Drinking epidemic in our business?

Per Trouser Buddah's request in the Random Thoughts thread here is a topic on this. How many sportswriters drink and is it at an epidemic rate?
About half of my department drinks heavily and anytime we go to state or regional events we go out and get after it in the bars with whoever else wants to go out.
Thoughts?

On a side note, I have noticed that less journalists seem to be smoking. I am only one of a handful in my newsroom that smokes. Maybe drinking is coming down too, but I don't think it is viewed as harshly as smoking when it comes to health concerns.

 

I drank a hell of a lot more in college than I do now. Who has time for drinking? I do, however, smoke.

 

I don't smoke, although I do enjoy an occasional Bandit or a good cigar. I'm enjoying a Bud Select right now, but don't think I'll have more than three or four tonight, and probably won't have anything until next Sunday at a SB party.

 

I'm really trying to cut down on beer ... more for empty calorie reasons than any concern that I drink too much.

 

I don't think journalists drink any more nor less than people in any profession. We just tend to celebrate it.

 

I tend to drink more now than in college because I don't have to get up in the mornings like I did in college. Plus, the only friends I have work at my shop and we tend to all go out a couple of days a week.

 

As several posters on this site could attest, I can drink. That being said, after coming through the holidays, I haven't had a drink since Jan. 8. I got tired of feeling like crap in the morning, and I, too, got tired of treading water while working off those empty calories at the gym. I don't know how long I'll keep it up -- until Vegas, maybe? -- but I'm not gonna (going to) sweat it either way. My wallet is heavier, too, when not drinking.

 

I don't drink much, but I cook with alcohol all the time. I have noticed a lot fewer people in media (all facets) smoking lately.

 

I work with just as many heavy drinkers in my non-newsroom job as I did at any of my newspaper jobs. It's celebrated just as much here, too.

And it's worth noting that, just like in my newsroom jobs, some of the highest achievers in my non-newsroom job are also among the heaviest drinkers. Not sure what that means, exactly, but it's an indisputable fact.

 

I think drinking goes with journalism, although I think it's less prominent now than it was, oh, say 20 years ago.

 

Talk to old-timers like Dan Jenkins or Bob Verdi or Furman Bisher, and they'll be quick to tell you that this generation of sports writers drinks like a bunch of sissies.

 

If Joe is teetotaling until Vegas, I'll be able to drink him under the table...