Saturday, November 07, 2009

Word of the Month: Trenting


With tasty stout lurking around every corner, roads narrower than many sidewalks and all (legal) driving been done Bizarro-world fashion on the left, Ireland is basically a verdant island of entrapment for DUIs. This makes it crucial for all conscientious travelers to have a DD. But if your main candidate* weasels out of driving, what can you do?

Answer: you trent like there's no tomorrow. As soon as the car stops in the vicinity of a pub, you race to get your pint**, ensuring that the driving duties fall to the other Hertz-approved driver.

So, why is it called trenting? Several years ago, an acquaintance was scheduled to drive to an ultimate tournament at 6 a.m. one Saturday morning. He had stayed out late at the LL Cool J*** concert and so wanted to sleep on the 4 hour drive, but promised to drive the return leg that night. Cut to the semi-finals, and I find my acquaintance, on the sidelines, holding two beers while his team struggled to reach the finals. When I ask why he's drinking and not playing, he replies, "I don't want to drive home, so if I'm too drunk, I don't have to." In his (admittedly lame) defence, he did add that he didn't think his team would win and so that made it ok. The acquaintance's name? If you guessed Trent, you win a prize!

In the interest of his anonymity, I won't give his last name online. But if you buy me a beer early enough in the evening so I don't have to drive home, I will tell you his last name :)


* Let's call her Meryl K., no, too obvious, we'll go with M. Kusyk
** The mental strain of driving on the wrong side means that one pint is enough to pass the keys.
*** Yes, we mocked him for this.

2 comments:

meryl kusyk said...

JT! i finally get around to checking your blog and what do i see but an accusation of trenting? i was the DD when you asked me to be it...am i missing some key aspect of the definition?

Nancy said...

The story goes like this:

Two hikers awoke one night to the sound of a bear scratching outside their tent. The first hiker panicked while the other one calmly began lacing up his hiking boots. When his frantic companion screamed at him "You'll never outrun that bear!" He flatly replied, "Right. I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you!"

Note to self:

When Trenting in Ireland with JT always wear your running shoes so you can be the first one to the pint.