[Sca-cooks] Mo+ie way 00P

[Avraham haRofeh]

> Sorry, I don't have the letter between w and y on my keyboard so I have to
> insert + in it's place.  Anyway, on to the question.
> Hans was talking about a drink from up in New England called Mo+ie.
Anyone
> heard of it.  He says it comes in either cans or maybe bottles.

http://www.mainegoodies.com/food/Moxie/

Moxie, you either love it or hate it. Made since 1884 and still a popular
Maine drink. This soda was once believed to have medicinal properties. (You
can mail-order Moxie from this site.)

http://www.xensei.com/users/iraseski/WhatIs.html

Moxie was our nation's first mass marketed soft drink. Long before Pepsi,
Coca Cola, and the current variety of "new age" soft drinks with
sophisticated names, there was Moxie. Well before Cokes it's the "Real
Thing" jingle in the early 1970's, the country was singing "Just Make It
Moxie for Mine", at the Great St. Louis Exposition.

The word Moxie is the only proper name that has made it to the dictionary as
a noun synonymous with having "spunk" or "guts"( if you ever tasted it, you
would instantly know why!). It's still common to hear of someone as having
"a lot of Moxie".

Moxie was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1884 by Dr. Augustin Thompson
of Union, ME. Originally, Moxie was touted as a patent medicine guaranteed
to cure almost any ill including loss of manhood, "paralysis, and softening
of the brain". These claims were revised slightly (more than slightly,
actually) with the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906.

By the early 20th century, the "Nerve Food" was carbonated, brilliantly
merchandised, and became a household word. In spite of the claims
restrictions placed on Moxie by the Food & Drug Act, many ads from this
explosive growth period touted the "healthful" and alleged medicinal
benefits of the tonic. This early newspaper ad has a Professor Allyn ("Food
Authority") giving his esteemed testimonial.

Bottlers were opened all over the country. Frank Archer, who started with
the company as a clerk, continued to brilliantly promote Moxie using every
promotional gimmick known at the time. In the "heyday" the beverage was
strongly associated with amusement parks, dance halls, and east coast
resorts. These were places synonymous with good times, and the "vigorous"
life that drinking Moxie was supposed to sustain. The horse drawn Moxie
Bottle Wagons were a common scene at these locations. In the twenties and
thirties, these were replaced by the famous Horsemobiles which could be seen
at resorts, parades, civic events, and fairs.

Avraham

****************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Northpass
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)