King sponsored a contest in which he asked participants to coin an appropriate word to mean “a lawless drinker.” King sought a word that would cast violators of Prohibition laws in a light of shame. Two respondents came up independently with the winning word: scofflaw, formed by combining the verb scoff and the noun law. Henry Dale and Kate Butler, also of Massachusetts, split King’s $200 prize. Improbably, despite some early scoffing from language critics, scofflaw managed to pick up steam in English and expand to a meaning that went beyond its Prohibition roots, referring to one who violates any law, not just laws related to drinking.

and:

Incitatus  was the favourite horse of Roman emperor Caligula (reigned 37–41 AD). According to legend, Caligula planned to make him a consul.