Skip to main content

The Meaning of Headlines: ‘bevvy’



The Canberra Times published an article in their Good Food section on 6 April 2017 with the headline: Enjoy a bevvy with Bob. Former PM launches Hawke’s Brewing Co. What does ‘bevvy’ mean? And why should we enjoy it?

A ‘bevvy’ in Australian slang is a beverage, a drink.

The first sentence of the article asks, ‘Want to enjoy a bevvy with Bob?’ The
former prime minister of Australia, from 1983 to 1991 as leader of the Australian Labor party, once famously broke the world beer-skoling record in his student days at Oxford University.

He poured the first Hawke's lager on 6 April 2017 at The Clock Hotel in Surry Hills to launch the beer in his name. The brew, the lager beer, is the first from Hawke's Brewing Company, and will initially be offered on tap across 11 pubs in Sydney and Newcastle.



Australian ad men Nathan Lennon and David Gibson dreamed up the idea two years ago when they were working in a Wall Street office on Australia Day in New York. "It was minus 5 degrees outside. We were getting homesick and we realised all our friends were back home having nice cold beer in the sun. So we started talking about who we'd most like to have a beer with and we landed on Bob Hawke," Lennon said.

A year later, the pair were on a plane back to Sydney to draw up a business plan with sales manager Luke Langton and pitch the idea to Hawke himself.
"We explained how we saw this brand launching into the market – and he said yes."

Bob Hawke (1929-) lent his name to the project on the condition that his percentage of profits went to one of the legacies of his leadership, the environmental charity Landcare Australia, to help support rural communities around the country. "As you sip that Hawke's lager, you'll be making a contribution to the environment and to your country," Hawke said.

Brewer Justin Fox created the beer, and described it as having "a subtle citrus aroma, light bitterness and a gentle, dry finish. What we've landed upon is a really beautiful clean beer … it's a refreshing lager - really light, clean, crisp with a really soft top note and really soft malt note."

Scorecard for The Canberra Times headline is 99%. The beverage, the beer, was always described by politician Bob Hawke, now 87 years old, in his student days and during his political career, as ‘bevvy.’ But while you can have a can of Hawke’s bevvy, you are probably unlikely to ‘enjoy a bevvy with Bob’ in person.






http://www.goodfood.com.au/eat-out/news/former-prime-minister-bob-hawke-launches-hawkes-brewing-co-beer-20170406-gveyjn


MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...
1 comment
Read more