AUserNeedsAName

AUserNeedsAName t1_j70ihlh wrote

And it's not like the man gave the kick his all either. Maybe we could have this conversation if he yelled a cheeky challenge to the keeper or whatever and tried for a screamer, but he was clearly just keeping himself together emotionally while he gave it enough to dribble in. A "test of skills" was not the page anyone was on.

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AUserNeedsAName t1_iykb9lt wrote

>Beer and wine were also supposedly ready in December, though I don't know why?

I'm just a homebrewer, but I may have an (uneducated) answer to that. It takes ales about 3-4 weeks to ferment at 70F (slower in the cold), and lagers 4-8 weeks at 50F. This USDA source shows European spring barley harvests as ending in late September/October, about 8-12 weeks before the winter solstice/Christmas. This PDF from the University of Vermont shows the 2019 hops harvest peaking in late September, which is pretty typical. Sierra Nevada releases their Fresh Hop IPA each December to maximize hop freshness and showcase the year's harvest, for instance.

Figure a few weeks to get your other harvested goods stored before starting your brew and the timeframe lines up perfectly. You can also hold beer longer to let it mellow (Oktoberfest lagers are called Märzens because you brew them in March and let them sit), especially at low temperatures, so mid-to-late December should be the start of a peak beer season that dwindles slowly into the spring, at which point your winter barley is ready for harvest and a new brewing period begins.

EDIT: I forgot those timeframes are with modern commercial yeasts. If you factor in wild or other pre-modern fermentation methods, the fermentation time increases and no fudge factor or waiting period would be required.

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AUserNeedsAName t1_ixx8lal wrote

Sort of. The modern concept of a nation is pretty recent, so you have to think in terms of hereditary kingdoms. The interesting thing is that it was possible for a monarch to inherit not just one kingdom, but two or three. The kingdoms would sometimes merge in the legal sense (a "real union"; think the modern UK), but not necessarily. Sometimes you just had the same guy wearing two different (very ornate) hats as the king of two legally distinct kingdoms. This is called a "personal union", since the kingdoms were united not by laws, but were united "in the person" of the monarch.

That was the case from 1397 to 1524, during which the King of Denmark was also the King of Norway and ALSO the King of Sweden. After Sweden broke off in 1524, the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway were united in a "real union" with Norway as the junior partner. This lasted until 1815 when Norway made an unsuccessful bid for independence and Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden due to politics surrounding the Napoleonic Wars (during which time the idea of a modern nation state was starting to become more of a thing).

This is all a massive oversimplification (it's super messy) and I'm certain I'm making some real historians eyes twitch, but that's the best TLDR I can give you.

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