Discussion Groups / English Usage / August 2009

[He grimaced and painfully belched. "Christ, that bloody much. Alum
and cat piss.
Cheeseparing sods."]

It's the substance: "a crystalline compound consisting of a double
sulphate of aluminium and potassium, used in dyeing and tanning,"
according to the OneLook COED.

I would say that the NAmerican equivalent of "sod" is closer to
"a.shole".  They are cheap a.sholes because they wouldn't give him a
decent meal.  Are you reading a scanned version of the novel?  I
wanted that "much" to be "lunch".

Alum is a salt that in chemistry is a combination of an alkali metal,
such as sodium, potassium, or ammonium and a trivalent metal, such as
aluminum, iron, or chromium. The most common form, potassium aluminum
sulfate, or potash alum, is one form that has been used in food
processing. Another, sodium aluminum sulfate, is an ingredient in
commercially produced baking powder. It has a metallic taste. "Cat's
piss" is a phrase sometimes used to pejoratively refer to cheap wine.
"Alum and cat's piss" is intended, I think to convey the idea of the
unpalatable food and drink at the party (which would lead to grimacing
and painful belching).

Yes, that sounds about right.

You are right about the "pinching, scrimping, skimping".
"Sod" is derived from "sodomite" but now has the meanings outlined at:
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/s.htm

   sod
   Noun.

   1. A contemptible or objectionable person.

   2. A pitiable person. E.g."He's just had his car stolen and his wife
      has just run off with the milkman, the poor sod." This use is
      also be found with the expressions 'poor bastard' and 'poor
      bugger'.

   3. A thing or action that is difficult or problematic. E.g. "We had
      a sod of a journey, getting stuck in a traffic jam at Birmingham
      for over 3 hours."

I think that sense 1 fits Burgess's use in "cheeseparing sods".

(Your typo "cheesparing" is a cheeseparing spelling of the word.)

Wikipedia has a long article on the alum chemicals. Some bits that might
apply, depending on what the speaker was doing (eating? drinking?)

-----
Alum is commonly used as a coagulant (usually termed a flocculant in
this context) in water treatment and purification. ...

Culinary
Alum powder, found in the spice section of many grocery stores, may be
used in pickling recipes as a preservative to maintain fruit and
vegetable crispness.
Alum is used as the acidic component of some commercial baking powders.
Alum was used by bakers in the England during the 1800s to make bread
whiter[6]. ...

...Much use was made of the supposed properties of Alum as a comedy gag
in films, primarily in the 1920's and 1930's. In a typical situation it
would be introduced into foodstuffs (by accident or intent) with
ingestion causing the victim's mouth to assume a tight pucker. Speech
was usually difficult or impossible.
-----

In this speech, alum seems to have its dictionary meaning
(i.e. is not slang for something else.)  Geoffrey complains
that the drink at the party tasted of (or like) alum and cat piss,
because the hosts were too cheap (cheeseparing) to serve
good quality drinks.   (This seems a frequent complaint of some
drunks.  Knowing they drank too much, they seek to excuse
themselves by saying they did not enjoy it.)

More likely a chemical used in water purification to settle suspended solids.

Yup. Mean bastards.