Puerto Rican Rums - A who and who?

This 1950 weird ad isn't for a brand. It's from an organization. The Puerto Rican Rum Institute ("Oh! You mean the PRRI!") was generally in favor of Americans buying just, sort of, all rums from Puerto Rico.

"In all the world, the smoothest, most mixable of drinks, according to connoisseurs, is a fine light, dry rum... and in all the world no rums are finer and lighter than the rums of Puerto Rico".

...where "connoisseurs" means "The Puerto Rican Rum Institute staffers", naturally.

It's whatever-holiday-you-want-to-call-it time, (and I like to call it Saturnalia, just for the sake of predating all the other bandwagon holiday posers) and you know that means people are going to be making nog. And immediately afterward, they're going to all be asking each other "What the fuck is nog anyway, and are there other nogs apart from egg?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggnog#History

Anyhoo, there don't seem to be other types of nog. The Simpsons, back when the show was funny and deserved to still be in production, once made a really good joke about this when Marge was shopping for emergency hurricane provisions and the store shelves were nearly empty. All she could find were creamed eels, corn nog, and wadded beef.

https://youtu.be/szfLB-SSjA8

Most of the variously disagreeing explanations for nog have the term coming from the word "noggin" which was a type of wooden mug that the drink - always dairy based - was served in. It's easy to understand how syllables are dropped from words once the speakers have a few drinks in them, and that's where the rum comes in.

You can make a virgin eggnog, but mostly, any spirit added to eggnog seems to be rum. Fair enough. The PRRI to the rescue! National Talk Like a Pirate Day didn't exist back in 1950, so Saturnalia was the seasonal high water mark for rum makers. This ad helpfully recommends several rumcentric recipes for holiday drinks, and here are some nicely-resolutioned crops of the recipes just in case you want to give them a try.

Insert record scratch here. Tom and Jerry are a drink, and not just a hyperviolent / hilarious cat and mouse cartoon team? Internet, you gots some 'splaining to do...

https://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/tomjerry.htm

There is debate on the origin of the Tom and Jerry Drink, whether it was invented by a British journalist who named the drink after characters in his popular novel in the 1820’s or if it was invented by an American bartender in 1850 who first published a recipe. The Tom and Jerry drink used to be extremely popular in the United States. For over one hundred years, you could even buy Tom and Jerry drink sets. A resurgence of the drink’s popularity came about in the 1940’s after the World War II. This is most likely due to more families entertaining at home instead of the bars.

Oh. That'll do nicely, Internet. Ho-lee shit. Tom and Jerry were a drink WAY before they beat the hell out of each other to the delight of a young Phil Largo..

Anyway, if your Saturnalia seems like it would be made a little easier by drinking a rum-and-pancake combination, or if you have the need to drown your no-more-legal-cockfighting sorrows, we're got you covered. You're welcome!