ATDDTA (3): "Mickeys" (WAS Control issues, 54-56)

[Tim Strzechowski]

> I've never heard "Mickeys" for pocket-sized bottles, and could find only
> this:
>
> "Small bottles of cheap fortified wines are known on the street as "short
> dogs," "mickeys," "poneys," [sic] and "mad dogs."
>
> http://fnnc.org/fortifiedalcohol.html
>


When I read this passage -- and remembering Pynchon's attention to the time 
period and location -- I was reminded of the "Mickey Finn":


[...] Mickey Finn was a notorious Chicago tavern proprietor in the city's 
South Loop, then as now a nest of hardened desperadoes. In 1896 Finn 
opened a dive named the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden, where he fenced 
stolen goods, supervised pickpockets and B-girls, and engaged in other equally 
sleazy enterprises.

Around 1898 Finn obtained a supply of "white stuff" that may have been 
chloral hydrate. He made this the basis of two knockout drinks, the 
"Mickey Finn Special," consisting of raw alcohol, water in which snuff had been 
soaked, and a dollop of white stuff; and "Number Two," beer mixed with 
a jolt of white plus the aforementioned snuff water. Lone Star patrons 
who tried either of these concoctions soon found themselves face down in 
the popcorn. At the end of the night they were dragged into a back room, 
stripped of their valuables and sometimes even their clothes, then 
dumped in an alley. When the victims awoke they could remember nothing.

Finn evidently paid off the cops but became such a nuisance even by 
Chicago standards that his joint was ordered shut down in 1903. He was never 
prosecuted, however, and after a brief hiatus returned to bartending, 
having sold the MF recipe to other tavern owners. Eventually "Mickey Finn" 
became the name for any sort of knockout punch. How lucky we are that no one 
sells things like that today.

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_092.html


[...] The Mickey Finn is reputedly named for the owner and bartender of 
a Chicago establishment, the Lone Star Saloon and Palm Garden Restaurant, 
which operated from 1896 to 1903 in the city's South Loop neighborhood 
on the west side of South State Street north of Harrison Street. This part 
of State Street was then known as "Whiskey Row". Before his days as a 
saloon proprietor, Mickey Finn was known as a pickpocket and thief who often 
preyed on drunken bar patrons. [...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Finn_%28drugs%29

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mic1.htm

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/mickey-finn.html