A Shot of Hypocrisy Can't Alter Legal Reality

Monday sort of got away from me, so I didn't get around to commenting on the latest shots exchanged over the weekend in Iowa City's 21-only bar battle.

Hope I didn't already miss last call.

Incase you miswsed it, Matt Pfaltzgraf, a University of Iowa student leading campus opposition to a local ordinance barring persons under age 21 from hanging out in bars after 10 p.m., found hypocrisy masquerading as collectible glassware.

University officials who oppose binge drinking support 21-only, which faces a ballot test in November. The university's rules also seem to prohibit slapping Tigerhawks on items that promote alcohol use....

"Yet I was able to buy about eight shot glasses (and) a couple of pitchers,” said Pfaltzgraf, of the group YESS, which stands for Yes to Entertaining Students Safely. “They're obviously not following their own policy.”

Pfaltzgraf also accused the university of a “double standard” for making money off the products while trying to combat binge drinking.

Got his holiday shopping done early. Smart these college kids.

So what say the U of I?

Any company that wants to sell licensed Hawkeye products must first obtain approval from the UI Trademark Licensing Office, run by Trademark Licensing Director Dale Arens. The university's policy forbids messages that promote or refer to gambling, tobacco, drug or alcohol use, among other things.

Arens said he doesn't think the sale of beer glasses and related items violates that policy.

“If a glassware company comes to us, we don't let them promote (the product) as a beer stein or shot glass,” Arens said. “We view those as collectibles. People collect those things and they line them up on their shelves. You'd be hard pressed to find someone drinking beer out of a collector's stein.”

Glassware is allowed because it could be used for drinking nonalcoholic beverages, Arens said. Products that are clearly used for alcohol consumption, such as flasks or products used to sneak alcohol into stadiums, are not permitted, Arens said.

Oops, excuse me. Just taking a pull here from my collector's stein. Lemonade, of course, that cool refreshing drink.

I also have a set of collectible Hawkeye glasses, a thoughtful gift, that just happen to hold, by some odd, unofficial coincidence,  exactly one shot of liquor.  They have only been used once in a celebratory capacity, which led to an unofficially licensed headache.

So we've got hypocrisy, right here in Iowa City, with a non alcoholic absurdity chaser served in a suspiciously small Iowa logo glass.

But does this really have much bearing on the real issue at hand?  Not really.

Because no matter who makes, licenses or buys shot glasses or steins, you must be 21 to legally drink booze from them.  

Maybe the tsk-tsking university deserves to get jabbed, but I'm not sure how the availability of Hawkeye barware in the great open marketplace changes the fact that drinking in Iowa is to be done only by those over 21.

And whereas bars remain the primary public place to do that drinking from pints, tumblers, highball glasses, double old fashioneds, etc., it only makes sense to strictly limit late night patronage  to 21-plus imbibers.

And that brings us back around to the ordinance at hand, which is designed to keep underage students from hanging out in bars after 10 p.m. Until Iowa changes its drinking age, that's sensible.

The university's questionable souvenir authorization process doesn't change that shot of cold, hard reality.