Comments on floatingsheep: The Beer Belly of America

Can you do this for Australia, please.

2011-09-24T01:11:34.681-04:00

Can you do this for Australia, please.

I've grown up in WI, my hometown of about 2k h...

2011-01-22T17:49:22.558-05:00

I've grown up in WI, my hometown of about 2k has about 6 bars I can think of off the top of my head and another 3-4 in the surrounding country side. Given the drinking culture here, none of this comes as a surprise. As a Wisconsinsite, this actually comes as a point of pride.

I've lived/traveled other places and I was actually confused while in cities bigger than my hometown would have only 1 bar, one liquor store, and the grocery/gas stations wouldn't sell beer.
I actually thought the bars per 10,000 would be higher for WI.

Randy wrote "Shouldn't the "beer bel...

2010-12-16T10:07:56.852-05:00

Randy wrote "Shouldn't the "beer belly" of America be determined by overall beer consumption, and not the number of bars where any number of drinks could be consumed without any guarantee for how much people are actually drinking there?"
Trust me, Wisconsinites don't just go to their local bar and hang out drinking water and nibbling on lettuce. We drink (and brew) plenty of beer, and consume more brandy than any other state in the nation. We consume more bitters than anywhere in the world. Hell, tailgating was invented in Minnesota, in the winter. Maybe we don't consume the "most" beer, but we consume a lot and add to that all the other alcohol we enjoy, we are at the very least the "alcoholic liver" of the nation. However, "beer belly" sounds a bit nicer, and goes better with that "bible belt" nonsense.

Speaking of beer and T-shirts, did you know there ...

2010-07-22T07:12:21.181-04:00

Speaking of beer and T-shirts, did you know there is this saying in Australia?

"It's not the beer, mate, it's a fat T-shirt"

ja i'm not at all surprised by this data. i...

2010-04-19T21:49:33.270-04:00

ja i'm not at all surprised by this data. i'm originally from northern minnesota, and have lived in both south dakota and iowa. let me tell you, there's not much to do in this part of the US... especially in the dead of winter...

Wawoo man, from where did u get all these maps.. <...

2010-04-19T20:37:50.446-04:00

Wawoo man, from where did u get all these maps.. Swabi

Here in Wisco, the grocery stores sell beer too. E...

2010-04-16T09:37:59.374-04:00

Here in Wisco, the grocery stores sell beer too. Even on Sunday. We love beer.

Looking at Total Number of Bars map of the east Co...

2010-04-02T13:33:38.087-04:00

Looking at Total Number of Bars map of the east Coast and Great Lakes regions and comparing it to Swine Flu map. The considerations are very close.

Now add in the Pizza map and someone may wonder if pizza, drinking and swine flu may be the most discussed topic while eating pizza and drinking.

Having different colored over-lays may be interesting to see?

Wow this is awesome, I'm happy that I stumbled...

2010-03-31T14:34:59.064-04:00

Wow this is awesome, I'm happy that I stumbled onto your guys blog!

Need to overlay state's where Liguor is manage...

2010-03-26T13:41:03.286-04:00

Need to overlay state's where Liguor is managed by the state. ie Virginia you cannot buy ligour anywhere but ABC stores, and then see how many ABC stores there are vs Grocery Stores and Bars.

I'm surprised its this uncommon. Almost every...

2010-03-24T10:01:18.300-04:00

I'm surprised its this uncommon. Almost every little town I've been in has at least 1 bar & most do not have a grocery store.

Ditto the comments on bars v. churches. As a prou...

2010-03-23T10:52:10.338-04:00

Ditto the comments on bars v. churches. As a proud Wisconsinite I'm sure that heat map will be hot as hell, I mean well.

Now, could you cross reference this map with picku...

2010-03-22T00:41:59.571-04:00

Now, could you cross reference this map with pickup truck ownership and gun rack sales?

I wonder which state has the most actual "bee...

