Drinking in the 21st century

I try not to suffer illusions of glory. I will never be the drunk I was. I'll never be the barfly I was.
Although my capacity might never be what it was, I still possess a robust constitution for the consumption of alcohol.
I still have a thirst that is well beyond the norm, and I still prefer to drink more than is considered socially acceptable or polite.

The glory is gone forever, but some day I will be a heavy drinker again!
Maybe not as heavy as before, but heavy nonetheless.

 

Because it's a medical deal, friends will get it, a kind of 'oh, hey, that's too bad, not your fault" kind of thing. You will be able to plausibly say "boy, I wish I could," in part because, perhaps, you do. So they'll carry on knowing you're with them vicariously. Every so often, mix in "cut loose" evening where you throw caution and have a few extra.

If you chose to cut down with some medical prompting - for whatever other reason - they'd judge you, silently, perhaps because they'd think you're judging them. That's not specific to your friends. That's just how it rolls.

Because people - especially millennials - fancy themselves booze, wine and beer snobs, there's a certain need to, you know, drink a lot to prove it. That has to account for some of the rise in numbers.

Moms and wine seems to be a thing.

 

Possibly. I also think that the various "craft" alcohol movements give people a ton of cover. It's not only socially acceptable to booze, it's elegant again.

 

I'm a bit skeptical of the findings.
The story references another study that shows the exact opposite.
I'm also curious about changes to qualifying criteria over time.

 

Wow, you and I were on the same wavelength just now.

Also: I think a lot of those moms talk a bigger game than they drink, when it comes to wine.

 

The other night we had some friends over. I know they are having some serious marriage problems.

The wife was hitting it hard. She had a 12 percent stout to start things off, then I made her five daquiris over the course of about 3-4 hours, at the most. That's 10 ounces of rum. The husband said she was annihilated, but she seemed functioning to me.

 

It's an interesting trend. Some people who attend my church - they're young enough that I'd call them "acquaintances" more than "friends" - they take food and booze vacations, then takes pictures of all that and post it on social media.

Generally speaking, it's sort of trendy - as ludicrous as this sounds - to have a little bit of a drinking problem. It's a sign of authenticity. Gives you an edge, a "struggle." Jason Isbell had drug problems! Among younger men, especially in the Christian community - all these dudes who grew up Baptist or whatever - it's a nod to throwing off the old constraints and being "in the world." Smoking's back on the uptick, too. It's pretty interesting, all these quiet, intense, glowering-type young men with their alcohol habits.

 

I'd need some evidence on the smoking assertion, but agreed whole-heartedly on drinking problems being trendy. I can't say I haven't, from time to time, been sucked into it.

I think "Mad Men" is part of it, although the men on the show were never meant to be admirable.

 

The men are absolutely "admirable" on Mad Men. Look at the beautiful women they get.

I won't get started on that show because I'm generally unfair to it.

As for the smoking...it ain't just cigarettes we're talking about.

 

Thanks for your advice and encouragement about this. It's funny, my friends knew in college that I shouldn't drink and used to protect me from peer pressure. It wasn't until I joined my college paper that I said screw it, and started to enjoy beer. I definitely the beer "snob" of my group. So I am not so worried about my longtime friends understanding my need to be more careful, it's more my coworkers.

One good thing is that I am little beer'ed out, living in the PNW. So hopefully that will help. But alas, I am headed to Ft. Collins next week for the first time... EEK

 

This story was getting good. And then you had to ruin it by bringing this guy up.

 

Not the biggest @typefitter fan around, but I've always appreciated this very short piece he wrote many years ago.

The Escalating Scale of Drunkenness, Explained

Also fun to pull out Dan Jenkins's 10 stages of drunkeness every once in a while.