page_title: Mory's
section_title: Cups
hierarchical_section_title: Mory's / Traditions / Cups
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the exterior of Mory's club, New Haven, Connecticut, circa 1914. Image courtesy of the Brian K. Welch Photograph Collection, Yale University Manuscripts &amp; Archives Digital Images Database.
context_page_description: Mory's, known also as Mory's Temple Bar, is a private club adjacent to the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, founded in 1849 and housed in a clubhouse that was originally a private home built sometime before 1817. Originally it was a restaurant, especially hospitable to Yale undergraduates, located at the corner of Temple and Center Streets, but in 1912, when the building was to be demolished, the owner and proprietor, Louis Linder, sold it to a group of Yale alumni who moved the bar to 306 York Street and turned it into a membership club.
  After several years of operating losses and the 2008 financial crisis, the club closed indefinitely on December 19, 2008. Although the club had an endowment of $2 million, it was depleted by this poor performance and the market downturn in 2008-2009. After completion of a comprehensive business plan at the end of 2009 and progress on a fundraising effort, Mory's committed to a major renovation and a new business model in 2010. The fundraising effort and construction were completed in 2010 and Mory's reopened on August 25, 2010.
  The building was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
context_section_description: Another tradition is the ritualistic consumption of a "Cup," in which a party of members gather to share drinks of assorted colors and ingredients (usually containing alcohol, although a non-alcoholic "Imperial Cup" is available) from large silver trophy cups that look like handled urns and are passed amongst the gathered company. The cups are ordered by color, and some are based on sparkling wines, while others are based on beer. There is an elaborate ritual, including at the completion of a cup a drinking song, associated with the tradition. Cups come in many colors including red, gold, purple, blue, green, and velvet.
  When a member is about to finish a Cup, he or she faces the decades-old challenge of "cleaning the cup"—removing all moisture from the cup by using only his or her mouth and, to finish the job, hair.  Friends to the left and right are at the ready with napkins to minimize drippage during this process.  While the member is finishing, and to give that member extra time to "clean the cup," his or her friends are wont to chant the Mory's Song (an adaptation, for a diametrically opposite purpose, of the Salvation Army camp song "Put a Nickel on the Drum", with the finishing member's name as the hero of the song:
  It's [Name], it's [Name],
  It's [Name] that makes the world go 'round,
  It's [Na-ame], [Na-ame],
  [Name] that makes the world go 'round,
  It's [Name], it's [Name],
  It's [Name] that makes the world go 'round,
  It's [Name] that makes the world go 'round!
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum;
  Save another drunken bum!
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum and you'll be saved.
  
  I'm H-A-P-P-Y to be F-R-double-E,
  F-R-double-E to be S-A-V-E-D,
  S-A-V-E-D from the bonds of S-I-N;
  Glory, glory, Hallelujah; hip-hooray, amen!
  
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum; 
  Save another drunken bum!
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum and you'll be saved! 
   
  
  I was lying in the gutter,
  I was covered up in beer, (BEER!)
  Pretzels in my moustache [or "eyebrows"],
  I thought the end was near, (BEER!)
  Then along came [Name]
  And saved me from my curse [or "the hearse"]!
  Glory, glory, Hallelujah; sing another verse!
  
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum;
  Save another drunken bum!
  Sing Hallelujah!  Sing Hallelujah!
  Put a nickel on the drum and you'll be saved!
  At the conclusion of the Mory's Song, the member places the trophy cup, upside down, on top of a cloth (or, for greater challenge due to the latter's higher absorbency, a paper) napkin, whereupon three friends place their respective hands atop the base of the cup and tap firmly.  The cup is then whisked away, and the napkin is inspected for any signs of moisture.  In decades past, and to date for some more conservative organizations, if the napkin were wet, then the finishing member would be forced to pay for the cup; if the napkin were dry, the member to the finishing member's left—who himself chose to forgo finishing the cup—would have to pay.  (Organizations still following these rules often vary them as to the specifics:  Some organizations requiring that the cost of the cup be divided among the two or three previous drinkers rather than only the immediately previous one.  Some organizations exempt women preceding the "draining" drinker from having to pay, instead assessing only the man or men to that drinker's left for the cup's cost, on the grounds that a woman should not be expected to drain the cup and therefore did not forgo a clear opportunity to do so.) In more modern times, most toasting parties split the bill evenly amongst members, regardless of who fails to drain or declines the opportunity to drain a cup.
caption: Mory's, circa 1914
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