Sunday, December 3, 2006

Maine Says No to Santa's Butt Winter Porter

The state of Maine has decided that a Massachusetts beer distributor can't sell Santa's Butt Winter Porter in the Pine Tree State.

According to the English company who makes the beer, the name comes from a well-loved children's storybook:

"And Santa sat on his great butt, enjoying a hardy brew..."

The brewer also wants you to know that in England, "butt" refers to a certain sized barrel, in fact, holding 108 Imperial gallons. Back in the day it was quite a normal thing for a brewery to put its beer up in a large butt for storage.

The state of Maine doesn't care, however, and said that the label violated a regulation stating that alcohol advertisements cannot contain “undignified or improper illustrations." Under the same law, Maine has also rejected two other labels, including one that uses Delacroix’s painting “Liberty Leading the People,” which hangs in the Louvre.

The ACLU has sued.

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