My Sister, the Beauty Queen

[Staffan]

Ethanol is the same stuff you have in booze. Well, the stuff they put in cars is mixed in with a lot of other crap (like 15% gasoline), but still!

 

[The_Universe]

Ethanol is the same stuff you have in booze. Well, the stuff they put in cars is mixed in with a lot of other crap (like 15% gasoline), but still!

Technically, the only places you find ethanol-like substances that you can drink are in beverages that come from corn and sugarcane - so, at best, you're talking about some rums and a few kinds of whiskey. Ethanol, after all, is just a fancy name for ethyl alcohol.

As for the gasoline thing, ethanol is typically mixed with gasoline in a 10% ethanol/90% gasoline blend. It's become more common over the last year, though it's been available in midwestern states for more than 10 years. E85 is probably what you're talking about - 85% ethanol/15% gasoline. It's a much higher octane fuel than gasoline, burns hotter, and tends to get lower gas mileage than the more mundane blends. It's also VERY hard on normal car parts (though you could probably get by with filling up with E85 once or twice), which is why "flex-fuel" vehicles are manufactured slightly differently: they need to use E85 frequently without sustaining damage.

As you might imagine, the ethanol thing is a big deal in a corn-growing agricultural state like South Dakota - as it happens, Callee's "platfrom" (a sort-of cause that each contestant chooses to champion) was ethanol promotion, as well. It ended up being particularlly topical this year - I'm sure that helped Callee a great deal.

 

[Laurel]

Congrats to Callee!!! I knew she had been doing awesome in other pagents, but didn't know she was in for this one. Awesome news.

 

[Desdichado]

Nice, but we all really want to see you in your underwear wearing that crown signing heavy metal songs with a pizza crust as a microphone.

Yeah, that'll really help him shed that Gaymaster moniker...

 

[Rel]

I just now saw this but wanted to offer a belated congratulations, TU! Wow, my brush with greatness! I've had the brother of Miss South Dakota over at my house!

 

[Staffan]

Technically, the only places you find ethanol-like substances that you can drink are in beverages that come from corn and sugarcane - so, at best, you're talking about some rums and a few kinds of whiskey. Ethanol, after all, is just a fancy name for ethyl alcohol.

Potatoes as well. And depending on how much ethanol you want, barley, grapes, etc.

E85 is probably what you're talking about - 85% ethanol/15% gasoline.

Yeah, E85 is what I'm talking about, the stuff you put in ethanol-powered cars. Which is what we have.

As you might imagine, the ethanol thing is a big deal in a corn-growing agricultural state like South Dakota

As I understand, corn is a pretty bad thing to make ethanol from - you need more gas to grow, harvest, and process the corn than you'd get out of it. Sugarcane is much better.

 

[Desdichado]

As I understand, corn is a pretty bad thing to make ethanol from - you need more gas to grow, harvest, and process the corn than you'd get out of it. Sugarcane is much better.

That's my understanding as well, although it's also my understanding that the corn growers lobby is a lot more powerful than the sugarcane growers lobby.

So there ya go. A little political cynicism in action.