Names for Half-Finished Drinks

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mike.

Hi, Mike.

From Green Bay.

Welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

I was just talking a few days ago with my dad.

You were talking about kind of some drinking colloquialism that we’ve both grown up with throughout the generations.

And one that we found that we both knew was Rad Keys.

And it’s a term that we’ve both known in our friend groups for unfinished beers that you find at a party.

You pick a can up and it’s only half full.

And you say, well, who left the Radke here?

Why aren’t you finishing your beers?

And he had traced it back to his college friend, whose last name was Radke,

And he was telling me, you know, that’s all over the country

And that, you know, he’s been to California, Nashville,

He’s been in Florida, and he’s heard people using this term that was started in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Oh, has he really?

Sure he wasn’t pulling your leg?

No, and it’s something that I had heard,

And I thought maybe it was just something that my friends and I had done picked up off of him.

But my friends said that I was never the first one to have introduced them to the word.

And I’ve met other people that have said that they recognize it as well.

So Radke, meaning an unfinished beer your father claims to have coined based on the name of a friend?

Yep. It was his friend group that he’s claiming to have started it based on the last name of one of his college friends.

I’ve got to tell you, I’ve never heard of it, Mike.

And it doesn’t come up in any slang dictionaries or any Google searches.

Heck, even for looking around Wisconsin, I don’t even see it.

So, Mike, was this guy known for leaving half a line in Kugel there or drinking everybody else’s?

Yeah, I think he was just drinking to be a part of the group but not really liking and enjoying the beer itself.

And so he’d crack one open and just kind of leave it and forget about it and move on.

And grab another one when he felt it was time to maybe try again.

Now, I know a couple other terms for this.

Wounded soldier is one and grenade is another, but that one I’ve never heard of.

I’ve never heard a half-finished beer called a Radke.

But you know what?

Our show is heard around the country, and if people are using it elsewhere,

I encourage them to call so we can get the data on this and figure out if Radke is used elsewhere.

Yeah, and maybe Mr. Radke will call in.

Maybe.

All right.

We’ll throw that out, and if we hear more about it, we’ll let you know.

If you meet the guy Radke and he has something to say about this,

Have him reach out to us, alright?

Absolutely. Alright, thanks for calling, we really appreciate it.

Yep, you’re welcome, happy to be here.

Take care, bye.

I’m sorry to be so skeptical, it’s just

So often when people say that they coined a word and now

Everyone’s using it,

There are a couple different ways it can go, but almost

Never when somebody says they coined a word, did they?

Right. Or were they the first?

Right. Or the other thing is

They say that everyone’s using the word, I’m like,

I don’t see it.

I’ve got some resources, you know, that other people don’t have to look this stuff up or to search for it or contact people, and I just don’t see it for Radke.

Yeah.

Chances are they didn’t coin it.

Yeah.

It could be the Wisconsin diaspora, though, right?

It could be people from this other group have spread out to other parts of the country, and maybe they are using it.

Drinking lots of beer.

You never know.

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