Freelance
Traveller“Old Newshound”
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Freelance Traveller’s June 2011 issue.
As is fairly well-known, journalists on assignment, ever living on the cheap out of necessity, generally have a habit of sticking with the most effective yet economical (i.e., cheapest) of whiskies obtainable in any one of the thousands of “watering holes” across the 3I.
Infamous Moran journalist Akidda Laagilr’s celebrated travel logs (which were routinely seen on ‘Tri-V’, or read in the pages of The Imperial Explorer for decades), whatever the original’s label might have called it to the contrary, always referred to the cheapest drink available as “Old Newshound”.
Over time, several different officially-marketed versions of “Old Newshound” made their appearance; with most marching off into obscurity.
The most popular, a slightly-thicker, honeyed, heavily spiced version produced by the Nguyen-Baurhaus Corporation, was a favorite with journalists and surprisingly popular among Vargr.
In an attempt to hearken back to the halcyon days of Old Earth’s ancient ‘noir’ period, the large 1.5 litre, square-cut, smoky-green bottle’s label has a black-and-white image of a ‘hardboiled’ Vargr in an ancient-period trenchcoat and hat, leaning against a lamp post; micro-elements in the label causing the ‘Old Newshound’ name to flicker off and on at odd intervals when the bottle is opened.