Newfoundland is a unique place in Canada -- basically a big rock populated by Gaelic fisherfolk who managed to avoid joining Canada until 1949. Newfoundland has a distinct society and culture with its own unintelligible brogue, an endless stream of singing, dancing and fiddling families with record deals, and plenty of grief and strife caused by the loss of all the cod. Still, they now have oil so it’ll be boom time as soon as they figure out how to get the oil off the sea bed with nets.
A Newfoundlander walks into a bar in Nova Scotia, orders three drafts of Keith's and sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more.
The bartender approaches and tells him "You know, a draft goes flat after I draw it, it would taste better if you bought one at a time."
The Newfoundlander replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Toronto, the other is in Boston, and I'm here in Nova Scotia. When we all left home we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days we drank together. So I drink one for each o'me brothers and one for myself."
The bartender admits that this is a nice custom and leaves it there.
The Newfoundlander becomes a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way. He orders three pints and drinks them in turn.
One day, he comes in and orders two pints.
All the other regulars take notice and fall silent.
When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss."
The Newfoundlander looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs, "Oh, no, everybody's just fine." He explains. "It's just that my wife had us join the Pentecostal Church and I had to quit drinking. Hasn't affected me brothers though."