2010-03-17T15:05:38.265-04:00

I wonder which state has the most actual "beer bellies"... women included.

great map, I'm originally from Wisconsin, it ...

2010-03-17T03:05:40.581-04:00

great map, I'm originally from Wisconsin, it does not surprise me...

"I'm from Milwaukee and I ought to know that Blatz Beer tastes great wherever you go" old TV commercial...

Lots of beer brewing and drinking throughout the state. Leinenkugal, Point....

very cool ! I would be very interested in seeing t...

2010-03-16T23:28:20.917-04:00

very cool !
I would be very interested in seeing the same analysis made for Europe (# of bars / 10000 people, and # of bars vs # of grocery stores) !

I'm guessing culture and religion has a large ...

2010-03-16T21:21:23.555-04:00

I'm guessing culture and religion has a large part in the "Beer Belly" map. In Wisconsin there is a high percentage of German Catholics. The American brewers Pabst, Anheuser, Busch, and Schlitz are obvious German surnames and their operations started in the reddest areas of the map.

Percent German map
http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/pct_german.pdf

Percent Catholic map
http://www.valpo.edu/geomet/pics/geo200/religion/catholic.gif

Looking at the Catholic map you if you cancel out the Hispanic Catholics in the Southwest, the Acadians in Louisiana and Quebec border and the Italians in New Jersey and Long Island, that is pretty much the Beer Belly Map.

The Lutheran map sort of compares well, too. Lutheranism started in Germany but its influence in America is probably more from Scandinavians.

John- it isn't that Los Angeles necessarily ha...

2010-03-15T19:30:16.843-04:00

John- it isn't that Los Angeles necessarily has fewer bars than North Dakota (or Wisconsin, Iowa, or anywhere else), it's that it has proportionally fewer when compared to both the total number of listing for "bars" in the Google Maps directory and the state population.

The difference between the first map showing the total number of listings and the other maps is indicative of this difference. On the first map, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles (the country's three largest cities) all stand out, largely due to the correlation between population and number of drinking establishments. This isn't surprising.

The fact that there is a pretty obvious cluster in the upper midwest with more than the average number of bars (when compared to the average number of Google Maps directory listings for bars, statewide population and the number of grocery stores) is, however, somewhat surprising. Hope that explanation helps make some sense of the numbers for you.

I find it very interesting that North Dakota, a st...

2010-03-15T18:45:29.369-04:00

I find it very interesting that North Dakota, a state with a population of about 650,000 can actually have more alcohol establishments that a place like Los Angeles with a population just under 10,000,000 - that's ten friggin million. Or even a place like Las Vegas - shitload of drinking going on in that town. The math just doesn't seem to work.

Now that you've done bars to grocery stores, c...

2010-03-13T17:39:08.889-05:00

Now that you've done bars to grocery stores, can you liquor stores to churches? Might be some interesting patterns there...

I wonder if the data isn't skewed a little bit...

2010-03-12T23:03:59.088-05:00

I wonder if the data isn't skewed a little bit. Grocery stores and convenience stores/gas stations in WI sell beer, wine with many holding a liquor store in the same building.

Shouldn't the "beer belly" of Americ...

2010-03-12T15:59:51.828-05:00

Shouldn't the "beer belly" of America be determined by overall beer consumption, and not the number of bars where any number of drinks could be consumed without any guarantee for how much people are actually drinking there?

I want to see the amount of bars in relation to he...

2010-03-12T12:54:15.670-05:00

I want to see the amount of bars in relation to health and crime statistics.

I would like to see a heat map similar to the groc...

2010-03-10T19:59:18.752-05:00

I would like to see a heat map similar to the grocery store one, but comparing # of bars to churches. THAT would be a fun one.

Guess that just proves the old saying, Wisconsin-...

2010-03-10T17:31:23.780-05:00

Guess that just proves the old saying, Wisconsin-Land of cow shit and beer farts