If beer kegs are registered, only registers will have beer kegs

This is a new one for me, but I like it.

La Crosse's Alcohol Oversight Committee has suggested that the city register beer kegs sold by retailers and to prohibit bartenders from drinking on duty, the LaCrosse Tribune reports.

"The prohibition on bartenders drinking is likely to be unpopular with members of the Tavern League.," the paper says. "But there is no reason why the keg registration law should not be passed at once."

What's it all about? LaCrosse is a college town where far too many students have ended up drunk at the bottom of the Mississippi in recent years, not to mention in jail, traffic accidents, and other mayhem. The drinking age is 21, but that has never stopped students from finding someone old enough to buy a keg for a party.

The idea is to number every beer keg and keep a record of who buys them. If a keg turns up at an under-age party busted by the cops, the purchaser would be in deep doo-doo.

"It's a no-brainer.," the Tribune says. I can hear the howls all the way to Milwaukee, but I think they're right. No one thing will stop the underage drinking, but this could put a dent in it.

Finally, from the editorial again: "As for the bartenders, the goal is to prevent people who are drunk from serving drunks."

Pretty radical stuff, huh? Here's the full editorial.