Did you try singing the tune at the bottom of the second Campari ad? I think it would be kind of haunting and melancholy...

I am pretty much a teetotaler. I have a sip of champagne on a special occasion, or a sip of something if I need to know what it tastes like. Other than that, I abstain. I like all the benefits of not drinking, but I kind of think I don't drink because I just never got in the habit -- or I was never able to break the habit of not drinking.

I try not to be superior or judgmental at all about it. I find that when people find out I don't drink, especially people who are drunk, they assume that I'm judging them, and react in various ways. So, I usually don't even mention that I don't drink if I can avoid it.

My friends who don't drink are mostly reacting to alcoholic parents, or loved ones that have made bad decisions, or things like that. I don't have any real reason from my own experience to hate/fear alcohol. My friend/bandmate who doesn't drink wrote a song about why, and its really heartwrenching. It's about how he'll never get to know all these great people in his life, because one friend died of smoking, his mother's an alcoholic, his sister's on crack, etc, and he'll never get to know them. The last verse explains why he doesn't drink and do drugs, and concludes "'Cause I've been let down by the people that I love / And I won't let down the people who love me". I get choked up every time we play it.

Pretty heavy beer drunk until 1998 when I got pancreatitis (also developed type 2 diabetes). Spent a hellish week in the hospital for that. Was told to stop drinking or else cause more scarring of pancreas and/or death. 6 months later, decided to start again. Drank for 6 months and back to the hospital again with an angry pancreas in March 2000. Was told again "hey, really, you can't drink or you'll DIE, OK?". Stopped smoking cigs then, too.

OK. Ain't drank since.

I rarely drank to excess, even when I was younger.
Then about three years ago one of my best friends gave it
up, so I did too. Also, getting shit face is the state sport
of Wisconsin, and me being a contrarian, well....
I do like cranberry juice, though.

Rog wrote:I rarely drank to excess, even when I was younger.
Then about three years ago one of my best friends gave it
up, so I did too. Also, getting shit face is the state sport
of Wisconsin, and me being a contrarian, well....
I do like cranberry juice, though.

I've never been as drunk of a night as I was in Madison. I was alarmed at the capacity our hosts were able to tuck away and still maitain control of their faculties. I drank too much of a budget beer, Papst? Nasty, nasty stuff. But sooo cheap. You can't get it here in England.

SpankMarvin wrote:I drank too much of a budget beer, Papst? Nasty, nasty stuff. But sooo cheap. You can't get it here in England.

Oh god...Pabst Blue Ribbon. Thank god you can't get it over there in the UK.

We have some shitty beer over here in the states. PBR, Old Style, Strohs, Busch, hell i'll throw budweiser on that list too. Yeah, it's cheap and i've had plenty of it when i was broke but still wanted to be drunk...but it's just awful. The hangovers that shit gives you are brutal and it just tears up your intestines too.

I like the following beers that seem to be getting the bad lip:
1) Schlitz - Regular and Malt (Blue Bull)
2) PBR
3) Old Style
4) Bud

Although I do harbour a real distaste for any and all light beers. BOO!

I puked my balls off in 1990 due to vodka, and the next day I had to work the glass repository at the local recycling center (weekend job). It was January, and boy, she was full of rotten alcohol bottles. I did not drink for one and one-half years.

That taste/scent that is common to all forms of alcohol? I couldn't even smell a beer, for it would kick my gag reflex into overdrive.

Time passed, and I managed to get down half a beer, a whole beer, maybe two but never much more, and never hard liquor.

By the mid-nineties, six was about the limit for a night. Then, about six years ago, I started getting righteous headaches from two beers.

Please note going forward, I'm talking about maybe drinking two times a month. Maybe.

Then I enjoyed bourbon, realizing that two bourbons an hour treated me better (less sloppy & thick) than two beers an hour.

One night after work, maybe 2K1 at a friend's birthday party, I was pretty disjointed after four bourbons & no dinner. A round of shots was called for, and it was tequila. I slugged back, and was immediately sharpened.
Dropped bourbon pretty quick after that.

I haven't been a drinker for about three and one-half years. I mean, occasionally I can enjoy the taste of a wiess beer, but only one, or a neat Patron.

Also, I drive a lot. As much as I like a warm inner glow, I prefer being sharp.

This has been my historical outline, which plateaued into a not-really-drinking drinking statement of preference. Thank you.

steve wrote:I would like to be able to enjoy adult pleasures like my friends do -- fine whiskey, cigars, cornholery, jass music, etc. But I don't, and I feel left out.

You have nothing to worry about, Steve.

When you are finally ready to become an adult, cornholery will still be there. Trust me.

Cornholery is nothing if not patient.