Tag: champagne

Shamrocks, bagpipes and green champagne: How presidents have celebrated St. Patrick’s Day

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American presidents have been known to flaunt their Irish pride on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s the day the White House fountain turns green, bagpipes abound and world leaders share a beer — a Guinness, if they’re sticking to tradition.
Sporting a green tie and a pocket of shamrocks, President Joe Biden met with the republic’s prime minister Leo Varadkar, known as the Taoiseach, on Friday. The Irish politician presented the president with a bowl of clovers, a gesture that began in 1952, as the pair reaffirmed their partnership before a reception to celebrate the holiday.
While Biden is especially known to boast his Irish roots, he’s far from the only person to hold office to have such ancestry: It’s estimated that half of U.S. presidents’ relatives hailed from the Emerald Isle at some point.
Of recent officeholders, Barack Obama drew fanfare for participating in one of the holiday’s most famed traditions: Drinking a pint of Guinness at a bar alongside his Irish cousin at Washington’s Dubliner Restaurant and Pub. His successor, Donald Trump, participated in the shamrocks exchange, but is not a drinker and didn’t follow his predecessor in making an appearance at an Irish pub during his presidency — despite abundant merchandise depicting Trump wearing a leprechaun hat and holding a pint.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter waved to the crowd as he strutted down Fifth Avenue in the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. In 1969, Richard Nixon presented a crystal vase, etched with a picture of the White House, to the Irish ambassador to the United States.
The crowning Irishman in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, delivered a powerful speech on St. Patrick’s Day in 1954, while he was still a senator, and addressed the Irish parliament in 1963. On a trip to the city of Limerick, Kennedy underscored his admiration for the country:
“This is not the land of my birth, but it is the land for which I hold the greatest affection.”

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#Shamrocks #bagpipes #green #champagne #presidents #celebrated #Patricks #Day
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 18, 2023
Formula E in Hyderabad: Confetti canons instead of Champagne for podium celebrations

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Hyderabad: The podium finishers of the inaugural Formula E race in India on Saturday will not get to ‘pop the champagne’, a decades-old tradition in motorsport, as part of the victory celebrations.
Instead, they will have to make do with confetti cannons.
Keeping the ‘local customs’ in mind, all stakeholders of the Hyderabad race promoters Greenko, Telangana government, Formula E and the series champagne sponsor Moet & Chandon have decided to not use the bubbly on the podium, PTI has learnt.
The use of champagne on the podium dates back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Spraying the sparkling wine on the podium has become synonymous with the widely followed Formula 1.
Five-time Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio was awarded a bottle of Moet & Chandon at the 1950 French Grand Prix and he opened it on the podium.
However, champagne was sprayed for the first time in 1966 when Jo Siffert would “accidentally” pop the cork on the crowd to celebrate his win in the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. The rest, as they, is history.
The last of Sebastian Vettel’s four world titles was sealed with a win in the 2013 Formula 1 Indian Grand Prix in Greater Noida and not only he celebrated with champagne on the podium, he even took the big bottle with himself to the customary media interaction post the race.

Replacing the champagne with a non-alcoholic beverage is usually seen in races organised in the Arab world including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Reigning F1 world champion Max Verstappen had not taken part in the victory celebrations in Saudi Arabia during the epic 2021 season where his title fight went down to the last lap of the last race in Abu Dhabi.
He had told Sky Sports that he left because “it wasn’t fun” as there was no champagne on the podium.
Formula E also respects the local tradition and customs too and that was the reason why the previous round in Saudi Arabia had confetti canons for celebration instead of champagne. The same was decided for the inaugural Formula E race in Muslim majority Indonesia last year.
Alcohol advertising is banned in India but barring a few states, it is sold in massive quantities around the country.
Back in 2020, it was reported that five South Indian states — Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala — consumed half of India’s total liquor consumption. The total consumption of alcoholic beverages in the country was 5 billion litres.
Drivers raise safety concerns at Turn 3
Ahead of the opening practice session of the Hyderabad E-Prix, drivers including Jean Eric Vergne, Jake Dennis and Andre Lotterer raised safety concerns at Turn 3 of the 2.83 km long street circuit. The track runs around the Hussain Sagar Lake, NTR Park and NTR Garderns, covering the necklace road.
“There is not enough run off area at turn 3. We will be coming at very high speeds through that turn and if we lost the brakes, you have nothing, you just have the wall (without barriers),” said Vergne, who is a two-time Formula E champion and a former Formula 1 driver.
However, Vergne and most other drivers in the field praised the layout of the track. At the shakedown, the track wore a very dusty look as cars zoomed around.
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#Formula #Hyderabad #Confetti #canons #Champagne #podium #celebrations
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 10, 2023
Indian-origin man in UK convicted of killing father with champagne bottle in 2021

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London: An Indian-origin man was found guilty of killing his 86-year-old father with a bottle of champagne in an inebriated state in north London in 2021.
Deekan Paul Singh Vig, 54, was convicted following a trial at the Old Bailey court in the city last week and will be sentenced on February 10.
The Metropolitan Police said his father, Arjan Singh Vig, also lived in the same house in Southgate, north London, when police were called to a disturbance in October 2021.
“Despite the efforts of emergency services Arjan was pronounced dead at the scene,” the Met Police said.
“A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head,” the police said.
The trial heard how officers found the victim’s body on the floor of his son’s bedroom with his “head caved in”.
According to the Evening Standard’, his son was naked and surrounded by about 100 bottles of Champagne, including blood-stained bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Bollinger.
“I killed my dad. I hit him over the head with a f***ing bloody bottle of Bollinger champagne,” he reportedly said.

Jurors heard how Deekan had lived with his accountant father and zoologist mother Damanjit Vig, 85, in their four-bedroom home for about 40 years.
The family had moved from Uganda to the UK when Deekan was five-year-old, at the time Idi Amin expelled members of the South Asian community from the east African country.
The court was told that Deekan had developed a taste for alcohol during the COVID-19 lockdown and admitted to drinking 500ml of whisky earlier on the evening of the incident.
At the crime scene, police uncovered 100 bottles of champagne, 10 Amazon delivery boxes of whisky bottles, and an empty bottle of Talisker Scotch on the bed.
Deekan had denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the second day of his trial on the basis that he did not intend to cause his father really serious harm.
However, according to the court report, the jury deliberated for less than a day to find him guilty of murder last Friday.
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#Indianorigin #man #convicted #killing #father #champagne #bottle
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

January 30, 2023