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This is Dr. Joy Hardin Bradford from Therapy for Black Girls. You know that Amazon has millions of books, so you can find one that gives you just the reading feeling you're looking for. You know, like if you're looking for a relaxed feeling, like with a beach read, Amazon has got it covered. Or if you're looking for more of a terrified ah with evil twins or things lurking in the woods or something, Amazon's got you. I mean, even if you want an AW teen romance, Amazon has it covered too. Amazon books. That reading feeling awaits.
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Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. For hundreds of years, arguments and feuds were handled one of two ways, either with a healthy conversation or with a duel. Up until the late 18th century, those duels were mostly carried out with swords until guns became the weapon of choice. Funny enough, the object of a duel wasn't to kill the other person. It was only to achieve a sense of justice that honor had been restored to the wronged party. Now a duel was considered an appropriate way to seek retribution for a long time. But what happened if someone felt that their honor had been besmirched in a less serious way? Where did they go for satisfaction? Well, if they were a German college student in 1871, then they had an alternative. According to a book from that time, students at Leipzig University would challenge each other to a special kind of face off, but not one that would leave the other side bleeding out from a bullet wound. Rather, they might pass out from drinking too much alcohol. They were called beer duels, and they were part of a lengthy set of rules known as the Beer Code. According to the code, students, usually male students, that is, would be split off into two groups depending on their drinking abilities. Newcomers were called foxes, while experienced drinkers were referred to as beer boys. A fox could become a beer boy either by waiting two semesters or passing a drinking test. Often, beer boys would challenge each other to different drinking related competitions, such as who could drink the most beer in a given period of time. Anyone who declined the challenge faced ridicule and embarrassment and even more drinking. But sometimes things got out of hand and one drinker would offend a beer boy. They might call them a name like a sage or a beer baby. When that happened, the wronged party would challenge the offender to a beer duel. But there were no swords or pistols in a beer duel. The only weapon allowed was beer. I know. You didn't see that one coming, did you? And the rules were surprisingly complex. Different challenges and responses were often given, depending on whether the offense had been carried out on purpose or accidentally. Sometimes the offended party had to demand a beer duel himself, and other times the offender had the option to call for a duel. Either way, though, these incidents always ended the same way. Everyone drank a lot. And just as with an actual duel involving weapons, challengers and challengees had to choose their own seconds or representatives to handle the logistics of each confrontation. Umpires maintained order and officiated the proceedings as well. Considering these were drunk college students drinking the night away, their rules were thorough and impressive. Now, beer duels were only one manner of retribution. Beer boys had other ways to demand justice for perceived offenses, such as the order ex plano. This gave any beer boy the right to force a fox to drink, usually to teach them a lesson for being too arrogant. Refusal to drink led to more shame for the fox, and this extended beyond the university. According to the rulebook, any man of a higher semester drinking in a nearby beer village had the right to force someone lower to them to drink. And if that person refused, the challenger was allowed to dump his beer on their head. And finally, the university beer code had something called the Grand Cerevis. This was reserved for those times when everybody has been drinking for a while and they were too far gone to see reason. If a beer boy felt insulted by someone's remarks late into the evening, the Grand Cerevis was the equivalent of sworn testimony in a court of law. Only what someone saw or heard during the course of the evening could be spoken of in order to put the matter to bed for good. The Grand Cerevis was not to be used frivolously. It was the last resort to settle any and all disputes so as to avoid further arguments or worse. I suppose. It seems the Germans have always been serious about their beer. The beer code is perfect evidence of their dedication. To offend a beer boy was no joke, Lest you wanted to wind up an object of ridicule or find yourself being peeled off the floor after passing out from drinking. Perhaps something could be learned from their rulebook. Maybe we could avoid a lot more problems in the world if we shared a beer or three together every now and then. And to that I say cheers.