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Reader question: Please explain “time to call time” in this sentence: “Enough is enough, it’s time to call time on cheap, strong alcohol.” “Enough is enough”, all right, but “time to call time”? My comments: This is just another way of saying let’s stop selling cheap, strong alcohol – obviously to lessen drunkenness. Literally, “time to call time” means it’s time to call “Time!” That means “Time is up!” You can imagine in a pub at the closing hour deep into the night bartenders urging drunken patrons to go home by saying that: “Time!” And that means “Time is up, fellows. Move and let’s all go home.” Presumably by that time all the lingering customers have lost their senses completely, let alone track of the time, and have to be literally dragged out. Anyways, I read somewhere that in Europe, they’re raising taxes on cheap, strong alcohol. They believe strong alcoholic beverages are too cheap to get. Hence, if they make it expensive, perhaps people will stop buying them and, in happy consequence, getting themselves drunk less often. A good idea? I don’t know. All I notice is that in the bigger Chinese shops in Beijing you can buy all sorts of European beer, some of which have an alcohol content of up to 12.5%. Very strong, sure. They were virtually unheard of here even a few years ago – apparently some of the strong beer banned in Europe is now sent to China, to take advantage of a stronger yuan against the euro and looser alcohol laws. | 
